"All the morbid poisons that require to lie dormant a certain time
before their effects are manifested, pass into the system through the
medium of the absorbents," (we somewhat differ from Mr. Smerdon here,
but his reasoning is equally applicable to the nervous system,) "and
if the absorbents 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?"
The sooner the caustic is applied the better; but I should not hesitate
to have recourse to it even after the constitution has become affected.
It is related in the Medico-Chirurgical 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
afterwards. A surgeon excised the bitten part, and the disease
disappeared. After a period of six days the symptoms returned. The wound
was examined; considerable fungus was found sprouting from its bottom.
This was extirpated. The hydrophobia symptoms were again removed, and
the man did well. This is a most instructive case.
In the Journal Pratique de Médecine Vétérinaire, M. Damalix gives an
interesting account of the effect of a bite of a rabid dog on a horse.
On the 8th of July, 1828, a fowl-merchant, proceeding to the market of
Colmar, was attacked by a dog, who, after some fruitless efforts to get
into the cart, bit the horse on the left side of the face, and fled
precipitately. A veterinary surgeon was sent for, who applied the
cautery to the horse, gave him some populeum ointment, and bled him.
Everything appeared to go on well, and on the 16th the wounds were
healed.
On the 25th a great alteration took place. The horse was careless and
slow; he sometimes refused to go at all, and would not attend in the
least to the whip, which had never occurred before. In the evening the
wounds opened spontaneously, an ichorous and infectious pus run from
them; there was salivation and utter loss of appetite: strange fancies
seemed to possess him; he showed a desire to bite his master. The
veterinary surgeon might approach him with safety; but the moment his
owner or the children appeared, he darted at them, and would have torn
them in pieces. The disease now took on the appearance of acute
glanders; livid and fungous wounds broke out; the stable was saturated
with an infectious smell, the horse refused his food, or was unable to
eat. The mayor at last interfered, and the animal was destroyed. In the
Treatises on The Horse, Cattle, and Sheep, in former volumes, accounts
are fully given of this dreadful malady in these animals. It may not be
uninteresting to give a hasty sketch of it in some of the inferior
classes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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