The Rabbit Quxdion. -33 



May we find that three persons more have died from one set 

 alone. On 1 2th June another is dead ; on 21st August a 

 boy is dead ; on 28th August three more boys, two French 

 and one English ; on 4th September a patient dies ; on 13th 

 November another, and so on. Then at the end of December 

 the statistics of the Pasteur Institute for the previous 14 

 months are published, and we find that 31 of the patients 

 are dead ; but it is conclusively proved to us in the report by 

 figures (which cannot lie) that during this ])eriod M. Pasteur 

 had saved the lives of 163 of his patients. This was a truly 

 great result, and would have excited much admiration had 

 not Professor Peter, of the Hopital Necker, pointed out from 

 the vital statistics that the average mortality for the 

 whole of France before the discovery of the infallible cure 

 was 30 per annum. And to obtain this result thousands of 

 men and women, many nevei bitten by rabid animals at all, 

 have been inoculated with the virus and are scattered all 

 through France. 



The poison intended for us is now on the ocean, and 

 scarcely a fortnight's sail from our shores. Two of M. 

 Pasteur's assistants are on board the Guzco with large supplies 

 of the choleraic microbe, and perhaps even the germs of 

 other diseases as well. The opinion I offer to you, and 

 which I hope that you, as the leading scientific body in 

 Victoria, will confirm, is that our Government should 

 immediately take steps to make not only the introduction 

 but the use of these things highly penal. It seems to me 

 that in trifling with such diseases we should be rushing 

 blindly towards a precipice ; and what lies in the darkness 

 beyond it no man living can say. 



J> 



