Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-05
THE FIRST PATIENT.
John Webber, of Chicago, Treated at
the Pasteur Institute.
NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE 27 DAYS,
The Spinal Cord Of Mad Rabbits Which
Have Been Dead Two Weeks
USED IN THEIR METHOD OF TREATMENT

anamic- looking boy, such a boy as one
meets hundred times in walk down West
Madison street, was the hero OF the nrst
experiment of the Chicago Pasteur Institute
yesterday. His name is John Webber, he
is 16 years old, and he lives at home at No.
106 Orchard street. A mad little cur dog
bit him on the run on the calf of the leg
June q on Jefferson street. He went to
druggist, and had the bite cautetlzed, and
then he visited DR.. Lagorio, who invited
him to be the pioneer victim of the institute.
John was on band promptly at o'clock.
He had ex pected a large and appreclatlVe
throng of spectators, and he was dlsap-
pointed because only DR.. Lagorio, the head
of the institute; DR.. Meyer, who was once
County Physician; DR.. Maxwell, and three
or four students of Rush Medical College
were present in the little ante-room where
the fun began. Still John was reasonably
proud of his distinction, and he cast
scornful glance at Henry Schumacher, the
bov who was to take second place in the list
of victims. This pride was somewhat sott-
ened with awe, for the room was full OF the
odor of iodoform and other weird smells,
and DR.. Lagorio's face wore an unpromls-
irg expression. The doctor held in one
hand vial containing liquid that looked
like water, but was really solution OF one
sixteenth of a dead rabbits spinal cord dis
solved in IL minims of steHllzed water.
The rabbit died June 1S of rabies. 1t was
inoculated with virus in order that John
Webber might be saved.
THE MoDUs oPERANDI.
Pull up your shirt, boy," said DR.. La
gorio.
John obeyed and DR.. Meyer rubbed a
palm wet with alcohol over the left side of
the boys abdomen.
care you ready?" said the head doctor.
"Y-yes," replied John Webber, whose
courage was oozing before the hypoderm ic
syringe which the physician had dexterously
poised before his eyes.
The needle was driven into the white
flesh, "Ouchr' cried John Webber. The
doctor laughed. "You spoke too late, he
said. "You have been inoculated already.
Put in your shrtp'
Henry Schumacher, the second patient,
had been made brave by the sight OF John
Webber's luxurious martyrdom, and he sui
tered the same treatment with patience.
which he was shearing at his home, No. 372
Johnston street. The spaniel bit him seven
times on the hands and was then shot. There
was no proof that the water spaniel was mad
when he bit Henry, but the doctor thought
it best to take no chances, and he gave the
boy the dose assigned to plain cases-slx
minims of the solution squirted into the ab-
dominal wall.
TWO INFECTIONS A DAY
In the af ernoon the boys received their
second treatment, and two injections will be
made day for IA days. This is the length
of time the rabbit must be dead whose spinal
cord is used:
First treatment-Fourteen days.
Second treatment-Thirteen days.
/ Third treatment-Twelve days.
Fourth treatment-Eleven days.
That ends the progression, and the next
solution used is that of the spine of the rab
bit who has been dead IA days. The animal
must have been dead not more than IA days
and not less than II. After 27 treatments
the case is left to nature, and if symptoms
of rabies do not show themselves
within three months after the bite
| of the dog was inflicted the patient
Is considered cured. The doctors do not in
oculate patient unless he comes to them
| within a month after he was bitten. When
a month has passed it is too late to effect
turn in the course of the malady. The
reasons for fixing the term so sternly are
based purely on experience. Nobody knows
why a rabbits spinal cord IA days after
death is not as available for a second and
sixth injection as it is tor the first and fifth,
but DR.. Pasteur says he learned this fact on
treating 1900 patients, of whom only 80
died, and DR.. Lagorio is a believing fol-
lower of the celebrated French scientist.
RABBITS HAVE HARD TIME.
The rabbits used by the institute are kept
at the college in cages. Poor things, they
have hard time. They are vaccinated
with madness and left to rave in their little
den till death relieves them. They foam
and squirm on the floor and sometimes bite
pitifully at the prison bars. They die in
nine or ten days after incubation, probrbly
wishing science had staid where it was be-
fore the war. The lot at the college now is
| not the original stock OF the institute. That
was stolen by some smart young students
who know a mad rabbit is just as good for
| the stomach as sane one, and hold rab-
| bit pie in its proper station tar above science
and hypodermic syringes and abdominal
walls from Orchard street.
DIR. Lagorio was well pleased with the
opening of the hospital, and he said he be-
| lieved it would exceed in its popularity the
one started In New York. He expects
great rush of people during the hot days
now coming on, when dogs become insane
and rush through the streets, biting bare
legged boys and lame people who can't get
away. Anybody who thinks be has been
bitten by q mad dog can be treated by appli-
cation at the college. DR.. Lagorio would
pree that they would make sure of the
dogs madness before they apply for help,
and he wants the policemen to give up the
habit of shooting dogs to pieces and throw
ing the bodies into vacant lots. If the doc
tor could examine the brutes' bodies he
might ottentimes relieve people of the fear
that they are on the road to death by hydro
phobia.