Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 13, MAT-MIC

M E D 1 C I N E,
fame night, at half an hoar after 12. This patient
was a man of great refuiutiun, and could in part con¬
quer his avertiou at water. He feemed to have total¬
ly forgot the accident of the bite : and cafually faid,
that he thought this diforder refetnbled the hydropho¬
bia, without fuppohng that, he was a fib. clod with that
dblemper at the time.—The bite on the girl's leg re-
foied to heal, baffled the art of a young lurgeon who
attempted to cure it, and continued a running ulcer
for a long time. She did not fall into the hydropho¬
bia. Hence Dr Fothergill thinks it probable, that
keeping the wounds made by the teeth of mad animals
open for a long time, would probably be of fervive as
a preventive 5 but in fome of Dr Wolf’s patients
t-hefe artificial drains appear not to have been attended
With luccels.
On the 16th of November 177^, Thomas Neurfe,
a flrong healthy boy of 14, was admitted into the Lei-
eefler infirmary ; having been that day month bitten
by a mad fox hound. The wound was a large lacerated
one on the cheek, and bled very freely on being intliefed.
The day after he was bit he went to the fea, where he
"Was dipped with all the feverity ufually praftifed un¬
der fo difagreeable an operation. The Ormfkirk me¬
dicine was alfo adminiftered with all due care. It was
bought of the perfon in Leicefter who is deputed by
the proprietor to fell it for him. A common adhefive
plaffer was applied to the part after' fea*bathing •, and
in the courfe of a month, without any further trouble,
the wound was healed ; excepting a fmall portion,
fomewhat more than an inch in length, and in breadth
about one-tenth. This yielded no difeharge, and was
quite in a cicatrizing Hate. Five days before his ad-
miffion into the infirmary, he began to complain of a
tightnefs over his temples, and a pain in his head : in
two days the hydrophobia began to appear ; and at its
commencement he complained of a boiling heat in his
ftomach, which was continually afeending to the fauces.
The difeafe was pretty ftrong when he came to the in¬
firmary. He got a bolus of a fcruple of mufk with
two grains of opium •, then a compofition of 15 grains
of mufk, one of turbith mineral, and five grains of
opium, was dire£!ed to be taken every third hour;
an ounce of the ftronger mercurial ointment was to be
rubbed on the cervical vertebrae and flioulders, and an
embrocation of two ounces of laudanum, and half an
ounce of acetum faturninum, was direfted to be applied
to the throat. But by this laft he was thrown into
convulfions, and the fame effeft followed though his
eyes were firft covered with a napkin. The embroca¬
tion was therefore changed for a plafler of three
drams of powdered camphor, half an ounce of opium,
and fix drams confe&io Damocritis. Bv thefe medi¬
cines the difeafe feemed to be fomewhat fufpended, but
the fymptoms returned with violence in the evening.
His medicine was repeated at feven ; and at eight
five grains of opium were exhibited without mufk or
turbith. At nine, another ounce of mercurial oint¬
ment was rubbed upon the fhoulders, and half an
ounce of laudanum Avith fix ounces of mutton-
broth was injedded into the inteftines, but to no pur-
pofe. A larger dofe of opium was then given, but
with as little efifedd as the former, and he died the
fame night.
In the month of September 1774, a farmer, aged
- Pra&lce
25, was bit by a mad dog, whole teeth made a flight Hydropho.
wound in the fore finger of the left hand. He was dip- hb.
ped, as ufual, in the fea ; and drank the fea-water for Y*1^
fome time on the fpot, which operated brifkly as a
purge. He continued well till the 6th of June follow¬
ing, when he firft felt a pain in that hand and arm ; far
which he bathed in a river that evening, fuppofing that
it had been a rheumatic complaint. ri he next day he
was fick ; and in the evening was feized with a violent
vomiting, which continued all that night and till the
middle of the next day, when it was fucceeded by the
hydrophobia. He was treated with the warm bath ;
had a purgative clyfter injected ; and as foon as it had
operated, a fecond was given, confiding of four ounces
of oil, and half an ounce of laudanum ; half an ounce
of ftrong mercurial ointment was rubbed on the fauces,
and the part was afterwards covered with the catapJaf-
ma e cymino, to which was added an ounce of opium.
An embrocation was applied to the region of the fto¬
mach with continued friftion, confilting -of half an
ounce of fpirit of fal ammoniac, ten drams of olive oil,
fix drams of oil of amber, and ten drams of lauda¬
num. Two ounces of itrong mercurial ointment were
rubbed upon the flioulders and back ; and as a further
means of inducing a ptyalifm fpeedily, he received the
fmoke of cinnabar into the mouth by throwing a
dram of that fubftance now and then upon a hot
iron : he was alfo directed to take every four hours
a bolus of 15 grains of mufk, three grains of turbith
mineral, and four grains of opium. He was eafier
while in the warm bath, and during the application of
the ointment ; but died the fame night about two
o’clock.
Many other inftances might be adduced of the in-
efficacy of this pretended fpecific : which will, it is
hoped, create a due degree of caution in thofe to whom
they who are fo unfortunate as to be bit by a mad ani¬
mal may commit themfelves. Another remedy may
alfo be mentioned as having had the reputation of being
fometimes fiiccefsful in this difeafe ; which is chiefly
employed in different parts of India, particularly in the
territory of Tanjore. The medicine to which we now
allude contains indeed feveral articles which are altoge¬
ther unknown in our materia medica: but it contains $t
leaf! one very powerful fubftance well known to us,
viz. arfenic. This medicine, known by the name of
the Snake Pills, as being principally employed againfl:
the bite of the molt venomous fnakes, is directed to
be prepared in the following manner :
Take white arfenic, of the roots of nelli navi, of
nevi viflram, of the kernels of the ner valum, of pep¬
per, of quickfilver, each an equal quantity. Ihe
quickfilver is to be rubbed with the juice of the wild
cotton till the globules are perfedtly extinguifhed.
The arfenic being 'firft levigated, the other ingre¬
dients, reduced to a powder, are then to be added, and
the whole beat together with the juice of the wild
cotton to a confiftenee fit to be divided into pills.
Though thefe pills are principally ufed againft the
bite of the cobra de capello, yet they are faid alfo
to be fuccefsful in the cure of other venomous bites;
and, for the prevention of rabies canina, one is taken
every morning for fome length of time. Of this re¬
medy European pra£Htinners have, we believe, as yet
no experience ; and if, in the accounts tranfmitted
by