xin LISTER INSTITUTE 331 



from the rat the animal which appears to be the first 

 to be attacked to the human being ? Some think 

 that the intermediary is the flea, but no one knows. 

 A Commission has been appointed by Government to 

 investigate the question, upon the scientific solution of 

 which, it is clear, any method of preventing or curing 

 the disease depends. The Lister Institute has sent 

 out its Director, Dr. Charles Martin, in charge of this 

 Commission, together with two others of its scientific 

 staff, and we entertain the best hopes of the success of 

 this enterprise. 



The Governing Body of the Institute consists of 

 Dr. J. Rose Bradford, Major Bruce, Sir Michael Foster, 

 Lord Iveagh, Professor Osier, Mr. J. L. Pattison, C.B., 

 as treasurer, and myself as chairman, whilst Lord Lister 

 is our president. I may add that it is the unanimous 

 determination of the Governing Body that the work of 

 the Institute shall be prosecuted with a zeal propor- 

 tional to the generosity of its benefactor, so that this 

 country may truly ere long be said to be in possession 

 of an Institute not second even to the Institut Pasteur 

 of Paris. This Institute does not, however, undertake 

 to inoculate persons bitten by rabid dogs, as the rapid 

 means of communication between England and Paris 

 renders this unnecessary, and since at present, as I have 

 already stated, hydrophobia no longer exists among us. 

 Unlike the recently discovered antidote to snake poison- 

 ing, the inoculation for rabies may be successfully 

 carried out even a week after the bite has occurred. 



Unfortunately the anti-vivisectionist fanatics in 

 England have done all they could to thwart these 

 most beneficial discoveries of Pasteur in their applica- 

 tion to suffering humanity. They raised violent 

 opposition to the building of the Institute of Preven- 

 tive Medicine in Chelsea, But, fortunately for the 



