He was sent that evening to the neuropsychiatry center, walking jerkily and as if slightly drunk, with a number of small gesticulations and murmurings. He was immediately isolated, undressed himself and went to bed. He did not move in his bed, and seemed to sleep. The next day he got up, dressed and had a small spell of excitement, but was quiet enough on the medical visit, though the floor was soiled with urine and vomitus and the clothing was in disorder. He now had a pronounced phase, deep sunk eyes, drawn features and anxious look; dilated pupils and an expression of mixed fear and anger. His breathing was hard and he kept his hand on his heart. He was oriented. He suddenly rose and said, “I am thirsty.” A glass of milk was given him. He hesitated a moment, plunged his mouth and hands into it and aspirated the drink without making any swallowing movements. He pushed away the glass, spat a little, and vomited a small quantity of a black liquid. Then followed an anxious crisis, and he fell upon his side, absolutely immobile, without breathing for a few seconds. Again in the sitting posture, he was taken with contractions of the limbs and face. The tendon reflexes were at this time normal.
A quarter of an hour later the attendant found him dead, in the sitting posture, leaning against the wall, mouth open, arms dependent, hands extended, pupils dilated--a death in syncope. The brain was found congested. There was a slight effusion of blood over the posterior aspect of the brain. There were no hemorrhages or softenings in the brain substance. The muscles were of a dark red to black. The adherent lungs were very slightly congested at the base. The stomach contained a quarter of a liter of black, inodorous fluid in which there was much bile and little blood. There were numerous small hemorrhages of the mucosa near the great curvature. The spleen was large, the liver congested. The Pasteur Institute confirmed the diagnosis of rabies. There is no history of the man’s having been bitten by a dog.
A soldier wounded May 18, 1916, was given antitetanic serum May 26th. The wounds healed, but on June 16, that is, 29 days after the trauma, contractures began, at first localized. There had been numerous wounds of legs and scrotum by shell fragments and the contractures were limited to the right leg and scrotum. There was no trismus or any lumbar symptom.