Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1884 — WONDERFUL DISCOVERY. [ARTICLE]

WONDERFUL DISCOVERY.

M. Pasteur Is Sue He Has Pound an Antidote for Hydrophobia. -rffrgaini’iijHtJTriV - ’ ■ _ — " • A That eminent scientist, M. Pasteur, who has made so ma-ay important discoveries daring the past few years hearing upon the health of man, not alone in the domain of cause and effect, bnt also in the very practical direction of furnishing remedies for ailments considered incurable, has now added to his laurels by discovering a remedy for hydrophobia, which has hitherto been considered fetal when once it had obtained a foothold in the system. The following cable dispatch to the Chicago Tribune, setting forth the details of his remedy -—which is simply inoculation for a preventive, like vaccination to prevent small-pox —and giving the details of the method he employed in his experiments with <rogs, monkeys, and rabbits, will be found extremely interesting: M. Louis Pasteur, the celebrated French chemist, claims to have made a discovery ot the most vital importance—nothing less. In fact, than a complete cure, or rather antidote, for hydrophobia. In an interview with a Figaro correspondent M. Pasteur says: “Cauterization of the wound immediately after the bite, as is well known, has been more or less effective, bnt trom to-day anybody bitten by a mad dog has only to present himself at the Laboratory of the Ecole Normale and by inoculation I will make him completely insusceptible to the effects of hydrophobia, even if bitten subsequently by any number of mad dogs. I have bei n devoting the last four years to this subject. I found out in the first place that the "Virus rabigue loses its Intensity by transmission to certain animals and increases its intensity by transmission to other animals. With the rabbit, for instance, the virus rabique increases; with the monkey it decreases. My method was as follows: I took the virus direct from the brain of a dog that died from acute hydrophobia. With this virus I inoculated a monkey. The monkey died. Then with, the virus already weakened in intensity, taken from this monkey, I inoculated a second monkey. Then with the virus taken from the second monkey I inoculated a third monkey, and so on until I obtained a virus so weak as to be almost harmless. Then with this almost harmless virus I inoculated a rabbit, the virus being at once increased in intensity. Then with the virus from the first rabbit I inoculated a second rabbit, and there was another increase in the intensity of the virus. Then with the virus of the second rabbit I inoculated a third rabbit, then a fourth, until the virus had regained its maximum intensity. Thus I obtained virus of different degrees of power. I then took * dog and inoculated him first with #ie weakest virus from the rabbit, then with the virus from the second rabbit, and finally with the rabbit virus of maximum intensity. After a few days more I inoculated the dog with virus directly from the brain of a dog that had just died of acute madness. The dog upon which I experimented proved completely insusceptible to hydrophobia. The experiment was frequently repeated, always with the same successful re-

“But my discovery does not end here. I took two dogs and inoculated them bo.th with virus taken directly from a dog that had just died of acute hydrophobia. I let one of my two dogs thus Inoculated alone and he went mad and died of acute hydrophobia. I subjected the second dog to my treatment, giving him the three rabbit inoculations, beginning with the weakest and ending with the strongest. The second dog was completely cured, or rather became completely insusceptible to hydrophobia.” M. Pasteur then went to a kennel and caressed a dog that had undergone this latter operation. Said M. Pasteur: “Whoever gets bitten by a mad dog has only to submit to my three little inoculations and he need not have the slightest fear of hydrophobia.