The Terre Haute Madstone

[Houmes]

(12-07-2016 06:00 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Anita, in his Robert Lincoln biography Jason Emerson writes, "Robert was also bitten by a rabid dog as a boy, and Abraham took his son to Terre Haute, Indiana, to be healed with a mad-stone, a common folk remedy for rabies. 'Great apprehension was felt for the young hopeful's escape from hydrophobia,' wrote Ward H. Lamon. 'Mr. Lincoln, more than anyone else feared for the life of his first born.' The aftermath of the incident is unknown, so either the dog was not rabid or Robert's immune system was able to fight off the infection."

In an interview with William Herndon, Frances Todd Wallace said, "Don't think Mr. L. was much attached to Cats and dogs - one reason was that Bob once had a little dog - he bit Bob - Lincoln took him off to the Mad Stone in Terrehaute or other place in Indiana I think."

Herndon also briefly mentions the visit to Terre Haute in his "Life of Lincoln."

I have a few other books that mention this visit, but some treat the story more as "tradition" rather than "fact." Ruth Painter Randall includes the story in "Lincoln's Sons," but author Ralph Gary writes, "There is another tradition that he (Lincoln) brought his son Robert here (Terre Haute) for a dog bite, possibly in September 1859, by a lady with a curative 'mad stone.' "

I think Frances Todd Wallace is the sole source for this story, but I am not 100% certain of that.

If Robert Todd Lincoln truly had a rabid dog bite, he wouldn't have survived. In U.S. history there have been only three known survivors from rabid animals, where rabies vaccine and rabies immunoglobulin were either not available or given too late. Most bites in the U.S. are from bats, and fewer than 5% of cases involve dogs. Unfortunately, most victims are not diagnosed until they are symptomatic, and the first signs are a flu-like illness. The really bad stuff (paralysis, agitation, terror, coma, death) appears later. Hydrophobia (not always seen) is caused by involvement of the throat muscles and airway compromise. Incubation periods of the rabies virus varies between four days and six years, depending upon wound contamination and the virus load in the wound.