Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-07-23
PROGRESS OF PAsrEURIsM.
Heroic Treatment In Italy In Cases Of n,
drophobia.

Heroic Treatment in Italy In Cases Of Hy-
drophobia.
from the London Illustrated News.
What appears to me to be . very noteworthy
step in connection with Pasteur's treatment Of
hydrophobia has been lately undertaken in
Italy. My readers are aware that Pasteur, by
using hypodermic injections Of the spinal mar
rows of rabbits, containing the virus OF rabies
In varying degrees of strength, prevents the
development Of hydrophobia in man. He has
had his non-successes-cela va sans dire-but
only irrational opponents of his system de-
mand that every case treated should be sue
cess When we reflect on the differences in
the constitution Of patients, in the lapse of
time which may intervene between the bite and
the beginning of the treatment and in the de-
gree of injury they severally sustain to begin
with, We clearly see that Pasteur's list Of sue
cesses must be subject to conditions over
which he has no control This, at any rate. Is
been markedly reduced in those treated by
Pasteur compared with the death rate in cases
left to ordinary treatment. Little Joseph
Meister, torn and lacerated seven years ago by
q rabid wolf, remains today well and happy.
He would be bold man, I think, who would
venture to affirm that, left to the chances of
recovery under ordinary medication. this boy
would not have died the most painful OF
deaths.
The treatment up to now has been preventive.
Pasteur's artifcially cultivated germs may be
presumed to get to the nerve centers before the
germs inoculated by the bite can gain access TO
the centers, and when the germs arrive on their
mission of death they find themselves forestalled
by the injected germs, which last are increased
In intensity and strength as the treatment pro-
crosses Now, on March young italian was
bitten on the calf of the left leg by a rabid dog.
wa tres ed nv mrs At in
stitute of that name at Bologna by Prof. Murri
This treatment began on March 7, but on March
rs or "a alarming symptoms appeared. and on
March 29the patient was in extremis suffering
from al the symptoms Of hydropEobia. Then,
as a dernier resort, DIR. Murri injected the Pas
teurian virus directly into a vein and this mod
fled treatment continued practically till
April Z. By April 10 the patient. previously at
deaths door. could get up, and from that date
on to April IL (the last date recorded) his i'm
provement was most satisfactory. his symptoms
having disappeared and bis nervous system
having almost recovered its normal functions
Now, il may be too early. it is true, to be
jubiant over the success of science in saving q
human being from one of the most terrible of
impending deaths, but think we are justified,
at least, in presuming that the bold treatment
Of Prof. Murri must have operated in fashion
appreciable enough to those who have studied
the Pasteur method or germ science at large
The opponents Of Pasteurism, who are not nu-
merous- among scientific people, 1 mean-but
whose opposition finds in repetition Of already
exploded ideas what it lacks in force will, OF
course, be ready to assert that the patient here
was made i'll by the treatment he received at
DR.. Murris hands. This view is one which dis
counts and overlooks completely the fact Of the
patients actual injury by q dog proved to have
been rabid- have read with great care the
paper written by, DR.. Hime on this case, and
| think he establishes his conclusions that not
| only was this a case Of actual cure Of hydro
| phobia by the employment Of Pasteur's method
in new fashion, but also that it is both certain
the patient had developed the disease and that
| the disease was due not to the original treat
| ment first pursued, but to the bite of the dog