NOVEMBEK 6, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



399 



positive judgment or intelligent criticism concern- 

 ing them. If correctly reported, Pasteur is con- 

 vinced that he has discovered means by which the 

 virus of hydrophobia can be attenuated, and that, 

 by the inoculation of the attenuated virus, indi- 

 viduals may be rendered, for the time being, 

 insusceptible to the disease. The attenuation is 

 said to be effected by preserving for a variable 

 length of time pieces of the spinal cord of rabbits 

 which have been inoculated with the hydrophobic 

 virus. The longer the pieces of spinal cord are 

 preserved, the weaker becomes the virus contained 

 in them. It is evident that the spinal cord must 

 be preserved in a manner not to decompose, and 

 at the same time not to destroy at once, the 

 hydrophobic virus. We are not informed how 

 these ends are accomplished, but in accordance 

 with Pasteur's doctrine of attenuation of virus, 

 they must be reached without any obstacle to the 

 free access of oxygen to the specimen. Of especial 

 interest is the statement that inoculation with 

 attenuated virus will prevent the outbreak of the 

 disease, even when this inoculation is performed 

 after the reception into the body of the strong 

 virus by the bite of a rabid animal. There is no 

 information as to whether this inoculation is 

 effectual after the development of the symptoms of 

 hydrophobia or not. 



The conclusions of Pasteur, coming from so 

 great an authority, will receive, as they deserve, 

 resijectful and serious consideration. It is under- 

 stood that for no less than five years Pasteur has 

 given the greater share of his time and labor to 

 the study of hydrophobia. It is probable that his 

 conclusions are based upon a large number of 

 careful experiments upon animals. The two or 

 three reported instances of preventive inoculation 

 of human beings, which have excited such 

 popular interest, and which have been reported 

 with so much dramatic detail in the newspapers, 

 can hardly lay claim to much scientific value in 

 proof of Pasteur's views. Even if the number of 

 reported cases were much larger, it would be 

 necessary to use great caution in drawing from 

 them positive conclusions, in view of the facts that 

 the period of incubation of hydroiDhobia is very 

 variable, and sometimes of many months' duration; 

 that a considerable number of those bitten by 

 rabid dogs never contract hydrophobia, even 

 when no especial treatment has been adopted ; and 

 that there is great popular ignorance as to the 

 symptoms and means of recognition of hydro- 

 phobia in dogs. 



There is no evidence that the real nature of the 

 hydrophobic virus has been discovered ; indeed, 

 we have, in June of the present year, the positive 

 statement of Bouley, who is believed to be 

 famihar with Pasteur's work, that no organism 

 has been isolated or cultivated which can be con- 

 sidered to be the virus of hydrophobia, and that 

 Pasteur's researches have been conducted without a 

 knowledge of the biological properties of the sus- 

 pected organism. The whole subject of immunity 

 from disease by preventive inoculation is in a very 

 unsettled state. We possess a mass of superficial 

 observations and undigested conclusions on the 

 subject, but we have very few positive and well- 

 established facts. It is to be hoped that Pasteur's 

 researches upon the inoculation and cure of hydro- 

 phobia will be found, when they are fully pub- 

 lished, to add greatly to our knowledge of this 

 subject, and that the blessings which are antici- 

 pated from his discovery may be reahzed. 



THE BURMAN DISPUTE. 



The Bombay-Burma company, a British cor- 

 poration having very important interests in 

 Independent Burma, was ordered by the Bui-man 

 government to pay twenty lacs of rupees (about 

 $1,000,000) in respect of their forest leases. The 

 company replied that it was unable to pay such 

 an enormous sum, and, furthermore, that no such 

 payment was required under any reasonable con- 

 struction of the grants from the Burman king. 

 Judgment was accordingly entered against it. The 

 company appealed to the British government, and 

 on the twenty-eighth of last August ' the officiat- 

 ing secretary to the chief commissioner of British 

 Burma ' wrote to the Burman minister for foreign 

 affairs, reciting the facts as they are here given. 

 He then proceeded to inform the Burman minis- 

 ter that the British government — not the chief 

 commissioner, not the Indian Viceroy, but the 

 British government — ' cannot acquiesce ' in any 

 such ^proceedings. He asked that all further ac- 

 tions against the company should be suspended, 

 and proposed that the whole dispute should be 

 referred to a person skilled in judicial matters, to 

 be appointed by the Viceroy of India. He closed 

 by requesting the Burman government to ' make 

 a very early reply ' to these three questions : (1) 

 whether the decree would be suspended ; (2) 

 whether the matter would be submitted to arbi- 

 tration ; and (3) whether the Bm-man government 

 would agree to abide by the arbiti-ator's decision. 



To an unbiassed observer tliis proposition that 

 the government of one of the parties to a dispute 



