3 i 6 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



I sent a message to the Embassy that I would be very 

 glad, if the Princess desired it, to be present, and as 

 she expressed her wish that I should do so, I attended 

 at the Institute on the morning fixed for their visit. 

 The party soon arrived, the Prince of Wales unexpec- 

 tedly accompanying them. Pasteur, who was much 

 flattered by the visit, received the Royal party at the 

 entrance, and conducted them through the laboratories. 

 When this had been accomplished he said: "We 

 will now proceed to the anti-rabic department." I 

 then asked the Prince of Wales whether the young 

 ladies would care to see the operations performed, to 

 which the Prince replied : " Of course ; the girls will 

 go to see everything." The Princess and her 

 daughters took the greatest interest in the cases. The 

 scene was certainly a remarkable one. The room was 

 filled with more than fifty persons, men, women and 

 children, of all ages, and of every nationality, all of 

 them having been bitten by dogs either known to be 

 or supposed to be suffering from rabies. As Pasteur 

 was not a surgeon, he did not operate himself, the 

 operator in this case being a young Englishman, with 

 whom I have since been intimate, Dr. Armand 

 Ruffer. Nothing could exceed the skill and the 

 gentleness, as well as the quickness, with which he 

 inoculated the patients as they passed before him. 

 Every operation was practically painless, and scarcely 

 anyone flinched, with the exception of a few of the 

 children, who cried when the needle was inserted, and 

 in these cases it was touching to notice with what 

 tenderness Pasteur endeavoured to soothe and comfort 

 them. The Princess took one of the little children 

 from its mother's arms, kissed it, and gave a sovereign 

 to the woman, whose child had been bitten ; she was 

 the wife of an English policeman. Many of the cases 



