The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1886-01-15
The Mad Dog Scare.

AT the present time more printer s
ink is being used TO detail the doings
of Pasteur, of Paris, than of, perhaps,
anybody else in tho world. He has
patients of several countries, including
quite number from the United States.
-Four boys have been sent from Newark
n. j., to be treated by him, and since
they left for Europe, veterinary
surgeon of the same city and a German
OF the locality have followed. Past
eur now has between seventy and
eis hty persons under his care. He
employees surgeon to inoculate ac-
cording to instructions received from
him, the law of France not permitting
him to operate,as he is neither physl-
clan nor surgeon.
Pasteur experimental years before
he announced that he had discovered a
mode of preventing hydrophobia in
human beings, but more than year
previously be had given to the word
the statement that he was able to pre-
vent it in animals This is the way in
which he describes his method of pro-
curing the means of inoculaiion: IL
first take the poison from the brain of
a mad dog. With this l vaccinate a
rabbit, which will die within fourteen
days, and this gives me the poison for
a second one, which is vaccinattd the
SANE way l continue this practice
until | have reached the twentieth or
twenty-tifth. From there up to the
fftieth the rabbit will die IN eight
days, and after the fiftietn the nmal
will become mad within seven days S.
This procedure enables me to determine
the most important features of the
treatment, namely: the duration OF the
period of incubation. There were
people who were afflicted with the
fatal disease several years alter the
accident, while others died after a few
weeks.
The learned Frenchman, whose al
leag,d discovery is the wonder of the
times, is about sixty years of age, a
native of Dole, lit the Jura. His
parents were of humble origin, and
poor When his father, an old soldier,
decorated on the field of battle, re-
turned to France, he TOOK up the trade
of tanner, and was obliged to work
very hard to keep the wolf from the
door. Nevertheless, he found time
every evening to superintend the
lessons of his son, who, at an early
age, was sent to college and of whom
he was determined TO make an educated
man. The boy, however, was nc
infant prodigy: and it is reported OF
him that he did not always take the
shortest road either to or from school.
He was fonder of drawing than any
thing else, and whenever he could es-
cape from his books, would amuse
himself by taking portraits of his
heighbors. An old lady of Arbois
was heard to regret, as time went on,
this wasted talent and to say, "What
pity he should have buried himself
in chemistry, for he might have made
his fortune as a painter"
Ia due time, however, the passion
for work, aiterwar1 so imperative,
was born within him. He studied at
Besancon AMI there received the degree
of 6achlier-en-lettres. Immediately he
was appoint d tutor in the same col
lege, and in the intervals of his duties
he followed the course of mathematics
necessary to prepare him for the scien
liic examinations of the Ecole Nor
male. He is now one of the mos
learned chemists in the French capital