before hydrophobie For that hauing once gotten the possession most men are of opinion that all physicke commeth to late Now concerning the gouernement and dyet of the bitten bodie it is thought best to lodge him in a chamber that is hot and very lightsome for the better euocation of the spirits and blood to the outward parts of the body and neuer suffer him to be alone but accompanied if it may bee wâ—â—h such as with pretty pleasing tales and merry iests or instruments of musicke or both are able to giue refreshment to his dulled spirits Let no means be vsed to put him in feare nor to make him sorrowfull His diet must be in a mediocritie neither very plentifull nor slender Emptinesse or want of eating encreaseth the euill qualitie of humours which is a very pernitious thing in any malignant vlcer He may eat of veale mutton hens chickens or capons flesh and such other as breed good iuyce being seasoned with the iuice of orenges limmons citrons which he may eat by themselues also And the powders of tormentill pimpinella mary-golds borrage and such other like herbes very good to strawe or sprinkle vpon his meat Rabbi Moyses forbiddeth the eating of pigeons because saith he they be very exceeding hurtfull for such as be thus affected through a speciall property of substance in them But contrariwise he commendeth the mutton or flesh of rams though it breed but bad iuyce for that it hath a secret property to do good in this infirmitie All writers with one consent approue and counsell the vse and eating of fresh water crabfishes for the natiue inbred propertie they haue against the poyson of this malady as often experience hath proued Creuises also boiled in good wine are approued Paulus Aegineta aduiseth that such meat and drinke should chiefly be vsed as is of force to dull and extinguish the strength and working of the poison and keepe it from spreading it selfe through the bottome of the stomacke both which properties hee saith are performed by drinking of pure wine that is sweet and old or by drinking of milk and eating of garlicke onyons or leekes Aetius approueth the eating of garlicke and such other sharpe and hot meats in the beginning but not after least the poyson thereby might become more forcible but he forbiddeth the drinking of wine Neuerthelesse most writers doe esteeme it very medicinable to drinke strong wine at the very beginning as wel as to eat hot and sharpe meats And some like of grosse and slimie meats also that by encreasing of obstructions may the better hinder the piercing of the poyson to the principall parts But after fiue or fix daies be past from the beginning then will it be best to reduce all to mediocritie as was sayd before and forbeare very hot meats and drinkes Then will it be good to vse drinke of meane strength in which are steeped the leaues of pimpinella that is burnt and the flowers of marygolds A Iulep also made of firupe of cichorie and the decoction of sorrell and barly is good to drinke This Iulep following is very goodalso to vse Take of the iuyce of limmons and citrons each halfe an ounce of the iuice of sower pomgranates two ounces sorrell water and rose water each an ounce spring water boyled as much as will suffice Make heereof a 〈◊〉 according to art of which it is good to drinke often Rost meats are not so good to be vsed as meats boised especially in some liquor that opening simples apt to procure vrine are sod in Their bread should be made of the best wheat and well leuened Of fruits they may vse walnut sigges and almons and some say that chesnuts haue a propertie to doe good Let such as accompanie the sicke at their meat take heed they can not of any meat they haue tasted And some thinke it dangerous also to drinke in the cup or glasse that they drinke in except it be first very well washt The vse of vineger and sower fruits or herbes is thought good Some admonish the bitten body not to touch the cornell tree nor rest within the shadow of it or the tree called Sanguinaria which is the female cornell tree or shrubbe nor to sleepe vnder the sernice tree but to shunne them for the space of a whole yeere because these trees are reported to haue such a kind of propertie in them as will quickly hasten forward their madnes Sleepe especially if it be much is hurtfull till the strength of the poison be well abated or till the sicke be much distempered for want of sleepe Venerious actions should be forborne a yeere together It were very requisite that the sicke body should be kept indifferent loose or soluble all the time of his sickenes or infirmitie and to goe once or twise in a day to stoole and pisse freely if he can Now for the better dilucidation of the manner of curing this kind of maladie I thought it good heere to insert the method and meanes which Franciscus Valleriola a very learned Physitian vsed in curing one far gone toward madnes by the biting of a mad dogge This man was bitten a little aboue one of his ancles Obser lib. 3. Obser 3. and thereupon was carried by his freinds to a village called Les Sainctes Maries which of the vulgar sort is accounted a place sacred or hallowed for the curing of such as are bitten by madde dogges where he was washed bathed in the sea the space of nine daies together after which he was brought home againe to