The two first mad dogs brought into the laboratory were given to Pasteur, in 1880, by M. Bourrel, an old army veterinary surgeon who had long been trying to find a remedy for hydrophobia. He had invented a preventive measure which consisted in filing down the teeth of dogs, so that they should not bite into the skin; in 1874, he had written that vivisection threw no light on that disease, the laws of which were “impenetrable to science until now.” It now occurred to him that, perhaps, the investigators5 in the laboratory of the Ecole Normale might be more successful than he had been in his kennels6 in the Rue8 Fontaine-au-Roi.
One of the two dogs he sent was suffering from what is called dumb madness: his jaw9 hung, half opened and paralyzed, his tongue was covered with foam10, and his eyes full of wistful anguish11; the other made ferocious12 darts13 at anything held out to him, with a rabid fury in his bloodshot eyes, and, in the hallucinations of his delirium14, gave vent4 to haunting, despairing howls.
Much confusion prevailed at that time regarding this disease, its seat, its causes, and its remedy. Three things seemed positive: firstly, that the rabic virus was contained in the saliva15 of the mad animals; secondly16, that it was communicated through{391} bites; and thirdly, that the period of incubation might vary from a few days to several months. Clinical observation was reduced to complete impotence; perhaps experiments might throw some light on the subject.
Bouley had affirmed in April, 1870, that the germ of the evil was localized in the saliva, and a new fact had seemed to support this theory. On December 10, 1880, Pasteur was advised by Professor Lannelongue that a five-year-old child, bitten on the face a month before, had just been admitted into the H?pital Trousseau. The unfortunate little patient presented all the characteristics of hydrophobia: spasms17, restlessness, shudders18 at the least breath of air, an ardent19 thirst, accompanied with an absolute impossibility of swallowing, convulsive movements, fits of furious rage—not one symptom was absent. The child died after twenty-four hours of horrible suffering—suffocated20 by the mucus which filled the mouth. Pasteur gathered some of that mucus four hours after the child’s death, and mixed it with water; he then inoculated22 this into some rabbits, which died in less than thirty-six hours, and whose saliva, injected into other rabbits, provoked an almost equally rapid death. Dr. Maurice Raynaud, who had already declared that hydrophobia could be transmitted to rabbits through the human saliva, and who had also caused the death of some rabbits with the saliva of that same child, thought himself justified24 in saying that those rabbits had died of hydrophobia.
Pasteur was slower in drawing conclusions. He had examined with a microscope the blood of those rabbits which had died in the laboratory, and had found in it a micro-organism; he had cultivated this organism in veal26 broth27, inoculated it into rabbits and dogs, and, its virulence28 having manifested itself in these animals, their blood had been found to contain that same microbe. “But,” added Pasteur at the meeting of the Academy of Medicine (January 18, 1881), “I am absolutely ignorant of the connection there may be between this new disease and hydrophobia.” It was indeed a singular thing that the deadly issue of this disease should occur so early, when the incubation period of hydrophobia is usually so long. Was there not some unknown microbe associated with the rabic saliva? This query29 was followed by experiments made with the saliva of children who had died of ordinary diseases, and even with that of healthy adults. Thuillier, following up and studying this saliva microbe and its special virulence with his usual{392} patience, soon applied30 to it with success the method of attenuation31 by the oxygen in air. “What did we want with a new disease?” said a good many people, and yet it was making a stop forward to clear up this preliminary confusion. Pasteur, in the course of a long and minute study of the saliva of mad dogs—in which it was so generally admitted that the virulent32 principle of rabies had its seat, that precautions against saliva were the only ones taken at post-mortem examinations—discovered many other mistakes. If a healthy dog’s saliva contains many microbes, licked up by the dog in various kinds of dirt, what must be the condition of the mouth of a rabid dog, springing upon everything he meets, to tear it and bite it? The rabic virus is therefore associated with many other micro-organisms, ready to play their part and puzzle experimentalists; abscesses, morbid33 complications of all sorts, may intervene before the development of the rabic virus. Hydrophobia might evidently be developed by the inoculation34 of saliva, but it could not be confidently asserted that it would. Pasteur had made endless efforts to inoculate23 rabies to rabbits solely35 through the saliva of a mad dog; as soon as a case of hydrophobia occurred in Bourrel’s kennels, a telegram informed the laboratory, and a few rabbits were immediately taken round in a cab.
