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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    the Brussels Anti-Rabic Institute, nor the negative conchisions to which Professor A. Michelacci has come to in Florence. Allow me to state them ; they are most conclusive :— Considering that it is impossible, actually, to regard as being demonstrated the certain efficacity and the absence of all danger of this method (M. Pasteur's), the Provincial Council of Florence makes no suggestion for the formation of an institute for the treatment of hydrophobia in Florence. But the best proof that the British Commissioners have no faith in M. Pasteur's treatment, and consider it as dangerous, is that, instead of proposing the formation in England of a hydrophobic institute, they plainly propose the enforcement of police regulations. After exalting M. Pasteur's valueless discovery, they propose :— 1. Keeping useless dogs should be discouraged by taxation. 2. Importation of rabid dogs ought to be prohibited. 3. Muzzling ought to be compulsory in districts where rabies is prevalent. We must be grateful, indeed, to the Commission for their con- clusions, which are at least based, not on the famous experiments of Mr. Horsley, but on common sense. We must thank the Com- missioners for not having proposed the formation in England of a Pasteur Institute in which the application of the intensive treat- ment would have increased the mortahty from rabies as has been the case in France. If we sum up what has taken place during the first year of the application of M. Pasteur's method of preventing hydrophobia, we find that there has been an enormous increase in the number of persons who believe they have been bitten by mad animals, and a decided increase in the number of deaths from hydrophobia. In France, in England, and in Spain, where M. Pasteur's theories have been most warmly received, the increase of fear of death has been most marked. In Germany, where there is a sort of prejudice against all French ideas, the new teaching in regard to rabies has not taken root, and