The San Francisco call., 1908-03-22
HOW HYDROPHOBIA
HAS Been CHECKED
Death Rate Has Been Reduced
From 100 to One-fifth of
One Per Cent
Pasteur's Treatment Has Res
cued Humanity From the
Terrible Scourge

passed. JUST as scientists have sue
ceeded in successfully combating hy-
drophobia's horrors rnen are declaring
hydrophobia to be a 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 Dy mad dogs developed
rabies, and of these 100 per cent, or
all, died Today the death rate is but
one-third Of per cent, and in Balti-
more, where an earnest body Of men
under the direction of DR.. n. G. Keirle
Sr.. are doing splendid work in saving
the lives OF those bitten by mad dogs,
the death rate has been reduced TO
one-fifth Of l per cent
Death from hydrophobia. as most
people know, is one of the most hor-
rible deaths of which men die. The af
fiicted one becomes restless, nervous,
melancholy. Then he is stricken with
convulsions. The most prominent
symptom is aversion to water. The very
thought of il causes a contraction of
the throat that may induce another
convulsion. A touch will set him shiv-
ering like leaf, and if a breeze blow
or a door slams he cries out that he is
smothering. His effort to rid himself
throat induces sort of whooping
cough-the typical bark OF hydropho-
bia. After a, few days of this misery
paralysis intervenes. The muscles of
the face and mouth are relaxed and a
terrible grin renders tfeecount tenance
CHASTITY. The patient gasps and ctokes
until death ensues from paralysis of
the respiratory and circulatory cen
ters.
METHOD OF CURE
From such a fate as this the Pasteur
treatment has rescued humanity. Much
of the method is mantIed ins mystery.
Experience has shown that results are
attained, but how. they come about is
in many instances as inexplicabIe as
the source Of electricity
The Pasteur treatment may be brief
ly described as method OF lighting
fire with fire. 1t simply consists in
generating in the patients system an
autitoxin before the powers of the
rabic virus are fully developed. 1t pro-
duces speedily in the patient enough
antitoxin TO resist the onslaught of the
comparatively slowly gathering toxic
forces. To give concrete presenta-
ton Of it, If a man be inoculated with
the germs of rabies in such very small
quantity that his body can easily de-
Yelop enough antitoxin to resist them
he Will not die. If the dose be grad
ually increased now, so that the manu-
facture of antitoxin keeps pace With
the number Of germs, soon an injection
Of rabic virus of full strength can be
given without injury 10 the patient
PAsTEUR TREATMENT
The reason a man dies or hydrop7lo-
bia is because when he is bitten by a
dog the immense number Of germs IN
trodueed into his blood make such
terrific concerted Onslaught upon" his
system that it cannot make antitoxin
fast enough to save him This is the
secret of the Pasteur treatment In
the great majority of cases-e0 per
cent at least-rabies do not appear un-
til after the thirty day. Accord
ingly, IN this respite, between the bite
and the appearance of the resultant
hydrophobia,. II the person attacked be
given small injections of rabfc virus in
such a progression that his body can
develop antitoxin enough to meet each
dose he viii at the end of the time be
safe from the attacks OF virus of full
strength In other words, he becomes
Immune" The antitoxin that is now
IN him IN large quantity will XIII all
hydrophobia germs as rney are
hatched.
II 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
problem Of making all virus of the
same strength baffled Pasteur He dis
covered 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
q n fraiarficr, Of J.
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
IL If the third rabbit be inoculated in
the same way it viii develop rabies AT
the expiration Of the same time as the
other two-a period of IA or Is davs.
AS the process keeps up. however
II viii be found that the period of in
cubatton grows shorter and shorter
until at last at the twenty fifth rabbit
II makes sudden drop to eight davs
There II stays again until the twenty
NTH rabbit after that when IL drons
again 10 seven days. Then there is a
period of 80 more inocuiations. after
which six days becomes the incubatorv
stage. There It stays fixed" ana co.
far as II is known will not deviate
from that for any number of inocula-
lions thereafter
This is the fact that Paste,r
stumbled upon. His first fnocuiatfon
he made from a rabid cow. The perjod
Of incubation in q rabbit was Il davs
There ii continued until the TWENTY
eighth remove. when it dropped to
eight days At last, at the succeeding
twenty-fifth remove, il attained the
seven day virulence and then in di,a
course the six. "A fixed virus then is
one that produces rabies six days after
inoculation. The virus Of constant
strength was thus attained. The nert
point was TO regulate its strength. This
was accomplished through the discav-
cry Of the fact that exposure to light
heat and moisture had a weakening or
alternating effect upon the virus
Any one OF the three is q controllabla
factor Therefore Pasteur devised q
method by which the virus should he
exposed for a certain length of tir,e
in lightless and practically moisture
less atmosphere to q certain constant
degree Of heat Exactness in the dose
is now possible.
PREPARING ANTIToxIy
This is the method now employed.
From rabbit that has died of rabies
iiduced by fixed virus the spinal cord
fc "a s.lo