One day, Pasteur having wished to collect a little saliva from the jaws37 of a rabid dog, so as to obtain it directly, two of Bourrel’s assistants undertook to drag a mad bulldog, foaming38 at the mouth, from its cage; they seized it by means of a lasso, and stretched it on a table. These two men, thus associated with Pasteur in the same danger, with the same calm heroism39, held the struggling, ferocious animal down with their powerful hands, whilst the scientist drew, by means of a glass tube held between his lips, a few drops of the deadly saliva.
But the same uncertainty40 followed the inoculation of the saliva; the incubation was so slow that weeks and months often elapsed whilst the result of an experiment was being anxiously awaited. Evidently the saliva was not a sure agent for experiments, and if more knowledge was to be obtained, some other means had to be found of obtaining it.
Magendie and Renault had both tried experimenting with rabic blood, but with no results, and Paul Bert had been equally unsuccessful. Pasteur tried in his turn, but also in vain. “We must try other experiments,” he said, with his usual indefatigable41 perseverance42.{393}
As the number of cases observed became larger, he felt a growing conviction that hydrophobia has its seat in the nervous system, and particularly in the medulla oblongata. “The propagation of the virus in a rabid dog’s nervous system can almost be observed in its every stage,” writes M. Roux, Pasteur’s daily associate in these researches, which he afterwards made the subject of his thesis. “The anguish and fury due to the excitation of the grey cortex of the brain are followed by an alteration43 of the voice and a difficulty in deglutition. The medulla oblongata and the nerves starting from it are attacked in their turn; finally, the spinal44 cord itself becomes invaded and paralysis45 closes the scene.”
As long as the virus has not reached the nervous centres, it may sojourn46 for weeks or months in some point of the body; this explains the slowness of certain incubations, and the fortunate escapes after some bites from rabid dogs. The a priori supposition that the virus attacks the nervous centres went very far back; it had served as a basis to a theory enunciated47 by Dr. Duboué (of Pau), who had, however, not supported it by any experiments. On the contrary, when M. Galtier, a professor at the Lyons Veterinary School, had attempted experiments in that direction, he had to inform the Academy of Medicine, in January, 1881, that he had only ascertained48 the existence of virus in rabid dogs in the lingual49 glands50 and in the bucco-pharyngeal mucous51 membrane52. “More than ten times, and always unsuccessfully, have I inoculated the product obtained by pressure of the cerebral53 substances of the cerebellum or of the medulla oblongata of rabid dogs.”
Pasteur was about to prove that it was possible to succeed by operating in a special manner, according to a rigorous technique, unknown in other laboratories. When the post-mortem examination of a mad dog had revealed no characteristic lesion, the brain was uncovered, and the surface of the medulla oblongata scalded with a glass stick, so as to destroy any external dust or dirt. Then, with a long tube, previously54 put through a flame, a particle of the substance was drawn55 and deposited in a glass just taken from a stove heated up to 200° C., and mixed with a little water or sterilized56 broth by means of a glass agitator57, also previously put through a flame. The syringe used for inoculation on the rabbit or dog (lying ready on the operating board) had been purified in boiling water.
Most of the animals who received this inoculation under the{394} skin succumbed58 to hydrophobia; that virulent matter was therefore more successful than the saliva, which was a great result obtained.
“The seat of the rabic virus,” wrote Pasteur, “is therefore not in the saliva only: the brain contains it in a degree of virulence at least equal to that of the saliva of rabid animals.” But, to Pasteur’s eyes, this was but a preliminary step on the long road which stretched before him; it was necessary that all the inoculated animals should contract hydrophobia, and the period of incubation had to be shortened.
It was then that it occurred to Pasteur to inoculate the rabic virus directly on the surface of a dog’s brain. He thought that, by placing the virus from the beginning in its true medium, hydrophobia would more surely supervene and the incubation might be shorter. The experiment was attempted: a dog under chloroform was fixed59 to the operating board, and a small, round portion of the cranium removed by means of a trephine (a surgical60 instrument somewhat similar to a fret-saw); the tough fibrous membrane called the dura-mater, being thus exposed, was then injected with a small quantity of the prepared virus, which lay in readiness in a Pravaz syringe. The wound was washed with carbolic and the skin stitched together, the whole thing lasting61 but a few minutes. The dog, on returning to consciousness, seemed quite the same as usual. But, after fourteen days, hydrophobia appeared: rabid fury, characteristic howls, the tearing up and devouring62 of his bed, delirious63 hallucination, and finally, paralysis and death.
