428 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



questioned by nerve", answered that his intention was to found 

 a model establishment in Paris, supported by donations and 

 international subscriptions, without having recourse to the 

 State. But he added that he wanted to wait a little longer 

 until the success of the treatment was undoubted. Statistics 

 came to support it; Bouley, who had been entrusted with an 

 official inquiry on the subject under the Empire, had found 

 that the proportion of deaths after bites from rabid dogs had 

 been 40 per 100, 320 cases having been watched. The propor- 

 tion often was greater still : whilst Joseph Meister was under 

 Pasteur's care, five persons were bitten by a rabid dog on the 

 Pantin Eoad, near Paris, and every one of them succumbed to 

 hydrophobia. 



Pasteur, instead of referring to Bouley's statistics, preferred 

 to adopt those of M. Leblanc, a veterinary surgeon and a 

 member of the Academy of Medicine, who had for a long time 

 been head of the sanitary department of the Prefecture de Police. 

 These statistics only gave a proportion of deaths of 16 per 100, 

 and had been carefully and accurately kept. 



On March 1, he was able to affirm, before the Academy, 

 that the new method had given proofs of its merit, for, out of 

 350 persons treated, only one death had taken place, that of the 

 little Pelletier. He concluded thus 



"It may be seen, by comparison with the most rigorous 

 statistics, that a very large number of persons have already been 

 saved from death. 



11 The prophylaxis of hydrophobia after a bite is established. 



"It is advisable to create a vaccinal institute against 

 hydrophobia." 



The Academy of Sciences appointed a Commission who 

 unanimously adopted the suggestion that an establishment for 

 the preventive treatment of hydrophobia after a bite should be 

 created in Paris, under the name of Institut Pasteur. A sub- 

 scription was about to be opened in France and abroad. The 

 spending of the funds would be directed by a special Committee. 



A great wave of enthusiasm and generosity swept from one 

 end of France to another and reached foreign countries. A 

 newspaper of Milan, the Perseveranza, which had opened a 

 subscription, collected 6,000 fr. in its first list. The Journal 

 d' Alsace headed a propaganda in favour of this work, " sprung 

 from Science and Charity." It reminded its readers that 

 Pasteur had occupied a professor's chair in the former brilliant 



