Charles Porter Russel

“ Among the stupid popular ideas prevailing at the present time with regard to a mad dog is the belief that persons, who may have been bitten by the animal a long time previously and when it was healthy, are in danger of developing hydrophobia upon its subsequent appearance in the dog. This notion would seem almost too ridiculous to mention, were it not so common, that a dog who bites a person maliciously is almost invariably killed, with the sole intention of rendering the human being secure from hydrophobia. ”

“ Mayo has remarked, should he be regarded at that particular season as being subject to "a sort of dog-lunacy, having the same relation to Sirius that insanity has to the moon—which, indeed, in another sense, is probably true?" The answer may be found in that peculiarity of human nature which clings fast to traditions and superstitions, and will most probably always do so until man ceases to be human. ”

“ It has been supposed, by Schönbein and others, that ozone is deficient in marsh-air; that the quantity of ozone in the atmosphere and the prevalence of malarial diseases have an inverse proportion; and that ozone, by virtue of its supposed power of destroying organic matters in the air, is an antidote to miasm. There is, however, no evidence at all that ozone and malaria are antagonistic, or bear to each other any relation whatever. These various examinations, though interesting, bring us no nearer to a solution of the question, What is the nature of malaria? ”

“ If, therefore, it be profoundly interesting to contemplate, arrange, and study the multitude of agencies which impel this innumerable caravan of pilgrims toward their destination, it is almost equally instructive to analyze the manifold causes which have contributed to their assembling together. Such particulars, when massed into statistics, become of acknowledged importance to medical and social science. ”

“ A decided diminution in the marriage-rate of a community within a given period of time is an unerring indication that war or pestilence, or commercial crisis, or other great disturbing force, has rendered the necessaries of life clear, and occupation difficult to procure. The various forms of marriage—the numbers of bachelors, widowers, spinsters, and widows, united in wedlock; the tendency to early or late marriages among certain classes and peoples; the condition of elementary education as indicated by the proportion of men and women capable of signing their names to marriage-documents ”

“ To the casual thinker, statistics of marriage might seem of little consequence. But, in fact, the deductions from a review of marriage-returns are of positive value not only to the moral philosopher, but to the political economist as well. The relations of marriage to various industries—to mining, agriculture, trade, commerce—in a word, to the material prosperity of a people—have been well established by statistics. ”

“ If the deductions gained from vital statistics are to be of value in the preservation of life, those facts which bear particularly upon the preventable causes of death must naturally claim our more immediate consideration. The subject of mortuary statistics is, indeed, one of profound interest. All civilized nations have finally recognized its importance, and have by more or less stringent legislative enactments enforced the collection, preservation, and proper arrangement and analysis, of those data which constitute its foundation. ”

“ Although it cannot be denied that there are peculiar localities where, with apparently every presumed condition existing for the development of malaria, that poison is entirely absent, yet the concurrence of malarial emanations with such conditions in innumerable places establishes beyond a question their direct relation. The essential element in the production of malaria would appear to be vegetable decomposition; and, in order that this process shall ensue, the simultaneous operation of air, moisture, and a certain high range of temperature, is absolutely required. ”

“ Pliny remarks, in his "Historia Naturalis," that "canine madness is fatal to man during the heat of Sirius, and proves so in consequence of those who are bitten having a deadly horror of water. For such reason, during the thirty days that this star exerts its influence, we try to prevent the disease by mixing dung from the poultry-yard with the dog's food, or else, if he is already attacked with the disease, by giving him hellebore." ”

“ The exhalations from marshy tracts are recognized by their effects upon the human system throughout the world; and the fact that marshes bear a causative relation to malaria has been demonstrated in numerous instances by the disappearance of fever after thorough drainage and cultivation, and its reappearance upon their being allowed to relapse into neglect. The favorable effect of drainage and cultivation is owing both to the systematic removal of water near the surface, and most probably also to the absorption by the growing crops of the products of organic decomposition. ”

“ He bites a part where crawls the occult flea, without having to undergo a critical examination for a "point of injury." He retires in dim seclusion under the sofa, and indulges in reverie—disagreeable reminiscences of the past, grim contemplations of the present, and perhaps gloomy anticipations of the future—without having his moroseness misinterpreted. ”

“ Among people more or less uncivilized, there prevail some curious notions with regard to hydrophobia. In the mountainous districts of Roumania, where the disease is common among wolves and dogs, the peasantry believe that birds of prey, as eagles, hawks, vultures, etc., fall dead from an aërial elevation never reached by other creatures, and are devoured by wolves; these latter thus contract rabies, transmit it to the shepherd-dogs, and they in turn communicate it to cattle and human beings simply by infecting the atmosphere with emanations from their diseased bodies. ”

“ Closely connected with outbreaks of lupine rabies, of which we have authentic accounts as early as the thirteenth century, was the remarkable superstition of the middle ages termed lycanthropia—a belief that human beings were temporarily transformed into wolves (or "were-wolves" as they were called) , in order to satisfy an unnatural craving for human blood. It is well known that the wolf, when rabid, exhibits a peculiar change of habit and character. ”

“ A little reflection should convince those who entertain this foolish superstition, that, by killing the animal, they are depriving themselves of the only means of certainty as to its actual condition; for, if in the first vague stages of rabies, it must exhibit pronounced symptoms within a very few days, whereas, if it remain healthy, by no possibility can the person bitten suffer other consequences than those ensuing from an ordinary wound. ”

“ Birth, life, disease, and death, all change with the climate and soil—all are modified by race and nationality." Medicine, with the other natural sciences, has now been obliged to abandon vague hypotheses for truths determined by observation. Numerical expressions are substituted for uncertain and conjectural assertions. Only a limited number of facts are, however, contained within the horizon of a few observers. The determination of the laws of mortality requires a very wide range of observation, and a considerable space of time, in order to eliminate accidental perturbations. ”

