HYDROPHOBIA SUCCESSFULLY TREATED WITA CURARE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1788, 13 November 1879, Page 3

HYDROPHOBIA SUCCESSFULLY TREATED WITA CURARE.

The “Medical Eecord ” of August 9th gives a detailed report of a case of hydrophobia successfully treated with curare by Dr. Ad. Offenberg, of Wiokrath, Bhenish Prussia.

The subject was a servant girl, ;twenty-four years o£ age, who was bit in the heel by a rabid Spitz dog, July 28th, 1874. Two days after the wound was cauterised by means of a concentrated solution of caustic potash, and shortly after the girl underwent a course of treatment for hydrophobia. Subsequently, for three months or more, the wound was kept suppurating under the direction of a local physician. Seeing that the ease was not receiving proper treatment, the pastor of the place brought about the transfer of the patient to a hospital, where she was received October Bth. At that time the wound, on the outside of the left foot, extending from the tendo Aohillis over the dorsum, presented a reddish granulating surface about the size of the palm of the hand. Under a simple dressing the granulating surface became much smaller, and until October 16th no change was observed in the patient’s health and temper. Symptoms of rabies appeared that evening, and by 10.45 p.m. were pronounced and decided. Curare was then injected under the skin, and the dose was repeated several times during the night, with favorable effects. The last convulsion occurred at twenty-throe minutes past four in the morning. The details of the case would be out of place here ; suffice it to say that the patient slowly recovered health and strength, isolated convulsive movements of slight severity occurring at intervals until the 24th, while impaired vision and over-sensitiveness of the eyes to light continued still longer. On Deo. 3rd, the wound on the foot being completely cicatrized, and the patient’s general health being good, she was allowed to return to her home. By January, 1875, she was able to resume her duties as servant, though her original health and strength were not restored for more than a year. The case seems to have been one of genuine hydrophobia, notwithstanding the fact of recovery. The circumstance, however, that the patient attended a hydrophobic neighbor (who was bit by a rabid dog a few days before she was, and died of the disease), witnessing his convulsions and other symptoms, makes her case possibly one of simulation.