Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-01-24

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 n.y.
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 astonish most readers of this to
learn that before the Pasteur treat
ment was invented so 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 hydrophobia, as most
people know, is one of the most horri-
bic 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 shiy-
ering like leaf, and If a breeze blows
or door slams he cries out that he is
smothering His efforts to rid himself
OF secretion that fills his mouth and
throat induce sort of whooping cough
the typical bark of hydrophobia After
few days of this misery paralysis in
tervenes. The muscles of the face and
mouth are relaxed and a terrible grin
renders the countenance CHASTITY. The
patient gasps and chokes until death
ensues from paralysis of the respira-
tory and circulatory centers.
From such a 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.
The Pasteur 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-toxln 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
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. 60 per cent
at least, rabies does not appear until
after the thirty-fifth day. Accordingly
In this respite-between the bite and
the appearance of the resultant hydro
phobia, II the person attacked be given
small injections of rabies virus in such
q 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 full
strength. In other words he becomes
immune" The anti-toxin that is now
In him In large quantity will kin all
hydrophobia germs as they are Matched.
1t viii 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 long time the prob
lem of making all virus of the same
strength baffled Pasteur. He discoy
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
II. and the period Of incubation Will be
the same as the rabbit that first had
r. IL the third rabbit be inoculated
I'm the same way it will develop rabies
nj the expiration Of the same time as
the other two-a period of fourteen or
fifteen days,
AS the process keeps up, however /
viii be found that the period Of ineu-
baton grows shorter and shorter until
ut last Mt the twenty fifth rabbit 1t
makes a sudden drop 20 eight days
There it stays again until the twenty
6fth rabbit after that when IL drops
10 seven days Then there Is period
of ninety more NEGOTIATIONS. after
which six days becomes the ncuoatory