The century cook book

part, at least. Cold water or ice should be applied to the head and body, and then mustard plasters to the spine, stomach and limbs, in turn. Bleeding should be avoided. If syncopal symptoms be decided, ammonia may be for a few minutes applied to the nostrils, and if the patient can swallow, aromatic spirits of ammonia may be given by the mouth, ten drops every fifteen minutes at first, gradually increasing the interval. Hydrophobia. When individuals are bitten by animals, such as dogs, cats, wolves and foxes, which are mad, or suspected of madness, and the necessary measures are not immediately adopted, the patient usually becomes affected with that peculiar and terrible disease, known as hydrophobia. The disease, as a rule, occurs oftenest within three months after being bitten, rarely after the sixth month. The more numerous the bites, and the greater their gravity, the earlier do the symptoms appear. They manifest themselves earlier in children than in old people. When no preventive measures are adopted, at least half, perhaps two-thirds of persons bitten, escape. The immunity may be due partly to the bites being inflicted through clothes, partly to individual insusceptibility, which has been found to exist in animals as well as in man. However, the statistics prove that the bites on the face give a mortality of 80 per cent, and those in the hands of 67 per cent. These parts being uncovered, the virus is directly deposited in the tissues, and is quickly absorbed. The most cases of hydrophobia occur during the spring and fall months. When a person has been bitten by a mad animal, he should have his wounds immediately attended to. They should be made to bleed as much as possible. Forcible suction will aid in removing the poison, and ligation with any kind of bandage above the part, will retard the absorption of it. Cauterization should never be neglected. A red hot iron or caustic potash are the best 3i8 TJie Family Doctor caustics. Every portion of the wound should be cauterized, and the parts dressed with carbolic acid and -iodoform ointment. Lunar caustic is too light a caustic and is ineffectual. The next thing to do is to go to the nearest Pasteur institute and take an anti-hydrophobic treatment. This treatment was discovered by L. Pasteur of Paris, after five years of study and experimentation. It consists in injecting under the skin, once or twice a day for fifteen days, a virusattenuated and prepared according to the rules and teaching of its discoverer. This treatment is only prophylactic, that is, it will prevent the patient from having hydrophobia, and is powerless when the symptoms of the disease have once made their appearance. Hence the necessity of early treatment. These institutes have been established in every part of the world. The principal one, in Paris, has already treated eight thousand cases, and all successfully. In this country, we have two of these institutes, one in New York, directed by Dr. Paul Gibier, and one in Chicago, founded and directed by Dr. A. Lagorio. Both men have had a large experience in the subject in question, and are highly qualified to treat these cases.