Experiments on Animals

by Stephen Paget

In the following table these figures are compared with those of preceding years:—

Year.	Patients treated.	Deaths.	Mortality per cent.
1886	2671	25	0.94
1887	1770	14	0.79
1888	1622	9	0.55
1889	1830	7	0.38
1890	1540	5	0.32
1891	1559	4	0.25
1892	1790	4	0.22
1893	1648	6	0.36
1894	1387	7	0.50
1895	1520	5	0.33
1896	1308	4	0.30
1897	1521	6	0.39

II

Patients treated at the Pasteur Institute are divided into three classes, as follows:—

A. The rabies of the animal was proved by experiment, by the development of rabies in animals inoculated with its bulb (the upper end of the spinal cord).[25]

B. The rabies of the animal was proved by veterinary examination (dissection of its body).

C. The animal was suspected of rabies.

We give here the patients treated in 1897, under these three classes:—

Bites of the Head.				Bites on the Hands.			Bites of the Limbs.			Total.
	P	D	M p	P	D	M p	P	D	M p	P	D	M p
	a	e	o e	a	e	o e	a	e	o e	a	e	o e
	t	a	r  r	t	a	r  r	t	a	r  r	t	a	r  r
	i	t	t	i	t	t	i	t	t	i	t	t
	e	h	a  c	e	h	a  c	e	h	a  c	e	h	a  c
	n	s	l  e	n	s	l  e	n	s	l  e	n	s	l  e
	t		i  n	t		i  n	t		i  n	t		i  n
	s		t  t	s		t  t	s		t  t	s		t  t
	.		y  .	.		y  .	.		y  .	.		y  .
A	15	0	0	81	0	0	46	1	2.1	142	1	0.7
B	106	0	0	539	4	0.74	273	1	0.4	918	5	0.65
C	30	0	0	244	0	0	187	0	0	461	0	0
	151	0	0	864	4	0.46	506	2	0.4	1521	6	0.39

The following tables, giving the results obtained since the vaccinations were first used, show that the gravity of the bites varies with their position on the body, and that the mortality is always below 1 per cent. among patients bitten by dogs undoubtedly rabid:—