Observations on hydrophobia, produced by the bite of a mad dog, or other rabid animal : with an examination of the various theories and methods of cure, existing at the present day, and an inquiry into the merit of specific remedies : also a method of treatment best adapted to the brute creation : in a series of letters to a friend / by James Thatcher.

  • Thacher, James, 1754-1844.
Date:
1812
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on hydrophobia, produced by the bite of a mad dog, or other rabid animal : with an examination of the various theories and methods of cure, existing at the present day, and an inquiry into the merit of specific remedies : also a method of treatment best adapted to the brute creation : in a series of letters to a friend / by James Thatcher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    disease on that principle, he proceeds to offer such arguments as he conceives will tend to invalidate the position, and to prove in this instance a different mode of action. Having denied the existence of any symp- toms, indicative of preternatural excitement on the general system, and shewn, on the contrary, that the most opposite set of symptoms are observed from the beginning, he confidently affirms, that it is by a direct debilitating operation on the nervous system that the canine virus acts in producing the disease. Sensible that this contradicts the theory of the ingenious Brown, in whose opinion all things in nature are stim- ulant, the author justly observes that there are many things capable of acting as direct sedatives on the human body, which do not contain a particle of sti- mulus. To exemplify this idea, he adduces nitre as a very remarkable instance. So clearly evident is the direct sedative properties of this medicine, that instead of producing the least stimulant effect, that, from the moment it is taken into the stomach and shews any operation, it does not increase the force or frequency of the pulse a single stroke, but produces a diminution of both. According to the theory of Pro- fessor Rush and Dr. Mease, a general relaxation of the nervous system, favours the production and in- creases the power both of tetanus and the fatal disease in question. This is predicated on the axiom, that, a general debility of the nervous system, when not morbidly affected, is always accompanied with a pro- portional excitability or disposition to be acted on by