D. C. McGuilken-Mad-Stone 1880

MCGUILKEN

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 4/15/2017 at 08:22:29

The Clinton Age, Clinton, Iowa, July 9, 1880

D. C. McGuilken, of Knoxville, Marion Co., Iowa, went to Paris, Linn County, to visit a mad-stone. He was bitten in the hand by a mad-dog. The stone which is about the size of a chestnut, is flat on one side and looks like a piece of white sponge. Its owner punctured the patients arm with a needle, and then made the application. It held fast, thus indicating that the man had been fatally poisoned. The stone would fall off after filling up with a dark colored substance; when it was cleansed with hot milk and water. The operation lasted over seven hours, which the stone refused to attach itself to the arm anymore, which was evidence that the poison had all been drawn out. The poor fellow was very happy indeed to feel relieved from the mad-dog bite, though he was badly frightened during the operation, when the inside of his hand turned spotted black and white, like the coach dog that bite him.