AN ALTERNATIVE TO PASTEURISM.
[To THE EDITOR OF THZ " SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—Mrs. Grimshaw's question on this subject in the Spectator of July 4th having remained unanswered, pray allow me to give the required information. Dr. Buisson's system is the one of which she has heard, and it consists in treating hydrophobia (even in its developed stages) by Turkish baths and sudorifics. Details of its success in Dr. Buisson's. own and other cases, and particulars respecting the baths,. will be gladly given by Captain Frederick E. Pirkis, The High Elms, Nuffield, Surrey. Patients desirous of availing themselves of the system after dangerous bites, but who may be unable to do so from want of means will be franked through the course of baths by Captain Pirkis.
There is only one objection that I know of to the Buisson system; but that one, unfortunately, has sufficed to keep it in obscurity. It is true that it is simple, obvious, painless, inex- pensive, and at worst harmless, and incapable of producing rage de laboratoire, such as that under which Drs. Lutaud and Peter found some of M. Pasteur's patients expiring. But then, its invention involved no " scientific research ;" it is not the outcome of vivisection ; and neither the "science" of France nor of Germany can take out of it the glorification and profit earned by those " benefactors of humanity,"—Pasteur and Koch.
In Dr. Farquharson's speech in the House last Thursday (9th) on Mr. Smith's and Mr. McLaren's motion on the Esti- mates, he told us frankly that the projected Institute of Preventive Medicine was " a private enterprise in which the operations of Pasteur were to be carried out in this country." (Times' report, July 10th.) What those " operations " are, and what agonies to the " innumerable " dogs he boasts of having trepanned and rendered rabid, have resulted from them during the last seven years, few English readers have the smallest conception. I have just compiled a short pamphlet containing descriptions of Pasteur's laboratory by eye- witnesses, with illustrations reproduced from drawings taken on the spot by a French artist; and I shall esteem it a favour if any of your readers will ask me for a copy (gratis and post- free). It is just possible that English men and women may have grown so science-hardened as to say, even when they have learned what tortures Pasteurism involves to the vic- tims No matter ! We believe it adds one chance for us ; and we are ready to see a hundred dogs torture& for that single chance." But, on the other hand, it is also possible that English men and women, when informed of the truth, will reject with indignation the idea of consent- ing to such tortures on any terms ; and it seems to me. to be no more than justice that they should be given the means of intelligently forming such a decision. That the advocates of Pasteurism persistently ignore or misrepresent the sufferings of the victims—describing them generally as "no worse than the prick of a, needle," or (as M. Pasteur has himself done) as merely involving " the death of a few rabbits " (see his letter to Mr. Bygott, in the Manchester Guardian, December 14th, 1886)—suggests the presumption that they entertain a shrewd suspicion that if the truth were known, English public opinion would make short work with projects of Institutes of Preventive Medicine, wherein " the operations of Pasteur are to be carried out in this country." So many fibs would not be told quite gratuitously.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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