Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, June 1899: Volume LVVarious
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, June 1899: Volume LV
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
Shortly after this I saw a young man at Miraflores who had just been
seized with hydrophobia. Two months before he had been bitten on the
great toe by a skunk as he lay asleep in his house at Agua Caliente,
but had shown no symptoms of the disease until that day, when he
suddenly began to bite at the door jamb in the store at Miraflores.
They put him into the brick jail, where he soon became very violent.
When I went down to the jail the next morning I found a group of
Mexicans about the huge wooden door, which was chained fast and tied
with _riatas_ in addition. From the inside there came a succession of
thumps and blood-curdling groans and strangles. I peered in through
the barred window, and saw the unfortunate man lying on his back in a
corner, spasmodically kicking out his legs from his chest and rolling
his dilated eyes. Suddenly he leaped to his feet and, grasping the
iron bars, shook the great door violently, chained and tied as it was.
Then he seemed to leap against the walls, and at last fell down,
groaning. He soon became rational again, and began to talk through a
crack in the door to an old man whom I took to be his father. He asked
for water, but they would not give him any, and while he was pleading
for a knife or pistol another spasm seized him.
Presently the judge came over with two policemen. They said they were
going to take the _rabioso_ out and tie him to a tree, because he was
getting the jail too dirty, and might not die for a week. As soon as
the spasm passed, and the man lay weak and moaning, the burly
policemen loosed the _riatas_, and, stepping in quickly, seized him
from behind. He protested pathetically against going into the hot
sunshine, but they pushed him out and started toward the corral to tie
him up. But when the fierce sun struck him he was racked by horrible
convulsions. He kicked and struggled, bit at his shoulders, and blew
spittle into the air when he threw his head back. The policemen
breathed hard, and the old man, his father, hugged himself in agony as
he walked behind. There was a desperate struggle, then, with a final
paroxysm, the _rabioso_ suddenly collapsed and hung limp in their
arms. At first they thought that he was dead, but when he showed signs
of life they carried him to the corral and tied him to a tree before
he became conscious. Two days later he died.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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