HYDROPHOBIA

Waipawa Mail, Volume IX, Issue 881, 16 January 1886, Page 3

HYDROPHOBIA

M. JPaAteur UiMoven« n Cure lor ■ I v«l ropholiia. The French Academy of Sciences has held a meeting which will be remembered as one of the most interesting in its records. On Monday, M. Pasteur announced to tlie learned assembly that he had finally concluded his long and minute studies on the bject of hydrophobia, and Las now discovered a cure for the deadly malady which has hitherto baffled all science. When he made this announcement in his quiet, modest way, the entire assembly, forgetting its traditions and rules, broke out into a tempest of rejoicing and applause. It was some minutes before the storm subsided, and then M. Pasteur proceeded to explain his discovery. He obtained the virus for inoculating with rabies by drying in the air the dis-" eased marrow of a rabbit, the virus having been attenuated by passing through several rabbits. For many whole months lie continued his experiments on this system on a number of dogs, and was able to report their complete success in each case on the animals inoculated. He then tried the experiment on a child. This announcement was the signal for a new outburst of emotion aud enthusiasm, which was only increased when M. Pasteur went on to say that the child was an Alsatian, named Joseph Meister. He was brought him three days after he had been bivten

six times by a mad dog. M. Pasteur inoculated him with the virus of rabbits dead successively from fourteen to eleven days. The child, bitten last July, is at the present moment perfectly well, never having showu the slightest signs of hydrophobia. This wonderful triumph of the patient and courageous savant , who, on Ills own election to the Academy, it will be remembered, dared to proclaim himself a Christian, was then confirmed by the eminent Dr Vulpion, who explained from the medical point of view, and will) great minutiae, the splendid achievement of his great colleague. M. Bouley, President of the Academy, next rose, and in the name of the learned body and of France thanked M. Pasteur for the magnificent lustre his victory would shed upon his country, and the benefit it would bestow' on humanity. Several academicians gathered round M. Pasteur, warmly congratulating him. The hero of this peaceful triumph was greatly overcome by the scene, one of the strangest and most glorious ever witnessed within the walls of the staid and solemn Academy.— Tablet.