404 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



only be worked on a very restricted scale and was therefore of 

 very little use in a general way. 



The main question was the possibility of preventing hydro- 

 phobia from occurring in a human being, previously bitten by a 

 rabid dog. 



The Emperor of Brazil, who took the greatest interest in 

 the doings of the Ecole Normale laboratory, having written to 

 Pasteur asking when the preventive treatment could be applied 

 to man, Pasteur answered as follows 



" September 22. 



" SIRE Baron Itajuba, the Minister for Brazil, has handed 

 me the letter which Your Majesty has done me the honour of 

 writing on August 21. The Academy welcomed with unani- 

 mous sympathy your tribute to the memory of our illustrious 

 colleague, M. Dumas; it will listen with similar pleasure to 

 the words of regret which you desire me to express on the 

 subject of M. Wurtz's premature death. 



" Your Majesty is kind enough to mention my studies on 

 hydrophobia ; they are making good and uninterrupted pro- 

 gress. I consider, however, that it will take me nearly two 

 years more to bring them to a happy issue. . . . 



1 ' What I want to do is to obtain prophylaxis of rabies after 

 bites. 



" Until now I have not dared to attempt anything on men, 

 in spite of my own confidence in the result and the numerous 

 opportunities afforded to me since my last reading at the 

 Academy of Sciences. I fear too much that a failure might 

 compromise the future, and I want first to accumulate success- 

 ful cases on animals. Things in that direction are going very 

 well indeed ; I already have several examples of dogs made 

 refractory after a rabietic bite. I take two dogs, cause them 

 both to be bitten by a mad dog ; I vaccinate the one and leave 

 the other without any treatment : the latter dies and the first 

 remains perfectly well. 



" But even when I shall have multiplied examples of the 

 prophylaxis of rabies in dogs, I think my hand will tremble 

 when I go on to Mankind. It is here that the high and power- 

 ful initiative of the head of a State might intervene for the good 

 of humanity. If I were a King, an Emperor, or even the 

 President of a Republic, this is how I should exercise my right 

 of pardoning criminals condemned to death. I should invite 

 the counsel of a condemned man, on the eve of the day fixed 



