Pastenr^s Life and Researches. 29 



lives had been saved by the treatment ; excluding them, 104. 



That was the result of the Royal Commission's inquiries. 

 But was it possible to protect animals from that fearful disease ? 

 Here the question was much simpler and more easily decided 

 than in the case of human beings, and the Royal Commissioners 

 were themselves enabled to submit it to an experimental inquiry. 

 Mr. Victor Hersley, the secretary to the Commission, was 

 entrusted with the experiments. Through the kindness of 

 Pasteur, two rabbits inoculated by him were placed at the 

 disposal of the committee, and were conveyed safely to the 

 Brown Institution within twenty-four hours. A week later 

 they showed the first symptoms of hydrophobia, and eventually 

 died. Other rabbits and dogs were then inoculated with the 

 fresh spinal marrow of the dead rabbits, and died, with all the 

 symptoms of hydrophobia. The disease was thus proved to be 

 capable of rapid transmission in the manner described by 

 Pasteur. Next the preventive treatment was tried. Six dogs 

 were protected by Pasteur's method of treatment, and were 

 allowed to be bitten by furiously rabid animals ; at the same 

 time unprotected dogs were also allowed to be bitten. Only 

 one protected dog died, and he perished, not from hydrophobia, 

 but from other causes. Inoculation from his spinal cord did 

 not produce hydrophobia. Of the unprotected animals, all the 

 dogs died, and from 50 to 75 per cent, of the rabbits. Thus, all 

 the experiments performed by Mr. Horsley had confirmed M. 

 Pasteur's discovery of a method by which animals might be 

 protected from rabies, and the Royal Commission further 

 state that they think it certain that M. Pasteur's treatment of 

 those who had been bitten by rabid animals has prevented the 

 occurrence of hydrophobia in a large proportion of those who 

 would otherwise have died of the disease ; " and we believe," 

 they say, " that the value of his discovery will be found much 

 greater than can be estimated from its present utility, for it 

 shows that it may be possible to avert by inoculation, even after 

 infection, other diseases besides hydrophobia." 



Let us hope that Pasteur may long be spared, and that he 

 may realise, in part at least, the fulfilment of that conception. 



