504 THE LIFE-WORK OF A CHEMIST. 



Now let me put before you the answer to the question: Is this treat- 

 ment a real cure ? For this has been doubted 1)3' persons, some of 

 whom will, I fear, still doubt, or profess to doubt, and still abuse Pasteur 

 whatever is said or done ! From all that can be learned about the 

 matter, it appears pretty certain that about from fifteen to twenty per- 

 sons out of every hundred bitten by mad dogs or cats, and not treated 

 by Pasteur's method, develop the disease, for I need scarcely add that 

 all other methods of treatment have proved fallacious ; but bites on the 

 face are much more dangerous, the proportion of fatal cases reaching 

 80 per cent. Now of two thousand one hundred and sixty-four persons 

 treated in the Pasteur Institute, from November 1885, to January 1887, 

 only thirt3 -two died, showing a mortality of 1.4 per cent, instead of 15 

 to 20, and amongst these upwards of two thousand persons, two hun- 

 dred and fourteen had been bitten on the face, a class of wounds in 

 which, as I have said, when untreated, the mortality is very high; so 

 that the reduction in the death-rate seems more remarkable, especially 

 when we learn that in all these cases the animal inflicting the wound 

 had been proved to be rabid. The same thing occurs even in a more 

 marked degree in 1887 and 1888. In 1887, one thousand seven hun- 

 dred and seventy-eight cases were treated with a mortality of 1.3 per 

 cent., while last year one thousand six hundred and twenty-six cases 

 were treated, with a mortality of 1.16 per cent.* 



Statistics of the anti-rabic treatment in other countries show similar 

 results, proving beyond a doubt that the death-rate from hydrophobia 

 is greatly reduced. Indeed, it may truly be said that in no case of 

 dangerous disease, treated either by medicine or surgery, is a cure so 

 probable. Moreover, in spite of assertions to the contrary, no proof 

 can be given that in any single case did death arise from the treatment 

 itself. And as showing the safety of the inoculation, I may add that 

 all Pasteur's assistants and laboratory workers have undergone the 

 treatment, and no case of hydrophobia has occurred amongst them. 



You are no doubt aware that Pasteur's anti-rabic treatment has been 

 strongly opposed by certain persons, some of whom have not scrupled 

 to descend to personal abuse of a virulent character of those who in 

 any way encouraged or supported Pasteur's views, and all of whom 

 persistently deny that anything good has come or can come from 

 investigations of the kind. Such persons we need neither fear nor 

 hate. Their opposition is as powerless to arrest the march of science 

 as was King Canute's order to stop the rising tide. Only let us rest 

 upon the sure basis of exactly ascertained fact, and we may safely defy 

 alike the vaporings of the sentimentalist, and the wrath of the oppo- 

 nent of scientific progress. But opposition of a much fairer character 

 has likewise to be met, and it has with propriety been asked : How 

 comes it that Pasteur is not uniformly successful ? Why (if what you 

 tell us is true) do any deaths at all follow the anti-rabic treatment ? 



*For further details, see Dr. Ruffer, Brit. Med. Journ., Sept. 21, 1889. 



