Theodore De Vaux remarks that the person bitten should immediately pluck the feathers from the breech of an old cock and apply them bare to the bites.

If the dog was mad the cock was supposed to swell and die.

If the dog was not mad the cock would not swell; in either case the person so treated was immune.

Mad-stones, as well as snake-stones, are believed in by some persons at the present day.

According to Curran, at one time in Ireland the fear of hydrophobia was so great that any person supposed to be suffering from it could be legally smothered.
According to French statistics, hydrophobia is an extremely fatal disease, although the proportion of people bitten and escaping without infection is overwhelmingly greater than those who acquire the disease.
The mortality of genuine hydrophobia is from 30 to 80 per cent, influenced by efficient and early cauterization and scientific treatment.