RABIES. 233 



distant when canine madness would be extinguished by vaccina- 

 tion, he hoped, pending that consummation, that he would be able 

 to avert the consequences of a bite from a mad dog. He 

 said — " Thanks to the duration of incubation after a bite, I have 

 every reason to believe that patients can be rendered insuscep- 

 tible before the mortal malady has had time to declare itself." 



M. Pasteur's anticipations were put to the test by a Commis- 

 sion appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction, consisting of 

 MM. Bouley, President; Paul Bert, Becland, Vulpian, Tisserand, 

 Director of Agriculture, and Professor Villemin. 



Forty dogs were submitted to the bites of rabid dogs. Twenty 

 of these healtliy dogs had been previously inoculated with 

 attenuated virus, whilst the other twenty were not inoculated ; the 

 rabies showed itself exclusively among the non-inoculated dogs. 



M. Pasteur was requested by the Commission to perform his 

 proof experiments in a more expeditious and certain manner 

 than by only submitting healthy dogs to the bites of rabid ones. 

 He having found, first, that if nervous matter from the bulb 

 of the brain of a rabid animal be inserted on the brain — by 

 trej)hining — of a healthy dog ; second, that when the virus was 

 injected into the veins ; and third, that when the dogs were 

 repeatedly bitten about the head by rabid ones, a rapid and fatal 

 rabies occurred within twenty days — therefore proceeded to carry 

 out a series of experiments on protected and non-protected dogs, 

 with the result that none of the protected animals had, up to 

 10th July 1884, shown any signs of the disease, whilst twelve 

 of the unprotected ones, including two which were repeatedly 

 bitten about the head, had succumbed to the disease. 



The dogs still remaining healthy were to be watched by veteri- 

 nary surgeons for a year, to see whether the inoculations hold 

 good permanently or only temporarily. These experiments 

 proved entirely successful, and, acting upon this conclusion, 

 Pasteur continued to apply preventive inoculation to man, and 

 with remarkable success. 



The reprehensible practice of muzzling dogs in hot weather is 

 fortunately dying away. Hot weather does not cause rabies ; the 

 muzzling of dogs might do so, and even if it did not cause the 

 disease in question, it inflicts much misery upon the poor animals. 



PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY. 



From the symptoms observed during life, the conclusions natu- 



