246 
NEWS AND SUNDRIES. 
cording to the French press—representing all nationalities. In the 
mean time the great savant occupies the former quarters of the 
Pasteur Institute in the Rue d’ Qlm, and devotes himself in dignified 
seclusion to scientific research.” 
Discovery of the Microbe of Rabies. —Dr. G. F. Dowdes- 
well, announces in The Lancet that he has discovered the microbe 
of rabies. He says: “It is micrococcus, not very minute, and oi 
the usual form. It stains, however, with some difficulty; and 
this accounts for its having hitherto escaped observation. In the 
cases of dogs which I have as yet examined, its principal seat ie 
evidently the central canal of the spinal cord and medulla oblon¬ 
gata ; thence it pervades the other tissues of the central nervous 
system, occurring (sometimes in vast masses) around the walls of 
the blood-vessels, and in some cases within the vessels among the 
red blood-corpuscles. In the cortex of the hemispheres I have 
found it, but in very small numbers, and, so far, only in the peri¬ 
vascular and peri-cellular lymph-spaces. In the cerebellum I 
have not found it at all, neither have I as yet succeeded in finding 
it in the salivary glands. I shall shortly publish the methods bj 
which it may be stained with certainty. I must, however, state 
that it does not stain by hsematoxylin, either with or without n 
mordant, as asserted by Fol. I have repeated his methods care 
fully. Neither does it occur within the nerve-fibres, as he states; 
and, lastly, it is fully ihree times the dimensions which he gives 
I may add that it does not occur in the same situation, treated b) 
the same methods, in normal animals. In the one case of a rabid 
dog, which I had examined to control my previous observations 
the tissues were placed in alcohol so shortly after death as to pre¬ 
clude the possibility of the occurrence of septic organisms. In¬ 
addition to which, all saprophytes, as far as yet observed, stair 
very readily with the usual aniline dyes, which this microbe does 
not. 1 must point out, in justice to the genius of Pasteur, that 
these observations on the occurrence of the microbe go far tc 
confirm his statement of the seat of the virus; it may further 
afford a means of diagnosis in any doubtful case.” Preparation^ 
of the microbe were shown at the meeting of the Royal Micro 
scopical Society on the 9th ult. 
