MR GILRUTH INTERVIEWED.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1286, 22 October 1896, Page 19

MR GILRUTH INTERVIEWED.

THE WORK AT THE PASTEUR INSTITUTE AND OTHER GREAT HOMES OF SCIENCE.

Surrounded by an ominous-looking collection of museum-like specimens encased in jars and preserved in strong spirits, Mr J. R. Gilruth, Government Veterinary Surgeon, chatted on Tuesday to a New Zealand Mail representative in his laboratory at the Government Buildings about his visit to Europe. All sorts of specimens seemed to be in the place, from samples of bacteria and microbes to the spinal column of a horse, all satisfactorily sealed up in bottles standing around on shelves, and all imbued with the strong oily odour of the museum. One of the newest contrivances in the laboratory is a microbe cultivator, fresh from the factory. " Here is the snake-bite remedy."

With this Mr Gilruth opened a large cupboard and handed out a tiny glass phial, securely fastened, and containing a brown fluid of the colour of tea. This was the celebrated anti-venomous serum prepared bv Dr A. Calmette, director of the Pasteur "institute at Lille. The serum is taken from an ass or a horse which has first been immunised with the snake poison, procured in the form of dried crystals from snake countries, and the use of the cure has proved remarkably beneficial.

" Then here is something still later —in fact, it was discovered while 1 was at the Institute —the serum for puerperal fever and erysipelas, discovered by Dr Marmorac."

Another tiny bottle, this time with the fluid of a yellowish, muddy colour. This discovery was announced in the cables not long since, and had attracted considerable attention when Mr Gilruth was in Paris. The samples he has were given him by Dr Marmorac, who is a personal friend of his own.

Mr Gilruth was at the Pasteur Institute for four months. The usual course is three months, but he remained a month longer, and this extra period was principally devoted to the study of remedies for the rabbit pest. In .this, he says, he has been successful. The men and women studying at the Institute while he was there represented all quarters of the globe. They comprised students from France, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Hungary, United States, Russia, Italy, Poland, Greece, Colombia, and one from China. Mr Gilruth, from New Zealand, was the only English subject. The American student was a lady, Miss Southgate. The present director, Dr Roux, is a man so wholly devoted to science that, like Edison, when engaged in some particularly interesting research he forgets everything else, neglects his meals, and when he wants to sleep will lie down on a slab in his laboratory. The Pasteur Institute in Paris is a very large building with laboratories for about 60 investigating chemists, exclusive of the students. Besides the main institute there are other Pasteur Institutes all over Paris. One of the most interesting sights at the institute in Paris are the inoculations for hydrophobia. These take place every morning, and people who have been bitten gather from all parts of Europe for the treatment, which is free o? charge. In cases of hydrophobia and of snakebite, the fullest information is noted from each patient, and each case carefully watched. Before Pasteur made his hydrophobia discovery, 80 per cent, of the children treated for dog bites in Paris died; now this is reduced to 2 per cent., and the percentage in the case of men Las been reduced much below 1 per cent. Mr Gilruth alsD visited the great National School of Horticulture at Versailles. This establishment and its grounds occupy 25 acres, and the school is one of the best equipped in the world. All the work is done by the students, even to the selling of the produce and the casting of the iron tickets for the prices. There are at this school over 1500 different varieties of fruit trees; there are of these nearly 500 varieties of pear trees, 400 varieties of apples and 135 varieties of peaches, and the collections are always beiug added to. Almost every known variety of fruits is grown there. In the gardens are to be seen plants from all quarters of the world, including' ferns from New Zealand. " See these !" and Mr Gilruth produced the engravings accompanying the reports of the school. These pictures included interesting views of the fanciful shapes to which trees are trained in the gardens of the Versailles-School—arches, and various other types of ornamental designs. One of the greenhouses is 130 ft long, .'s2l't broad and 30ft high, suitable rVJr largo trees. The term in the Vjr?,-,.1L-.s School is three years, in which period complete instruction is given in every department of horticulture and arboriculture.

Then as for agricultural instruction in France, there are complete dairy schools, and schools have been established all over the country which may be compared to the Lincoln College of Agriculture. There are also dairy schools in which women are trained for the work done by farmers' wives. Further, the subject of agriculture forms no inconsiderable part of the primary school syllabus. The importance which the French nation attaches to agriculture may be seen from the fact that the vote in 1892 under that head, including veterinary instruction, amounted to .£185,840, as against £75,000 in 1870 5 The model abattoirs of the world are those of Hamburg, says Mr Gilruth. And as he speaks of the splendid system of meat inspection in Hamburg, in Paris, in Berlin, where the inspectors are trained vets., and where every carcase must bear a stamp of approval before it is allowed to be sold, he says decidedly that there is no system of inspection in. New Zealand. Even in London the system is slipshod, as compared with that on the Continent. There should be some method

of inspection of frozen meat before it is sent from New Zealand, added Mr Gilruth, even if we put it on no higher plane than that it would pay us well. "When Australian meat was put on the market in Hamburg, it was eagerly bought, until one cargo worked irreparable mischief. This consignment was affected with tubercle, in the percentage of six per thousand ; and, after all the authorities had done to stamp out traffic in diseased rneat, they were not going to permit the introduction of meat from people who would ship tuberculous beasts for lack of proper inspection. Accordingly what promised to be a good market for Australian meat was summarily closed. Before concluding his talk, Mr Gilruth expressed his warm thanks to Count Joiiffroy d'Abbans, who had courteously given him letters of introduction to official and private friends in France.