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Spurious Hydrophobia in Man

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

W. Lauder Lindsay*
Affiliation:
Murray Royal Institution, Perth

Extract

Metropolitan (English) cases of spurious hydrophobia are both less numerous and less instructive than those that occur so frequently in the Midland counties and their great cities, especially in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire. But some of the London cases are, nevertheless, full of interest. Thus, death from a cat-bite formed the subject of an inquest at the St. Pancras Coroner's Court, in April, 1877. The deceased was a woman of 64, who was described as naturally irritable and nervous, and who was sent to the insane ward of the St. Pancras Workhouse in a “state of mania…… on account of her madness.” And there she “died from congestion of the lungs, brought on by hydrophobia”—said the verdict.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1878 

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References

Notes

“Daily Telegraph,” April 13, 1877.Google Scholar

“British Medical Journal,” Feb. 8, 1873, p. 142.Google Scholar

“Daily Telegraph,” Oct. 13, 1876.Google Scholar

§ “North British Daily Mail,” Feb. 26, 1875.Google Scholar

This case was described by Dr. Bramwell, of Moesley, in the “British Medical Journal,” Oct. 14, 1871, p. 434.Google Scholar

Of Aug. 26, 1871.Google Scholar

“Old cases” are not, however, so valueless as is here represented. For we have already seen how the hydrophobia panic of 1876–7 resembles that of 1760; while a typical case of what may be called “imaginative” hydrophobia, that occurred in 1732, is recorded in the “British Medical Journal,” of June 30, 1877, p. 817.Google Scholar

§ Of June 3, 1871.Google Scholar

Something like “exact knowledge” of such a kind may at length reasonably be expected from the British Medical Association Hydrophobia Commission, recently appointed. (Vide “Brit. Med. Journal, Nov. 10, 1877, p. 672).Google Scholar

As reported in the “Glasgow Daily Herald,” of June 17, 1871.Google Scholar

As reported in the “Northern Ensign,” of November 21, 1872.Google Scholar

“North British Daily Mail,” Jan. 15, 1875.Google Scholar

§ “Manchester News,” quoted in the “North British Daily Mail,” July 28, 1873.Google Scholar

“North British Daily Mail,” November 9, 1877.Google Scholar

“Daily Telegraph,” Feb. 19, 1874.Google Scholar

“Glasgow Weekly Herald,” Jany. 31, 1874.Google Scholar

“The Animal World” (Vol. iv., 1873, p. 381), cites a case of hydrophobia from cat-bite in a man, who imitated the actione of a cat—not of a dog.Google Scholar

“Glasgow Weekly Herald,” June 17, 1876.Google Scholar

“North British Daily Mail,” November 21, 1876.Google Scholar

“North British Advertiser,” August 26, 1876.Google Scholar

Of November 5, 1877, p. 10.Google Scholar

Of November, 17,1877, p. 720.Google Scholar

§ “British Medical Journal,” December 2, 1871.Google Scholar

Ibid. May 6, 1871, p. 474.Google Scholar

There is an excellent common-sense article on the question—“Is there evidence sufficient to warrant us in connecting the group of symptoms which we term hydrophobia with the bite of a rabid animal?” by Dr. Burder, of Bristol, in the “British Medical Journal,” October 26, 1872, p. 462.Google Scholar

“British Medical Journal,” June 2, 1877, p. 697.Google Scholar

Ibid. December 23, 1876, p. 827.Google Scholar

Idid. May 4, 1872, p. 471.Google Scholar

§ Ibid. August 12, 1871, p. 183.Google Scholar

Ibid., October 14, 1876, p. 509.Google Scholar

The “Augusta Journal,” an American newepaper—quoted by the “North British Daily Mail,” of August 23rd, 1876.Google Scholar

“Detroit Tribune,” quoted in the “North British Daily Mail,” of October 22, 1872.Google Scholar

In his “How to Live Long,” 1875, p. 33.Google Scholar

“Journal of Mental Science,” April 1873, p. 167.Google Scholar

“British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review,” January 1876, p. 240.Google Scholar

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§ “London Medical Record,” as quoted in the “North British Daily Mail,” July 25, 1874; and “Edinburgh Courant,” July 18, 1874.Google Scholar

The “Field” (newspaper) of October 19, 1872.Google Scholar

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Notice in “British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review,” (for October, 1874, p. 350), of the chapter on hydrophobia, contained in “Contributions to Pathology and Surgery,” by Cæsar H. Hawkins, F.B.S. (1874). The same remarkable circumstance is alluded to in an article on “Mad Dogs,” by Wm. Chambers, L.L.D., in “Chambers' Journal” for June, 1874, p. 403.Google Scholar

James Cowie, M.B.C.V.S., of Sundridge Hall, Bromley, Kent, now retired from practice, who writes the article, Rabies, in “Chambers' Encyclopædia,” and has also published a pamphlet on “Rabies, or Madness in the Dog,” a lecture delivered at the Boyal Veterinary College, London, on 29th February, 1876.Google Scholar

In his pamphlet above mentioned, p. 18.Google Scholar

“Pall Mall Gazette,” November 5, 1877, p. 10.Google Scholar

“Times,” commenting on the curative Experiments of Dr. Offenbarg, of Maneter, Westphalia, as quoted by the “Dundee Courier,' of November 15, 1877.Google Scholar

“The Will as a Therapeutic Means,” by Professor Joly, a paper read before the Académie dee Sciences of Paris, in 1875, and quoted in the “British Medical Journal,” for November, 20, 1875, p. 650.Google Scholar

§ What he called “mental hydrophobia,” an imaginary malady of a hysterical nature, was described by Trousseau, according to Fleming [“Babies,” pp. 262–3]; who himself cites various cases of pseudo or imaginary hydrophobia in man, (p. 263), and points ou† the resemblance of hydrophobia to mania, (p. 264).Google Scholar

“The Surgeon's Vade Mecum,” 5th ed., 1851, p. 160. Compare what he says of “Hysterical Tetanus,” p. 21.Google Scholar

Ibid., p. 161. Illustrations are quoted from the “London Medical Gazette,” (of November 4, 1837), and the “Lancet” (vol. for 1838–9, p. 582).Google Scholar

“North British Daily Mail,” January 2nd, 1877.Google Scholar

“Daily Review,” January 3, 1877.Google Scholar

Of November 5, 1877, p. 10.Google Scholar

§ “Pall Mall Gazette,” November 5, 1877, p. 10.Google Scholar

“British Medical Journal,” November 17, 1877, p. 693. Compare what Druitt says of the “Causes ” of ordinary tetanus (p. 16), and of its “Diagnosis” from hydrophobia (p. 15).Google Scholar

“Field,” October 19th, 1872, p. 369.Google Scholar

Probably now of Tunbridge Wells, Kent; the author of a paper, on “The use of Lichen cinereo-terrestris as a Preventive to Hydrophobia.” [“British Medical Journal,” 1872.]Google Scholar

“North British Dally Mail,” January 15, 1874, quoting from American newspapers.Google Scholar

“British Medical Journal,” November 17, 1877, p. 708.Google Scholar

Article on “Dogs,” in the “Graphic” September 9, 1871.Google Scholar

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