THE CONQUEST OF HYDROPHOBIA 205 



rabid animals was a very uncertain procedure. 

 Experiments with the blood and tissues of rabid 

 dogs were equally unsatisfactory, as were Pasteur's 

 efforts to obtain a culture of the supposed microbe 

 of hydrophobia in the usual artificial media. 



Not daunted by these failures, Pasteur simply 

 said, "We must try other experiments." On ac- 

 count of its characteristic symptoms it occurred to 

 Pasteur that hydrophobia might have its principal 

 seat in the nervous system. Accordingly some of 

 the matter of the brain of dogs that had died of 

 rabies was removed and injected, with precautions 

 to exclude all outside contamination, under the skin 

 of rabbits. In most cases the inoculated animal 

 died of hydrophobia. "The seat of the rabid 

 virus," Pasteur concluded, "is therefore not in the 

 saliva only; the brain contains it, and it is found 

 there in a degree of virulence at least equal to what 

 it has in the saliva of rabid animals." 



The next step was to inoculate the nervous 

 matter from rabid animals directly into the brain. 

 A dog was placed under chloroform, a circular disc 

 was sawed out of his skull, and a small amount of 

 nervous substance from a rabid animal was intro- 

 duced directly into the dog's brain. The wound 

 was dressed and soon healed. After coming from 



