M. PASTEUR'S PROPHYLACTIC.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."1
Si,—The comment you make at the end of my letter in the Spectator of July 20th, calls for a further reply from me. You say,—" Surely the cases are very numerous in which the virus of rabies has been dormant much longer than a year and a half." As the remark is interrogative, I may perhaps be allowed to say this is not the case. Some of the older authorities mention an isolated case or two where hdyrophobia supervened five or ten years after the bite; but probably there
was some error of observation in these Ages, and the persons received some later infection. Most modern authorities limit the period of incubation between the bite and the symptoms of hydrophobia to twelve months, or eighteen at the outside. The inquiry of the Comite d'Hygiene (1862-72) embraced 170 eases of hydrophobia, in none of which did the incubation period exceed eight months, and in 147 the disease appeared within three months of the bite. In the statistics of Baudin, the length of incubation in two-thirds of the cases was under three months, and in only 6 per cent, did it extend to the second half of the year. Should my patients suffer from the effects of the bite, I should most certainly think it my duty to pub- lish the fact widely, but I am absolutely content with M. Pasteur's assurance that they are free from all danger.—I am, &c., EDWARD JESSOP, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P.
Greenhill Bowl, Hampstead, N.W.
[This is a case of authority against authority. Our authority is a surgeon of the very highest eminence.—ED. Spectator.]
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