A method was therefore found by which rabies was contracted surely and swiftly. Trephinings were again performed on chloroformed animals—Pasteur had a great horror of useless sufferings, and always insisted on an?sthesia. In every case, characteristic hydrophobia occurred after inoculation on the brain. The main lines of this complicated question were beginning to be traceable; but other obstacles were in the way. Pasteur could not apply the method he had hitherto used, i.e. to isolate64, and then to cultivate in an artificial medium, the microbe of hydrophobia, for he failed in detecting this microbe. Yet its existence admitted of no doubt; perhaps it was beyond the limits of human sight. “Since this unknown being is living,” thought Pasteur, “we must cultivate it; failing an{395} artificial medium, let us try the brain of living rabbits; it would indeed be an experimental feat65!”
As soon as a trephined and inoculated rabbit died paralyzed, a little of his rabic medulla was inoculated to another; each inoculation succeeded another, and the time of incubation became shorter and shorter, until, after a hundred uninterrupted inoculations, it came to be reduced to seven days. But the virus, having reached this degree, the virulence of which was found to be greater than that of the virus of dogs made rabid by an accidental bite, now became fixed; Pasteur had mastered it. He could now predict the exact time when death should occur in each of the inoculated animals; his predictions were verified with surprising accuracy.
Pasteur was not yet satisfied with the immense progress marked by infallible inoculation and the shortened incubation; he now wished to decrease the degrees of virulence—when the attenuation of the virus was once conquered, it might be hoped that dogs could be made refractory66 to rabies. Pasteur abstracted a fragment of the medulla from a rabbit which had just died of rabies after an inoculation of the fixed virus; this fragment was suspended by a thread in a sterilized phial, the air in which was kept dry by some pieces of caustic67 potash lying at the bottom of the vessel68 and which was closed by a cotton-wool plug to prevent the entrance of atmospheric69 dusts. The temperature of the room where this desiccation took place was maintained at 23° C. As the medulla gradually became dry, its virulence decreased, until, at the end of fourteen days, it had become absolutely extinguished. This now inactive medulla was crushed and mixed with pure water, and injected under the skin of some dogs. The next day they were inoculated with medulla which had been desiccating for thirteen days, and so on, using increased virulence until the medulla was used of a rabbit dead the same day. These dogs might now be bitten by rabid dogs given them as companions for a few minutes, or submitted to the intracranial inoculations of the deadly virus: they resisted both.
Having at last obtained this refractory condition, Pasteur was anxious that his results should be verified by a Commission. The Minister of Public Instruction acceded70 to this desire, and a Commission was constituted in May, 1884, composed of Messrs. Béclard, Dean of the Faculty71 of Medicine, Paul Bert, Bouley, Villemin, Vulpian, and Tisserand, Director of the{396} Agriculture Office. The Commission immediately set to work; a rabid dog having succumbed at Alfort on June 1, its carcase was brought to the laboratory of the Ecole Normale, and a fragment of the medulla oblongata was mixed with some sterilized broth. Two dogs, declared by Pasteur to be refractory to rabies, were trephined, and a few drops of the liquid injected into their brains; two other dogs and two rabbits received inoculations at the same time, with the same liquid and in precisely72 the same manner.
Bouley was taking notes for a report to be presented to the Minister:
“M. Pasteur tells us that, considering the nature of the rabic virus used, the rabbits and the two new dogs will develop rabies within twelve or fifteen days, and that the two refractory dogs will not develop it at all, however long they may be detained under observation.”
On May 29, Mme. Pasteur wrote to her children:
“The Commission on rabies met to-day and elected M. Bouley as chairman. Nothing is settled as to commencing experiments. Your father is absorbed in his thoughts, talks little, sleeps little, rises at dawn, and, in one word, continues the life I began with him this day thirty-five years ago.”
On June 3, Bourrel sent word that he had a rabid dog in the kennels of the Rue Fontaine-au-Roi; a refractory dog and a new dog were immediately submitted to numerous bites; the latter was violently bitten on the head in several places. The rabid dog, still living the next day and still able to bite, was given two more dogs, one of which was refractory; this dog, and the refractory dog bitten on the 3rd, were allowed to receive the first bites, the Commission having thought that perhaps the saliva might then be more abundant and more dangerous.
