That we may understand the Reason of the _Hydrophobia_, it is to be Remarked, that this dread of Water does not come on till the latter end of the Disease, Three or Four Days before Death; that is, not till this preternatural _Fermentation_ in the Blood is come to its Heigth; and as in the Dog, so in the Patient, a great quantity of Fermentative Particles is thrown off upon the Glands of the Mouth and Stomach, as appears by his Foaming at the Mouth, _&c_. As also, that this _Fear_ is not from a sight _of_, or any imaginary appearance _in_ the Water, for if the Vessel be close shut, and the Patient bid to suck thro’ a Quill, as soon as he has tasted, he falls into Anguish and Convulsions, as Dr. _Lister_ observed. It is therefore highly probable, if not certain, that this surprising Symptom proceeds from the intolerable _Pain_ which any Liquor at this time taken induces, partly by hurting the inflamed Membranes of the _Fauces_ in Deglutition; partly by fermenting with these Active Particles discharged by the Blood upon the _Stomachic_ Glands, and thus twitching and irritating the Nervous Membranes; the very memory of which _grievous Sence_, after it is once felt, is so terrible, that the affected Person chuses any thing rather than to undergo it a second time. The Effects of this _Irritation_ are manifest in the Convulsions of the Stomach, and frequent _Singultus_, with which the Patient is continually oppress’d. And we all know by how necessary a kind of _Mechanism_ we do fly from and abhor those things which have proved disagreeable to the _Animal Œconomy_, to which nothing is so contrary and repugnant as _Pain_; at the first Approaches of which, Nature Starts and Recoils, tho’ Reason be arm’d with never so much Courage and Resolution to undergo the Shock. Nor will any Body wonder how this _Ferment_ should cause such _Torment_, who considers how often, even in _Colical_ Cases, Persons are downright distracted by excessive Pain, from a Cause not unlike to this we are treating of, that is, from a corrosive Ferment in the Bowels, rarefying the Juices there into _Flatus_, and by this means irritating and stimulating those tender Membranes into Spasmodic and Convulsive Motions. And indeed Dr. _Lister_’s Patient told him, that the very swallowing of his own Spittle put him to such Torture in his Stomach, that Death it self was not so Terrible as the Inexpressible Agony. It may serve both to Illustrate and Confirm this Theory, to take Notice, that not only may (according to these Principles) other Bites besides that of a _Dog_ happen to induce the like Symptoms; thus _Malpighi_ (78) relates a Story of a Mother made _Hydrophoba_ by the Bite of her _Epileptic_ Daughter; but that there are other Cases, without any Bite at all, which are attended with an _Hydrophobia_.