Daily Yellowstone journal., 1886-11-16
CONCERNING HYpRoPHOsIA.
The Results of Recent Observations
Where the Great Danger Exists.

widest excitement by the supposed pres
ence of rabid animal in the neighbor-
hood. Living in a neighborhood where
several alarms were sounded during the
last few months, the writer was more
impressed with his own as well as the
ignorance of other people about Its pc
culiarities than with the disease itself,
and in his search for the literature on
the subject, in the hope of spreading
some enlightenment, found nothing
more recent or authoritative than an ar
ticle on "Hydrophobia in Paris" con-
tributed by NJ. DuJardin- Beaumetz to
that most remarkable OF periodic publi-
cations, Les Lettres ct les Arts.
To be sure. the writer of the article in
question is believer in Pasteur and his
theories, although there are many who
speak of the learned French scientist as
charlatan. Nevertheless. NJ. Dujardin-
Beaumetz is man of high standing,
and whether his theories are correct or
not the facts he presents are interesting
and have been gathered by observation
the modern scientific method.
have spoken of the writer as man
of high standing and distinction. He
was, it appears, delegated in 1881 by the
department of health in Paris to observe
the manifestations Of hydrophobia in
man, and in this connection was sent TO
Constantinople to learn, if possible, the
causes of the immunity enjoyed both by
the dogs and its inhabitants from the
disease. His mission, therefore, was a
thoroughly scientific one, and since man
has peculiar affection for dogs, and, as
the essayist says, wherever there are
large congregations of people there are
bound to be many dogs and many cases
of hydrophobia, his researches are as ap-
plicable to New York as to the French
capital.
1t is a mistake" says Dujardin-
Beaumetz, ito suppose that all persons
bitten by rabid animals attain the dis
ease" Pasteur, in a communication
made to the Academy of Medicine,
stated his belief that not one out OF six
persons bitten by a rabiu dog would
contract the disease. This belief he
founded on statistics furnished by the
department of police. NJ. Dujardin-
Beaumetz goes even further than this.
saying that owing to the incomplete
statistics gathered by the police. he
should fix the number at one in every
fifteen, or even twenty. I'VE ought"
he says, first of all to establish this law
that is, that persons bitten through
their garments do not contract hydro
phobia, since the slightest texture will
wipe the teeth of the dog and prevent
the penetration of the rabid virus into
the system. In all the cases of hydro
phobia that l have observed" (he had
treated as many as fifty cases. in
mankind during the last five years
every one of them has been produced
by bite on the uncovered parts. In
exceptional cases / have seen the dis
ease appear after bite through gar
ment, but here the animal, in hard
fight, has torn the clothing to pieces and
thus permitted the teeth to penetrate to
the naked part. Bites on the hands and
face are usually the ones to produce
hydrophobia, those on the hands being
more frequently the cause. Children,
offering more naked parts to the rabid
dog, are for this reason more often
overtaken by the malady. Further
more, child offers less resistance than
a man.
1T should be remembered that it is
not alone the bite of rabid dog that
can transmit the disease to man. A
of hs. tor ia t,.
late if it comes in contact with any raw
part of the skin. Indeed, incubation of
this kind may be said to be the most
dangerous, because it almost invariably
passes unnotice1. l remember to have
seen young man in rabid fit while ]
was with DIR. Leroy des Barres, at st.
Denis. The lad was a workman, and
had picked up little stray dog from the
street. The animal covered him with
caresses, and among other things licked
his lips, after which he ran away.
Simple contact had been enough to
cause the death of the poor fellow.
Even when the incubation is carried
from one animal to another on the most
scientific principles it does not always
produce rabies. Out of sixteen dogs in
oculated by Hertwig only six went mad,
and out of ninety-nine inoculati ons by
Renault at Abort, only sixty-seven
were successful Finally Pasteur by his
new processes has found some animals
totally unsusceptible to the virus
~There is also an opinion prevalent
that madness is the result of the impris-
onment to which we subject these ami
mails, and especially the privations
which follow. This idea has strong
partisans. They maintain that the dogs
which live in perfect freedom never have
hydrophobia This doctrine is not based
on any scientific fact. In Algiers, where
dogs live in freedom, the disease exists,
and l will show why the dogs of Con-
stantinople, who have been sighted as
examples, have little or no madness.
That this is certain, at all events, is
that in countries where madness does
not exist it has never appeared spontan-
eously. When it has been produced it
was by animals coming from distance,
which have been contaminated months
before. When once the fact is estab-
lished that hydrophobia is not a spon-
taneous growth it is easy to see that the
disease can be exterminated in large
cities by public laws, provided prevent
| i've measures are vigorously applied,