An essay on the bite of a mad dog, in which the claim to infallibility of the principal preservative remedies against the hydrophobia is examined / by John Berkenhout, M.D.

  • Berkenhout, John, 1730?-1791.
Date:
1783
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the bite of a mad dog, in which the claim to infallibility of the principal preservative remedies against the hydrophobia is examined / by John Berkenhout, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    the natural fagacity of this people. That this cure is effectual is confirmed by the cafe of a man in London, who, being bit by a rattle-fnake brought from Virginia, fucked the wound, and recovered. As the poifon (fays Dr. Mead) of this fnake is more quick and deadl^ than any other that we know, a remedy for this will moft certainly prove effectual againfl V that of fmaller vipers, and all other creatures of this kind—and why not of every other kind ? Was not the analogy fufficiently obvious ? If the poifon of a ferpent may be fucked from a wound, is there any realbn to imagine that the virus in the faliva of a dog may not ? But then the infallible Puhis Antilyjfus would have been of no ufe. Serioufly, I believe, that if this fimple operation were immediately and refolutely performed, no other remedy would be required. The beft medicines are often the moft fimple, and thofe which are neareft at hand. We are too apt fupercilioufly to overlook the fimple dictates of nature and common fenfe, to the difcredit of our profeflion, and the lofs of our patients. Art, chemiftry, com- pounds, and fyftems, are the hobby-horfes