PRKVENTIOX 483 



§ 375. Prevention and treatment. The prevention 

 of rabies infection resolves itself into two procedures, (i) 

 The destruction of all ownerless and vagrant dogs, and (2) the 

 muzzling of all dogs that appear upon the streets or in public 

 places. In thus preventing the propagation of the virus, as 

 shown by the results obtained in Germany and Great Britain, 

 the disease will be practically exterminated. 



There is no treatment for rabies except the preventive 

 inoculation known as the Pasteur treatment by which an im- 

 munity is produced by the subcutaneous injection of the virus 

 of rabies in an attenuated form, beginning with the mildest 

 virus and going gradually up to one which possesses nearly or 

 full virulence. The attenuation of the virus is brought about 

 by drying at a fixed temperature and the action of the atmos- 

 phere. Depending upon the length of time the virus is ex- 

 posed to the influences, we can obtain any degree of virulence 

 desired, the loss of virulence under fixed conditions beins: 

 quite uniform. 



The disease as seen in dogs infected naturally was called 

 by Pasteur ".street rabies" and the virus of such animals is 

 known as the " virus of street rabies." Such virus will as a 

 rule produce the disease in rabbits by intra-cranial inoculation 

 in from three to four weeks. By inoculating rabbits in .series 

 one from the other, a reduction of the period of incubation is 

 obtained. After about 100 passages rabbits will die with cer- 

 tainty and great regularit}' on the sixth or seventh da}- after 

 inoculation. Beyond this point no increase of virulence has 

 been obtained. This is the fixed virus of Pasteur. 



The simultaneous method which consists in the injection 

 simultaneously of a strong virus and the .serum of an immune 

 animal is now being used with reported success in the Pasteur 

 Institute of Paris. 



REFERENCES 



1. Babes. .Sur certains caracteres des lesions histologiques de la 

 rage. Ann. dc I' Ins/iiul Pasteur, Vol. \'I (1892), p. 299. 



2. B.A.BES. Untersuchungen iiber die Negrischen Korper und ihre 



