664 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



erfully affected by M. Pasteur's work, which has culminated in 

 his method of treating hydrophobia. I can not conceive that any 

 competently instructed person can consider M. Pasteur's labors in 

 this direction without arriving at the conclusion that, if any man 

 has earned the praise and honor of his fellows, he has. I find it 

 no less difficult to imagine that our wealthy country should be 

 other than ashamed to continue to allow its citizens to profit by 

 the treatment freely given at the institute without contributing 

 to its support. Opposition to the proposals which your lordship 

 sanctions would be equally inconceivable if it arose out of noth- 

 ing but the facts of the case thus presented. But the opposition 

 which, as I see from the English papers, is threatened, has really 

 for the most part nothing on earth to do either with M. Pasteur's 

 merits or with the efficacy of his method of treating hydrophobia. 

 It proceeds partly from the fanatics of laissez faire, who think it 

 better to rot and die than to be kept whole and lively by state 

 interference, partly from the blind opponents of properly con- 

 ducted physiological experimentation, who prefer that men should 

 suffer rather than rabbits or dogs, and partly from those Avho for 

 other but not less powerful motives hate everything which con- 

 tributes to prove the value of strictly scientific methods of in- 

 quiry in all those questions which affect the welfare of society. 

 I sincerely trust that the good sense of the meeting over which 

 your lordship will preside will preserve it from being influenced 

 by these unworthy antagonisms, and that the just and benevolent 

 enterprise you have undertaken may have a happy issue. 

 " I am, my Lord Mayor, your obedient servant, 



"Thomas H. Huxley. 



" The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, Mansion Ilouse, E. C." 



The following letter from M. Pasteur, dated Paris, the 27th 

 ult., was read by Sir H. Roscoe : 



" Dear Colleague and Friend : I am obliged by your send- 

 ing me a copy of the letter of invitation issued by the Lord Mayor 

 for the meeting on July 1st. Its perusal has given me great 

 pleasure. The questions relating to the prophylactic treatment 

 for hydrophobia in persons who have been bitten and the steps 

 which ought to be taken to stamp out the disease are discussed in 

 a manner both exact and judicious. Seeing that hydrophobia has 

 existed in England for a long time, and that medical science has 

 failed to ward off the occurrence even of the premonitory symp- 

 toms, it is clear that the prophylactic method of treating this 

 malady which I have discovered ought to be adopted in the case 

 of every person bitten by a rabid animal. The treatment required 

 by this method is painless during the whole of its course and not 

 disagreeable. In the early days of the application of this method, 



