DANGER!

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 100, 28 April 1888, Page 6 (Supplement)

DANGER!

(To the Editor,)

Sib,—A recent cablegram contained the following words relative to the "Pasteur method :—"They intend to cultivate the microbes brought from France, and spread the poison on the herbage in rabbit-infected districts." There is something in the coldblooded announcemerit that calls for most serious consideration fromanyone but he most indifferent observer. No doubt, the owners of rabbit-infected stations rejoice exceedingly at the prospect of the easy and rapid destruction of the apparently doomed " bunny," which the Pasteur method holds out; but whether the destructive powers of the fatal microbe can or cannot be confined to the animals it is intended to destroy, is a question that has yet to be answered. True, we are told that exhaustive experiments, lasting some months, are to be made before the deadly virus is sprinkled on the Australian pastures, and the squatter can rest in peace in anticipation of the early doom of his greatest pest. When we think of the bare possibility of the awful disease the great French chemist is prepared to bottle up for importation to the colonies, extending to sheep, to say nothing of higher animal life, we may reasonably ask if a few months' trial will conclusively prove that we shall bo perfectly safe in sanctioning the manufacture of the plague hitherto unknown hi the Southern Hemisphere. May not Pasteur's microbes, in years to come, when favoured by pestilential districts and the existence of weak living frames, develop a -power to prey upon the aiiivnal on whose aide it is called upon to do battle, and may not the climatic influences of Oceana nurse the organisms nto such a robust state that, despising herb-eating animals, they v.iil soar higher, and add one more to the rcany ills poor human flesh is heir to ? We know that the germ of the tapeworm can be communicated from the ground to the human body, and does not the glistening streak of snail slime convey the " iluke " fco sheep and rabbits ? In a cablegram published yesterday * x^^ovning, wo were informed that I' It vm* impossible to give direct proof that), human beings were

not susceptible to the disease 5 no case was known, even when diseased chxeken had beNow ath now cafthe Commfeioners appointed to inquire into the matter ascertain if human beings are. or are not, susceptible to the disease ?" Perhaps one of M Pasteur's- representatives, in the cbxuse of science and interests of his master, would £ Sng to submit himself to a course of microbe. ffThe virus might be set betore the savant in various dainty forms ; fca instance, soup a la microbe with lapin TlaPakeur to follow, &o The result of such an experiment would be looked upon with eager anxiety, and I feel sure the microbe would not object. But, in all seriousness, before it is decided to spread tho rabbit plague over New Zealand let us wait, even though it be years, until we are perfectly certain that the Pasteur method will be fatal only to the animals it is intended to exterminate.—Yours, &c. J.b. JL.