The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-11-06
CURE FOR HYDROPHOBIA.
Brilliant Success of a French
Scientists Experiments.
Curing a Boy who Had Been Bit
ten by a Mad Dog.

A special cable dispatch from Paris to the
New York Herald gives the subjoined most
interesting account of DIR. Louis Pasteur's
successful attempt to find a cure for hydro
phobia:
"No more hydrophobia No more mad
| dogs. Dr. Louis Pasteur's experiments have
resulted in a most brilliant success. At per-
haps the most important sitting held by the
academy of sciences Dr. Pa,teur thus de-
scribed the process of cure by means of q
rabbit inoculated with the fragment
of a tissue taken from the spine Of a rabid
dog. The incubation of the poison occu'
pied fifteen days AS soon as tho first rabbit
iuoculated was dead n portion from its spinal
marrow was i'll turn inoculated into sec
ond rabbit, and SO on until sixty rabbits had
been inoculated At each successive inocu-
lation the virus increased in potency, and the
last period of incubation did not occupy more
than seven days
"Having ascertained that exposure to dried
air diminished the virus and consequently re-
duced its force, DR.. Pasteur supplied himself
with n series OF bottles of dried air. In these
bottles he placed portions OF inoculated spinal
marrow at successive dates, the oldest being
the least virulent and the latest the most So
For an operation DR.. Pasteur begins by in
oculating his subject with the Oldest tissue,
and finishes by the injection of piece of
tissue whose bottling dates back only two
days, and whose period of incubation would
not exceed one week. The subject is then
found to be absolutely proof against the dis
ease.
"a boy twelve years of age, named
Meister who had been bitten fourteen times,
came from Alsace with his mother TO see DR..
Pasteur. The autopsy of the dog which had
bitten the boy left no doubt as to its having
suffered from hydrophobia. DR.. Pasteur
took the celebrated DR.. Nulpian and
professor of the school of
medicine to see the boy Melator. These two
doctors came to the conclusion that the boy
was doomed to painful death and might be
experimental upon. In thirteen days inocu-
latious were male upon Meister with
pieces of spinal marrow containing
virus of constantly increasing strength,
the last being from the spine of
a rabbit that died only tie day before.
Now hundred days have passed since Meis-
ter underwent the last incubation. The
treatment has been thoroughly successful
and the boy is in perfect health. He had
been bitten sixty hours and had Travelled from
Alsace to Paris before the first incubation
was performed.
"A shepherd boy named Judith, aged fifteen,
was bitten by n mad dog fortni 5nt ago and
has now been Il week under treatment DR..
Pasteur is confident OF curing him.
CDR Pasteur said that il was now neces-
sary to provide an establishment where rab-
bits might always be kept inoculated with
the disease. In this way constant supply
of spinal tissues OF Old and recent incubation
would always be ready. Before the sitting was
adjourned DR.. Pasteur received an enthusiastic
ovation, from both the academy itself and
the public who were present. Among those
present | noticed the Grand Duke Alexis,
who is a great dog fancier, and NJ. de Les
seps, who went to hear DR.. Pasteur's report
Endorsed by DR.. Nulpian.
Gone of the leading doctors present remark
ell that the question was whether n man
cured of hydrophobia could suffer from
second bite. In ether words, whether
the incubation of virus was guar.
antee against hydrophobia. In answer
DR.. Pasteur states that the malady
is transmssible only by bite. If, Therefore,
by general compulsory incubation of dogs
for several generations dogs had been made
incapable of hydrophobia, the MALAY would
have disappeared and there would be no oc-
casion to ask whether incubation had per-
manent effect or not. As to the origin of hydro
phobia, DR.. Paseur says nobody in the world
can explain its primal causes. As he re-
marked-perhaps ont of pOlteneSs-hlst theory
Will require study by the profession in order
to make it practical, but he emphatically
stated that the cure for hydrophobia had
been found.