THE CONQUEST OF HYDROPHOBIA 217 



too much to hope that every case which presented 

 itself could be saved. As we have said, the success 

 of preventive inoculation depends upon the out- 

 come of the race between the processes of immuni- 

 zation and infection. If a patient comes too late 

 after the deadly virus has gained headway it is 

 hopeless to attempt to stay its course. On one 

 occasion a little girl of ten was brought thirty- 

 seven days after she had been severely bitten about 

 the head. Pasteur thought the case hopeless and 

 daily expected the appearance of hydrophobia; 

 nevertheless, in response to the urgent appeal of 

 the father and mother, the treatment was applied. 

 The inoculations were hardly completed before the 

 dreaded symptoms of hydrophobia began to ap- 

 pear; the little girl was seized with spasms and 

 inability to swallow, and soon died. Pasteur, 

 moved to tears as he watched by her bedside, said 

 to the grief-stricken parents, "I do so wish I could 

 have saved your little one!" The cruel disease had 

 too long a start, and its claim to its victim could 

 not be successfully disputed. 



By means of a subscription started by the New 

 York Herald, four children of workingmen were 

 sent across the Atlantic to Pasteur's laboratory. 

 Although they arrived at the end of their long 



