HYDROPHOBIA 265 



of the treatment is doubtful if applied later than one hour 

 after the bite. 



Pasteur's Method of Preventive Inoculation. — Previous to 

 this great discovery and its application to man, in the 

 year 1885, no remedy was known which was of the slightest 

 avail, and the percentage mortality was great ; but since 

 this system was adopted in the year 1886, at the Pasteur 

 Institute, the mortality among the patients was "94 per cent., 

 falling to '13 per cent, in 1895. From the beginning of 

 1886 to the end of 1895 over 17,000 persons were inocu- 

 lated — that is, about 1,700 per year. 



Pasteur discovered, by experimenting on dogs and 

 rabbits, that whereas inoculation with a fresh cord from a 

 rabid animal never failed to produce typical rabies, yet 

 when a cord that had been dried for some days was 

 employed this did not happen ; and that by starting with 

 one that had been dried for fourteen days, and then follow- 

 ing up with one that had been dried for a less time, it was 

 possible to produce a ' protection ' against rabies, and that 

 animals so treated might be bitten with impunity by rabid 

 animals. This success led him to attempt to use this 

 process as a remedial measure in the case of persons already 

 bitten, with the intention of conferring immunity before the 

 infection from the bite has had time to take effect. It is 

 obvious that success must be to some extent governed by 

 the length of time allowed to elapse between the infection 

 and the inception of the treatment, and that the sooner the 

 patient is treated the greater will be his chance of escaping 

 from the disease, the best results being obtained when the 

 treatment is commenced within three days after the infec- 

 tion. The treatment was thoroughly examined and reported 

 on favourably by the English Commission on Pasteur's 

 Eesearches. 



Method of Preparing the Spinal Cords and their Application 



