As to the origin of rabies, it remained unknown and was erroneously attributed to divers causes. Spontaneity was still believed in. Bouley himself did not absolutely reject the idea of it, for he said in 1870: “In the immense majority of cases, this disease proceeds from contagion; out of 1,000 rabid dogs, 999 at least owe their condition to inoculation by a bite.”
Pasteur was anxious to uproot this fallacy, as also another very serious error, vigorously opposed by Bouley, by M. Nocard, and by another veterinary surgeon in a Manual on Rabies, published in 1882, and still as tenacious as most prejudices, viz., that the word hydrophobia is synonymous with rabies. The rabid dog is not hydrophobe, he does not abhor water. The word is applicable to rabid human beings, but is false concerning rabid dogs.
Many people in the country, constantly seeing Pasteur’s name associated with the word rabies, fancied that he was a consulting veterinary surgeon, and pestered him with letters full of questions. What was to be done to a dog whose manner seemed strange, though there was no evidence of a suspicious bite? Should he be shot? “No,” answered Pasteur, “shut him up securely, and he will soon die if he is really mad.” Some dog owners hesitated to destroy a dog manifestly bitten by a mad dog. “It is such a good dog!” “The law is absolute,” answered Pasteur; “every dog bitten by a mad dog must be destroyed at once.” And it irritated him that village mayors should close their eyes to the non-observance of the law, and thus contribute to a recrudescence of rabies.
Pasteur wasted his precious time answering all those letters. On March 28, 1885, he wrote to his friend Jules Vercel—
“Alas! we shall not be able to go to Arbois for Easter; I shall be busy for some time settling down, or rather settling my dogs down at Villeneuve l’Etang. I also have some new experiments on rabies on hand which will take some months. I am demonstrating this year that dogs can be vaccinated, or made refractory to rabies after they have been bitten by mad dogs.
“I have not yet dared to treat human beings after bites from rabid dogs; but the time is not far off, and I am much inclined to begin by myself—inoculating myself with rabies, and then arresting the consequences; for I am beginning to feel very sure of my results.”
Pasteur gave more details three days later, in a letter to his son, then Secretary of the French Embassy at the Quirinal—
“The experiments before the Rabies Commission were resumed on March 10; they are now being carried out, and the Commission has already held six sittings; the seventh will take place to-day.
“As I only submit to it results which I look upon as acquired, this gives me a surplus of work to do; for those control experiments are added to those I am now carrying out. For I am continuing my researches, trying to discover new principles, and hardening myself by habit and by increased conviction in order to attempt preventive inoculations on man after a bite.
“The Commission’s experiments have led to no result so far, for, as you know, weeks have to pass before any results occur. But no untoward incident has occurred up to now; and if all continues equally well, the Commission’s second report will be as favorable as that of last year, which left nothing to be desired.