EDITORIAL. 
147 
by pathologists, assisted by better means of investigation, we are 
more advanced and better posted, if not with reference to the 
etiology and pathology of all, at least of a certain number 
amongst them; and it is thus that those which are known are con¬ 
sidered by some no more as contagious, in the true sense of the 
word, but as mere parasitic affections. Scabies is the first one in 
the list by age; then the blood diseases, amongst which come the 
various forms of anthrax, chicken-cholera, hog-cholera, etc. And 
by these discoveries, not only are the causation and nature of 
these diseases better known, but also the most important facts in 
their history. We know better not only how to treat them and 
cure them in short time, but also to prevent them. The preven¬ 
tive inoculations with which the medical world has been made 
acquainted for many of them, are yet, for some it is true, to be 
generally tested, but so far as is known, they have proved one of 
the greatest accomplishments of our age. 
Mr. Pasteur, who amongst some, has done so much to advance 
this obscure point of pathology, has recently directed his atten¬ 
tion towards another of those diseases which affects the nervous 
centre and leave in them lesions, which have been observed by 
several investigators. We publish to-day a notice from the 
Academy of Medicine of Paris, relating to the inoculations he 
has made of the cerebral substance of mad dogs to healthy indi¬ 
viduals, which are conclusive in their results, and full of promise. 
We are much inclined to consider all contagious diseases and 
their viruses as being due to the presence of some parasites of 
lower life, and we shall not be surprised if what has alreadv been 
done for some of those affections, Mr. Pasteur will be able to 
prove for rabies. Why should it not become the disease of some 
microbe of the nervous system, as well as anthrax become the 
disease of bacteria in the blood ? 
SMALL HELMINTHS MISTAKEN FOR TRICHINA. 
At this time, while investigation and inspection of meat sup¬ 
posed to be affected with trichina are likely to be carried on, 
