678 
D. E. SALMON. 
have it. Inoculation has, consequently, become the supreme 
test of anthrax, pleuro-pneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, 
tuberculosis, Texas fever, and other contagious diseases. Now, 
what does the experimental method show about rabies in man ? 
Magendie says : u We have (M. Dupuytren and I) injected 
in the radial vein of a young man affected with rabies about 
eight grains of gummy extract of opium, without any apparent 
result. I inoculated, with my confrere Breschet, the saliva of 
this patient upon a dog, placing it under the skin of the head 
(sous lapeau du front'), and the animal became rabid at the 
end of about a month. Two dogs which were bitten by this 
one also became rabid after forty days. These last bit several 
other dogs, but without any bad result. In this series of ex¬ 
periments rabies was arrested, then, of itself at the third gen¬ 
eration.” * 
Earle, Hertwig and Renault made similar inoculations from 
affected persons to rabbits, and obtained identical results. In 
recent years, since the subdural inoculation of rabbits has been 
a recognized method of diagnosis, there have been many inocu¬ 
lations of these animals with virus from the human subject 
which have caused the disease. There have been two cases in 
Washington in which the diagnosis of rabies was confirmed in 
this manner ; and Dr. Raw, as reported elsewhere, has inocu¬ 
lated both dogs and rabbits with human virus and produced the 
disease. 
How can this evidence be set aside ? How can such argu¬ 
ments be answered? They are not answered except by blatant 
assertions unsupported by facts. When the saliva of a man 
produces rabies in the dog upon which it is inoculated, it is cer¬ 
tain that the man had rabies. There is no other conclusion ad¬ 
missible. The virus of a contagious disease cannot be originated 
de novo as the result of anxiety and fear. 
We must conclude, therefore, that rabies is communicable to 
man, and that the evidence of this is overwhelming and unim¬ 
peachable. 
* K. Magendie. Journal de Physiologie Experimental , 1821, Vol. I, p. 42. 
