And, as with fowl-cholera and anthrax, so with rabies; a virus which has been attenuated till it has been rendered innocuous, can yet confer immunity against its more virulent forms: just as vaccination can protect against smallpox. A man, bitten by a rabid animal, has at least some weeks of respite before the disease can break out; and, during that time of respite, he can be immunised against the disease, while it is still dormant: he begins with a dose of virus attenuated past all power of doing harm, and advances day by day to more active doses, guarded each day by the dose of the day before, till he has manufactured within himself enough antitoxin to make him proof against any outbreak of the disease.
The cords used for treatment are removed from the bodies of the rabbits, by an aseptic method, and are cut into lengths and hung in glass jars, with some chloride of calcium in them, for drying. The jars are dated, and then kept in glass cases in a dark room at a constant temperature. To make sure that the cords are aseptic, a small portion of each cord is sown on nutrient jelly in a test-tube, and watched, to see that no bacteria occur in the tube. For each injection, a certain small quantity of cord is rubbed-up in sterilised fluid; and these subcutaneous injections give no pain or malaise worth considering.
Of course, the treatment is adjusted to the gravity of the case. A bite through naked skin is more grave than a bite through clothing; and bites on the head or face, and wolf-bites, are worst of all. The number and character of the scars are also taken into account. An excellent description of the treatment, by a patient, was published in the Birmingham Medical Review of January 1898. It gives the following tables of treatment:—
1. Ordinary Treatment.
| Day of Treatment. | Days of Drying of Cord. | |
| 1 | 14 and 13 | |
| 2 | 12 and 11 | |
| 3 | 10 and 9 | |
| 4 | 8 and 7 | |
| 5 | 6 | |
| 6 | 6 | |
| 7 | 5 | |
| 8 | 4 | |
| 9 | (1/2 dose) | 3 |
| 10 | (full dose) | 5 |
| 11 | 5 | |
| 12 | 4 | |
| 13 | 4 | |
| 14 | (1/2 dose) | 3 |
| 15 | (full dose) | 3 |
2. Cases of Moderate Gravity.
Same treatment, up to 13th day.
| Day of Treatment. | Days of Drying of Cord. | |
| 14 | 3 | |
| 15 | 5 | |
| 16 | 4 | |
| 17 | (1/2 dose) | 3 |
| 18 | (full dose) | 3 |
3. Grave Cases.
Same treatment, up to 10th day.