“ We may trust that ere long the concerted action of the entire medical profession will furnish us with a constant knowledge of the comparative prevalence of all disease. In the United States the want of such a system is in a manner compensated for by the periodical enumeration of causes of death at each national census. ”

“ NO subject of scientific research has within the present century received more earnest attention from thoughtful minds than that of statistics. None, moreover, is more worthy of investigation or fruitful of more satisfactory practical results to humanity. It must be confessed that careless or dishonest observers occasionally misconstrue or misinterpret the significance of statistics ”

“ The cause of malaria being thus propagated is as mysterious as that of most epidemics. It is possible that such an epidemic malarial influence has been prevailing here; but we must not lose sight of the fact that sporadic cases of malarial fever appearing in non-malarial districts can frequently be traced to previous exposure in an infected locality.
Malaria, although having its ordinary habitat in low-lying regions, may under conditions favorable for its production exist at great elevations. On the Tuscan Apennines it is found at a height of 1,100 feet above the sea ”

“ The disparity in the sexes born at different periods, the average number of women bearing twins, triplets, etc., the proportion of offspring from native or foreign progenitors, the ages and occupations of parents, the average number of children produced at different periods of female life and in different seasons, the influence upon reproduction of the relative ages of parents, the reciprocal relations between illegitimacy and modes of living—these and other kindred questions are of deep concern to the human race, and the source of their solution lies in the largest accumulation of facts. ”

“ And it has been well said that "science has nothing to offer more inviting in speculation than the laws of vitality, the variations of those laws in the two sexes at different ages, and the influence of civilization, occupation, locality, seasons, and other physical agencies, either in generating diseases or in improving the public health." ”

“ Also the mariners did relate that the Dutch, by a raw herring salted, applied to the bite of a mad dog for three days' space and renewed, do take away all fear of madness. When this has been neglected, at least by the beheld manner of plunging they are all cured."
Fleming states that in Syria, at the present day, when a person is affected with hydrophobia, he is confined in a dark room, great care being taken to keep him tranquil, and prevent his seeing any red-colored object; and, if he thus survives for a certain period, he is cast from an eminence into the sea. ”

“ He becomes uneasy and fidgety, even peevish and ugly at times—what then?—like master like dog, he serves to illustrate our human moods. Occasionally he displays toward us an exaggerated degree of affection almost unaccountable in any Prince of mature age ”

“ Besides the localities enumerated, malaria is apt to be induced or intensified in a region wholly or comparatively exempt from it before, during the disturbance of large extents of soil, as in the construction of canals, roads, railways, fortifications, and dikes, rooting out of timber, preparation of virgin land for cultivation, etc. Vegetable organisms previously hidden and protected underground are thus brought to the surface and exposed to the agencies of putrefaction. Laborers engaged in such works and the neighboring inhabitants soon suffer. ”

“ Hence the absurdity of legislative enactments designed as precautionary measures against hydrophobia, and operative only during the summer months.
Our old and esteemed friend Pliny is responsible for several other very remarkable statements with regard to the dog. He asserts gravely that dogs will run from any one having, a dog's heart about him, and will never bark at a person who carries a dog's tongue in his shoe under the great toe, or the tail of a weasel which has been liberated after being deprived of that appendage. ”

“ But, in fact, we have positive proof that malarial fevers may be due to drinking impure water. Mr. Bettington, of the Madras Civil Service, states that in that country it is notorious that the water may produce miasmatic fever and affections of the spleen. He mentions villages placed under similar conditions as to marsh-air, in some of which fevers are prevalent and in others not—the difference resulting from the former drinking marsh-water and the latter pure water. In one village there were two sources of supply—a tank fed by surface and marsh water, and a pure spring ”

“ It is not difficult to account for the generation of malaria under such circumstances as those just mentioned. The minute forms of vegetable life with which both fresh and salt water teem require their own special element for continued existence. The intermixture of salt with fresh water introduces a new element with which the life maintained in each separately is incompatible. ”

“ At present, the elevation of entire security is not positively determined, but it has been approximated as follows: in Italy, 400 to 500 feet; in California, 1,000 feet; along the Appalachian chain of the United States, 3,000 feet; in the West Indies, 1,400 to 1,800 feet; in India, 2,000 feet. In any of such regions, however, malaria may drift up ravines to an indefinite height. The agency of winds in transporting malaria for considerable distances cannot be questioned. ”

“ In another group distinguished by a somewhat less mortality we find New Mexico, the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. Those States marked by the lowest mortality are the New England and Middle States, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. In California there is a considerable ratio of mortality, diminishing easterly in Utah, and northerly in Oregon and Washington Territory, while it augments largely toward the south in New Mexico. ”

“ In the same manner, whatever peculiarities may characterize the mortality by sporadic and endemic affections at different seasons, in various portions of the country, are observed and converted into numerical expressions for analytical study.
It is unfortunate for the cause of medical and sanitary science that no similar system has yet been established in this country. In our population of forty-odd millions over seven hundred thousand deaths must have occurred within the last twelve months ”

“ Olaus Magnus, a writer of the middle ages, relates that in Prussia, Livonia, and Lithuania, although the inhabitants suffered much from the ravages of wolves among their cattle, they regarded such inroads as of little consequence compared with the ferocious attacks of were-wolves. He says, "On the feast of the Nativity of Christ, at night, such a multitude of wolves transformed from men gathered together in a certain spot, arranged among themselves, and then spread to. range with wondrous ferocity against human beings and those animals which are not wild." ”