July 4, 1889] 



NATURE 



225 



Lordship's auspices, in reference to M. Pasteur and his 

 Institute. The unremitting labours of that eminent 

 Frenchman during the last half-century have yielded rich 

 harvests of new truths, and are models of exact and re- 

 fined research. As such they deserve, and have received, 

 all the honours which those who are the best judges of 

 their purely scientific merits are able to bestow. But it 

 so happens that these subtle and patient searchings out 

 of the ways of the infinitely little — of that swarming life 

 where the creature that measures one-thousandth part of 

 an inch is a giant — have also yielded results of supreme 

 practical importance. The path of M. Pasteur's investi- 

 gations is strewed with gifts of vast monetary value to 

 the silk trader, the brewer, and the wine merchant. And 

 this being so, it might well be a proper and a graceful act 

 on the part of the reprasentatives of trade and commerce 

 in its greatest centre to make some public recognition of 

 M. Pasteur's services, even if there were nothing further 

 to be said about them. But there is much more to be 

 said. M. Pasteur's direct and indirect contributions to 

 our knowledge of the causes of diseased states, and of 

 the means of preventing their occurrence, are not mea- 

 surable by money values, but by those of healthy life and 

 diminished sufifering to men. Medicine, surgery, and 

 hygiene have all been powerfully affected by M. Pasteur's 

 work, which has culminated in his method of treating 

 hydrophobia. I cannot conceive that any competently- 

 instructed person can consider M. Pasteur's labours in 

 this direction without arriving at the conclusion that, if 

 any man has earned the praise and honour of his fellows, 

 he has. I find it no less difficult to imagine that our 

 wealthy country should be other than ashamed to con- 

 tinue to allow its citizens to profit by the treatment freely 

 given at the Institute without contributing to its support. 

 Opposition to the proposals which your Lordship sanctions 

 would be equally inconceivable if it arose out of nothing 

 but the facts of the case thus presented. But the opposi- 

 tion which, as I see from the English papers, is threat- 

 ened has really for the most part nothing on earth to do 

 either with M. Pasteur's merits or with the efficacy of his 

 method of treating hydrophobia. It proceeds partly from 

 the fanatics of laissez faire, who think it better to rot and 

 die than to be kept whole and lively by State interference, 

 partly from the blind opponents of properly-conducted 

 physiological experimentation, who prefer that men should 

 suffer rather than rabbits or dogs, and partly from those 

 who for other but not less powerful motives hate every- 

 thing which contributes to prove the value of strictly 

 scientific methods of inquiry in all those questions which 

 affect the welfare of society. I sincerely trust that the good 

 sense of the meeting over which your Lordship will preside 

 will preserve it from being influenced by these unworthy 

 antagonisms, and that the just and benevolent enterprise 

 you have undertaken may have a happy issue. 



" I am, my Lord Mayor, your obedient servant, 



" Thomas H. Huxley. 



" The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, 

 Mansion House, E.C." 



The following letter from M. Pasteur, dated Paris, 

 the 27th ult, was read by Sir H. Roscoe : — 



" Dear Colleague and Friend, — I am obliged by your 

 sending me a copy of the letter of invitation issued by 

 the Lord Mayor for the meeting on July i. Its perusal 

 has given me great pleasure. The questions relating to 

 the prophylactic treatment for hydrophobia in persons 

 who have been bitten and the steps which ought to 

 be taken to stamp out the disease are discussed in a 

 manner both exact and judicious. Seeing that hydro- 

 phobia has existed in England for a long time, and that 

 medical science has failed to ward off the occurrence even 

 of the premonitory symptoms, it is clear that the prophy- 

 lactic method of treating this malady which I have dis- 



covered ought to be adopted in the case of every person 

 bitten by a rabid animal. The treatment required 

 by this method is painless during the whole of its 

 course and not disagreeable. In the early days of 

 the application of this method contradictions such as 

 invariably take place with every new discovery were found 

 to occur, and especially for the reason that it is 

 not every bite by a rabid animal which gives rise to a 

 fatal outburst of hydrophobia. Hence prejudiced people 

 may pretend that all the successful cases of treatment 

 were cases in which the natural contagion of the disease 

 had not taken effect. This specious reasoning has 

 gradually lost its force with the continually increasing 

 number of persons treated. To-day, and speaking solely 

 for the one anti-rabic laboratory of Paris, this total num- 

 ber exceeds 7000 ; or exactly, up to the 31st of May, 1889, 

 6950. Of these the total number of deaths wa5 only 

 seventy-one. It is only by palpable and wilful misrepre- 

 sentation that a number differing from the above, and 

 differing by more than double, has been published 

 by those who are systematic enemies of the method. 

 In short, the general mortality applicable to the whole 

 of the operations is i per cent., and if we subtract 

 from the total number of deaths those of persons 

 in whom the symptoms of hydrophobia appeared a few 

 days after the treatment — that is to say, cases in which 

 hydrophobia had burst out (often owing to delay in arrival) 

 before the curative process was completed — the general 

 mortality is reduced to o*68 per cent. But let us for the 

 present only consider the facts relating to the EngHsh 

 subjects whom we have treated in Paris. Up to May 31, 

 i88g, their total number was 214. Of these there have 

 been five unsuccessful cases after completion of the treat- 

 ment, and two more during treatment, or a total mortality 

 of 3'2 per cent., or more properly 2'3 per cent. But the 

 method of treatment has been continually undergoing 

 improvement, so that in 1888 and 1889, on a total of sixty- 

 four English persons bitten by mad dogs and treated in 

 Paris, not a single case has succumbed, although amongst 

 these sixty-four there were ten individuals bitten on the 

 head and fifty-four bitten on the limbs, often to a very 

 serious extent. I have already said that the Lord Mayor 

 in his invitation has treated the subject in a judicious 

 manner, from the double point of view of prophylaxis 

 after the bite and of the extinction of the disease by 

 administrative measures. It is also my own profound 

 conviction that a rigorous observance of simple police 

 regulations would altogether stamp out hydrophobia in a 

 country like the British Isles. Why am I so confident of 

 this ? Because, in spite of an old-fashioned and wide- 

 spread prejudice, to which even science has sometimes 

 given a mistaken countenance, rabies is never spontaneous. 

 It is caused, without a single exception, by the bite of an 

 animal affected with the malady. It is needless to say 

 that in the beginning there must have been a first case of 

 hydrophobia. This is certain ; but to try to solve this 

 problem is to raise uselessly the question of the origin of 

 life itself It is sufficient for me here, in order to prove 

 the truth of my assertion, to remind you that neither in 

 Norway, nor in Sweden, nor in Australia, does rabies 

 exist ; and yet nothing would be easier than to introduce 

 this terrible disease into those countries by importing a 

 few mad dogs. Let England, which has exterminated its 

 wolves, make a vigorous effort, and it will easily succeed 

 in extirpating rabies. If firmly resolved to do so, your 

 country may secure this great benefit in a few years ; but, 

 until that has been accomplished, and in the present state 

 of science, it is absolutely necessary that all persons 

 bitten by mad dogs should be compelled to undergo the 

 anti-rabic treatment. Such, it seems, is a summary of the 

 statement of the case by the Lord Mayor. The Pasteur 

 Institute is profoundly touched by the movement in 

 support of the meeting. The interest which His Royal 

 Highness the Prince of Wales has evinced in the pro- 



