The workes of that famous chirurgion Ambrose Parey translated out of Latine and compared with the French. by Th: Johnson

CHAP. XIII. Prognosticks.

WE cannot so easily shun the danger we are incident to by mad dogs, as that * 1.1 of other beasts, by reason he is a domestick creature, and housed under the same roofe with us. The virulency that resides in his foame or sla∣ver is hot and dry, maligne, venenate and contagious, so that it causeth a distemper like it selfe, in the body whereto it shall apply it selfe, and spread it selfe over the whole body by the arteries; for it doth not onely hurt when as it is taken in by a bite or puncture, but even applyed to the skin, unlesse it be forth∣with washed away with salt water or urine. Neither doth this venome hurt equally or at all times alike, for it harms more or lesse, according to the inclination of the aire to heat or cold, the depth of the wound, the strength of the patients body, and the ill humours thereof, and their disposition to putrefaction, the freedome and largenesse of the passages. Now maligne symptomes happen sonner •…•…later, as in some about the fourtieth day, in others about sixe moneths, and in others a yeare after. There * 1.2 be some who thereupon are troubled with the falling sicknesse, and at length grow mad: such as fall into a feare of the water, never recover. Yet Avicen thinks their case is not desperate, if as yet they can know their face in a glasse; for hence you may ga∣ther, that all the animall faculties are not yet overthrowne, but that they stand in need of strong purgations, as we shall shew hereafter. Aëtius tels that there was a cer∣taine * 1.3 Phylosopher, who taken with this disease and a feare of water, when as hee de∣scended with a great courage unto the bath, and in the water beholding the shape of the dog that bit him, hee made a stand, but ashamed thereof, he forthwith cryed out,

Quid cani cum Balbeo? (i) What hath a dog to doe with a Bath? which words being uttered, he threw himselfe forcibly into the Bath, and fearelesly dranke of the water thereof, and so was freed from his disease together with his erroneous opinion. It is a deadly signe to tumble themselves on the ground, to have a hoarse voice, for that is an argument that the weazon is become rough by reason of too excessive dry∣nesse. Finally, the principall parts being possessed, there is no recovery or life to be hoped for. Men may fall mad, though they bee not bit by a mad dog. For as the hu∣mours are often inflamed of themselves, and cause a Cancer or Leprosie, so do they al∣so madnesse in melancholie persons. The bites of vipers and other venemous crea∣tures cause not like symptomes to these that come by the biting of a mad dog, because they die before such can come forth or shew themselves. Great wounds made by mad dogs are not equally so dangerous as little, for from the former, great plenty of venemous matter flowes out, but in the latter it is almost all kept in.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The venome of a mad dog ap∣plied outwardly only, may cause madness.
• * 1.2

  Whether the Hydrophobia or feare of water beincurable.
• * 1.3

  A history.