Hydrophobia in relation to M. Pasteur's method and the report of the English committee : a lecture delivered in Prince's Hall, Piccadilly, July 27th, 1887 / by A. Lutaud.

  • Lutaud, A. (Auguste), 1847-
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hydrophobia in relation to M. Pasteur's method and the report of the English committee : a lecture delivered in Prince's Hall, Piccadilly, July 27th, 1887 / by A. Lutaud. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    cauterised, and six hours later the wounded portions of skin were excised at St. Thomas's Hospital. He was sent to Paris the same night, and, on the following morning, M. Pasteur commenced the intensive treatment, and it was continued 24 days. On the 10th October he returned to his work, and appeared to be in his usual health; but he became unwell with pains in the abdomen, like colic, and with pains in the back. On the 18th, he had partial motor paralysis in the lower limbs (which are the symptoms observed in rabbits killed by experiment, but hitherto unknown to man) ; he grew worse and died on the 20th, com- pletely paralyzed. *' To the last (adds the Report) he was free from all the usual symptoms of hydrophobia, and the progress of his disease and the manner of his death were similar to those of acute paralysis. But the certainty that his death was due to the virus of rabies was proved by experiments made by Mr. Horsley. A portion of his spinal cord was taken to provide material for inoculations, and rabbits and a dog inoculated with it died with characteristic signs of paralytic rabies, such as usually occues in rabbits. In most of the other cases of death, after treatment by the intensive method, the symptoms have been nearly the same as those just related. This case amply justifies the writer of the report when he says a few lines above those just mentioned : But, after the intensive method, deaths have occurred under conditions which have suggested that they were due to the inoculations rather than to the infection from the rabid animal. It is added, further, as an excuse for the non-success, that Goffi was subject to intemperate habits. THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOLISM. M. Pasteur and the British Commissioners try to explain the death of the victims by drunkenness. It is said, for instance, that, during his treatment in Paris, Goffi was 7'epeatedly intoxicated.'' They conclude, then, that the risk of death from hydrophobia is