112 THE MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



The statistics regarding our tliirtj'-ejglit patients are as follows: 

 Twenty of them came from Detroit, four from Saginaw, three from 

 (irand Kapids, two each from Ypsilanti and Holland, and one each from 

 Williamston, Cass Cit}', Royal Oak, Kalamazoo, New Baltimore, River 

 Rouge, and Lexington, Kentucky. Thirty-six were bitten by dogs, one 

 by a cat, and one by a horse. This last is rather an uncommon occur- 

 rence, not so much because rabid horses are so very rare as because it 

 is unusual for human beings to be bitten by them. 



More than half the number (twenty) came during the first three 

 months, Avhen there was a considerable epidemic of rabies throughout 

 the southern part of the State, and it is interesting to note that the 

 longest period during which we have been without a patient was in the 

 so-called "dog days" in August and September, when madness in ani- 

 mals is popularly supposed to be especially common. 



It is customary in the reports of Pasteur Institutes to classify the 

 patients according to whether the biting animal was shown by experi- 

 mental inoculation to be rabid, whether rabies was diagnosed by a 

 veterinary, or whether the animal was merely suspected to be mad. 

 Classifying our patients in this way we have had fifteen (an unusually 

 high percentage) where the animal was shown to be rabid by inocula- 

 tion, six where rabies was diagnose] by a veterinary, and seventeen 

 where rabies was suspected. In a series of. cases relatively so small, 

 however, it is possible to subdivide the cases further, and say that out 

 of the seventeen suspected cases there were eight where the history was 

 such as to make it almost certain that the aniu'al was mad, and two 

 where diagnostic inoculations were negative. These two 1 have spoken 

 of before. 



I am happy to say that so far it has not been necessary for me to 

 record any cases where the disease has developed, either during or after 

 treatment. 



On the whole, considering that this was our first year, I think we have 

 reason to be satisfied with what we have done, and to feel that the 

 Regents of the University were justified in providing for an institute, 

 for it seems quite certain that rabies has obtained such a foothold in the 

 State that it is not likely to be xjermanently stamped out, but Avill be to 

 some extent endemic, and under favorable circumstances, epidemic. 

 In view of this fact it is an advantage to the people of the State to have 

 an institute near at hand where they can have prompt and free treat- 

 ment. 

 Thomas B. Cooley, A. B., M. D., 



Assistant Professor of Hygiene, University of Michigan. 

 Ann Arbor. 



