BACTERIA AND DISEASE 327 



but based on the principle of rendering the body immune 

 to the disease. This disease occurs on dogs and may be 

 communicated by biting to other kinds of animals and to 

 man. Remedies were formerly powerless against this 

 disease ; unless the germs were killed by promptly cauteriz- 

 ing the wound, the patient had no hope of escaping one 

 of the most horrible kinds of death. To the genius of 

 Louis Pasteur the world owes the discovery of a method 

 of cure now known as the Pasteur treatment. By a series 

 of injections of a preparation made from the spinal cord 

 of a mad dog the patient may usually be prevented from 

 contracting hydrophobia, even if the treatment is begun 

 several days after the bite. A very high percentage 

 of those bitten by rabid dogs contract hydrophobia. 

 The Pasteur Institute at Paris has treated many thousands 

 of such cases with an average mortality of less than one- 

 half of i per cent. Since the recent outbreak of rabies 

 in California, 641 persons have been treated by virus 

 supplied by the Hygienic Laboratory at Berkeley, Calif. 

 According to Dr. Geiger, " Eliminating all persons treated 

 who were not bitten, the percentage of failures with 

 virus supplied by this Bureau was 0.491, less than one-half 

 of i per cent." In over 98 per cent, of the persons bitten, 

 the animals doing the biting were found by laboratory 

 examination to have had rabies. 



There is no foundation for the belief that dogs are caused 

 to go mad by the hot weather of "dog days." All sus- 

 pected dogs should be confined until the time for symptoms 

 of hydrophobia to appear are past. By muzzling all dogs 

 whenever there is the least danger of hydrophobia this 

 disease could soon be stamped out, but through care- 

 lessness that is inexcusable in the light of our present 

 knowledge, hydrophobia in many localities has actually 

 been on the increase in recent years. 



