Ill PASTEUR AND HYDROPHOBIA 139 



the wholesale treatment of patients by him in Paris. 

 Until he has himself published that account, we ought 

 to be very careful about coming to an absolute con- 

 clusion either for or against the efficacy of his treat- 

 ment in regard to men. 



On the other hand, the fundamental results of his 

 study of rabies and hydrophobia stand in no such 

 position, but are sharp, experimental demonstrations, 

 which he has publicly announced before the scientific 

 world, and has verified in the most important instance 

 before a commission appointed by the Government. 



Let us note some of these results. 1 They have 

 been obtained by experimentally inoculating dogs, 

 rabbits, guinea-pigs, and monkeys. The experiments 

 have been performed by M. Pasteur himself and his 

 experienced and highly - skilled assistants, MM. 

 Chamberland and Koux. Precautions which a thorough 

 knowledge of the subject suggested have been taken. 

 Thus, for instance, in his very first experiments, M. 

 Pasteur cleared the ground considerably by distinguish- 

 ing a kind of blood-poisoning, due to the presence of 

 a certain bacterium in human saliva, which is liable 

 to be introduced with the saliva of a hydrophobic 

 patient when this is made use of for the purpose of 

 setting up rabies experimentally in a rabbit, and is 

 also present in normal saliva. Not feeling sure that 

 some rabbits thus treated had really died from rabies, 

 and suspecting that they might have died from a 



1 I am indebted to an excellent report by my friend Dr. Vignal, of 

 the College de France, published in the British Medical Journal, for 

 the chief facts relative to M. Pasteur's published results. 



