Rabies is an insidious, deadly disease caused by the Rabies virus. Even today, people die from the rabies virus, despite the existence of vaccines and qualified medical care. The very word rabies - comes from the word "demon", and in ancient times the cause of this disease was considered obsession. The etymology associated with devilry can be traced not only in the Russian and Latin languages. And the history of this disease goes so far into the dark history of mankind that its references are lost in the darkness of oblivion, myths and dark rituals.
The pre-mosaic code of the Enshunna of ancient Mesopotamia, which is more than 4000 years old mentions the bites of "mad dogs". The very word rabies - rabies, has a reference to the Latin term rabere - to rage and goes back to the ancient Sanskrit - rabhas (rage). What's more, the virus that causes Lyssavirus itself has a legend of its own.
Ancient Greek legend of Lyssa. Lisse, or the Roman equivalent is Ira. In Euripides, Hercules describes Lissa as the daughter of Nyukta - the goddess of the night and night creatures and Uranus, a daughter who rose from the blood of her father. And the ancient Greek spelling of this word - λύσσα meant “the fury of a warrior”, in which he became like a dog or a wolf, losing his I and forgetting his comrades. Such rage is also mentioned in the Iliad: “Hector, very proud of his strength, rages terribly, trusting in Zeus, and does not put either husbands or gods into anything, because he was seized by a powerful λύσσα”.
Nyukta:
One of the beliefs says that her madness is caused by the worm Lytta, living under her tongue. Which directly refers us to the very fear of hydration. Since the worm did not give the poor goddess to drink, driving her crazy.
Based on the belief in the legend, there are cases when in ancient times they tried to treat rabies by removing the tongue, or by incising the bridle that attaches it to the palate.
Rabies as such arrived in Greece from the east in the fifth century BC. The ancient temple of Athena in Rocca (Crete) was famous for the rabid dogs that lived around the temple. The Rocca Athena was designed to heal the sick with rabies, which explains the functioning of the temple and as a breeding ground for disease. In 200 A. D. Greek scientist Aelian describes his attempts to treat young boys who were bitten by dogs near the temple. The doctor gave them the stomach contents of seahorses as medicine in an attempt to save them from the effects of the disease. Alyan also notes that any secondary contact with both sick patients and with the flesh of sick patients, animals can cause infection, for the first time comparing the "crazy dog's poison" with a weapon.
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Amazing, isn't it? Humanity still does not know anything about this disease, but it is already seriously ready to consider it as a means of destroying its own kind. For instance:
In the ancient Indian treatise Arthashastra, 4th century BC, various methods of making poisonous arrows are described. And one of the recipes is especially interesting. According to him, the tip must be mixed with the blood of a sick musk rat. "Anyone who is pierced by this arrow," writes the brahmana Kautilya, "will bite ten of his comrades, each of whom will bite nine more people." Musk rats still carry rabies in India.
Another recipe also mentions this method, it says that if there is no sick musk rat, you can use the blood of a crazy goat. Apparently it is implied that other domestic animals could also get sick with rabies.
The famous Abu Ali al-Hussein ibn Abdallah ibn Sinn, or Avicenna, in his Al-Qanun fil-Tibb - Canon of Medicine, described rabies as an infectious disease, offering various treatment options.
According to Avicenna, rabies arose from an imbalance of fluids in the body, and not from contact with the patient. But there is no doubt that he is describing rabies. He describes several cases in detail. Here is one of them: "… a sick mule bit its owner, its owner became crazy, just like mad dogs are …". He describes in detail the symptoms, including fear of water, excessive salivation, aggression. Celebrates the onset of rabies in other animals such as foxes, weasels, jackals and wolves.
As a treatment, Avicenna suggested injecting the blood of rabid dogs into humans as an antidote. It was also recommended to attach the liver of a sick dog to the infected bite site.
Avicenna was neither the first nor the last, obsession or photophobia and hydrophobia in one form or another were described by almost all "masters of medicine": Democritus (460-370 BC), Aristotle (384-322 BC) E.), Pliny the Elder (23-79 A. D.), Galen (130-200 A. D.), Celsus (25 B. C. - 50 A. D.)), Rufus of Ephesus (80-150 A. D.), Oribasius (320-400 A. D.) and Aytius Amida (502-575 A. D.).
Clinical symptoms include nightmares, aggression, delusions, spasms, fear of light, ulcers on the body, fear of water. In a violent form, patients become not only aggressive but also hyperactive, experiencing an infernal thirst, but cannot swallow water.
Everybody made a small contribution in one way or another. Aristotle was the first, as far as we know, to notice the possibility of transmission through a bite. Celsus coined the term hydrophobia.
With treatment in the Middle Ages, things were not good. Especially with regard to infectious diseases. Dr. Scriconius Largus recommended hyena skin poultices. The disease itself, its nature created a very "successful" ground for the emergence of superstitions. 100% mortality from the onset of symptoms. Sometimes a long period before their manifestation. All this made religious people believe in the devilish nature of the disease.
Often, irrational fear led to serious consequences, people bitten by a stray dog could commit suicide or be killed by good neighbors or relatives, in fear of his inner essence and anger.
But you can get infected not only with a bite or scratch. Any contact with the patient, his saliva or blood - can infect you if fluid gets into an open wound. Which is, for example, an easy way to get rabies when butchering a killed animal. Particles in the eyes can also cause infection. That is, a medieval hunter, for whom hunting is a way to feed his family by killing an animal with irrational behavior, could easily introduce the virus into the body and spread it in the community.
In France and Belgium, people affected by animal bites made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint Hubert (Saint Hubert), who is traditionally revered as the patron saint of hunters. It was believed that the thread from his epitrachelium saved from rabies.
It is difficult to imagine such pilgrims wandering day and night, gradually losing their minds, becoming angrier and crazier every hour. But before the pilgrims had a special attitude. They were given shelter and helped on the way to their holy goal. A terrible disease, and the possibilities of mass murder it conjured sometimes resurfaced in history and beyond.
The great Leonardo da Vinci was not a purely civil genius, he was the author of the idea of the bomb, around 1500. The bomb was supposed to be a composition of sulfur, arsenic, tarantula venom, poisonous toads and the saliva of crazy dogs.
In 1650, the Polish general Kazimir Simenovich seriously proposed to speed up the siege - to collect the saliva of rabid dogs, place it in clay vessels and catapult them onto the enemy. The master kept silent about the collection methods and volunteers, and the proposal was not accepted. But apart from military fantasies, medicine also developed.
In the 16th century, the Italian physician Girolamo Fracastoro (1478-1553) proved that a small bite was enough to infect. John Morgagni (1735-1789) suggested that the virus spreads through nerve fibers rather than blood. In 1821, François Magendi proved the infectious nature of rabies. And in 1885 Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) developed the first successful vaccine, giving hope of survival to the bitten, with the proper speed of medical care.
Author: ScientaeVulgaris