On June 6, the rabid dog having died, the Commission proceeded to inoculate the medulla of the animal into six more dogs, by means of trephining. Three of those dogs were refractory, the three others were fresh from the kennels; there were also two rabbits.
On the 10th, Bourrel telegraphed the arrival of another rabid dog, and the same operations were gone through.
“This rabid, furious dog,” wrote Pasteur to his son-in-law, “had spent the night lying on his master’s bed; his appearance had been suspicious for a day or two. On the morning of the{397} 10th, his voice became rabietic, and his master, who had heard the bark of a rabid dog twenty years ago, was seized with terror, and brought the dog to M. Bourrel, who found that he was indeed in the biting stage of rabies. Fortunately a lingering fidelity73 had prevented him from attacking his master....
“This morning the rabic condition is beginning to appear on one of the new dogs trephined on June 1, at the same time as two refractory dogs. Let us hope that the other new dog will also develop it and that the two refractory ones will resist.”
At the same time that the Commission examined this dog which developed rabies within the exact time indicated by Pasteur, the two rabbits on whom inoculation had been performed at the same time were found to present the first symptoms of rabic paralysis. “This paralysis,” noted74 Bouley, “is revealed by great weakness of the limbs, particularly of the hind75 quarters; the least shock knocks them over and they experience great difficulty in getting up again.” The second new dog on whom inoculation had been performed on June 1 was now also rabid; the refractory dogs were in perfect health.
During the whole of June, Pasteur found time to keep his daughter and son-in-law informed of the progress of events. “Keep my letters,” he wrote, “they are almost like copies of the notes taken on the experiments.”
Towards the end of the month, dozens of dogs were submitted to control-experiments which were continued until August. The dogs which Pasteur declared to be refractory underwent all the various tests made with rabic virus; bites, injections into the veins76, trephining, everything was tried before Pasteur would decide to call them vaccinated78. On June 17, Bourrel sent word that the new dog bitten on June 3 was becoming rabic; the members of the Commission went to the Rue Fontaine-au-Roi. The period of incubation had only lasted fourteen days, a fact attributed by Bouley to the bites having been chiefly about the head. The dog was destroying his kennel7 and biting his chain ferociously79. More new dogs developed rabies the following days. Nineteen new dogs had been experimented upon: three died out of six bitten by a rabid dog, six out of eight after intravenous inoculation, and five out of five after subdural inoculation. Bouley thought that{398} a few more cases might occur, the period of incubation after bites being so extremely irregular.
Bouley’s report was sent to the Minister of Public Instruction at the beginning of August. “We submit to you to-day,” he wrote, “this report on the first series of experiments that we have just witnessed, in order that M. Pasteur may refer to it in the paper which he proposes to read at the Copenhagen International Scientific Congress on these magnificent results, which devolve so much credit on French Science and which give it a fresh claim to the world’s gratitude80.”
The Commission wished that a large kennel yard might be built, in order that the duration of immunity81 in protected dogs might be timed, and that other great problem solved, viz., whether it would be possible, through the inoculation of attenuated82 virus, to defy the virus from bites.
By the Minister’s request, the Commission investigated the Meudon woods in search of a favourable83 site; an excellent place was found in the lower part of the Park, away from dwelling84 houses, easy to enclose and presumably in no one’s way. But, when the inhabitants of Meudon heard of this project, they protested vehemently85, evidently terrified at the thought of rabid dogs, however securely bound, in their peaceful neighbourhood.
Another piece of ground was then suggested to Pasteur, near St. Cloud, in the Park of Villeneuve l’Etang. Originally a State domain86, this property had been put up for sale, but had found no buyer, not being suitable for parcelling out in small lots; the Bill was withdrawn87 which allowed of its sale and the greater part of the domain was devoted88 by the Ministry89 to Pasteur’s and his assistants’ experiments on the prophylaxis of contagious90 diseases.
Pasteur, his mind full of ideas, started for the International Medical Congress, which was now to take place at Copenhagen. Sixteen hundred members arranged to attend, and nearly all of them found on arriving that they were to be entertained in the houses of private individuals. The Danes carry hospitality to the most generous excess; several of them had been learning French for the last three years, the better to entertain the French delegates. Pasteur’s son, then secretary of the French Legation at Copenhagen, had often spoken to his father with appreciative92 admiration93 of those Northerners, who{399} hide deep enthusiasm under apparent calmness, almost coldness.