Arles where he dwelt the wound being growne very grieuous He looked with a writhen or warped countenance vsing little speech and seemed full of meditations like such as be troubled with melancholie The wound was of a pale or ashie colour and full of venemous matter and therefore speedily to be taken in hand Finding his body very costiue he caused this clyster to be prepared for him â„ž Malnar althaeae cum suis radicib matrum violar branc vrsin mercurialis melissophylli ana M j. flor chamomel melilot rorismarin ana P j. epithym â„¥ ss furfuris macri P j. Fiat omnium decoctio in iure capitis castrati omasorum ad lib. j. coletur In colutura adde cathol â„¥ j. Confect hamech Ê’ iij. ol violar â„¥ iiij sacchari rub â„¥ j. Fiat Clyster This clyster hauing performed his operation he presently made the wound to be cauterized with a hot iron and for the more speedie remouing of the crust or scabbe caused by the searing he anointed it with a mixture made of fresh butter the yelke of an egge and swines grease and sometime he mixed Vnguentum basilicum with it While these things were in hand he gaue preseruatiues inward for the subducting of the poisonous infection and because he was a plethorike young man and of bad humors also he did both let him blood purge him For he feared not the recoyling or drawing inward of the venemous matter
vomit vp such water as they drinke Heerewithall may reason be inferred for the reconciling of two famous Physitians that seeme to haue vttered contrarie opinions or doctrines that is Galen and Auicen This man saith that mad men die vpon the drinking of water and Galen contrarywise saith that the drinking of it is good for them To which it is answered that if the madnesse be in the beginning the drinking of water is wholsome but if it be farre gone and the feare continueth then doe they die by drinking thereof because the vitall spirit is almost wholely dissipate so that vpon small occasion and very speedily it is extinguished Iulian Palmarius thinketh that whatsoeuer the right cause of their fearing of water may be there is some extreame antipathy or contrariety betwixt that madnesse and water because beside this exceeding feare of water it hath beene obserued by experience that if the new bitten wound bee but washed with water the bitten body can afterward very hardly or neuer be cured freed frō madnes for that the water by this antipathie driueth forceth this kind of poison so deeply into the body as it cannot be fetcht out againe or very hardly Therfore it behoueth such as be bitten to take heed of washing the wounds with fresh water This opinion of Palmarius seemeth very truth-like Petrus Salius very litle differing in opinion from Palmarius saith that the poison of doggish-madnes followeth no peculiar temperament but is a poyson of the whole substance which being communicated to man very slily or secretly polluting the humors without any sense or perseuerance of hurt and by little and little creeping from part to part as soone as euer it toucheth any principall part it disturbeth and greatly vexeth it causing great thirstinesse At which time if the sicke doe drinke or take any liquid thing they are tormented very extreamely in their inward parts This cannot be by reason of any temperature because they feele one kind of torture whether they drinke hot liquor or cold but by the peculiar nature of that kinde of poyson which as it is a poyson hurtfull to man for the whole substance thereof so hath it an antipathie or contrary disposition in it to all liquid things by which it becommeth so exasperate and cruell as the inward parts by the terrible pangs and grypings thereof are more miserably vexed then otherwise they should be This saith Salius I haue noted to be the cause from whence they haue euen from the beginning abhorred liquid things because all with one consent haue affirmed that by the drinking of them they haue been exceedingly afflicted After the tryall whereof they haue loathed and detested all sorts of liquors so greatly as the onely sight of them hath giuen occasion to turne them into the like tortures and sometime worser This opinion seemeth so well to bee liked of Codronchus that he nothing dissenteth from it But otherwise so different haue been the opinions of other Writers as the true cause of this Hydrophohie or water-feare seemeth so secret and hidden as the most learned and ingenuous haue been and are encombred by the search thereof and therefore for breuitie I leaue it and passe to the cure of this miserable and fearefull kind of madnesse The Cure WHEN one is bitten of a dogge and resteth doubtfull whether he were mad or not it were good to make a tryall by moystning a peece of bread in the bloudy wound and offering it to a hungry dog which if he refuse to eat it is very like that the byting dog was mad For this tryall hath been found more assured than the giuing it to Pullen For so exquisite is the smelling sense of dogs as they are able to discerne therby that poisonous infection which they are so apt to be hurt by But hens and poultry haue been seene to eat such kind of bread or nut kernels as haue been moystned in the wound without any hurt thereby It were good also to note or hearken whether he did byte any other creature else or whether he were