Observations placeholder
Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine – The hallucinations of rabies
Identifier
026089
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
I have said nothing in the foregoing remarks of the terrible emotions which in genuine hydrophobia afflict the patient, and which, although not the cause, but the effect of the disorder, are at least in their turn the apparent cause of many of the symptoms. One of Dr. Bardsley's patients
"fixed his eyes with horror and affright on some ideal object, and then with a sudden and violent emotion buried his head underneath the bed-clothes."
Dr. B. inquired the cause. He eagerly asked if the Doctor had not heard
" howlings and scratchings ?"
On being answered in the negative, he suddenly threw himself on his knees, extending his arms in a defensive posture, and forcibly throwing back his head and body. The muscles and face were agitated by various spasmodic contortions, his eyeballs glared and seemed ready to start from their sockets, and at that moment, when crying out in an agonizing tone,
"Do you not see that black dog?"
his countenance and attitude exhibited the most dreadful picture of complicated horror, distress, and rage, that words can describe or imagination paint (Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine. 3 vols. By Dr. Copland. 1858., p. 247-8).