The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-05
RABBlTHAS RABIES
Experiments Prove That Dog
Had HydrophObia.
Animal Bit Sexton Scott of
Rochester Cemetery.
USED SPINAL ORD.
Two White Rabbits InOculated
With Solution.
One Dead and Other i'm Last
Stages of Disease.
DR.. Greenfield, State Bacterial
Ogist, Tells of Experiments.


made by DIR. Sara Greenfield, bacter-
iologist, and students at the Washburn
medical college.
While walking from his home to the
cemetery, accompanied by James
Nauman, an assistant, Scott was at
tackled by a large yellow dog. which
ran out of the brush by the roadside,
and sprang at his throat. Scott threw
up his right arm, and the beast fasten-
ed it's teeth in his sleeve and wrist.
After it was shaken off it snapped at
him again. and it's teeth reached his
leg through the trousers. Nauman
then drew his revolver and killed the
dog after which he threw it into a
nearby pond.
Scott did not take the occurrence
seriously, as the dogs teeth had not
touched him until they had passed
through cloth, and the wounds bIed
freely. They are now practically
healed, and have given him no serious
annoyance.
Two days after the dog had been
killed, medical students went to the
pond and recovered the body of the
dog, which was frozen in the ice and
in good state of preservation. AT
the laboratory of the college they cut
off the head, under the direction of
DIR. Greenfield, and taking the spinal
cord from the backbone, mixed it with
sterile water ana made an emulsion.
Then two common white rabbits were
secured and inoculated with the mix
ture and the result watched with in
terest. Three minutes after the in
oculation of the little animals. they
had recovered from the shock of the
slight operation, and were eating and
in seeming good health. Two cubic
centimeters, about a teaspoonful of
the solution, were used on each ra bbit
Fifteen days later, the smaller of
the two rabbits died of dumb rabfeS,'
which differs from the rabies exhibit
ed by dogs. For three days the rab-
bit had been lying perfectly still, its
feet swelling and its eyes watering. 1t
died Thursday, with all the SYM toms
Of hydrophobia.
The other rabbit is dying now with
the same symptoms and will be dead
before night, seventeen days after the
incubation.
The spinal cord of the first rabbit
was made into an emulsion by the
students of the college, and third
rabbit inoculated with it. This rabbit
is expected to die In nine days, as the
poison becomes more virulent as It is
passed from one animal to another
by incubation.
Dr. Greenwood said today: THE
second rabbit will be dead before
night. and has the same symptoms as
the first. Rabbits are chosen for ex-
periments in hydrophobia because
they are more susceptible to the poi
SON and suffer much less than other
animals Rabies will show in a rab
bit in from 10 to 81 days, while
human rarely shows the diesase In
less than six weeks after incubation
The disease sometimes develops a year
after a human has been inoculated.
The rabbits symptoms of hydrophobia
are paralyzed and swollen feet and
watery eyes. 1t has none of the con-
vulsions common to rabies in dog.
81 called W Mr.. Scott, the man who
was bitten by the dog, and told him of
the result of the investigation. He
does not seem to be alarmed, and
have no desire to alarm him. He
thinks that as the dogs teeth were
cleaned on the fabric of his clothing
when the wounds We're received, and
as the wounds bled freely afterwards,
he is in little danger.
There are Pasteur institutes in ST.
Louis and Chicago, where the treat
ment of rabies is made a specially
The treatment consists of innoculating
the patient with various strengths of
the poison, until the system is sup
posed to be proof against the poison
received from the bite of the animal.
This is done by drying the spinal
cords of rabbits which have died of
hydrophobia. The longer these spinal
cords are dried the less poison they
contain. The first treatment is an in
lection of an emulsion made from a
ra bbit's spinal cord which has been
dried IA days. Each day or two
the patient is given a dose
of a stronger emulsion, reckoned by
the time the spinal cord has been
dried-13 days, IL days, 10 days-and
so on down to a treatment with a cord
which has been dried three days.
Here the treatment stops. as it would
be dangerous to treat a patient with
an emulsion made from a spinal cord
which had not been dried at least
three days. Then the patient is either
cured or a hopeless case. If he is
cured. he will never know whether he
had hydrophobia or not. 1t takes
about about Is days to complete this
and allowing for the three
weeks which have elapsed since Mr..
Scott was bitten, he would have 21
days more to take the Pasteur treat
ment, If he so desired, before any
danger of the development of the
1t seems that the Pasteur treatment,
if successful, never gives the patient
the satisfaction of knowing that his
life was saved by his expenditure of
money. He may, or may not. have
died from rabies, and the treatment
leaves him nothing but the slight
occasioned, by having his
system pumped full of a poison scien-
applied. which the dog may or
may not have driven into his veins
with its teeth.
Mr. Scott, the man who was bitten.
said that he would consider the matter
of going to a Pasteur institute, but
was not alarmed for his safety. He
goes about his duties as usual, and
feels no bad effects from the bite he
received.
Several of the neighbors north of
the city, who knew or suspected that
til cir dogs had been bitten by the rabid
one. got out their shotguns. and dogs