noted to be afraid of water or the sight beholding of looking glasses or other bright things If the byting dog were knowen or found to bee mad the wound that he hath made be great suffer it to bleed wel a good while together that some part of the poison may come forth with the bloud But withall let the bitten member bee presently bound about three or fower fingers bredth aboue the wound with a garter or such like thing reasonable hard for the better restraint of the poysons piercing For this kind of practise by the testimonie of Galen and the experience of others hath been found very profitable in prohibiting the speedy piercing of poyson by the bytings of serpents and venemous creatures Yet if the part bound doe grow benummed senseles by the hardnes of the binding let it be slackned somewhat lest the bound member might thereby be mortified But if the bitten wound be in such a part as cannot be handsomly bound then let some astringent medicine bee applyed some reasonable distance aboue the wound such as this Take oyle of roses and myrtils each an ounce of bole armenake sanguis draconis myrtils and sumach each halfe a dram Temper these together with the white of an egge well beaten and a litle vineger then spread it vpon a linnen cloth and binde it aboue the wound moystning it with vineger or laying to fresh when it is dry Or if the rest cannot presently be gotten then in the meane time till they may be gotten vse the white of an egge beaten with a little vineger Yet alwaies prouided that these or such like astringent medicines be applyed quite beyond the place of the poysons abiding For if the poyson haue gotten beyond them they may be a meanes to force it further into the bodie But if the wound be small and nothing perceiued but the foame or slauer about it then wash away the foame with the vrine of a boy or with lie or such like and then dilate or enlarge it by paring awaie the flesh round about that the hole may bee round which some call circination For by this meanes the wound will the more easily be kept open and not heale so soone as otherwise it would Which maner of practize Galen doth approue Lib. de theriaca ad Pisonem Cap. 16. Some only scarrifie or scotch the skinne round about it that it may bleed reasonable well After the vse of circination or scarificatiō let ventozes or cupping-glasses be set on with a good flame and then either cauterize it with a hot iron or rather with a cauterie of gold except the place be sinowe and very sensible This cauterizing is commended by all writers as the most sure remedy for the extinguishing of the virulent matter contained in the wound which though it be terrible to the eye yet the pain therof continueth not so long as that which is caused by
where he sayth that the case is very desperate and hopelesse where this doggish madnesse is not holpen by gining of white ellebor well prepared It is good for the sicke to drinke whay Smithes water sorrell or lettice water which may easily be giuen them before they begin to feare water But after they once beginne to feare it let them be kept from the sight both of it and all other liquid things For nothing doth put them into such horrour and trembling and vexation and confusion as the beholding of these and some other bright things It were good also that they might not see such meat as is prouided for them Yet if they refufe to eat or drinke they must bee forced therto although this be noted commonly in them that they swallow with great difficultie As there may be deuices to keepe them from the sight of their meat that is prepared for their eating so may drinke be spowted into their mouthes or downe their throats with a syring or giuen them in a suckling bottle or such like Some not yet come to the feare of water but being at the point thereof haue suddenly vpon the sight of water fallen very grieuouslie into the feare of it by the sudden motion and stirring of that virulent and poysonnous matter contained in the body which in nature is contrary to water Some very superstitiously take vpon them to cure this disease with words and charmes which because it is vngodly and deuilish I passe ouer as a thing much more offensiue to God then healthfull to man When the cure is brought either neere or to an end by the vse of such meanes as haue beene declared it would be very profitable and to good purpose after a clister giuen if the body bee costiue to cause the bitten body to sweat in reasonable sort for the vtter expelling and vapouring out of the relickes and remainder of the venemous matter as well by inward as outward meanes And before the sore be quite healed vp a tryall may be made whether any of the venemous matter remaine yet vnremoued by the application of such things as haue beene before aduised for to know whether the byting dog were mad or not as the kernels of walnuts or bread such other layd to the sore offred to hungry dogs but first the sore place should be so sweetned from the sent smel of such salues and medicines as haue beene vsed thereto as dogs by reason of them might not take any dislike of the bread that is offred them And also triall may bee made by setting to the fundaments of cockes or hens as hath beene sayd And though the cure be as well performed as the skill of the Phisitian or Chyrurgian