136 PASTEUR AND HYDROPHOBIA III 



tion which is still actually in progress, M. Pasteur's 

 work has been not quite fairly represented to the 

 public, and various astonishing criticisms and expres- 

 sions of individual opinion have been indulged in, 

 with regard to what M. Pasteur is doing, by persons 

 who, however gifted, have no adequate comprehension 

 of the task which the great experimenter has set before 

 himself. 



It must be distinctly remembered, on the one hand, 

 that the results which M. Pasteur has himself published, 

 and for which he has made himself responsible, have 

 been obtained by accurate and demonstrative experi- 

 ments upon animals ; they are results which can be 

 repeated and verified. On the other hand, M. Pasteur 

 has now advanced into a much more difficult field 

 namely, the application of his experimentally ascer- 

 tained results to the treatment of human beings. He 

 is actually in course of carrying out his inquiries in 

 regard to the efficacy of his treatment, and it is prob- 

 able that at no distant date he will himself give us a 

 detailed account of the conclusions to which these 

 inquiries lead. But he has not yet formulated any 

 such conclusion. 



We cannot and have not the remotest desire to 

 experiment upon human beings, as in the more enlight- 

 ened parts of Europe we are permitted, for good 

 purposes, to experiment upon dogs. It is not possible 

 to exactly arrange experimentally the conditions of a 

 human being who is to be the subject of inquiry in 

 regard to hydrophobia. You cannot make sure by 

 the inoculation in the most effective way of a dozen 



