526 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



of (hloroforni and paraffin, and lastly imbedded in puie paraffin. 

 If formalin is used for fixing, the ganglion should be removed at 

 the end of six or eight hours, put for six hours more in 95 per cent, 

 alcohol, and then into absolute alcohol for six hours, after which 

 it may be fixed to blocks for cutting, bj mucilage of gum arable, or 

 else imbedded in collodion. The characteristic changes in the cap- 

 sule are brought out best bj the use of hematoxylin, or hemalum, 

 and eosin. The method of Kissl gives good results also, but as it 

 requires some special technical knowledge to be efficiently carried 

 out. the former is recommended for its simplicity and ease of exe- 

 cution. This method has stood the test in Europe and America 

 for ih-ar ly two years, and although a large number of animals having 

 different diseases have been examined with the object of determin- 

 ing whether or not those changes may occur in other conditions, they 

 have never been found. 



At the laboratorv of the State Live Stock Sanitarv Board, which 

 was the first in this country to take up this method, fifty-two cases 

 have been examined since May, 1900, without a single failure. These 

 cases have occurred in mankind, dogs, cows, cats and rabbits, and 

 the characteristic changes liave been found in each of these species. 

 We have not had an opportunity of examining horses, sheep or 

 swine. In this laboratory it has replaced the slower and less certain 

 method of inoculation almost entirely. Inoculations are now prac- 

 tised only in those cases in which the material is sent in such con- 

 dition that the microscopic examinations is impossible. 



Treatment. "When once the symptoms of rabies have manifest- 

 ed themselves, treatment is of little avail, either in man or in an- 

 imals. Except for the purpose of making a sure diagnosis, animals 

 may be destroyed at once. In man, the only treatment possible 

 is directed to the control of sj^mptoms. such as the spasms, and 

 the relief of suffering. All that can be done is to give anti-spas- 

 modics, such as chloral, bromides and morphine in large doses, or 

 else resort to the inhalation of chloroform. It is better not to 

 waste time by giving the milder auti-spasmodics, but to begin at once 

 with the strong ones like morphine and chloroform, which should 

 always be administered under the direction of a physician. 



In birds and animals a few cases of recovery have been observed 

 even after inoculation with the virus in good quantity. In man 

 the disease is uniformly fatal, consequently our measures to be 

 successful \nust be directed to preventing the development of the 

 disease after inoculation by the bite of a rabid animal. 



rASTKUit]\lKTiioi). Treatment must, therefore, be jireventive and 

 not rural ive. The only method which is worth while mentioning 

 is that of Pasteur, by which an immunity is produced by the sub- 

 cutaneous injection of the virus of rabies in an attenuated form, 



