472 



HYDROPHOBIA. 



July 9, 1885, ii A.M., cord of July 

 10 

 II 



12 

 13 

 14 

 15 



16 



The patient never manifested the slightest symptom of 

 hydrophobia. Other similarly favourable results followed ; 

 and this prophylactic treatment of the disease quickly gained 

 the confidence of the scientific world, which it still main- 

 tains. (The principle is, of course, the same as in artificially 

 developing a high degree of active immunity against a 

 bacterial infection.) The only modification which the 

 method has undergone, has been in the treatment of serious 

 cases, such as multiple bites from wolves, extensive bites 

 about the head, especially in children, cases which come 

 under treatment at a late period of the incubation stage, 

 and cases where the wounds have not cicatrised. In such 

 cases the stages of the treatment are condensed. Thus on 

 the first day, say at 1 1 A.M. and 4 P.M. and 9 P.M., cords of 

 12, 10, and 8 days respectively are used; on the second 

 day, cords of 6, 4, and 2 days ; on the third day, a cord of 

 i day ; on the fourth day, cords of 8, 6, and 4 days ; on 

 the fifth, cords of 3 and 2 days ; on the sixth, cords of i 

 day ; and so on for i o days. The success of the treatment 

 has. been very marked. The statistics of the cases treated 

 in Paris are published quarterly in the Annales de VInstitut 

 Pasteur, and general summaries of the results of each year 

 are also prepared. As we have said, the ordinary mortality 

 formerly was 16 per cent of all persons bitten. During 

 the ten years 1886-95, 17,337 cases were treated, with a 

 mortality of .48 per cent. It has been alleged that many 

 people are treated who have been bitten by dogs that were 

 not mad. This, however, is not more true of the cases 

 treated by Pasteur's method than it was of those on which 

 the ordinary mortality of 16 per cent was based, and care 

 is taken in making up the statistics to distinguish the cases 



