396 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



Agriculture Office. The Commission immediately set to work ; 

 a rabid dog having succumbed at Alfort on June 1, its carcase 

 was brought to the laboratory of the Ecole Normale, and a frag- 

 ment of the medulla oblongata was mixed with some sterilized 

 broth. Two dogs, declared by Pasteur to be refractory to 

 rabies, were trephined, and a few drops of the liquid injected 

 into their brains ; two other dogs and two rabbits received 

 inoculations at the same time, with the same liquid and in 

 precisely the same manner. 



Bouley was taking notes for a report to be presented to the 

 Minister : 



" M. Pasteur tells us that, considering the nature of the 

 rabic virus used, the rabbits and the two new dogs will develop 

 rabies within twelve or fifteen days, and that the two refractory 

 dogs will not develop it at all, however long they may be 

 detained under observation." 



On May 29, Mme. Pasteur wrote to her children : 



"The Commission on rabies met to-day and elected M. 

 Bouley as chairman. Nothing is settled as to commencing 

 experiments. Your father is absorbed in his thoughts, talks 

 little, sleeps little, rises at dawn, and, in one word, continues 

 the life I began with him this day thirty-five years ago." 



On June 3, Bourrel sent word that he had a rabid dog in 

 the kennels of the Rue Fontaine-au-Roi ; a refractory dog 

 and a new dog were immediately submitted to numerous 

 bites; the latter was violently bitten on the head in several 

 places. The rabid dog, still living the next day and still able 

 to bite, was given two more dogs, one of which was refractory ; 

 this dog, and the refractory dog bitten on the 3rd, were 

 allowed to receive the first bites, the Commission having 

 thought that perhaps the saliva might then be more abundant 

 and more dangerous. 



On June 6, the rabid dog having died, the Commission pro- 

 ceeded to inoculate the medulla of the animal into six more 

 dogs, by means of trephining. Three of those dogs were 

 refractory, the three others were fresh from the kennels ; there 

 were also two rabbits. 



On the 10th, Bourrel telegraphed the arrival of another 

 rabid dog, and the same operations were gone through. 



" This rabid, furious dog," wrote Pasteur to his son-in-law, 

 "had spent the night lying on his master's bed ; his appearance 

 had been suspicions for a day or two. On the morning of the 



