6 The Pasteur Treatment [1901 



communicated to him by the wolf? Anyhow, it is a pitiful event. 

 The boy was his father's only son and support, who was doing his 

 work quietly and well in the kitchen. The wolf, too, they tell me, 

 leaves a widow and cubs in the garden. The old man complained 

 pathetically of his loss. ' I have seven daughters,' he said, ' anyone 

 of which the wolf would have been welcome to, and he has taken my 

 only son ! ' " 



As to hydrophobia being perhaps an effect of civilization, there is 

 more to be said in favour of its being so than I first imagined. I 

 find that all the old travellers in Egypt, or at any rate many of them, 

 make the remark as a noticeable circumstance that the dogs in Egypt, 

 though there are so many of them, do not go mad. Hydrophobia 

 seems to have been introduced with other Western diseases from 

 Europe during the nineteenth century. 



' 16th March. — Left Sheykh Obeyd with my nurse for Europe, 

 leaving Anne and Judith to follow later, and slept at Alexandria, 

 especially to see Dr. Ruffer, on whom I called in the morning at 

 his villa at Ramleh. I went on purpose to consult him as a pupil 

 of Pasteur on our kitchen tragedy. What he told me is briefly this. 

 He tells me that, whereas only 13 per cent, of bites inflicted by dogs 

 proved by dissection to have been mad are followed by hydrophobia, 

 it is more serious in the case of wolf bites, 60 or 70 per cent, being 

 the proportion of the bites followed by the disease. On the other 

 hand, he tells me that the Pasteur treatment itself kills a proportion 

 of 2 per cent, of the cases where it is used. It would therefore, he 

 considers, be most rash to have oneself treated on the Pasteur system 

 in the case of a simple dog bite and unless the dog had been ascertained 

 by dissection to be mad. In the case of wolves or jackals, however, 

 the advantage of the treatment would be far greater, though it would 

 not be at all certain. In the case of being bitten Dr. Ruffer recom- 

 mends nitric acid as the best immediate treatment of the wound. 

 Burning, he says, is quite insufficient, but he is not very encouraging 

 as to any cure." 



Ruffer's opinion is of value as coming from so distinguished a 

 disciple of Pasteur. I remember asking him at the end of our talk 

 whether in his own case he would submit himself to the Pasteur treat- 

 ment if bitten by a dog ascertained to be mad. He ,said : " I think 

 so, but I should first make my will." My impression is that he 

 believed in the Pasteur treatment as of practical utility only in the 

 case of wolf and jackal bites, while there was a certain risk of 2 per 

 cent, in all cases subjected to the treatment whether the dog was 

 mad or not. 



This was the end of our stay in Egypt that winter of 1900-1901. 



I had a pleasant voyage from Alexandria to Marseilles in company 



