The Wichita daily eagle., 1903-04-19
BACILLUS OF
RABIES FOUND
Prof. Sormagni Claims Having
Made Great Discovery.
TO ERADICATE 1T NOW
Is ProbIem--The Experiments
Made by italian.
TO ERADICATE IT NOW

b1, the highest scientific authorities. be
has prepared the following statement for
the Sunday World
Il feel that this discovery will fll
great gap in modern science, for here
tofore we have been totally ignorant OF
the microbe of hydrophobia. The re-
searches of other bacteriolog1sts nave
resulted in descriptions OF various au-
thorities of this microbe, and none had
been able to embocy in one and the same
whole the various details discovered.
The rabies microbe is polymorphous,
or many formed, therefore other Dac-
teriologists did not associate them in one
biological collection.
.sThen the study of all the different
forms required an enormous amount Oh
time research and the best instruments.
all of which 1 have been able to give
them.
The nicrobe itself is extraordinarily
small. being visible only when enlarged
fifteen hundred diameters, and observa-
tion is only possible at two or three
thousand diameters.
1.-The discovery of the microbe will re-
move all obscurity in the Pasteur me-
thods. rabies as antitoXin will now be
procurable from scientific propagated mi
crobes instead of from the tissues of di-
seased animals.
NV discovery completes that of Pas
teur and will supply certain cure for
rabies when roperly applied
THE rnicrobe was obtained from the
sahvary glands and nerve tissues of rabid
animals.
1T has a remarkable facility for chang
Those chapeyeS rp not mere
caprices but follow definite laws. Some
tirnes it is like little cloud At other
times like flake Of wool and at Still other
times it seems to possess numberless
ramifcatioDs.
There have been one hundred cases of
hydrophobia in New York City within
the past three months.
And now. as if the answer to the serious
problem thus presented. Prof. Sormagni.
bacteriologist of Rome announces the
discovery of the rabies bacilli, thus end
ing. if his claims are substantiated, a
quest which has been goin on for years.
There is only one step from the dis
covery of the bacillus to a formula for
fits eradication. If Rome can discover the
micro5e New York should surely be able
TO eradicate it.
The discovery. according to dispatches
received by the Sunday World from Paris,
was made through specially constructed
microscope of great power which Prof.
Sormagni had ordered from the finest
opticians.
For a week or more he had preserved
for the occasion fleck of froth from the
glands of a dog afflicted with the rabies.
He had laid this upon a thin sheet of
gelatine stopping the jar with bunch of
cotton.
When the instrument was completed
Prof Sormagni placed a small piece of
the gelatine under the lens.
Gradually as the screws brought the in
etrument to a focus the pale green disk
took on an appearance of life and activ
fly.
Here, the, WAS the deadly scourage,
lifted at last from nethermost obscurity
TO the eye of science.
In the thousanth part of an inch, or
half the width of a hair. one of these
living fungi would break up into hun
dreds of small organisms; which. almost
before you could say they were alive, had
died and given place to others.
For the past year. up to Jan1, there
had not been more than ten cases of hy-
drophobia a month in New York. What
mas caused the enormous increase TO thir-
ty a month?
Mad dogs biting other dogs" say the
physicians. If this is true. why is it that
many Of the dogs which have caused
death from hydrophobia during the pres
ent epidemic have been family pets sell
dom released from a chain?
Why have the owners of dozens Of lap
dogs been compelled to kill them, even be-
fore they had bitten anybody.
Here are other questions which bae-
teriologists have not yet answered, and
which will bear investigation on their
part:
Has the enormous upheaval of earth
from the subway any connection with
the present epidemic of rabies?
Does the subway soil act as an incuba-
tor for the germs of rabies?
Although physicians are fond Of assur-
ing people that rabies is very rare in ami
mails and still rarer in men, the rarity
of the disease does not seem in any con-
siderable degree TO reconcile men to hav-
ing it. II is doubtful if any one of the
hundred victims in this city would have
cared to be persuaded when bitten that
& mad dog was rare phenomenon
Two frothing. swapping mad dogs ran
down East Sixteenth street in a single
afternoon two weeks ago. Another ran
from Broome street 10 Chambers and
west to Hudson. and up Hudson five
blocks before it was killed
Another was shot in Populous CITY
Hall Park. on Eighty-frst street raw
aging mad bull TERROR bit FIVE other dogs.
Other mad dogs have, bas-, shot - .ro
past few weeks on Amsterdam avenue.
Fourth street. near Avenue r.. President
street Brooklyn; Forry-fourth street. up
Per Third avenue. Greenwich street and a
dozen other points
In single month this winter the Board
OF Healsh has treated as many as twelve
patients ana the Pasteur Institute twen-
ty-two.
II IS just the same as though 4 centre
OF smallpox We're permitted to exist in
this city smallpox Is also a compara-
lively i rare disease until it obtains a
fo6thold.
Regarding the present hydrophobia chi
demic- DR.. H. Clay Glover. one OF The
principal veterinary surgeons in the city.
said;
Etydrophobia. the literal meaning NJ
which is dread Of water. is a bugbear too
frequently used to frighten the puhlic
who are. OF course. not familiar with the
nature OF the disease OF how frequently
II occurs After nearly twenty years
experience in the treatment Of sick dogs
] have seen but one case Of true HYDRO
phebia, and presume that am in a DO