432 



RABIES AND ITS CONTROL 



Foreign scientists flocked to Paris to learn more about the treat- 

 ment. Letters came from all over the world for information. 

 Children were brought from far and near for treatment. From 

 America, four small children, who had been bitten by mad dogs, 

 were sent over to Pasteur for treatment. A public subscrip- 

 tion was conducted by a New York newspaper in order to supply 

 the funds for their treatments. The inoculations given these chil- 

 dren by Pasteur were successful. Nineteen Russians who had been 

 bitten by a mad wolf were brought to Paris by a Russian doctor. 

 The only French word they knew was " Pasteur." Two weeks had 

 elapsed between the time they received their wounds and their 



arrival in Paris. Although 

 they were horribly bitten, 

 all but three of them were 

 saved. 



Pasteur was one of the 

 first scientists to develop a 

 method of weakening or at- 

 tenuating organisms by lab- 

 oratory procedures for use 

 as a vaccine. To-day, all 

 our large cities have Pasteur 

 Institutes, or similar divi- 

 sions of the Health Depart- 

 ment for giving treatment 

 for rabies. 



The nature of rabies. 

 Rabies is an infectious dis- 

 ease of dogs, wolves, cats, 

 and sometimes of horses, 

 cows, rabbits, and other ani- 

 mals. It may be communicated to human beings. The infection 

 is from an organism not yet cultivated or positively identified. 



Vaccines for the treatment of hydrophobia are 

 prepared from the spinal cords of animals that have 

 died from the disease. The cords are suspended 

 in a bottle which has a water-absorbing material 

 in the bottom of it. As the cords dry, they become 

 attenuated or weakened in virulence. 



