Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1908-01-31

1t is characteristic Of the human race
TO scott at danger when the danger has
passed. Just as scientists have sue
ceeded in successfully combating by
drophobia horrors, men are declaring
hydrophobia to be myth The scotch
ing of the rabies evil has been in prog
ress so quietly that few have realized
the wonderful work accomplished. 1t
Will aStOnlsh most readers Of this to
learn that before the Pasteur treat
ment was invented 90 per cent of all
persons bitten by mad dogs developed
rabies, and of these all died. To-day
the death rate is but one-third of one
per cent.
Death from hydrophoba, as most
people know, is one Of the most horri-
Bile deaths which men die. The afflict-
ed one becomes restless. nervous, mel
ancholy. Then he is stricken with
commissions. The most prominent symp-
tom is aversion to water The very
thought of it causes a contraction of
the throat that may induce another
| CONFUSION. A touch will set him shiv-
ering like a leaf, and if a breeze blows
or a door slams he cries out that he is
smothering. His efforts to rid himself
Of a secretion that fills his mouth and
| throat induce sort Of whooping cough,
the typical bark Of hydrophobia. After
a few days Of this misery paralysis in
| tervenes The muscles of the face and
! mouth are relaxed and a terrible grin
renders tho n0nntpnonna hoe 81
patient gasps and chokes until death
ensues from paralysis Of the respira-
tory and circulatory centers.
From such fate as this the Pasteur
treatment has rescued humanity. Much
Of the method IS mantled in mystery.
Experience has shown that results are
attained, but how they come about Is
in many Instances as ineXplicable as
the source of electricity.
ThePasteur treatment may be briefly
described as a method Of fighting fire
with fire. 1t simply consists In gen
Grating in the patients system an anti
toxin before the powers of the rabic
virus are fully developed. 1t produces
speedily in the patient enough anti
! toxin to resist the onslaught Of the
! comparatively slowly gathering toxic
| forces. To give a concrete presentation
OF it: IF man be inoculated with the
! germs Of rabies in such very small
quantity that his body can develop
! enough anti-toxin to resist them he will
not die. If the dose be gradually in
creased now, so that the manufacture
Of anti-toxin keeps pace with the num-
Der Of germs, soon an injection Of rabic
virus Of full strength can be given
without injury to the patient.
The reason a man dies Of HYDRO
| phobia Is because when he Is bitten by
a dog the immense number Of germs
| introduced into his blood make such a
terrific, concerted onslaught upon his
system that it cannot make anti-toxin
fast enough to save him. This Is the
secret Of the Pasteur treatment. In
the great majority Of cases, 80 per cent
at least, rabies does not appear until
after the thirty-t1fth day. Accordingly
In this respite-between the bite and
the appearance Of the resultant hydro
| phob1a, If the person attacked be given
small injections of rabies virus In such
a progression that his body can develop
anti-toxin enough to meet each dose
he will at the end Of the time be safe
from the attacks Of virus of fuII
strength. In other words he becomes
Immune" The anti-toxin that Is now
in him in large quantity will kill all
| hydrophobia germs as they are Matched
1t will be seen that the crux Of the
whole problem is the regulation of the
dose To make this exact two things
are necessary. The strength of the
virus must be known and it must be
controllable For a long time the prob
lem Of making all virus of the same
strength bafled Pasteur He discov-
cred at last a peculiar biological fact
for which no explanation has been
found. If the spinal cord of a rabbit
that has died of rabies be taken out
and worked up in distilled water and
an injection Of this be made into the
brain of a second rabbit, that second
rabbit will develop rabies and die of
it, and the period Of incubation will be
the same as the rabbit that first had
It. II the third rabbit be inoculated
in the same way it will develop rabies
at the expiration Of the same time as
the other two-a period Of fourteen or
fifteen days.
AS the process keeps up, however, it
will be found that the period Of incu-
| baton grows shorter and shorter until
at last at the twenty-ifth rabbit it
makes a sudden drop to eight DAYS.
There 1t stays again until the twenty
| fifth rabbit after that, when it drops
to seven days Then there is a period
Of ninety more NEGOTIATIONS. after
which six days becomes the fncubatory
stage. There it stays 'fixed,'' and 80
far as it is known will not deviate from
+ that for any number of NEGOTIATIONS
thereafter.
This is the fac- that Pasteur STUN
bIed upon. His first incubation he
made from 4 rabid COW. The period of
incubation in rabbit was fourteen
days. There it continued until the
twenty-eighth remove, when it dropped
to eight days. At last. at the succeed
ing twenty-ffth remove. it attained the
seven-lay virulence and then in due
course the six. \ fixed virus then is
one that produces rabies six days after
incubation. The virus of constant