THE TREATMENT OF HYDROPHOBIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXV, Issue 7862, 18 May 1886, Page 3

THE TREATMENT OF HYDROPHOBIA.

The following is a recent sketch by the Paris correspondent of a London paper, of , M. Leon Pasteur’s treatment of hydrophobia patients:—The Bradford paity, with the exception of Garvey, which came to be treated by M. Pasteur, left for England this evening at ten minutes to nine, via Dieppe. The children were laden with French toys, which kind strangers gave them, and Gioson took a loaf four feet leag to show his “ missqp” how they make bread in France. They are in good health. Gibson has ceased to be nervous, and the boys look much better than when they arrived. Martha Wright, whose sweetness of disposition and intelligence rendered her an object of interest here, was, I thought, paler than usual, but she said she did not feel any cause for pallor, except the regret she experienced at having .to leave such a beautiful city as Paris. Dr Hime, who has been.' watching closely all his Bradford protigis, assured me that her appetite was good, and that she had no fever. She also slept well. There was an English family party of the upper middle-class grade who were among the new-comers today. They included a fine-looking young lady, a beautiful little girl of perhaps twelve, and two young men who might have belonged to Oxford or Cambridge boat crews. None of them were bitten, but they had been licked on the hands, and I believe faces, by a dog which went mad. After a consultation with M. Pasteur, they decided to be inoculated. The crowd in the laboratory was very great this forenoon. There were more than 50 new comers. I asked M. Pasteur how many patients were there in ail to-day. He had not counted the names on his roll-call, and had not time to do so, but told me that he thought there must be upwards of a hundred on it. There were live very young French children, little girls and some boys a little older. • In the crowd in the yard I noticed a group of Pyrrennean peasants who wore the picturesque beret on their heads.

The sad event at the HdtelDieu gave a peculiarly deep interest to to-day’s inoculations. The doctors who attended Yakulev, the Russian moujick who has died there of, rabies, gave out ’'hat he was carried away by diphtheria. They were led to clo so from a fear that if the whole truth got out his fellow victims would receive a nervous shock, which might stand in the way of a cure. All the attendants at the H6tel Dieu were for the same reason charged to deny that any death had taken place, and had I not known from the highest authority of all, and from a ho rise student, Imight have thought the news I had received was an invention, so strenuously was it denied at the Hospital by the infirmiers. The Odessa doctor Gamaleia, whom I met at the Hue d’TTlm, was extremely reticent. He knew that I was cognisant of what had befallen poor Takulev. Baron Mohrenheim, the Russian Ambassador, who was to have gone to-day to Nice, arrived at M. Pasteur’s before the inoculations began, and remained until after they were terminated. He was accompanied by a diplomatist, whom he introduced to M. Pasteur as having for some time represented Russia as First Secretary of Legation at Washington, Both showed keen interest, and I thought betrayed uneasiness, which the fate of Yakulev would explain. Neither M. Pasteur nor his assistants tried to explain away that sad event to those who spoke to them about it. AH the conversation on the subject went on in whispers. The day on which I saw Yakulev at the H6tel Dieu he was not thought in danger. All the apprehension was for a man named Ivanoff, who is still in a precarious state, and for a woman who was bitten in the lip. I thought Yakulev’a face, or at least that part of it which was not hidden with bandages, congested, and that he slept heavily. On the following day he complained that the linen sheets in which he slept affected him lixe sackcloth, and were unendurably coarse and harsh.to his skin. This sensitiveness was thought a bad sign, and especially as the patient complained of burning thirst and was unable to drink. He was very hoarse. M. Pasteur and the hussian doctor were warned of his state, and hastened to come to see him. He in the meanwhile had a convulsive attack. When they came they saw that there was no room for hope, and it was given out that he had an attack of diphtheria; and to prevent infection must be like Ivanoff placed in a separate room. Fine sheets were ordered. The poor moujick in his transports of gratitude kissed over and over again M. Pasteur’s hand. It was decided when he was removed from the Salle St Jean that narcotics were to be administered. ‘ They took the* form of subcutaneous injections of morphine, which had not much effect. The unfortunate man was gentle to the last. When he felt the spasms coming on he knelt in his bed and clasped his hands in an agony of religious fervour until calmness returned. He died kneeling. The convulsive fits evidently proceeded from arush of blood to the lungs and larynx. His tongue was congested. It is stated in an evening paper that -Yakulev’s body has been taken to the Pasteur laboratory. This is not true. It remains at the H6tel Dieu, where a careful post-mortem examination will be made to-morrow. The woman, whose state caused apprehension, was calmly sleeping to-day when I saw her, but had lost her freshness of complexion. The attendant informed me that she had perspired violently, and that this doubtless daused a change for the better. Two of the moujicks in the Salle. St Jean were up and playing draughts with French patients who were nearly convalescent. The priest, who has completely lost his upper lip, was in bed, and, I thought, looking fairly well. He is unable to eat, but sucks up milk, custard, and broths through a straw. Hunger has forced him to abandon his Lenten regimen. It should be remembered that the Russians have been treated for dog rabies with virus of the necessary degree of strength for that form of hydrophobia, but - SI. Pasteur is not sure that it is all that is necessary for the treatment of wolf_ rabies, which is the most rapid of any in its incubation.