Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-10

be forwarded TO laboratory where
test may he made by innocuiating ran-
bits with its brain tissue But this fest
takes two weeks. during all OF which the
bitten person will be kept in suspense.
perhaps developing 'lyssophob'a."
hysterical disease sometimes mistaken
for hydrophobia. but which never ter
inmates seriously.
Many hydrophoba tests arr made IVY
DR.. Hart each year in the pathological
la bcratory OF the bureau of animal iI-
dustries. Last year he examined in this
way "a dogs. | COW. l sheep. I cat and :
Experimentation wolf-dogs. As soon
as the body OF a suspected animal Is re-
ceived in the laboratory Il is examined
In special post-mortem room. where
a small portion Of its brain is placed
in melted paraffn. This when hardened.
is sliced into waters. wEose centers arc
sections OF the dogs brain tissue. These.
when stained with a liquid show. under
the microscope. spots OF bright pink
against n background Of purple il hydro
phoba is present. But when such spots
do not appear DR.. Hart makes sure 80
the test by injecting an emulsion of the
dogs brain tissue into rabbits. lf the
latter fail to contract hydrophonia there
I is proof that the dog was the victim or
false suspicion.
Persons bitten by mad dog should
hasten at once TO the nearest Past In
stitute. There now are such establ si'-
ments in New York. Chicago. Bait moe.
Richmond. Va. Atlanta. Pittsburg. Ann
Arbor ST Paul. New Orleans. ST. LOU,
and Houston. Patients are not required
to constantly remain indoors during pre-
ventive treatment: they merely report ~
the physicians each morning for fifteen or
twenty days. and receive hypoderm
injection of the virus. The cost Of a
course Of treatment is from 500 20 $50.
including board and room at the insti-
/ tute.
Methods of Treating Disease.
In each institute there is a merazerie
o. rabbits. numbers or which are daily in-
jecied with fatal doses of virus obtained
from mad dogs.
IT must lie arranged tina: some Of these
little rodents die from the disease
daily Their spinal cords are removed
asep;icaily and dried I'm glass bell jars.
Since hydrophobia travels not by the
blood current. but along the nerves To
! the spinal cord and brain. these spinal
! cords contain the virus OF the disease.
and those OF rabbits killed today are more
strongly infected than those OF rabbits
killed yesterday. and so on, UP 10 fifteen
days. at the end OF which dried cord
becomes harmless. Thus ach institue
must keep I'm :tock. in its Jars. an TN
! broken series of cords which have been
drying for from one to four.een days re-
spectively Now what is daily injec ed
beneath the skin of the mad dogs Wet I'M
taking this preventive treatment is an
| emulsion made by grinding UP these dried
! spinal cords and mixing them with a
salt solution. On the first day the pa
! tent is injected with emulsion made from
cords least charged with the disease
| those which have dried for fourteen days
| Next DAY cords which have dried thirteen
days are used. and then from day TO dsy
those which have hung I'm the jars twelve.
| eleven. ten days. and on. until finally
| cord dried only three days Is employed
Meanwhile the patients system has grad
ua1y fortified itself against the steadily
increased virulence OF the doses until COM
plete immunity has resulted.
Statistics gathered by DR.. Hart from the
large number OF Pasteur Institutes during
phobia death rate among their patients
while always less than one person per
100. has in recent years been reduced tn
between three and five per 1 oO0 whereas
among mad dog victims vino have not re-
| ceived this treatment il has been as high
as so per cent. The most complete sta
tistics have been gathered I'm Geor2L,
during the past seven wears. These show
that mad dog victims chances OF re-
covery with and without the Pasteur
treatment are as - is to l.. In some
cases a mail course OF the treatment is
now furnished by the New York board II
health at SIS per course.
Such mail course for domestic ami
mails Ia what the bureau OF animal in
dustries proposes 10 furnish at nominal
cost. Although in the past the Pasteur
| treatment has been principally confined
to human beings. it is equally valuable
to animals. But the expense of taking
animals. often long distances to a Pas
,teur institute is in almost all cases too
great Ten valuable dogs have. however
been treated SO far by the Chicago fnsti-
tute-all OF them successfully.
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS