Galvanism has also been tried and found wanting. Again, the rapid and powerful effects of the bite of a viper on the whole system, and perhaps the idea that the operation of this animal's venom might counteract that of the hydrophobic virus, led some experimenters to try what would be the result of subjecting patients affected with rabies to the bite of that kind of snake. The project, however, was attended with no success. Three cases of this description were communicated to the Royal Society of Medicine. Other trials are also said to have been made in France and Germany with no better success.

Some facts which occurred in the East Indies tended for a time to raise an expectation that a copious abstraction of blood might be the means of preserving patients actually attacked with this fatal disorder. "One medical tried (he says successfully) the method of taking away at once an immense quantity of blood; in fact, he bled him until scarcely a pulsation could be felt in either arm. Opium was afterwards given, and the patient salivated with mercury." Now it is to be regretted that fuller information was not given. For instance, we have no account of pain or changes in the bitten part at the first coming on of the indisposition. The early constitutional symptoms are not described, and the violent spasms, screamings, etc, are not mentioned. Soma of these particulars would have been interesting. Dr. Shool-bred of Calcutta published a case cured by bleeding, and afterwards exhibiting calomel and opium. The patient being threatened with a relapse, was largely bled again. The whole of the success is imputed by Dr. Shoolbred to venesection. But he is not so sanguine as to believe that bleeding will cure every case of hydrophobia. It is probable that there is a period beyond which its curative effect cannot extend, and, therefore, it is upon the first appearance of unequivocal symptoms of the disease that he thinks copious bleeding will cure or afford, a prospect of success, while the delay of only a few hours may prove fatal. He observes that the medical profession, taught by numerous disappointments, admit very cautiously the claims of any new practice to general adoption. If several patients in hydrophobia, therefore, should happen to be bled in an advanced stage of the disease, and died (as they inevitably would do, whether they had been bled or not), such cases would he quoted against the new practice as failures. But Dr. Shoolbred argues that numerous failures in an advanced stage of the disease can form no just ground for the rejection of a remedy which has effected a cure in an earlier stage. He insists upon the necessity of making a large orifice in the vein, so as to evacuate the blood quickly, which must he allowed to flow without regard to quantity,

He was well aware that bleeding had often been tried in hydrophobia, "but," says he, "owing probably to the evacuation not having been pushed far enough when used in the early stage of the disease, or to the period of its beneficial employment having elapsed, the cases in which it was tried afforded little or no encouragement to the continuance of the practice.

Since the preceding cases, the effect of bleeding has had the fairest trial made of it, and it is now clearly demonstrated that it entirely fails in hindering the usual melancholy event. This unpleasant truth, I think, receives further confirmation from the fact that the practice is far from being new.

Dr. Mead, who was very confident that he had found an infallible preventive of the disease in a little liverwort and black pepper aided by bleeding and cold bathing before the commencement of the course of medicine, says: "As to all other ways of curing hydrophobia, I own I have not been so happy as to find any success from the many I have tried. Bathing is ineffectual. I have taken away large quantities of blood, have given opiates, volatile salts, etc. All has been in vain."

At Edinburgh sixty ounces of blood was taken away from a patient who had already been bled the same morning. The method was tried early in the disease; notwithstanding the patient lived only forty-eight hours. This is set down as a fair instance of the failure of the practice, while the trials that have been made in this country since the receipt of the news from India, I am sorry to say, have not confirmed its efficacy.

Early excision or amputation of the bitten parts, the application of cupping-glasses to the wound, or the removal of the atmospheric pressure, the injection of warm water into the veins in the early stages, are the plans which have most evidence in their favour. The investigations of Sir David Barry made the application of a cupping-glass to the wound inflicted by the bite of a rabid animal, or any other poisoned wound, appear one of the most efficacious measures which can be adopted with the view of preventing the entrance of the poison into the system. The removal of the atmospheric pressure from the part not only has the effect of drawing the blood and a portion of the poison out of the orifice of the vessels, but suspends the function of absorption. Hence Sir David Barry was an advocate for the practice both before and after the excision of the wounded part.

It is not often, however, that one can immediately secure the services of a medical man; therefore a simple ligature above the injured part, if it is possible to apply it, should at once be resorted to. This will, if tied sufficiently tight, prevent the absorption of the poison until you can secure proper medical aid. Among the liquids that would he advisable to employ for the destruction of the virus, I would strongly suggest the free implication of carbolic acid, because it possesses the power to destroy any germ that may be endowed with life at once and for ever; besides, there is a certain degree of certainty of it reaching the root of the injury.

According to Dr. Marochetti of Moscow, the existence of the hydrophobic poison in an individual is denoted by the appearance of two small tumours, one on each side of the proenum of the tongue, within six weeks after the bite. As the tumours only continue twenty-four hours, they are to bo looked for twice a day during this space of time. If they have disappeared without treatment, he represents the ease as sure to end fatally. His plan, as already stated, is to open the tumours and cauterise them as soon as discovered. A lymph escapes which the patient is to spit out and then wash his mouth with a decoction of the tops and flowers of genista tinctoria. A pint and a half of this decoction is to be drunk daily for six weeks. Now, with reference to these tumours referred to by the above writer, they have often been sought for in Great Britain, but without success, so the proposal has gained no confidence.

Before I close this subject I may allude to a superstition that still exists among some of the uneducated inhabitants of East Kent, to the effect that there is an old woman residing at a place called Burling who possesses an extraordinary elixir that exercises the desired result, and cures all and sundry who partake of this infallible" Burling drink," as it is designated. My informant is a chemist, who has known many reputed instances where the imagination had led them into the belief that a cure for rabies rested with this old woman. This is another illustration of credulity that is often obstinate to contend with among the peasantry of our rural districts.