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Show The Story of Pasteur . The year 1885 will be distinguished in the march of the ages with especial prominence, prom-inence, because it gave birth to the wonderful won-derful discovery of Pasteur, which the unselfishness of a true scientist has given freely to augment the sum of human knowledge, and lessen the sum of human misery. In the fact that a corporation has just been formed in New York to establish an institute and hospital for the Pasteurian treatment of hydrophobia, the story of the great discoverer, as told bv himself, is invested with profounder interest. In October last he modestly related, to the French Academy how it all came about, as the result of long and laborious inves-. inves-. tigation. .He first treated twentv dos, fixing finally on fifteen that had been made proof against rabies. He then resorted re-sorted to more virulent inoculation, keeping keep-ing the dogs under observation beyond the period of incubation of the disease j three or four months. To accommodate j the application of the method of contingencies contin-gencies growing out of the accidental or sudden character of the bites of rabid animals, he had to adopt more rapid methods that is, he resolved to reduce the system to its briefest possible period of operation. By the trepanning under the dura mater of a rabbit, wiih the marrow of a rabid dog, he produced rabies in a mean of fifteen fif-teen days. By passing the virus to a second, a third, and fourth rabbit, and so on, the period of the incubation of the disease was lessened. Twenty-five diminutions di-minutions brought it down to a period of seven days. He spent no less than three years in reaching this point. He proved that by passing the virus on from one rabbit to another, one can have reliable virus at one's disposition constantly. In dry air it slowly loses its power; in moist carbonic acid, and protected from the air, it will last some months. He next proceeded pro-ceeded to insure a dog by successive daily inoculations with sterilized broth of increasing in-creasing strength in which he had soaked pieces of infected marrow secured in a j flask, the air being kept dry by potash in the bottom. He continued the applications applica-tions until only two days old. Out of fifty dogs treated last spring there was not one failure. " In the self-assurance that he had found a practical method, to success with brutes, he was led to trust himself in applying the same to man. We can readily imagine the emotions that must have stirred his soul when he resolved upon these experiments. Selfishness and cowardice would have stayed him, but devotion to the cause of humanity spurred him on, and thus it was again" testified that there is heroism in the walks of science rising to the level of the bravest achievements in the field. In July a boy was brought for treatment. treat-ment. An autopsy demonstrated that the dog that had bitten him was mad. The lad was so badly wounded that the medical faculty decided death from hydrophobia hy-drophobia would certainly ensue. The boy was bitten July 4th ; on the 6th, Pasteur, Pas-teur, with Drs. Vulpian and Grancher, inoculated the patient with virus fourteen four-teen days old. Each day once, some days twice, the boy was treated for ten days with diminishing virus, until the 16th he received the most virulent matter only one day old. It was found by experiments experi-ments on rabbits, that the virus used the first five days was not virulent. The boy escaped rabies and his health remains excellent. October 14th Jean Baptiste Jupille, a shepherd boy, threw himself before a mad dog to protect a group of six children. He throttled the animal and beat him to death with the heel of his shoe. He was fearfully wounded. October 20th he was brought to Pasteur, who treated him. He recovered, as did four others treated subsequently. The physicians decided that the virus in Ju-pille's Ju-pille's wounds had not. on the sixth day left the locality and ascended toward the brain. Pasteur s explanation of the philosophy of his great discovery is, that the virus acts slowly; that inoculation makes the body refractory to it, and thus the poison of the wound remains localized and after some months is digested and thrown off because it is prevented from reaching the brain. The preventative quality of the inoculation exists for a year and a half, and as the minimum of total inoculation with the virus from the wound is thirty days, the whole question, explains Pasteur Pas-teur to a reporter of the London Times, consists in inoculating the patient soon enough to prevent the propagation of the virus through the wound from spreading. Well might M. Vulpian exclaim before be-fore the Academy with proud enthusiasm , that Pasteur's discovery 'affixes the seal to the glory of our illustrious associate, ane sheds an incomparable luster upon our dear country." Sacramento Record-Union. Record-Union. ' |