464 Chapter XV 



the Pravaz type and are carried out under conditions of rigorous 

 cleanliness. 



If the bites are numerous, or if they are situated on exposed parts, 

 the treatment is prolonged for 18 days and is further distinguished in 

 that the cords of 4 and of 3 days are injected much more frequently. 



In especially grave cases, when the bites are on the face and head, 

 the treatment extends over 3 weeks. A more rapid progress is made 

 by making four injections instead of two during the two first days ; 

 in this way a greater quantity of the virulent cords is injected than 

 in the first two types of treatment. 



The effect of the antirabic vaccinations is usually very good. 

 During the early years of their application the results were fully 

 discussed from all points of view, and no efforts were neglected of 

 seeking out objections of every kind. For the purpose of obtain- 

 ing rigorously accurate statistics a separate division was made, at 

 the Pasteur Institute, for the cases of persons treated after bites 

 inflicted by dogs whose rabic condition had been demonstrated 

 experimentally (by the injection of an emulsion of the bulb below 

 the dura mater or into the anterior chamber of the eye of the rabbit 

 or guinea-pig). A second and special set of statistics was drawn up 

 of cases where the bites had been inflicted by animals whose rabic 

 condition had been recognised by veterinary examination. Indi- 

 viduals bitten by animals that were simply suspected to suffer from 

 rabies were kept separate. 



Thanks to this systematic classification we were able, at the Pasteur 

 Institute of Paris, to establish the fact that the antirabic vaccinations 

 performed on persons bitten by animals that were undoubtedly mad 

 resulted in an extremely low mortality from rabies. Finding it 

 impossible to attack these results, demonstrated with the precision of 

 a laboratory experiment, the adversaries of the Pasteurian method 

 alleged that, quite apart from any vaccination, the percentage of 

 cases of rabies in persons bitten by mad animals is not greater 

 than amongst the vaccinated. A hitch in the application of the 

 new vaccinal method soon demonstrated how entirely unfounded 

 was this objection. At the Bacteriological Institute of Odessa, 

 founded in 1886, that is to say almost immediately after the Paris 

 Institute, the first attempts at vaccination were followed by a mor- 

 tality from rabies of 5*88 per cent., a figure incomparably higher 

 than that of the Paris Institute. Analysing the probable causes of 

 [487] this want of success it was found that the Russian rabbits, being 



