On Rabies. 



79 



I next tried curari. The action of this on healthy rabbits is some- 

 what uncertain, a quantity of the same solution that at one time is 

 borne without disturbance, at another being rapidly fatal. I'found 

 that about 0*3 mgrm. of the sample I had and of the solution as I 

 made it was the maximum quantity that could be safely employed. To 

 a rabbit inoculated sub-durally with infective medulla I injected sub- 

 cutaneously 0'2 mgrm. on the 5th day, and subsequently 0*3 mgrm. 

 daily ; the animal was unaffected till the morning of the 14th day, 

 when it was found weak in the hind limbs, the bodily temperature 

 having fallen to 35*4° C. It died on the same day shortly after injec- 

 tion of 0*3 mgrm. curari. A control animal showed an incubation 

 period of only nine days, and was found dead on the morning of the 

 12th. 



In this case the curari appeared to protract the incubation period 

 and prolong the life of the animal ; I therefore repeated the experi- 

 ment with the drug, giving smaller quantities administered more 

 frequently. 



To a rabbit inoculated 4th December, 1886, 01 mgrm. curari was 

 injected on the 4th day. On the 5th morning and evening, 015 mgrm., 

 and subsequently 015 mgrm. till the 10th day, when the temperature 

 had fallen to 38° C. and paresis was apparent, but confined to the fore 

 limbs. Injection of the same quantity of curari — 0'15 mgrm. — which 

 hitherto had been without any appreciable effect on the animal, now 

 greatly depressed it, within a few minutes of administration ; the 

 next day it was completely paralysed and died towards the middle of 

 the 12th day. 



In two control animals similarly inoculated the incubation period 

 was in each 9 days ; the one was then killed for another experiment, 

 the other died on the 11th day. In this case the drug given more 

 frequently, but in the same aggregate quantity daily, had, if any, but 

 a very slight effect on the action of the virus in prolonging the 

 incubation period or its fatal termination, and did not appear to 

 warrant further experiments with it, the more especially as I found 

 that even smaller quantities of curari than those I had given were 

 dangerous, two rabbits of average size having been killed, the one by 

 injections twice in the day of 0*13 mgrm., the other by a single injec- 

 tion of O100 mgrm. 



I used the drug in 1 per cent, solution, freshly made by carefully 

 triturating it with cold water only. 



Salol, salicylate of phenol, is a drug recently introduced, which 

 from its constitution should be a powerful germicide. Dissolved in 

 olive oil, 1 part in 5, and injected subcutaneously, 1 found it was 

 borne very well in moderate quantities by rabbits. I consequently 

 treated a rabbit, inoculated with the virus of rabies, by giving it 

 0"2 grm. of salol twice daily during the incubation period, but as 