can deuise and no likelihood of any future harme seem to be feared yet for the better assurance and preuention of relapse some aduise as a point of good prouidence that the bitten body should be purged once euery quarter of a yeere and once in fifteene daies to eate a little of the best kind of treacle I haue not read in any mans writings that hath intreated of this doggish euill how dogges may be ordered to keepe them from madnes sauing only in Plinie or the citers of Plinie lib. 19. cap. 5. who sheweth that the ould Phisitians before his time vsed to cut a worme as they call it out of their tongues which indeed is no worme but a sinowy matter round in the fashion of a worme And some to that purpose cut of the end of whelpes tailes after they be fortie daies ould And the same Plinie saith also lib. 8. cap. 40. that the elder and bigger dogges should euery yeere in the dogge daies bee giuen hen-dunge mixt with the meat that they eat For in those daies they are most apt to be caught with madnes but if they chaunce to bee mad before the vse of these meanes then to purge them with elleborus But yet in my conceit vpon the consideration of that which before I haue noted and gathered out of the best most iudiciall practised writers before the purging of them there should be vsed outwardly if they were bitten by any other dogge some of those good remedies that are set downe for men and inwardly to giue them treacle and other good antidotes vsed against this infirmitie But the surest way is to hange them vp or kill them outright least being kept a liue they mischeiue others But for the preuenting and keeping dogs from madnes whether they be sound or bitten by a mad dog no meanes can be vsed more excellent effectuall for the sound then while the dog daies last for the bitten at any time to mixe with their meat or water that they drinke some of this excellent powder following that Doctor Iulian Palmarius hath so much commended All the aduise counsell and manner of curing this fearefull maladie carefully set downe by ancient moderne Phisitians hath no further scope then to helpe such as are not fallen into hydrophobie or feare of water which is the extremitie of this disease and so hard to be holpen as none finding the sicke in that case would aduenture the curing of them but leaue them as past all helpe and recouery Yet now of late yeeres through the carefull and commendable industrie of some notable men there is found out an Antidote of so excellent and pretious vertue as being rightly vsed hath by much experience been tried most sure and infallible not only for preuenting of hydrophobie but also for the curing of such as haue been attached therwith so that the wound be not in any part of the head aboue the mouth nor washt with fresh water For where either of these is found there remaineth either none or very small hope of helpe This pretious Antidote or all-curing medicine Iulian Palmarius a worthy Physitian hath made knowne for the benefite of all sorts of people affirming vpon his owne sundry trials thereof that it is so excellent in vertue as it will cure and helpe the bitten bodies at what time soeuer they be bitten yea though they haue neuer been purged or vsed any of the meanes before set downe or though they be vexed with the hydrophobie the conditions only excepted that are before noted By which meanes the sicke are freed from many tortures that in other manner of curings they be forced to endure This remedie of so rare vertue is made as followeth Take of the leaues of rew veruen of the lesser sage of plantaine the leaues of polypodie common wormewood mint mugwort balme betonie the lesser centaurie of each equall waight These must euery one of them be gathered at such time of the yeere as they be of most force which commonly is in Iune about the full of the Moone Let them be put seuerally into paper bagges and suffred to drie in such a place as neither Sunne nor raine may come neere them least they should grow too dry or wax mouldly
the slauer may induce madnes as Caelius Orrelianus affirmeth which was found to be true An. Dom. 602. by an instance produced by the fore-named Fabritius in the same obseruation cited The story is this A certaine young man about 20. yeeres of age called Daniel Perrin in the haruest time of the yeere aboue named was scratcht on the thombe of the right hand by a madde Cat but yet so lightly as the very vpper rinde of the skinne which the Greekes call Epâ—dermis was scarce hurt which because the yonge man had noe suspition of the Cats madnes he made none account of and the rather for that he felt no paine of it but on the first day of March following he began by little and little to be very solemne fearefull and mooued with strange imaginations so that the next day hee was afraid to goe abroad The third day of the same Month saith Fabritius I was sent for found him hydrophobicke so exceedingly abhorring water wine or any liquid or bright thing that hee could not endure the sight of them His face necke and brest were inflamed with the mixture of a blewe colour sweating and fainting much and sometime casting himselfe so violently this way and that way on his bed that three strong men could scarce hould him offring to bite such as stood neere him trembling and quaking