Hydrophobia

(-fõ'be-ah.) [ Gr. hy dor, and phobemai, Ihave a fear of.] (Med.) A symptom of canine madne , or the disease itself. This name was given to the disease because persons bitten by a rabid dog or cat Hygiene, dread the sight of water. According to the generally received opinion of medical practitioners, there is no known cure for this terrible disease; and the only pre-Hygrology, vent ive to be relied upon is the complete excision of the bitten part, which should be performed as soon as po ible; and caustics, of which nitric acid is consid-Hygrometer, ered to be the best, should be applied to the wound. Unfortunately, the first symptoms of madne in a dog are not very well defined; the animal is generally observed to be dull and unsociable, refuses food, hangs his head, appears drowsy, flies at strangers, and hardly recognizes his master. At some indefinite period after the bite, and long after the wound has healed, there is itching and pain in the part; heavine , great restle ne , and uneasine , with mental alarm, followed by pains about the neck, sense of choking, and great horror at any attempt to drink, although solid food may be swallowed. These symptoms are followed by fever, difficult respiration, convulsions, sometimes delirium, and finally death. Some medical writers have maintained that H. may occasionally be spontaneously developed in man, a supposition which seems to have been lately corroborated by the case of a man who, in Nov., 1871, at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Cincinnati,O.,died with all the symptoms of H., though neither the patient nor any of his friends knew anything of his having been bitten by a dog, either recently or at any time during his life. [s. 471]