CONTAGIOUS DISEASES-NEW DISCOVERIES. 
407 
fact that the virus could be attenuated, and secondly, that dogs 
could be rendered refractory to rabies, just as other animals may 
be rendered refractory to anthrax by vaccination, and as man¬ 
kind is rendered refractory to small pox by a similar operation. 
The Commission reports: 
“ We are happy to bear witness to the truth of the fact ad 
vanced by Mr. Pasteur. Yes, science at his hands has solved 
the important problem rendering the dog refractory to rabies by 
the preventive inoculation of an attenuated virus of that disease, 
as it lias already succeeded by an identical process to give the 
organism of sheep a complete immunity against anthrax. There 
can be no longer any doubt about it. All the dogs that Mr. 
Pasteur has shown us as refractory, by the immunity given to 
them by him, have stood the experiments of inoculation to which 
they were submitted, with the strongest virus and the most cer¬ 
tain known manner, while most of the dogs used as witnesses, or 
those which were submitted to the same experiments without 
having first been protected against their effects by a preventive 
inoculation, did not resist them and have died with rabies.” 
Of the value of these results we veterinarians will be able to 
judge appreciatively, and we shall, no doubt, take advantage of 
them. Of course, much remains to be done. This is only one 
first step, and it most probably means the ultimate slow stamping 
out of hydrophobia; this, perhaps, depending also on the dura¬ 
tion of the immunity. This is yet to be studied. 
Mankind is protected from small pox for a number of years 
by vaccination, and cattle from anthrax for months, but how 
long this immunity of dogs against hydrophobia will sontinue is 
a question that cannot yet be answered. 
But this is not all. The Commission has another important 
question to solve, partly presented by Mr. Pasteur, and which 
was suggested to him by his observations on the animals upon 
which be has experimented. It is that of the prophylaxy of the 
disease in mankind. It is to know whether after a bite has been 
inflicted, the preventive action of the inoculation with the atten¬ 
uated virus can be efficacious in destroying the effect of the inoc¬ 
ulated virus when introduced by a wound. 
