328 BACTERIA. 



It is a most remarkable fact that although no micro- 

 organisms can be found in the virus, filtration through the 

 Pasteur filter keeps back the effective part of the virus, 

 whilst heating to ioo° C, or even "a prolonged heating to 

 80° C, destroys the activity of the virus; further, an alcoholic 

 extract of the emulsion does not contain any substance that 

 will confer immunity, nor will it, when inoculated, produce, 

 any symptoms of rabies. 



•That the patients themselves have great faith in the 

 treatment, we have ample evidence in the fact that so 

 many present themselves for treatment. It was an ex- 

 tremely interesting sight to see the members of the poly- 

 glot crowd in the waiting-room brought in, one by one, 

 for inoculation in the Pasteur Institute. As the patient's 

 name was called out, one assistant standing at a table on 

 which was arranged a row of little conical glasses, each 

 covered with a paper cap, and containing an emulsion of a 

 cord of a certain length of exposure, filled or partly filled 

 a Pravaz syringe with emulsion from one of these glasses, 

 according to the stage at which the treatment had arrived 

 (determined by reference to the case book). He handed the 

 syringe to the operating doctor, who, taking a fold of the 

 skin (which had been previously washed and purified with 

 carbolic acid, or some such antiseptic reagent), just above 

 the crest of the ilium, a part very easily exposed from the 

 arrangement of the attire of both males and females, inserted 

 the point of the needle, injected about half a S3a'inge full, 

 withdrew the needle, diffused the fluid as far as possible by 

 pressure, and the patient passed on. The syringe was 

 handed back to the assistant, who carefully sterilized it by 

 plunging it into hot water. The whole operation seemed to 

 take only a few seconds. A continual stream kept passing 

 from one room to another, each patient, as he went through, 

 undergoing the same process of inoculation. Everything 

 was done in the most orderly fashion, and one coUld not 

 but feel that Pasteur, who was standing in the room whilst 

 this was going on, had every right to feel proud, not only of 

 the splendid Institute in which he was working, but of the 

 excellent work that was being carried on, both in the field 

 of investigation and in the application for the benefit of 

 suffering humanity of the results of the investigations. 



In France they manage some things better than we do. 



