Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1880 — ANOTHER CASE OF HYDROPHOBIA [ARTICLE]

ANOTHER CASE OF HYDROPHOBIA

Horrible Suffering* an! Death of a Victim at Delaware OUy. The administration of the Indian woorara poison to Alexander, the man who was bitten by the mad dog for£yfive days ago, was the final and forlornhope remedy. This poison is called the woorara. When it was produced at the bedside of the raving patient, Alexander was then recovering from the effects of chloroform. It was administered in hypodermic injections of one-third of a grain. The first injection produced muscular relaxation within ten minutes, and the best auguries were indulged in by the physicians. Its effect is to produce, through the agency of the blood, paralysis of the nerve-centers, and as hydrophobic poisoning, as far as known, produces excitation of the nerve-centers, it has been regarded as a possible antidote. The first exhibition confirmed this belief. Chloroform was temporarily put aside. At the end of an hour some symptoms of recurring spasms made another dose of the South American poison necessary. The same amount administered, instead of producing quiet, had a cumulative effect, almost at once exciting the patient. A carriage driving up in front of the door grated upon nis ear, and, with a wild, heart-rending shriek, he tugged at his ligatures with strength enough to have broken them butlor the reinforcement of human muscle. Chloroform was called into requisition again, and quieted by it he rested, with little spasmodic action, until another dose of woorara was injected. This followed within three-quarters of an hour of its predecessor, and was onesixth of a drachm stronger. Again the drug proved an excitant, and was supplemented with chloroform. It was administered five times, with only cumulative exciting effect, and was then abandoned finally. The most distressing symptoms now manifested themselves whenever the patient passed into his frequently recurring spasms, his jaws snapped, and salivary froth squirted from his mouth; that was even whileunder the influence of chloroform. He had ceased to have lucid intervals, but, on awakening from his unconsciousness, his piteous prayer was still for death, or some relief from the terrible internal burning sensation which tortured him. A spasm seized him between seven and eight p. rn. His nervous force was nearly exhausted then, and the ropy, viscid, mucus-like saliva which always characterizes the disease at some stage, began to exude and cover the lips. That was a dangerous time fori the attendants, for an abrasion on ; the hand of any of them might mark another victim. The physicians had all along taken the precaution of wearing gloves. The attendants, in their excitement, forf;ot even the commonest precaution of requcntly washing their hands. Chloroform, while it subdued the violence, did not prevent this danger to which some at least were exposed.

The patient was now fast becoming past the power of chloroform. He yielded readily to it, but the recurrent spasms followed more closely on its administration. As the mucus collected in the throat his efforts to breathe had a sharp, yelping sound, that to the nervous might easily have been mistaken for an attempt to yelp like a dog. The physicians nay that the sound had no other origin than that named. His recovery from the unconsciousness produced by the chloroform made his breathing more labored, and the effort, clogged by the obstructions in the throat, made the sound. During his last three hours the drug was given him every ten minutes. The surrounding villages, as well as the drug stores of the town, were laid under contribution. The patient, within eighteen hours, took a pound and a half of chloroform. At ten o’clock it became evident that vitality was nearly exhausted, circulation became very slow in the extremities, and the death sweat gradually crept up to the knees and elbows, the pulse was barely perceptible, and the throbbing of the heart could hardly be detected. At eleven o’clock last night, after all pulsation had been suspended for a minute or more, he breathed twioe, and his tongue protruded; the eyes, which had been strained upward and backward until little more than the whites were visible, closed naturally; the face was still distorted as it had been, but life had ceased. It was a case of death from nervous exhaustion. The physicians have found some things to confirm and some things to contradict in the dicta of the books. One thing seems clear, namely, that an inoculated human being cannot germinate the poison within thirty days, which Is the short limit laid down; in Alexander’s case with the favoring condition of a place well supplied with blood, it required forty-two days. All the physicians agree that this oould not possibly have been one of the cases of hysteria and subsequent nervous collapse because of the dread of inoculation. It was genuine hydrophobia, if there ever was a case. —Delaware Oily {Del.) Cor. Cincinnati Commercial. —There is no hope for a man who ffoes to bed sober and gets up drunk. If he simply gets up sober ana goes to bed drunk, he may run along for some months before his funeral can take place.— Exchange.