M. PASTEUR AND HYDROPHOBIA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1246, 25 May 1886, Page 3

M. PASTEUR AND HYDROPHOBIA.

We arc glad to learn that tho Gov rn meut have decided, at the instance of tsir H. j-Uacoe, to appoint a C uum-oiun to inquire into M. Pasteur’s method . f treating persons fceli ved to bo infected with i jdroph'-hi;., and that Sir James Paget. Professor Burden t aimers, n, ami DrT L sutler Brunioii are among tho eminent pathologists who have c >ns t n!od to undet take the investigation The successes claimed for M. Pasteur are extraordinary, aud if a thorough enquiry should be h mid to justify the claim, it will bo undoubtedly uostrable to ettablhh some similar system in this count;y. it a person bitten by a mad dog can, by inoculation with “attenuated virus” within a month of the bite, bo absolutely secured from an attack of hydrophobia, there is no reason why this terrible disease should not bo banished from our returns of mortaluy. Wo confers, however, shat the experience of M. Pas eur in this matter does not seem <o us to bo at present conclusive. lie is said to have inoculated in the course of three months about three hundred and fifty pe-sous, all of whom had been bitten by rabid animals and were supposed to be incubating hydrophobia. Tho result was that only one of these persons developed the disease, aud in that single instance the operation had been delayed till nearly six weeks after the bite. The ioocuia tions began in November, and the firsthundred cases were operated on between the Ist and the 15,h of that month, having been bitten in the course of the three or four previous weeks. The period tf development of hydrophobia appears to vary much in different instances. Holland mentions a case in which death occurred within fifteen days after the bite, while some rare instances have been recorded in which the disease has come on after ten or twelve months. It seems, however, to bo generally agreed that the average incubation extends over about sixty days, and if we accept this view the earliest batch, at any rate, of M. Pasteur’s patients may be considered safe. The first subject, however, for the inquiry of tbe_ Cum mission is the evidence on which it is contended that these persons would have had hydrophobia if they had not been inoculated. What strikes ns as moat surprising is the very large number of patients who were forthcoming directly M Pasteur’s system was • announced.