Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/191

Rh, or had the disease causing the fear of water, and had lately-been bitten by a mad dog. I asked toward what part of the sea they wished to carry him. Did they intend his death? 'Nay, rather,' said the mariner,' he shall presently return whole; and such is the blessing of the sea, that such a kind of madness it will presently cure.' I offered them some money to take me along with them as a companion and witness. When we had sailed about an Italian mile, the mariners did open a hole in the bottom, whereby the whole ship was almost sunk, even to the brim; indeed, they used the brine to recoct Spanish salt. And when, as that hole was now again exactly shut, two men, withdrawing the end of the sail-yard, lifted up the top thereof, and bore the old man on high; but thence they let him down headlong into the sea; and he was under the water about the space of a miserere whom afterward they twice more plunged, about the space of an angelical salutation. But they then placed him on a smooth vessel, with his back upward, covered with a short cloak. I did think that he was dead; but the mariners derided my fear, for, his bonds being loosened, he began to cast up all the brine which he had breathed in, and presently he revived. He was a cooper, of Ghent, and, being thenceforth freed from his madness, lived safe and sound. 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. This treatment would appear almost as effectual as another plan once pursued with hydrophobic patients, viz., smothering them between feather-beds.

A mere enumeration of all the absurd devices and medicaments employed from time immemorial to prevent or cure hydrophobia, would fill many pages. Charms, incantations, amulets, and mysterious religious rites, have had a large share in such preservative measures. One of the more modern and most remarkable superstitions connected with this subject is the reputed cure of hydrophobia by a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Hubert, in the Ardennes—a custom prevailing even now in Belgium, and dating back to the ninth century. According to the legend, the stole of St. Hubert by which the miracle is accomplished, was brought from heaven by an angel, who presented it to the saint while he was praying at the tomb of St. Peter, in Rome. At the same time he received also a golden key from St. Peter, by which he became endowed with a special power over evil spirits. Van Helmont thus alludes to the miraculous powers