PATHOLOGY OF HYDROPHOBIA 613 



and in the cells of the anterior cornua of the grey matter in the 

 spinal cord, and also in the nuclei of the cranial nerves, various 

 degenerations have been described. Round the nerve cells in 

 the grey matter of the cord and medulla, Babes described 

 accumulations of newly -formed cells, and Van Gehuchten observed 

 a phagocytosis of the cells in the posterior root ganglia and also 

 in the sympathetic ganglia. Both of these conditions were at one 

 time thought to be specific of rabies, but this has been found not 

 to be the case. In the white matter, especially in the posterior 

 columns, swelling of the axis cylinders and breaking up of the 

 myeline sheaths have been noted, and similar changes occur also 

 in the spinal nerves, especially of the part of the body through 

 which infection has come. In the nervous system also some 

 have seen minute bodies which they have considered to be cocci, 

 but there is no evidence that they are really of this nature. The 

 changes in the other parts of the body are unimportant. 



Experimental pathology confirms the view that the nervous 

 system is the centre of the disease by finding in it a special 

 concentration of what, from want of a more exact term, we must 

 call the hydrophobic virus. Pasteur's first contribution to the 

 subject was to show that the most certain method of infection 

 was by inserting the infective matter beneath the dura mater. 

 He found that in the case of any animal or man dead of the 

 disease, injection by this method, of emulsions of any part 

 of the central nervous system, of the cerebro -spinal fluid, or 

 of the saliva, invariably gave rise to rabies, and also that the 

 natural period of incubation was shortened. Further, the 

 identity of the furious and paralytic forms was proved, as 

 sometimes the one, sometimes the other, was produced, what- 

 ever form had been present in the original case. Inoculation 

 into the anterior chamber of the eye is nearly as efficacious as 

 subdural infection. Infection with the blood or solid organs 

 of rabid animals does not reproduce the disease. There is 

 evidence, however, that the poison also exists in such glands as 

 the pancreas and mamma. Subcutaneous infection with part of 

 the nervous system of an animal dead of rabies may or may not 

 give rise to the disease. 



In consequence of the introduction of such reliable inoculation 

 methods, further information has been acquired regarding the 

 spread and distribution of the virus in the body. Gaining 

 entrance by the infected wound, it early manifests its affinity for 

 the nervous tissues. It reaches the central nervous system 

 chiefly by spreading up the peripheral nerves. This can be 

 shown by inoculating an animal subcutaneously in one of its 



