706 
CASE OF HYDROPHOBIA. 
An interesting case of this fearful affection came under 
M. Trousseau's care at the beginning of the year. A man, 
aged 37, was bit by his dog, which afterwards died mad. 
The hydrophobia manifested itself a little more than three 
months after the bite, the patient dying seventy-six hours 
after the first manifestation of the disease. The usual symp¬ 
toms were present, and on an attempt being made to convey 
water into the stomach by the stomach-pump, which was in¬ 
troduced without causing any suffocative paroxysm, the 
patient became livid, and as if dead. He rallied again, but 
soon after died. In this case the propensity to venereal 
excitement, which has sometimes been noted, was remarkable, 
and (from his wife’s statement) unusual; and until the 
patient's death he exhibited the most frightful erotism and 
constant ejaculations. M. Trousseau has only witnessed 
four other cases of this fearful malady, a sketch of which he 
gives in the lecture from which we quote. He also alludes 
to some cases of hydrophobia occurring in persons, who had 
been alarmed, supposing themselves to have been bit by rabid 
animals .—>Gazette des Hop., No. 12. 
THE ACTION OF CHLOROFORM ON TEE BLOOD. 
In the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal for March, 
Dr. C. T. Jackson says, “ Chloroform consists of one equiva¬ 
lent of forrayle and three of oxygen. When chloroform is 
inhaled into the lungs the oxygen is abstracted from the 
blood, and, combining with the formyle, makes formic acid, 
while chlorine combines with the blood as a substitute for 
oxygen. Thus a portion of the blood becomes chemically 
changed, disorganized, and rendered unfit for its vital func¬ 
tions." He further says, <( I have now a phial of this blood 
(blood taken from a young lady killed by the inhalation of 
pure chloroform) before me, it having been kept in my office, 
exposed to temperatures from the freezing point to above 80° 
for more than six years, and yet it has not decomposed, nor 
has a single blood-globule settled to the bottom of the phial, 
nor has the colour changed in the least." 
