Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1885-12-24
I.4srnun IND HrDRorHoaIA.


How the Paris Savant CuItisascs
and Administers The Virus.
Baltimore Sun.
The laboratory of NJ, P&teur at Paris
has become the objective point Of pill
grimages from all parts of the globe, his
reported discovery or rather eontriyance,
of prevention and remedy for hydro
phobm having given him u unique posi-
ton among the worlds great physicians.
The exact limits of his power over the
terrible disease produced ia the human
subject by the bite of certain rabid
animals are not yet perhaps ascertained,
but it is hardly open to dispute that his
three years of study of hydrophobia have
been productive VI very promising re-
suits. 1t is perhaps safe to go beyond
tails, and TO ooncede that M. Pasteurs in
EQUATIONS with portions OF nervous matter
taken from animals suffering from rabies
have been followed by results that bear
comparison with the benefits that accrue
from NEGOTIATIONS with vaccine virus.
HydrophobiN is caused by specific
poison, which, il is thought may develop
spontaneously in the dog and some other
animals, but not in man. The bite of
q mad dog is the usual origin of the dis
ease in man, though the cat wolf or fox
may also transmit it. The fluids of the
mouth are commonly supposed to be the
chief source of the poison, but according
to nj. Pasteur, it is concentrated chiefly in
the nervous system. The flesh is not, it
appears, affected. A veterinarian rec ntly
stated to Mortified Partisan audience
that lie had a hundred times eaten the I'M
cooked flesh of rabid COWS and horses
without bad results. Not all ours of
eccentric demeanor are TO be thought
mad. The animal affected by hydro
phobia is shy and irritable, refuses food.
eats bits of straw, paper, &c., suffering
apparently from hallucination. He may
or may not avoid water. II is only by
continuing and watching a suspected
animal that the owner can be sure
whether il suffers from hydrophobia or
some other of the many ills to which our
pets are subject. The symptoms of hydro
phobia usually exhibit themselves in from
30 to 40 days after the bite; intervals OF
six months or year are rare and doubt
full. Prompt cauteriZation of the wound
may at times prevent the development of
the disease, but once developed, it is
sure to prove fatal. BY exposing portions
of the brain or spinal cord of II labid
animal to dried dir the minute creatures
to whose activity the disease is supposed
to be due lose their yigor IA some extent,
and with this weakened virus n. Pasteur
makes his first incubation, increasing the
strength OF the virus with each successive
incubation. The last NEGOTIATIONS are
made with virus whose strength has
been artifcially increased by "cultiya-
ton" This cultivation consists in inocu-
lAting a rabbit with q particle OF the
spinal cord of mad dog, and when after
10 days, this rabbit dies Of hydrophobia,
60 other rabbits are i'll succession inocu-
lated, one from another, until as the
virus becomes stronger, the Goth rabbit
dies on the seventh day. A man inocu-
lated with the weakest virus would not be
projected, but after having been gradu-
ally prepared by incubation with cultiva-
tions OF increasing degrees of potency
until the Goth day is reached, he ut length,
it is held, arrives Mt state in which he is
proof against the virus of the ordinary
mad dog. Such Mt least is the theory.
The experience of the four children
recently sent over to Paris from Newark
will go far to show whether it is well
founded. 1t is possible, Of course, that
rabies may develop i'll one or more Of
the children before they reach Paris, in
which case NJ. Pastem would not expect
n successful result from his treatment .
hut ii may be hoped both that the disease
will not mature SO rapidly and that the
sayant's remedy has all tile potency he
ascribes to it.