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    Hubertus

    Brian
    in Mystery
    Rabies is one of the oldest recorded diseases and one of the most terrible. It is incurable and attacks both the body and mind. Paralysis and tremors weaken the limbs. Paranoia, hydrophobia, and delirium attack the mind. In Sanskrit it was known as rabhas, which means “to do violence”, this became rabies as the Roman Empire rose, meaning “madness”.

    It was the 1st century Roman writer Cardanus was the first to identify that the infection was spread through infected saliva. But even identifying the base cause did little to prevent it. In Lyon, France, eight hundred years later a bear wandered into the town square. It would have been incautious and fearsome, with reddened eyes and a foaming mouth. The bear attacked twenty people, six of whom started to show symptoms a few weeks later. They had to be forcibly asphyxiated by their neighbors.

    A treatment would be a long time coming. In Europe a device known as St. Hubert’s Key was often the only hope. The key was a long iron bar or nail that was carried by a priest or kept in the house as a charm. If a person was bit, they would have to be restrained as someone else heated the iron over a fire. Once the key started to glow it would be inserted into the wound, hopefully cauterizing the flesh and destroying the disease.


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