214 
HERMANN M. BIGGS. 
heart by means of the sympathetic nerve is, besides its absorbing 
qualities, quite effective. The continued use of cream of tartar, 
then of calomel, might also call forth some improvement. For 
emphysema (in consequence of defects of the heart) horse dealers 
will administer purgatives, and thereby bring on momentary im¬ 
provement. Of course they do not know how the result was 
attained. 
It is an established fact that effective purgatives will afford 
relief in chronic affections of the heart. The occasional adminis- 
4 
istering of the same would be quite rational, but it must not be 
carried too far, and debilitate the animal too much. 
The treatment of the consecutive diseases, together with the 
defects of the heart, must correspond to the nature of the exist¬ 
ing consecutiva. 
THE /ETIOLOGY OF RABIES 
AND THE METHOD OF M. PASTEUR FOR ITS PREVENTION. 
By Hermann M. Biggs, M. D., 
Instructor in the Carnegie Laboratory. 
Continued from page 162. 
In the introduction to his last communication upon rabies, re¬ 
ferring to this former method, he says : “ The prevention of rabies, 
as I have described it in previous notes in my own name and the 
names of my collaborators, certainly constitutes a real advance in 
the study of this malady—an advance, however, which is morg 
scientific than practical. Its application was dangerous. Among 
twenty dogs that had been thus treated, I could not affirm that 
more than fifteen or sixteen had been rendered refractory to rabies. 
It was expedient also to complete the treatment by the inoculation 
with an exceedingly virulent virus for control, in order to confirm 
and strengthen the refractory condition. Finally, prudence dic¬ 
tates that the dogs should be kept under observation for a longer 
time than the period of incubation of the disease produced by the 
direct inoculation with the last virus, and thus an interval of not 
less than three or four months was required to afford perfect 
assurance of a fully refractory condition. It was therefore neces- 
