114 MICROBES AND HEALTH. 



ence, I never saw a case of hydrophobia in a native of 

 India, and I have reason to believe that the experience 

 of others who have practiced in India is similar to mine. 



"The rarity of hydrophobia in Great Britain is shown 

 by the statistics of the Kegistrar General, from which 

 it appears that for the forty years ending 1877, the 

 average annual death rate from this disease in England 

 and Wales was considerably less than one to a million 

 of the population. In 1862 only one death took place 

 from this cause, while in Scotland only three cases of 

 the disease were registered during the years 1855-'74. 



"It must be borne in mind that hydrophobia never 

 results from the bite of a healthy animal, and further, 

 that a very large majority of persons bitten by undoubt- 

 edly rabid animals escape unharmed. The proportion 

 who contract hydrophobia are variously estimated at 

 from five to twenty per cent. John Hunter mentions 

 a case in which out of twenty-one persons bitten by a 

 rabid dog only one subsequently died from hydrophobia. 



"These particulars plainly show how foolish and un- 

 reasonable are the periodical scares which have pre- 

 vailed from time to time ever since public attention 

 was drawn to this subject twenty years ago by the sen- 

 sational proceedings of M. Pasteur and his followers. 

 Those proceedings have produced a most disastrous 

 effect upon the public mind by giving undo prominence 

 to a very rare disease, and by needlessly magnifying a 

 danger so slight and so remote as to be scarcely deserv- 

 ing of notice. 



"Contrary to universal experience, the leading con- 

 tention of M. Pasteur and his followers has always been 



