190 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



marrows decreases gradually until the fourteenth 

 day of desiccation, when a minimum is reached. At 

 the Pasteur Institute, the marrows of more than 

 fourteen days are thrown away as being inert and 

 useless. 



A person having been bitten by a mad dog is 

 first injected * with the weakest virus, and on each 

 successive day or so with gradually stronger viruses 

 until the more powerful or most powerful virus is 

 used. After this treatment the patient very rarely 

 dies of rabies. During the years 1886-9 no less 

 than 7893 patients were treated at the Pasteur 

 Institute, and out of this number there were 53 

 deaths, which represents a mortality of 0'67 per 

 cent. But since 1889 the mortality has been re- 

 duced to 0*2 per cent., due, no doubt, to the better 

 skill in the application of the treatment. 2 



It may be stated in passing that at the Pasteur 

 Institute, Paris, there are two rabbits inoculated, 

 and, consequently, also two dying (of rabies) every 

 day, ' for fear if one alone were used it might die 

 from accident, and the series be interrupted. Prac- 

 tically one animal is found to be quite sufficient, 

 and the second one is only inoculated for prudence' 

 sake.' 



' The medulla or cord of a rabbit in which the 



1 In the hypochondria (i. e. certain abdominal regions). 



2 Concerning the interesting statistics of the Pasteur Insti- 

 tutes of St. Petersburg, Odessa, Moscow, Warsaw, Charkow, 

 Turin, Bucharest, Naples, and Havannah, the reader is referred 

 to the latest edition of Cornil and Babes' book Les Bactdries 

 (1890). 



