Abstract
PROF. PASTEUR read on Monday evening to the Paris Academy of Sciences a statement, of which the following is the substance as telegraphed to the Standard:—M. Pasteur some time ago succeeded in rendering proof against rabies some sixteen out of every twenty dogs experimented upon. But to ascertain that immunity had really been given, he had to wait four months after the inoculation had taken effect. He therefore set himself to obtain virus of different degrees of strength, with the object of obtaining prompter and more certain results. This was effected by the following means:—A rabbit was inoculated with a fragment of tissue taken from the spine of a rabid dog. The incubation of the poison occupied fifteen days. As soon as the rabbit was dead a portion of its spinal marrow was in turn inoculated into a second rabbit, and so on until sixty rabbits had been inoculated. At each successive inoculation the virus became of increased potency, and the last period was not more than seven days. Having ascertained that exposure to dried air diminishes the virus, and consequently reduces its force, M. Pasteur supplied himself with a series of bottles containing dried air. In these bottles were placed portions of the inoculated spinal marrow of successive dates, the oldest being the least virulent, and the latest the most so. For an operation M. Pasteur begins by inoculating his subject with the oldest tissue, and finishes by injecting a piece dating from two days only, whose period of incubation would not exceed one week. The subject is then found to be absolutely proof against the disease. At the beginning of July a young Alsatian, named Joseph Meister, who had been severely bitten in several places by an undoubtedly rabid dog, presented himself at the laboratory. His case, left to itself, being considered hopeless by M. Pasteur, Prof. Vulpian, and other high authorities, the patient was submitted to the same series of inoculations that had been so successful on dogs. As a proof a series of rabbits were simultaneously subjected to the identical processes. In ten days thirteen inoculations were made with pieces of spinal marrow containing virus of constantly-increasing strength, the last being from the spine of a rabbit which had died only the day before. The youth thus operated upon by the successive administrations of weaker virus was made proof against the virus of the intensest strength. It is now too days since he underwent the last inoculation, and he is in perfect health. Those rabbits, on the contrary, which were at once inoculated with the strong virus, without first being rendered fit to receive it, became affected within the proper incubation period, and died with the usual symptoms. The first inoculation practised upon Meister was sixty hours after he had been bitten. M. Pasteur has, at the present moment, another human patient under treatment who was bitten a few days ago by a mad dog. M. Pasteur said it would now be necessary to provide an establishment where rabbits might always be kept inoculated with the disease. In this way there would constantly be a supply of spinal tissues, of both old and recent inoculation, ready for use. Before the sitting was adjourned M. Pasteur received an enthusiastic ovation from both the Academy and the public present.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Notes . Nature 32, 633–636 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/032633a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/032633a0