The etiology of babies. 
169 
These statements of Fol were not favorably regarded in 
Pasteur’s laboratory, on the grounds, first, that the methods 
which he describes as used for the cultivation of the germ have 
been repeatedly employed by M. Roux, Pasteur’s first assistant, 
without any result; second, that he describes the germ found by 
him as being aerobic, while, from the nature of rabies and the 
presence of the contagium vivum in the nervous system, it seems 
far more probable that it is an anaerobic or facultative anaerobic 
germ ; and, third, because he has only produced rabies in rabbits, 
in which the disease manifests itself by no characteristic 
symptoms, as is the case in dogs, and in which rabies may be 
easily confounded with the various forms of septicaemia. 
The studies of M. Pasteur upon rabies up to the time of the 
meeting of the International Medical Congress in 1884 are well 
known, through the communication presented at that time, and 
through numerous previous communications to the French 
Academy. It is scarcely necessary or possible to consider these 
communications in this short paper, as they in large part report 
observations which have no important bearing on the present 
question, and present lines of investigation quite different from 
that described in his last report. However, it is but fair to state 
that some of the conclusions arrived at in his earlier work on 
rabies have not been confirmed either by his own later investi¬ 
gations or those of other observers, and are in some respects 
opposed to the results recently reported. It must be admitted 
also that, unfortunately, in his last communication, as in some of 
his other more recent communications upon rabies, he has not 
discussed the questions so much in detail as could be desired, nor 
has he given definitely the number or character of the experi¬ 
ments upon which his conclusions and the general principles drawn 
from them are based. The failure to do this will render it im¬ 
possible for any other investigator to repeat or confirm his experi¬ 
ments, and without such confirmation from a thoroughly reliable 
source there will of necessity be much reserve among scientific 
men about the acceptance of such important and far-reaching 
principles as are involved in his method for the prevention of 
rabies. 
