HYDROPHOBIA 283 



the rabid animal's teeth is as well established as any 

 fact in medicine or in history. But fortunately the 

 disease is rare and comparatively few physicians have 

 been called upon to treat a case of it. It is reported 

 that ninety-one persons have died of hydrophobia in 

 the city of Chicago during the past ten years. 



The disease was known to the ancients and is very 

 clearly described by Celus (B.C. 21). As long ago 

 as 1813 the French physicians Magendie and Bouchet 

 produced rabies in dogs by inoculating them with 

 saliva obtained from a man suffering from hydro- 

 phobia. But our exact knowledge of the disease 

 dates from the researches of the famous French 

 chemist, Pasteur (1881 to 1886). Pasteur first an- 

 nounced his success in reproducing rabies in suscept- 

 ible animals by inoculations with material from the 

 nervous system brain, spinal cord in a communica- 

 tion made to the French Academy of Sciences on 

 May 30, 1 88 1. At the same time he reported his 

 success in the discovery of " a method for consid- 

 erably shortening the period of incubation in rabies 

 and also of reproducing the disease with certainty." 

 This was by inoculations, made after trephining, 

 upon the surface of the brain, with material obtained 

 from the brain of a rabid animal. Dogs inoculated 

 in this way developed rabies in the course of two 

 weeks and died before the end of the third week. In 



