Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-02
HYDROPHOBIA CASES
METHOD EMPLOYED By THE
FOUNDER OF BACTERIOLOGY.
Claims Made by the Partisans OF the
Pasteur Treatment-Spur1-
Gus Rabies.

From the New York Tribune.
In the rather earnest controversies which
have arisen in the last twenty years over
hydrophobia there have been two prominent
questions. One related to the genuineness
of the malady, and the other to the efhcacy
Of Pasteur's method Of treating It, Con-
corning the first, the preponderance of opin-
ion now seems to be that there really Is such
a disease, though it's frequency has probably
been exaggerated. The number of spurious
cases doubtless exceeds the true ones
Upon the other point perhaps wider diff
ference Of opinion still exists. the par
tisans of Pasteur have made extravagant
claims, and his critics, among whom DR..
Charles w. Dulles Of Philadelphia has long
been conspicuous may have misinterpreted
some of the statistics which they have col
lected. DR.. George Newman Of Kings COL
lege, London, in his work on bacteria, re-
produces figures supplied by the Pasteur
institute in Paris. These would indicate
that the percentage Of deaths to persons
treated in that particular institution Tell on
from O.94 in 1886 to O.13 in 1895, but rose to
O39 in 1897. While these figures are not
without value, one is left in the dark as to
the exact proportion of the patients that
were bitten by genuinely rabid dogs. rms
may have been small, and 1t may nave
varied from year to year. On the otner
hand. it has been asserted that in several
foreign countries the number OF deaths
from hydrophobia after the introduction OF
the Pasteur method was greater than be-
fore If such were the fact, 1t might never
theless be true that much larger number
of cases had developed owing to an made
quate enforcement OF muzzllng laws: II
may be assumed, too, that even In these
very countries only a part of the genuine
cases were treated in accordance with the
eminent Frenchman's suggestions.
Groups of Disputants.
Whichever group Of disputants is nearer
right, the general reader will be Interested
in knowing something Of the treatment IN
question. Up to a certain point 1T cor
responds to Behring's way of dealing with
diphtheria The latter begins a series OF
NEGOTIATIONS of some animal, preferably a
horse with minute quantities of a solution
containing diphtheria bacilli or their poison.
BY degrees the animal is thus made PROOF
against the disease, and eventually biood
serum is taken from its veins ana injected
into human patients The immunity pro-
duced in the horse is in this manner COM
municated to the child. Pasteur also re-
sorted to a series of NEGOTIATIONS, but he
operated direct upon the patient, not upon
an intermediate subject. In the blood OF
the former, perhaps, an antitoxin may
have been produced, but there was no
transfer of serum from one creature to
another. Up to the present time no dis
tinctive bacillus has been discovered In
victims of rabies, though bacteriologists
hope that they may yet be able to hnd II.
Still, they have had no trouble in locating
the virus. If a dog really has hydrophoDla
it's spinal cord Is tainted By introducing
suitable amounts Of the marrow into other
animals the disease can be developed I'M
mistakably.
Pasteur deemed it necessary to reduce
the virulence Of the poison before beginning
his treatment of a human patient, and
gradually to increase the strength. Here is
the plan which he finally adopted: II the
spinal cords Of rabbits that had died from
rabies were carefully dried, those which
were only one day old were more potent
than those two days old. The diminution
continued for fortnight. Hence his first
injection was with an emulsion derived
from a cord that had dried fourteen days,
the next from one which had dried only
thirteen days, and SO on for two weeks or
more. The length Of the treatment and
the strength of the emulsion were varied
in accordance with the character of the
bite.
Inoculations.
It might be stopped in fifteen days. or it
might be continued for three weeks. The
last few NEGOTIATIONS were with fluid COM
pounded with cords three or four days old
never anything stronger. The quantity
administered each day seems to have been
uniform. In classifying the possible risk
from bites, Pasteur recognized three groups
clothing the danger was not regarded as so
great as II the bare skin Of the hand was
lacerated while bite on the face, IN his
opinion, was occasion for still graver ap-
prehension.
Post-1nortem examination Is apt to show
three signs Of rabies. The nervous system
is usually affected. The brain is congested,
and what the anatomists call 1.-The axis OF
the cylinder Of the nerves breaks down.
Second, the stomach may have patches like
those produced by arsenical poisoning.
Finally, the salivary glands show changes
in structure, as IL they were disintegrating.
To the bacteriologist. though, perhaps the
most conclusive indication is obtained by
inoculat ting rabbits with bits Of spinal mar
row from the suspected animal. If these
develop the disease, the inference is OBJ
vious.
In tie last ten or fifteen years Pasteur
Institutes have been established in a num-
Der Of places. Europe, America and Asia
have them. In some little has been done
besides treating persons who have been bit
ten by dogs, while in others attention has
been given to the investigation Of a number
of diseases believed to be Of bacterial or
igin. These being practically Independent
Of ons another the success which attends
the administration Of Pasteur's ideas va
ries, Of course.