508 



sciujsrcjEj. 



[Vol. VI., No. 149, 



It seems probable that Pasteur will be able by 

 means of observations on human beings to deter- 

 mine the practical value of his method of inocu- 

 lation for the prevention of hydrophobia. On 

 Dec. 4 six children in Newark were bitten by 

 a dog which was probably rabid. It has been 

 decided to send four of these children to Paris to 

 be treated by Pasteur according to his method. 

 Probably about sixteen or seventeen days will 

 elapse between the reception of the bites and the 

 beginning of the treatment. Regarded as an ex- 

 periment, the value of the result of this treatment 

 is increased by the fact that two of the children 

 will remain at home, and will probably not be 

 subjected to the treatment. Unfortunately the 

 dog was killed, so that positive proof of its being 

 rabid does not exist. 



It is not difficult to find much to criticise in 

 Pasteur's experiments on hydrophobia so far as 

 they have been reported. It should, however, be 

 remembered that these experiments have not yet 

 been published in detail, and it is not probable 

 that many points of criticism which readily sug- 

 gest themselves have escaped so acute and accurate 

 an observer as Pasteur. In fact, the main support 

 of Pasteur's views lies in his established reputa- 

 tion as a cautious and far-seeing experimenter. As 

 has been suggested in previous articles upon this 

 subject in recent numbers of Science, it certainly 

 seems a weak point that no micro-organism or 

 characteristic lesion has been discovered by which 

 it can be positively demonstrated that the disease 

 which Pasteur produces in rabbits is hydrophobia. 

 It has even been suggested that the disease of the 

 rabbits is possibly only septicaemia. It will 

 require a large number of observations on human 

 beings before it can be proven that Pasteur's 

 inoculations really prevent the development of 

 hydrophobia. It is to be remembered that not a 

 few of the dogs popularly supposed to be mad, and 

 which are killed for this reason, are not affected 

 with rabies. It is also abundantly established 

 that a considerable proportion of those who are 

 bitten by mad dogs never develop hydrophobia. 

 Of those who are subjected to Pasteur's treatment, 

 the wound has in most cases been already cauter- 

 ized or excised, and this local treatment may 

 account for the favorable result in some instances. 

 But, notwithstanding all possible objections, there 

 is still sufficient ground for confidence in Pasteur's 

 conclusions to make it a matter of congratulation 

 that the value of his treatment is to be so rapidly 



and so fully tested by its application to human 

 beings. It has been recently announced that in 

 one case, in which Pasteur began his treatment 

 thirty-six days after the reception of the bites, the 

 patient has died of hydrophobia. Pasteur attrib- 

 utes the unfavorable result to the long interval 

 which had elapsed between the reception of the 

 bites and the beginning of the treatment. 



At the present time, when so much is said 

 and written of ' mad dogs,' it may be weU to 

 recognize that, as the Lancet says, fear or nervous 

 apprehension can induce a fatal disease having 

 nearly, if not all, the characters of hydrophobia. 

 It is not necessarily true that hydrophobia is 

 always brought on by the mental anxiety that a 

 dog-bite not infrequently occasions. Hydrophobia 

 is a nervous disease, but it has probably a ma- 

 terial cause, a poison, which is most likely a 

 ' germ ' or micro-organism. It is a curious fact 

 that birds, even when inoculated with the poison 

 of rabies, do not suffer from the disease ; and 

 some individuals appear to enjoy, with birds, the 

 same kind of immunity. The Lancet further 

 points out that whether it is those persons who 

 are not given to fear or nervous apprehension w^ho 

 always escape hydrophobia, even though bitten 

 by a rabid dog, we are not in a position to state. 

 But nothing can be more detrimental to a bitten 

 individual than to brood over his misfortune, or 

 make himself miserable hj learning all the symp- 

 toms of hydrophobia. 



Since the researches of Pfliiger have shown 

 that the oxidation and reduction processes w^hich 

 are the basis of life take place, not in the blood, but 

 in the tissues, attempts have been made to localize 

 these processes. But up to the present very little 

 progress has been made in this line of study. 

 Prof. P. Ehrlich of Berlin has employed a 

 novel method of studying this question, which 

 consists in injecting colored substances which by 

 reduction become colorless, and after death ob- 

 serving which tissues are colored, and which 

 colorless, and, further, determining which of the 

 colorless tissues become colored by oxidation out- 

 side of the body. Those tissues which after death 

 are at first colorless, but which become colored 

 by treatment with an oxidizing agent, were, of 

 course, the seat of reduction within the body. 

 The two colored substances used in most of the 

 experiments were alizarin-blue and indophenol. 



