The mad dog, or, hydrophobia, with all its various symptoms, causes, and remedies, minutely described / by Lewis Feuchtwanger.

  • Feuchtwanger, Lewis, 1805-1876.
Date:
1840
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mad dog, or, hydrophobia, with all its various symptoms, causes, and remedies, minutely described / by Lewis Feuchtwanger. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    mad dog do not bark at him, but run from him, and if they cannot flee, they do not resist, but lay down tremblingly and flatter him. The strength of the mad dog is now giving way, he runs very slow, creeping, and at last reeling ; the water runs frequently from his eyes,his hair is raising and brist- ling, the head sinks deeper, the tongue becomes dark,and the foam increases in the mouth. He snaps and bites constantly at every thing that comes in contact with him ; he falls down to the ground, raises himself again with difficulty and breathes painfully ; convulsions ensue at last, and he falls down and dies. Cases often occur wherein dogs die while in the first stage of hydropho- bia, sometimes on the 2d, 3d, or 4th day, or the first stage may have con- tinued longer and from its virulence the dog has died from it. Mad dogs may swim through water and yet have all the symptoms of hydrophobia. In order to describe fully the symptoms of Rabies, I have thought best to extract from Good's Study of Medicine, p. 297, the following remark : Whatever be the exciting cause, the wounded part almost always, though not universally so, takes the lead in the train of symptoms and be- comes uneasy ; the cicatrix looking red or livid, often opening afresh and oozing forth a little coloured serum, while the limb feels stiff and numb ; the patient is next oppressed with anxiety and depression, and sometimes sinks into a melancholy, from which nothing can arouse him. The pulse and general temperature of the skin do not at this time vary much from their natural state. A stillness and painful constriction are however felt about the chest and throat; the breathing becomes difficult and is inter- rupted by sobs and deep sighs, as the sleep is, if any can be obtained, by starts and frightful dreams. Bright colors, a strong light, acute sounds, the sound of water poured from basin to basin, even a simple agitation of the air, by a movement of the bed curtains are sources of great distur- bance, and will often bring on a paroxysm of general convulsions or aggra- vate the tetanic inclination. The patient is tormented with thirst, but dares not drink ; the sight or even idea of liquids making him shudder ; his eyes are haggard, glassy, fixed and tinged with blood from the violence of the struggle ; his mouth is filled with a tenacious saliva in which lurks the secreted and poisonous miasm ; and he is perpetually endeavoring to hawk it up and spit it away from him in every direction, after desiring those around him to stand aside, as conscious that he might hereby injure them ; the sound which is thus made from the great oppression he labors under and from his vehement effort to excrete the tough and adhesive phlegm, is often of a very singular kind, and being sometimes more acute than°at others, as well as quick and sudden, and also frequently repeated like every motion of the body, has occasionally to a warm and pre- posessed imagination seemed to be a kind of barking or yelping, and hence probably, the vulgar idea that a barking like that of a dog is a com. mon symptom of the disease. The restlessness is extreme, and if the