OPERATIONS. 
897 
that came to me, was very oreat. I may appeal to my house- 
pupils, now scattered through every part of the country, and few 
or none of whom escaped an occasional bite, with what confidence 
and with what success this preventive was used. I may chal- 
lenofe them all as to a single case of failure. When we were 
bitten, and it happened occasionally to us all, it gave us no kind 
of mental uneasiness. The caustic was applied ;—I was usually, 
by my own and their choice, the operator—and there was an end 
of the matter. I have pleasing recollections with regard to them, 
and I think that they have not quite forgotten me. Some of the 
choicest of those reminiscences have reference to the confident 
yet careful manner in which we pursued what seemed to others a 
fearful course. Whatever else was forgotten, our stick of caustic 
was always our companion—our talisman. 1 believe that we 
saved the lives of many—many ; and we now live to congratulate 
each other, not on our escape—for we had no fear of danger— 
but on our uniform success. 
After the operation nothing stimulating should be applied. 
It is no unusual practice to keep the wound open during several 
months. This carries absurdity on the face of it. The virus be¬ 
gins to exert its fatal energy only when the nervous fibrils have 
attained a certain degree of irritability, and are become more than 
usually susceptible of impression. Then if a minute portion of 
the virus should perchance remain in the wound, by applying 
stimulating unguents to the part, we take the readiest means to 
rouse the nervous filaments to action, and we possibly produce 
that disease which would not otherwise have had existence*. 
Destroy the part, and then employ the mildest means to heal the 
wound. 
Until what time may the knife or caustic be applied with a 
fair prospect of success? The sooner it is applied the better; 
but 1 would not hesitate to have recourse to it even after the con¬ 
stitution had become affected. It is related in the Medico-Chi- 
rurgical Annals of Altenburg (Sept. 1821) that two men were 
bitten by a rabid dog. One became hydrophobous, and died : 
the other had evident symptoms of hydrophobia a few days after- 
* Mr. Smerdon, in the Medical and Physical Journal, March 1820, thus 
reasons : “All the morbid poisons that require to lie dormant a certain time 
before their etfects are manifested, pass into the system through the me¬ 
dium of the absorbents (we somewhat differ from Mr. Smerdon here, but 
his reasoning is equally applicable to the nervous system), and, if the absorb¬ 
ents are excited, their action is increased. I am satisfied that even in a 
venereal sore the application of a caustic, instead of destroying the disease, 
causes its rapid extension. Then,” asks he, “if the virus on a small venereal 
sore is rendered more active by the caustic, is it not highly probable that the 
same law holds good with respect to the poison of rabies?” 
VOL. XI. 8 o 
