igS 



NATURE 



\yune 27, 1889 



when exposed to the air, &c. This evidence is simply 

 the fact that no case bears investigation in which the 

 poison was asserted to have been found infecting the 

 ground, woodwork, &c., of places habited by rabid 

 animals— that, in short, the rabic virus cannot survive 

 the drying, changes of temperature, &c., it necessarily 

 undergoes when scattered over the ground, as we often 

 see happen by the slobbering of a rabid animal. 



This is the first and a most important point, upon 

 which our opinion was based. We pass now to the second, 

 which is to a certain extent the corollary of the first. It 

 is, that the disease is communicated only by one animal 

 biting another. There is really no evidence to show that 

 accidental inoculation with the blood, &c., has ever 

 occurred, and we are now in possession of direct experi- 

 mental evidence to show that the poison cannot be 

 absorbed, by being combined with food, through the 

 mucous membrane of the alimentary canal. The only 

 practicable mode of transmission of the disease, therefore, 

 is by one animal biting and lacerating another's tissues, or 

 by licking a wound and so introducing the virus. 



This point, coupled with the first, establishes irre- 

 fragably the proposition that, for the permanent extinc- 

 tion of rabies from a country into which itsreintroduction 

 can reasonably be prevented, it is only necessary to pre- 

 vent rabid animals from biting healthy ones. In other 

 words, it is only necessary to apply the muzzle. Usually 

 the public does not listen toscientificmen, unless the matter 

 happens to be one where their own experience, favourable 

 or unfavourable, serves to help them to a conclusion. 

 On the present question the experience of London in 

 1885 and 1886 is sufficient ; and from the recent memorial 

 of the County Council addressed to the Privy Council, the 

 knowledge gained by the last epidemic has been speedily 

 utilized. But, with particular wisdom the County Council 

 have asked for the general adoption of the muzzle all over 

 the country, so that we may have not merely a temporary 

 extinction of the disease in one locality, but a riddance of 

 it from the whole country. It might well be asked, Why 

 have not the Privy Council, who hold in their hands the 

 machinery of prophylactic legislation, brought this con- 

 summation to a perfect conclusion without waiting to be 

 urged by the public outcry which it was well known would 

 certainly be raised sooner or later, according as rabies 

 rapidly or slowly increased .? The answer is simple, being 

 nothing more than the well-known cowardice of authori- 

 ties to interfere with what they believe to be a popular 

 interest, sentiment, or feeling, on any point, however con- 

 trary to reason or fact that sentiment may be. The Select 

 Committee of the House of Lords, whose Report we re- 

 viewed two years ago, did yeoman service to the cause by 

 collecting an immense amount of valuable evidence ; but 

 unfortunately, misled by the interests falsely stated to be 

 interfered with, reported adversely to a general adoption 

 of muzzling regulations all over the country, and advised 

 leaving the whole matter in the hands of the local 

 authorities. 



Even those members of the Upper House who were 

 most interested in the subject, both from philanthropic 

 and agricultural reasons, hesitated to support any 

 measure which might involve some trouble in applica- 

 tion. We allude of course to the muzzling of sporting 



dogs more especially, and to the exemption of sheep and 

 other dogs actually engaged in work. All these points 

 were considered fully two years ago by the Society for the 

 Prevention of Hydrophobia, a Society composed of dog 

 owners and scientific men, and were treated by them in 

 the provisional draft of a Bill which provided for each 

 of the cases referred to. Fortunately this Bill will be 

 introduced into the Lower House by Sir Henry Roscoe, 

 so that the question will now be brought to a very 

 definite head. 



Nothing, however, in the way of philanthropic reform 

 is said ever to succeed unless it is violently opposed. 

 Violent opposition to the present proposals has assuredly 

 not been wanting, nor will apparently be wanting. At 

 the time of the last epidemic, and ever since, the 

 anti-vivisectionists, turning from vilifying M. Pasteur's 

 charitable efforts, maligned the police, and, to parody 

 the celebrated dictum of Spinoza, first asserted that there 

 was no such thing as rabies ; secondly, that it was 

 contrary to religion (of humanity) ; and thirdly (this only 

 recently), that the disease was well known, but did not 

 require preventing. 



The diatribes of these people may be amusingly 

 ridiculous, but naturally they are also mischievous. It is 

 scarcely conceivable, in this present century of intel- 

 ligence, that none of their subscribers should have seen 

 that they are really opposing the only known means of 

 counteracting rabies, and that their money is consequently 

 being spent to perpetuate this terrible infliction among us. 

 However, the infallible test of time is fortunately dispersing 

 the mists of falsehood which have been so carefully spread 

 around the subject. 



M. Pasteur's splendid achievements have, as all 

 scientific truth must, contributed greatly to the success 

 of the movement for obhterating the curse from this 

 country. For. attracted by the value of the work of the 

 Pasteur Institute, and its single-mindedness,the Prince of 

 Wales and the Lord Mayor of London have recently visited 

 it, have seen the immense importance of the researches 

 carried on in the laboratory there, and they are in conse- 

 quence greatly desirous of providing similar blessings for 

 this country. The Lord Mayor, in order to give effect to 

 the opinions he has so strongly formed, has summoned a 

 meeting at the Mansion House for July i, at 3 p.m., and 

 the Prince of Wales will write a letter in support of the 

 same. At the last meeting of the Royal Society for the 

 present session, held on Thursday, the 20th instant, the 

 Society adopted a letter which had been drawn up by the 

 President and Council, expressing sympathy with the 

 Lord Mayor's attempt to obtain some public recognition 

 in this country of the services rendered by M. Pasteur to 

 science and humanity, and appointing the officers with 

 Sir James Paget, Sir Joseph Lister, Sir Henry Roscoe, and 

 Prof Lankester, as their representatives at the meeting 

 called by the Lord Mayor. 



The whole business of the meeting will be devoted 

 to, first, the providing of a sum of money to be paid to 

 the funds of the Pasteur Institute as a slight acknow- 

 ledgment of the great benefits which the Institute has 

 gratuitously extended to over 200 of our fellow-country- 

 men threatened with rabies ; secondly, the formation 

 of a fund to cover the expenses of poor people tra- 



