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

  • Lewis Feuchtwanger
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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    [From the London Morning Post of July 18.] HYDROPHOBIA. To the Editor—Sir: For ihe following official document, published by command of the Austrian War Department, I am indebted to the kind- ness of my superiors at his Imperial Majesty's Embassy in London. I think that, at a season when that dreadful and hitherto irremediable ma- lady, Hydrophobia, is most prevalent, it is a duty to make public the fol. lowing remedy ; such being, besides, the philanthropic object of its official promulgators, who have written the original account with a vview to be generally intelligible. On perusing the document, the remedy would not appear, a priori, to a medical eye, a powerful antidote; but opinions are nothing in presence of facts, and those facts, I am informed, are briefly the following: — A schoolmaster, named Lalie, residing on that boundary of Hungary, toward Turkey, where the military colonies are located, having the esta- blished reputation of possessing a cure for Hydrophobia, the Minister of War, to whose department the government of this territory belongs, insti- tuted an inquiry. Two Hydrophobia patients were placed under the care of the military medical officers until they despaired of them. They were then entrusted to the care of the schoolmaster, and were cured. A liberal gratification being given to this person, he is to receive adequate rewards if, after two years' exercise of his remedy, under medical surveillance, his discovery is proved to be of sterling value. The root of which M. Lalie has recognised the efficacy is the gentiena cruciata. It is an abun- dant natural product. «' Treatment in the earliest stage of the disease :— When the first symptoms arise, the mouth must be examined, and beneath the tongue the vencc ranince, or sublingual veins, will be found turgescent. This turgescence is at first confined to the neighborhood of the framum, and it appears under the form of black spots, resembling the heads of flics ; but later, the disease having developed itself, the swelling affects the whole of the veins. At this period, the following is the treat- ment to be adopted :—The tongue is to be grasped with a wooden fork, and inverted, and the sublingual veins to be opened with a lancet. The tongue being then liberated, the bleeding must be allowed to continue until it ceases of itself. Then is to be given the first dose of the ren.edy. Three-quarters of an ounce (one and a half loth) of the gentina .cruciata are to be given as a rt aximum dose; the root being first pounded and then macerated in water, so as to form a thin paste. This must be re- pealed every morning for nine days. At the same time, the wound is to bo treated in the following way :—When fresh, it is to be washed with the
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