HERTFORD SHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
Xlll 
nature of the virus was entirely unknown. If it was produced by 
a microbe, as seemed probable, the most powerful microscope had 
yet failed to show its existence. It was also interesting to note 
that in the diseases such as be bad mentioned, it was not the direct 
effect of the microbes which produced death, but rather their in¬ 
direct action in producing poisonous fermentation in the juices of 
the body, or forming active poisons termed ptomaines. 
Of late, experiments have been carried on with the object of 
finding, if possible, a similar cure for diphtheria. The experi¬ 
ments which he had enumerated served strongly to show our 
ignorance as to our relations with that extremely minute yet 
most powerful organism, the microbe. It is possible that we are 
dependent on these bodies not only in disease but in health, to an 
extent greater than was ever imagined. We know little of the 
action of our digestion, and it is possible that not only in that, 
but in numberless processes of nature, we owe far more to these 
organisms than to any action in inert substances. 
Dr. Evans then proceeded to give a short description of the 
Pasteur Institute, in which building he was struck, he said, with 
the wonderful cleanliness and order which prevailed, which was 
hardly such as one might have expected in a place devoted to 
the preparation of such deadly poisons. A. great part of the 
building was given over to the preparation of inoculations for sheep 
and cattle, as protection against anthrax, and it was chiefly from 
the sale of these—the price being only about twopence a dose— 
that the institution was supported. The Institute itself was per¬ 
fectly free for human patients. It had been built by public 
subscriptions, to which, he regretted to say, this country contri¬ 
buted but a very small amount. Every convenience for laboratory 
work was provided, open freely to any properly-recommended 
student. A. complete register of every circumstance connected 
with the cases treated was kept, the cases being classified as those 
of persons (1) bitten by supposed hydrophobic dogs, (2) those 
certified as suffering from the disease, and (3) those proved by 
experiment to have rabies. The operation was almost totally 
painless, and throughout the Institute there was nothing which 
suggested the smallest degree of animal suffering. 
There had been some talk of establishing a Pasteur Institute in 
London, but it had not been thought necessary, considering the very 
short time in which Paris could now be reached from our capital, 
and the fact that anthrax, being almost entirely stamped out in this 
country, and inoculations for it uncalled for, no revenue could be 
obtained from its treatment. Isolated as this country is, it was 
possible that hydrophobia itself might be trampled out. But after 
the manner of English lovers of liberty, they were doing the work 
in a very piecemeal way. If they could make some general ar¬ 
rangement that for a definite period no dogs should be able to be 
at large in a condition in which they could bite others, some¬ 
thing might be done towards this end. Perhaps when our County 
Councils get a little more into working order they might look to 
