298 THE DISEASES AND DISOEDERS OP THE OX. 



cauterised with phenic acid by Dr. Weber. The third person 

 was the mother of Joseph Meister, but she had not been bitten. 

 The dog had been killed by its master, and on examination after 

 death it was found that the stomach was full of hay, straw, and bits 

 of wood. M. Vone was badly bruised about the arm ; but, the dog's 

 teeth not having penetrated his shirt, he was advised to repair 

 homewards on the same day; medical friends agreed that he was 

 not in any danger, his wound's being only contused. The boy 

 and his mother were kept at the laboratory. 



Drs. Vulpian and G rancher saw the fourteen wounds which 

 had been inflicted on the boy, and they agreed with M. Pasteur 

 that it was next to impossible that he could escape being seized 

 with hydrophobia, and, in fact, that he was most certainly doomed 

 to die from that disease, if no help could be given. M. Pasteur 

 communicated to them the results of his latest experiments, and 

 resolved to try the same method which had been so invariably 

 successful in the case of dogs. It is to be borne in mind that 

 M. Pasteur had also made several dogs impervious to rabies after 

 they had been bitten. The mother also urged her entreaties, 

 and hence M. Pasteur finally agreed to direct the operations of 

 Drs. Graucher and Vul[)ian. Accordingly, at 8 p.m. on July 6th, 

 sixty hours after the bites had been inflicted, in the presence of 

 Drs. Vulpian and Graucher, beneath a fold of the skin of th& 

 boy's right hypochondrium they injected half the contents of a 

 syringeful of suitably prepared marrow which had been taken 

 from a rabbit which had died of rabies on June 21, and had 

 been preserved for the intervening fifteen days in a flask, the 

 air of which had been kept dry. The virus of this marrow had 

 thus been weakened by being dried in air, that is in contact with 

 oxygen for a period of fifteen days. It is not to be exposed to 

 the free atmosphere, where it would undergo decomposition ;- 

 but it is to be suspended in a jar provided with a cotton-wool 

 stopper at the mouth, and a cotton-wool stopper at an aperture 

 below, which permits the air to pass through, filtered and pure. 

 In order to keep the air dry, some caustic potash is placed at 

 the bottom of the jar. 



The following table shows how the progress was made from 

 weaker to more intense virulence, each successive inoculation 

 coming nearer and nearer to the original virus of a rabid dog, 

 and then passing on to the still more intense virulence of a 



