Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 August 1889 — It Is a “Zymotic.” [ARTICLE]

It Is a “Zymotic.”

“The disease called rabies in the lower animals, and which is known as hydrophobia when communicated to a man, is a zymotic,” said Dr. Lansing. “It differs from others of its own class chiefly by the long period diiring which the virus remains latent. To the characteristic it owes most of its terrors, for, although dog bites are Common, hydrophobia, at least in this country, is exceedingly rare. Furthermore, a person who has been bitten by a dog scarcely knows when he may venture to consider himself safe. Thecanine malady differs much in severity in different cases, and there is reason to believe that many dogs recover from its milder forms. Of persons who have been bitten by unquestionably rabid dogs, many have escaped hydrophia, but there are authentic instances in which the disease has remained dormant formanyyears, and there is no authentic instance of the recovery of a humansubject in whom it has once appeared. “The result is that every one who has been bitten by a dog has hanging over him the possibility of a horrible death. Upon receiving a bite, the wound should be immediately laid wide open and all the surplus blood extracted and the flesh thoroughly cauterized. By so doing the life of the victim can be saved almost to a certainty.”