200 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



a victim of his own courage unless the new treatment inter- 

 vened. The answer came immediately : Pasteur declared that, 

 after five years' study, he had succeeded in making dogs refrac- 

 tory to rabies, even six or eight days after being bitten; that 

 he had only once yet applied his method to a human being, but 

 that once with success, in the case of little Meister, and that, 

 if Jupille's family consented, the boy might be sent to him. 

 " I shall keep him near me in a room of my laboratory ; he will 

 be watched and need not go to bed ; he will merely receive a 

 daily prick, not more painful than a pin-prick." 



The family, on hearing this letter, came to an immediate 

 decision ; but, between the day when he was bitten and Jupille's 

 arrival in Paris, six whole days had elapsed, whilst in Meister's 

 case there had only been two and a half ! 



Yet, however great were Pasteur's fears for the life of this 

 tall lad, who seemed quite surprised when congratulated on his 

 courageous conduct, they were not what they had been in the 

 first instance — he felt much greater confidence. 



A few days later, on October 26, Pasteur in a statement at 

 the Academy of Sciences described the treatment followed foi 

 Meister. Three months and three days had passed, and the 

 child remained perfectly well. Then he spoke of his new 

 attempt. Vulpian rose — 



'The Academy will not be surprised," he said, "if, as a 

 member of the Medical and Surgical Section, I ask to be allowed 

 to express the feelings of admiration inspired in me by M. 

 Pasteur's statement. I feel certain that those feelings will be 

 shared by the whole of the medical profession. 



' Hydrophobia, that dread disease against which all thera- 

 peutic measures had hitherto failed, has at last found a remedy. 

 M. Pasteur, who has been preceded by no one in this path, has 

 been led by a series of investigations unceasingly carried on 

 for several years, to create a method of treatment, by means 

 of which the development of hydrophobia can infallibly be j 

 vented in a patient recently bitten by a rabid dog. I say 

 infallibly, because, after what 1 have seen in M. Pasteur's 

 laboratory, I do not doubt the constant success of this tn I 

 ment when it is put into full practice a few days only after a 

 rabic bite. 



'It is now necessary to sec about organizing an installation 

 for the treatment of hydrophobia by M. Pasteur's method. 

 Every person bitten by a rabid dog must be given the oppor- 



