150 HOUSEHOLD BACTERIOLOGY 



At each laborotary where the treatment for the pre- 

 vention of rabies is carried on, this material of vary- 

 ing degrees of potency is kept constantly ready, so 

 that as soon as possible after a bite from a supposed 

 rabic animal the treatment may be started. The oper- 

 ation is a simple subcutaneous injection, resulting 

 usually only in a slight or temporary local soreness. 

 The whole affair is completed within two weeks, when 

 all apprehension may be dismissed. No untoward ef- 

 fects follow the treatment. 



The mortality from hydrophobia before the day of 

 preventive inoculation was about 16 per cent. Through 

 this treatment it has been reduced to about two-tenths 



The methods of securing artificial immunity to in- 

 fectious diseases, which we have so hastily surveyed, 

 widely different as the details may be, all seem to 

 depend upon the same wonderful power of the body 

 cells to adapt themselves to harmful conditions by the 

 use to new ends of the old physiological capacities. 



The task of the investigator centers largely in dis- 

 covering the ways in which the body cells may be 

 educated to their new responsibilities with safety and 

 despatch. 



We seem to be just at the dawn of discovery in this 

 newly opened field, and the outlook is of the highest 

 promise for the relief of suffering and the prolongation 

 of life. 



The various preventive means already devised are 

 in the hands of experts and require the greatest care 



