172 The Carnivora. 
were bitten by mad dogs, and three of these became rabid; 
eight were inoculated by intra-venous injection of the virus 
‘from a rabid dog, and five were inoculated with the same 
matter by trepanning—all becoming rabid. .Thus, sixteen of 
the nineteen unprotected dogs succumbed, while all those pre- 
viously protected with M. Pasteur’s attenuated virus have 
resisted the effects of both the bite of the rabid dog and 
artificial inoculation with his virus. There is, perhaps, some 
significance in the fact that only three of the dogs bitten 
by the rabid dogs died, whereas all those artificially treated 
with the rabific virus became rabid. The natural bite, then, 
would appear to be not always certain to communicate the 
disease. 
M. Pasteur, indeed, seems on the eve of giving to the 
world a discovery of the highest importance, and of not 
less practical utility to the animal world than to mankind; 
though, doubtless, as in the case of every other discovery 
made by means of physiological experiment for the relief 
of suffering humanity, it will be .insisted that nothing has 
been discovered, and no benefit whatever has accrued from 
the researches ! 
As in the case of every other obscure disease, rabies has 
been the subject of endless reputed “cures” and specifics. 
Some fourteen years ago, a well-known and highly-respected 
gentleman, with, no doubt, the best intentions, proposed, in 
the Field, to raise a sum of money, by public subscription, 
to buy up the “secret” of the much-vaunted “ Birling” 
cure for hydrophobia; but the editor very wisely threw 
cold water on the scheme, for the adoption of any nostrum 
does infinite harm, by engendering a false confidence in a 
pretended specific, to the exclusion of measures founded on 
surgical knowledge. A physician believed that he had found 
a specific in the powdered leaves of Xanthium spinosum, to 
be given in doses of 9igrs. twice daily for three weeks; but 
this and all others of a similar kind have broken down under 
the test of direct experiment in competent hands. The sup- 
