74 



NATURE 



\N0V. 2 2, 1888 



ascertained, and the mortality percentages thus deduced 

 consequently utterly untrustworthy. The severest test 

 that could be conceived for genuine criticism of M. 

 Pasteur's method is obviously the comparison of the 

 death-rate in his Class A. with that among persons, not 

 his patients, proved to have been bitten by rabid dogs 

 by the fact of at least one of those attacked by the 

 animal dying of the disease. Such a comparison is now 

 fortunately possible. The probability of rabies following 

 the bite of a rabid dog is now definitely ascertained to be 

 from 15 to ]6 per cent, of those attacked. 



Now the death-rate in M. Pasteur's Class C. is no more 

 than I "36 per cent., even including every fatal case — 

 that is, inclusive of those persons who develop the disease 

 during the first fifteen days after the bite. The rigid 

 comparison of these two death-rates may well afford M. 

 Pasteur the satisfaction of feeling that he has saved a 

 number (to be counted by hundreds rather than tens) of 

 his fellow-creatures from the most agonizing of deaths, 

 and an enormous number from the worst of apprehensions. 



For general biological science the next most interesting 

 statistics are those which seem to reveal the mode of 

 action of the curative and prophylactic inoculations. M. 

 Pasteur's explanations of the beneficial effects of the 

 material inoculated was that the nerve-tissue contained 

 not only the microbes, the causative factors of the disease, 

 but also their metabolic products, and that these latter 

 by accumulation inhibit the growth and spread of the 

 organisms. If, therefore, these products were injected | 

 into the blood-stream in sufficient quantity, he believed 

 that the animal so treated would be protected from the | 

 malady. In this country Dr. Wooldridge had already 

 proved experimentally the occurrence of such a process ; 

 in the case of anthrax or splenic fever. Now the accu- 

 mulated experience of M. Pasteur's laboratory goes very ■ 

 far to establish this theory for rabies also. Thus in \ 

 Russia, where rabies is frightfully prevalent by reason of , 

 its being endemic among wild (wolves notably) as well as 

 among domestic animals, the figures obtained from the 

 respective inoculation stations are most striking : — - 



Traitement simple " 

 {i.e. small quantities 

 injected) 



1888. 

 Traitement intensif " 

 {i.e. large quantities 

 injected) 



Odessa 

 death-rate 

 per cent. 



3-39 



0-64 



Moscow Warsaw 



death-rate death-rate 

 per cent. per cent. 



8-40 



I -60 



It is abundantly evident from these figures that success- 

 ful protection is due to the energy and frequency with 

 which inoculations are practised, or, in other words, to the 

 quantity of protective material injected. While we can- 

 not too heartily congratulate M. Pasteur on his triumph in 

 finding a cure for this miserable disease, we feel very glad 

 that, since his work has established the true nature of rabies 

 and its mode of propagation among animals andmen, the 

 French authorities have at last awakened to the fact that 

 there is no disease which can be more successfully pre- 

 vented by legislation. M. Grancher exhibited a chart 

 showing the immediate effect of preventive legislation in 



'.." In'enslf " treatment for last sixteen months— no death. 



reducing the prevalence of the malady in the Department 

 of the Seine. For us, our own experience of the measures 

 whereby the disease was temporarily extirpated from 

 London (though now, of course, reappearing since the- 

 relaxation of the restrictions) is so strong that we hope 

 this additional evidence will induce our Privy Council to- 

 apply such measures throughout the country ; and having- 

 thus stamped out the disease in England, prevent by 

 suitable contra-importation measures the re-introduction 

 of the disease. 



So much for the work of the Institute as immediately 

 in operation. The special interest of the inaugura- 

 tion ceremony is noteworthy. We have already referred 

 to it as being in part due to the personal monu- 

 ment it establishes to the genius of M. Pasteur, but it 

 has a more particular interest for British national science. 

 It lies in the fact that here we see an institution erected 

 for the national purpose of scientific ^investigation into- 

 the causes of diseases and their mode of prevention. We 

 see, moreover, the head of the Executive Government, 

 in company with the members of his Cabinet, personally 

 giving to the movement his cordial interest and support. 

 It must make us all wonder when our Government will 

 cease to regard the social and political importance of 

 scientific investigations with other than an absolutely 

 ineffective interest. 



At present, for scientific investigations of this kind 

 this country and its Government are positively dependent 

 upon the charity of a private laboratory, that of the 

 Brown Institution, the income of which, utterly inadequate, 

 is very imperfectly helped by the defrayal on the part of 

 the Government of simply the immediate expenses of the 

 work done for them. And at the same time we wonder 

 when our Government will remove the disgraceful legis- 

 lative hindrances to British scientific work. Finally, we 

 may ask, When shall we see the scientific millennium of an 

 English Ministry taking an immediately personal interest 

 in the welfare and support of such an institution .^ We 

 can only conclude in the spirit of the words of the Times 

 with which this article begins ; and hope that, if it is 

 generally appreciated how the lead has been taken from 

 this country by France, at least an effort will be made by 

 those who are responsible for the discredit thus forced on 

 us to remove the blot by organizing a somewhat similar 

 institution in England. 



PRACTICAL BOTANY. 



A Course of Practical Btstruction in Botany. By Prof. 

 F, O. Bower, D.Sc, F.L.S. Part I, Second Edition, 

 (London : Macmillan and Co., 1888.) 



THE first edition of Part I. of Profs. Bower and Vines's 

 "Practical Botany" was pubHshed in 1885 (see 

 Nature, vol. xxxii. p. 73) ; and during the three years 

 that have elapsed the book has become familiar in all 

 botanical laboratories, and has proved an important aid 

 to the work of both teachers and students. This first part 

 deals with the Phanerogams and Pteridophytes. Part II., 

 completing the work, appeared only last year (see 

 N.^TURE, vol. xxxvii. p. 28), and thus the former part has 

 reached a second edition while its companion volume is 