at the sight of meat and drinke in this wretched estate ended his life that night Thus farre Guil. Fabritius This Catte no doubt had been bitten before by some mad dogge Hereby furthermore is shewed a most admirable force of this kind of poyson that is able to pearce euen the very nailes being of a solid senseles horny substance in such sort as to be able to worke so strang effects D. Esaias Meischuerus in his obseruations hath this story following A Stripling or youth belonging to a noble gentleman by chaunce found a sword cast vnder a bedstead with which a mad dog had been thrust through many yeeres before Which sword he begd of his master who bad him take it The youth hauing gotten it fell to scowring off the rust thereof but being earnest in this his busines he chanced to catch a very slight hurt therby vpon one of his hands yet as small as the hurt was in showe the sequell thereof proued it great in that very shortly after he became mad thereby and so died Laurentius Surius reporteth that a certaine Inhoulder in the Duchie of Wertenberg Comment reruÌ„ in orbegestar on a time entertained some of his Guests with swines flesh that had been bitten by a mad dogge whereby all the eaters thereof became presently so mad that they bit and tare one an other with their teeth Many are of opinion that if the principall parts that is the braine heart or liuer bee affected but especially if the sicke doc once beginne to feare water there is no hope or verie little of recouery It is reported also a sgne of small hope if the sicke will lie downe and tomble on the ground and doe speake with a hoarse voice A biting or wound quickly closed vp is much worse then a great and large wound No man neglecting meanes of helpe ought to account himfelfe safe from perill that hath been bitten of a mad dogge though he finde no alteration in his body within the space of a yeere For Albertus saith that some haue become mad not till 12. yeeres after Galen also and Guinerius and other more as hath partly been noted before haue spoken of a greater number of yeeres that haue passed betwixt the biting and the madnes And Alharabius of some called Alzaranius an Arabian affirmeth that hee knew it fortruth that the poison of a mad dogges biting hath lien lurking in the body of the bitten the space of forty yeeres before it hath shewed it selfe And such is the propertie of it that the long er it lieth lurking in the body vnperceiued the sooner it killeth when it breaketh out into action as Petrus Forestus by examples hath notified The spittle or slauer of any beast is thought to haue something in it that is contrary to mans nature as also the scratchings with their nailes c. and therefore is not to be neglected Auicen is of opinion that none bitten of a mad dog are past helpe that are able to know themselues in a looking glasse It is not so dangerous to be bitten of a body that is mad by the biting of a mad dogge as to be bitten of a mad dogge Concerning prognostickes thus writeth Petrus Salius There be only two things worth the noting for prognosticke signes in this infirmitie Namely whether they bee only fore-showers of madnes imminent or to come or whether the madnes be alredie present In the former case there is hope of health or recouery if the disease be oppugned with valiant and strong medicines and not with such as be gentle and light because as yet the poison hath not wholely inuaded or possessed the principall members but if it haue once gotten the mastry of them I am of opinion with the more famous sort of Physitians that it is past all helpe and remedie and therefore but lost labour to vse any meanes for curing thereof And if Dioscorides hath testified that he cured Eudemus sicke of this disease and that the Physitian Themison was also deliuered from it though this be true yet is it to be numbred among admirable things and such as exceed the power of man Againe if they were deliuered from this disease I am of minde saith he that they were delt withall in the beginning and not in the state or progresse thereof But Paulus saith that these were not bitten of a mad dogge but that this affection was transferred to them by some man that had beene bitten of a dogge and that therefore Themison might be saued because he had it by a light contagion from a friend of his that had beene dogge-bitten The difficultie therefore of this matter being thus exemplified may put the wisely carefull in minde the better to regard it and looke to it in time For it hath gone current from time to time that if once they be growen mad they are past recouery and therefore the Poet Ouid who liued not long after Asclepiades a Physitian of greatnote in his time could say Soluere nodosam nescit medicina podagram Nec formidatis vlla medetur aquis Which I haue made speake english in this manner The knottie gowte to cure no medcins counted sure Nor doggish waterfeare that euer I could heare The biting of a dogge that is not mad COrnelius Celsus saith that euery biting of a beast hath some kinde of venomnes in it therefore the biting of a dogge that is not mad should not be neglected For the paine that ensueth thereupon some thinke to bee an argument of malignitie from the biter because the biting of any creature is more painefull and hard to cure then any