Dr. Powell's case of hydrophobia / [Richard Powell].

  • Richard Powell
Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Powell's case of hydrophobia / [Richard Powell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The report of the existence of rabid animals had from this circumstance been previously, but very vaguely, prevalent in the neighbourhood; and, in consequence of it, she made appli- cation to some professional gentlemen, who judged, from the depth the teeth had penetrated, and the situation of the wound, near the radial artery, that no excision could be made, with ef- fect, short of amputation of the arm: and, the circumstances related to them respecting the animal, were so indistinct, as not to justify much alarm, or so formidable a proposition. ‘They therefore washed the wound, and directed her to keep it wet with Aqua Lithargyri acetati composita; and another surgeon afterwards recommended it to be poulticed. She went also to Margate, and bathed four times in the ordinary way, as an out-patient of the Infirmary there. ‘The wound had bled very little at first, and healed readily, leaving two small eschars on each side of the carpal extremity of the radius. She continued however to feel a sort of heat and trifling uneasiness in the part, whieh frequently recalled it to her recollection, though she never felt alarmed by it, or apprehensive as to the event. On Thursday, July 28, the bitten part became hotter, and looked red and rather inflamed, and the pain spread more up the arm. It continued to in- crease in extent rather than violence, without any redness. or swelling of the arm, as far as her own observation went, and at her supper on Sunday, 3\st, she afterwards remembered that she did not take her porter without some difficulty. In all other respects she was much as usual, and passed the former part of that night without inconvenience or appre- . hension. . About three o’clock in the morning of August 1, (the 3ist day from the bite,) she felt thirsty and uncomfortable, and got up for the purpose of taking some water. On. reaching the vessel which contained it she was seized with a
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