CURE FOR HYDROPHOBIA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume X, Issue 3435, 4 January 1886, Page 4

CURE FOR HYDROPHOBIA.

An Important communication respecting the.result of his researches for. a piophylaotic against hydrophobia has been made to the Academy of Sciences by M. Pasteur. The eminent physiologist stated that he! had succeeded in curing a boy who had been bitten by a mad dog. It appears thafronfJoly-6' last • twC'individuala from Alsace came to M. Paateur's laboratory at the NormaTSchooliaad said that they had both been bitten by a mad dog. One wjs . a man named Vom, and the other a boy 'called Joseph Meister, aged .nine years. The boy was fearfully bitten all over the body, and his wounds had been cauterised by a local doctor. Vom had apparently only been touched by the dog's fangs, which had pierced his clothes but. did not enter his flesh. He was accordingly advised by M. -Pasteur to return home, as he had nothing to fear. M. Pasteur kept the boy Meister with him, and called in Professors Vuipian and Granchet to assist him. 'Thews' gentlemen found 14 wounds on tie boy's. body,,and gave it as their opinion that the victim was doomed to certain death. In presence of his colleagues M. Pasteur took a syringe, which hehslf filled with the marrow of a rabbit that had died from rabies. This substance had keen preserved for fifteen days. Meister was inoculated with this thirteen times during ten days. M. Pasteur also Injected under his skin during the closing diys'of the treatment a vims of exceptional strength, which, originally taken from amad dog, Tiad been rendered more virulent by successive transfusions through rabbits that had-tried of rabies. After three months and three weeks Meister reoo'vered complete health, having escaped not > only the danger of hydrophobia caused by the bites he had received, bat also the possible risk incurred by the strengthened virus, to which he showed himself completely refractory. M. Pasteur also annonnced that he had. another patient under treatment,.a boy named ~Jupi, who has been bitten in both hands by a mad dog.. His case is progressing favorably, and he »fully expected to recover. M. Paateur's important and interesting announcements were repeatedly and most enthusiastically cheered by the members of the Academy of Medicine and the general public present. After. having "bowed his acknowledgments the diatinguised physiologist proceeded to relate the history of his patient Jopi, who is a shepherd lad only fifteen years old. It seems that the boy dashed after a mad dog which had attempted to bite some of his smaller companions, and actually plunged his hand into the animal's throat, - thus choking it" to death. The boy, who is severely injured, will be recommended to the French Academy for. the prize of courage which he merits well. Professor Vuipian addressed the'meeting after M. Pasteur, and said that he was firmly convinced that a sure and certain remedy for hydrophobia had at last been discovered, and the: efforts of his distinguished colleague had thus been crowned with well-: deserved; success. The discovery would set a seal on the fame of M. Pasteur, and: prove a fresh glory for France. Further important statements will be made at the I next meeting of the Academy of Medicine.