KXPERnrENTS ON RABIES. 
m 
quickened; but this was evanescent, and on the following morn¬ 
ing she was dead. I had anticipated this result, for it was too 
essentially a nervous disease to yield to the change of a small 
portion of the vital current. 
The same experiment, and with the same ill success, had been 
made on the human being. Dr. Diefienbach, of Berlin, had a 
patient evidently hydrophobous. The usual means had been tried, 
but these having no effect, and his state becoming worse, trans¬ 
fusion was resolved on. After a bleeding of twenty-four ounces 
twelve ounces of blood were at two different periods injected. 
At each injection the pulse rose and became regular, and, 
after some time, the dread of fluids seemed to diminish. In the 
evening the patient had some shivering, and was feverish. On 
the next day he was bled to thirty-two ounces, after which twelve 
ounces were slowly transfused, but without any effect. On the 
following day the patient had considerably changed—his face 
was pale, his eyes glassy, and the dread of water so violent, that 
he was taken with shivering at the mere sight of it. In the 
afternoon, after a bleeding of six ounces, five ounces of blood 
were again injected. Immediately after the operation he drank 
some water, but died in the course of an hour, in violent con¬ 
vulsions. 
The object of the practitioner is to allay, if possible, that state 
of excessive nervous irritation which constitutes the character or 
the essence of this dreadful disease; but, unfortunately for him, 
just in proportion to the morbid excitement of the system the 
most powerful medicines often seem to lose all their influence. 
One grain of the aqueous extract of opium injected into the veins 
of a healthy dog w'ill produce a sleep of some hours’ duration. 
Ten grains have been injected into the veins of the rabid dog 
without the slightest narcotic effect. It is said that Dr. Babing- 
ton administered 180 grains of opium to a patient without any 
benefit, and even without procuring sleep. Even prussic acid 
has been injected into the veins of the rabid dog without causing 
any perceptible relaxation of the symptoms. I am ashamed to 
say, that, among my numerous patients, I never had recourse to 
the injection of powerful sedative medicines into the veins. I 
know not why it should have been so, and I now regret it; but I 
believe that almost every prophylactic that could be administered 
by the mouth was, at some time or other, put fairly to the test. 
The Box seemed not to have any power either in decoction or 
in extract. 
The Alisma Plantago had great effect. A coach dog belonging 
to the Sardinian Ambassador was rabid, and dreadfully ferocious. 
