Renel Marcelin Final Exam Essay

I think Edgar Poe died of rabies because in those days rabies were well known as the cause and symptons, including itching and other sensations that could affect an entire limb or side of the body. On September, 27, a Tursday Poe began the first leg of his return to to the North, setting out from Richmond for Baltimore on the 4 A.M. steamer, wth a truck containg some clothing, books, and manuscrips. No reliable edvidence exists about what happend to or within Poe between that time and October 3, a week later, when a printer named Joseph Walker saw him at Gunners Hall a Baltimore tarven, strangely dreesed and semiconscious. And in those days over the past 20 years in the United States there have been 33 reported caseses of human rabies, yet only 24 percent of these victims could recall an apporiate history of animal exsposure. There also are stories that say in the brief period of time when Poe was calm and awake, Poe refused alcohol and could drink water only with great difficulty. Rabies victims frequently exhibit hydrophobia, or fear of water, because it is painful to swallow. They also say there was no edvidence that a rabid animal had bitten Poe. About one fourth of rabies victims reportedly cannot remember being bitten. But afther an infection, the symptoms can take up an year to apear. But when the symsptoms do appear, the disese is a swift and brutal killer. Most patients die less than a few days. So thats what i think happed to Edgar Poe.