114 
Pasteur and his Work, 
quest as absolutely demonstrative of his power over such a 
disease. The oftentimes very protracted period of latency or 
incubation, and the uncertainty of inoculation from rabid dog- 
bites — only a comparatively small proportion of those wounded 
suffering subsequently — caused many who knew the disease to 
withhold their applause until they saw whether the results of 
the experiments on animals could be applied to man with the 
same certainty and safety. But so far as matters have pro- 
gressed up to the present time, there is every reason to believe 
that the most sceptical will soon have reason to acknowledge the 
genuineness of this splendid triumph in prophylactic medicine. 
On March 1st of this year, Pasteur announced to the Academy 
of Sciences that he had inoculated no fewer than 358 persons, 
many of whom had been bitten by really rabid dogs, and the 
others by dogs suspectedly rabid.* Of these people, 100 were 
bitten before December 15th, and the remainder subsequently ; 
yet all, except one, had remained in good health, even the opera- 
tion of inoculation being unaccompanied by any inconvenience. 
The case which died was that of a child severely bitten by a 
rabid sheep-dog on October 3rd, but who was not brought to 
Pasteur until thirty-seven days afterwards, when inoculation 
was practised, though against Pasteur's inclination, as he only 
too correctly surmised that the delay was too protracted. The 
child died of hydrophobia. The inoculated persons have come 
from all parts of Europe, and some from America. 
It is now proposed to establish a Pasteur Institute in Paris, 
for the reception of people who have been bitten by rabid animals, 
where they will be protectively inoculated against the disease. 
It is difficult to arrive at a satisfactory interpretation of the 
method by which Pasteur renders animals and mankind im- 
pregnable to the infection of rabies. He is himself of opinion 
that the facts are not in accord with the notion that contact 
with dry air gradually diminishes the intensity of the virus in 
the spinal marrow until it becomes null ; so that the method is 
based on the employment of a virus at first almost inert, and 
then increasing in potency. The lengthened duration of the 
latent stage is not due to enfeeblement of the intensity of the 
virus, but to its diminution in quantity. So that the immunity 
might be given by inoculating very small, but daily increasing, 
doses of the same very active poison. 
Another explanation he gives, which appears rather strange, 
but which agrees with certain results observed in studying micro- 
organisms, and especially the pathogenic, or disease-producing, 
"* It is perhaps needless to add that the list of patients sent to Mons. Pasteur 
increases day by day. — Edit. 
