The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1886-04-29

Cruel Treatment of Rabbits in the
Great Doctors Laboratory.

Cruel Treatment of Rabbfts in the
Great Doctors Laboratory.
M. Pasteur's laboratory, writes a Paris
correspondent of The London Telegraph,
is a long. narrow, low-roofed building,
which fringes the ground stretching
before the entrance portico of the
Ecole Normale. IL is divided into
three comtarpments. In the center is
the place devoted to %trepanning opera
lions, a large space being reserved for
the laboratory proper, where the virous
and the sterilized b~ouilon, or beef tea,
with which it is mingled are prepared.
The rabbits and other animals are kept
in the cellars of the establishment.
The first proceeding witnessed this
afternoon was the extraction of the
| virus from a diseased animal which
had died in a high state OF rabies. The
carcass was opened from the skull
downward, and the whole of the spinal
cord from the medu a ~OblOngata, Oh
brain bulb, as the French call it, to the
lower parts was laid bare. Then COM
menced the delicate operation of taking
it out whole and entire. This was
neatly performed by the assistant, who
with pincers placed the long strip of
narrow on Il saucer. The bulb was
then separated from the strip, and the
matter contained in it, which was the
most potential virus that could be eX-
tracted, was used for inoculating the
living rabbit. The strip of marrow,
containing less powerful, but equally
useful virus, was cut with a scissors in
to several parts, each one of which was
tied with thread, and placed in a glass
bottle, where it was suspended over a
bed of caustic potash to undergo the
drying process. The potash, OF course,
does away with the necessity of using
the ordinary and less desirable mode of
heating in ovens or otherwise. The
marrow, after having been dried in this
manner for a certain number of days,
is pulverized with a pestle and mortar
and then mixed with the bou lon.
After this it is ready for use on man,
the different degrees of virulence being
regulated by the condition of the rab-
bit from which it is extracted at the
time of the animals death, and the
longer or shorter period during which
it was dried. The virus is obtainable
from the nerves of the animals body,
but is strongest in the spinal cord and
the medulla oblongata. The operation
of %trepanning the rabbits and injecting
them with the virus is 4 painful one to
witness. M. Pasteur's opponents in
England and elsewhere are loud in their
denunciations of the cruelty to animals
which is daily perpetrated in the labora-
tory of the Rue d'Ulm; but they can
hardly be too often reminded that NJ.
Pasteur has Il lofty and noble object in
view. and that the sufferings inflicted
on animals will be more than counter
balanced by relief from pain and the
terrible danger which his philanthropic
efforts will bring forth for humanity at
large. 1t must also be remembered
that the rabbits before undergoing the
''trepanningn are put under chloro-
form. This afternoon two fine, fat.
aforementioned rabbits were taken out
of the cages in the cellars. The first
animal operated upon had its head
clipped bare to the bone, n was then
placed upon the %trepanning board. its
%forepaws and legs being strapped to
the table. A small, bag-shaped piece
of white blotting paper soakedin chlor-
ofOrm was placed over the animals
head and well against its nose. The
skull was then incised and the virus in
jected near the brain. The animal
struggled slightly and heaved, but the
chloroform soon made it completely in
sensible and dazed. In the meantime
its companion came near the sufferer
and licked its sides pitifully, rs if filled
with sympathy. The operation finished
the poor animal presented a hideous
spectacle, with the ugly red cash in its
skull, and its eyes heavy and dull from
the effects of the chloroform. The
other rabbit was then subjected to the
same process. Owing to the many
cases which are now being supervised
by M. Pasteur, it has become necessary
to inoculate fresh rabbits daily. During
the period of the incubation of the virus
the animals remain in a l~istless and
drowsy state. Then the first symptoms
of rabies show themselves by a general
paralysis of the limbs, and the animal
dies.