The opening meeting took place on August 10 in the large hall of the Palace of Industry; the King and Queen of Denmark and the King and Queen of Greece were present at that impressive gathering94. The President, Professor Panum, welcomed the foreign members in the name of his country; he proclaimed the neutrality of Science, adding that the three official languages to be used during the Congress would be French, English, and German. His own speech was entirely96 in French, “the language which least divides us,” he said, “and which we are accustomed to look upon as the most courteous97 in the world.”
The former president of the London Congress, Sir James Paget, emphasized the scientific consequences of those triennial meetings, showing that, thanks to them, nations may calculate the march of progress.
Virchow, in the name of Germany, developed the same idea.
Pasteur, representing France, showed again as he had done at Milan in 1878, in London in 1881, at Geneva in 1882, and quite recently in Edinburgh, how much the scientist and the patriot98 were one in him.
“In the name of France,” said he, “I thank M. le Président for his words of welcome.... By our presence in this Congress, we affirm the neutrality of Science ... Science is of no country.... But if Science has no country, the scientist must keep in mind all that may work towards the glory of his country. In every great scientist will be found a great patriot. The thought of adding to the greatness of his country sustains him in his long efforts, and throws him into the difficult but glorious scientific enterprises which bring about real and durable99 conquests. Humanity then profits by those labours coming from various directions....”
At the end of the meeting Pasteur was presented to the King. The Queen of Denmark and the Queen of Greece, regardless of etiquette100, walked towards him, “a signal proof,” wrote a French contemporary, “of the esteem101 in which our illustrious countryman is held at the Danish Court.”
Five general meetings were to give some of the scientists an opportunity of expounding102 their views on subjects of universal interest. Pasteur was asked to read the first paper; his audience consisted, besides the members of the Congress, of{400} many other men interested in scientific things, who had come to hear him describe the steps by which he had made such secure progress in the arduous103 question of hydrophobia. He began by a declaration of war against the prejudice by which so many people believe that rabies can occur spontaneously. Whatever the pathological, physiological104, or other conditions may be under which a dog or another animal is placed, rabies never appears if the animal has not been bitten or licked by another rabid animal; this is so truly the case that hydrophobia is unknown in certain countries. In order to preserve a whole land from the disease, it is sufficient that a law should, as in Australia, compel every imported dog to be in quarantine for several months; he would then, if bitten by a mad dog before his departure, have ample time to die before infecting other animals. Norway and Lapland are equally free from rabies, a few good prophylactic105 measures being sufficient to avert106 the scourge107.
It will be objected that there must have been a first rabid dog originally. “That,” said Pasteur, “is a problem which cannot be solved in the present state of knowledge, for it partakes of the great and unknown mystery of the origin of life.”
The audience followed with an impassioned curiosity the history of the stages followed by Pasteur on the road to his great discovery: the preliminary experiments, the demonstration108 of the fact that the rabic virus invades the nervous centres, the culture of the virus within living animals, the attenuation of the rabic virus when passed from dogs to monkeys, and simultaneously109 with this graduated attenuation, a converse110 process by successive passages from rabbit to rabbit, the possibility of obtaining in this way all the degrees of virulence, and finally the acquired certainty of having obtained a preventive vaccine111 against canine112 hydrophobia.
“Enthusiastic applause,” wrote the reporter of the Journal des Débats, “greeted the conclusion of the indefatigable worker.”
In the course of one of the excursions arranged for the members of the Congress, Pasteur had the pleasure of seeing his methods applied on a large scale, not as in Italy to the progress of sericiculture, but to that of the manufacture of beer. J. C. Jacobsen, a Danish citizen, whose name was celebrated113 in the whole of Europe by his munificent114 donations to science, had founded in 1847 the Carlsberg Brewery115, now{401} one of the most important in the world; at least 200,000 hectolitres were now produced every year by the Carlsberg Brewery and the Ny Carlsberg branch of it, which was under the direction of Jacobsen’s son.
In 1879, Jacobsen, who was unknown to Pasteur, wrote to him, “I should be very much obliged if you would allow me to order from M. Paul Dubois, one of the great artists who do France so much credit, a marble bust116 of yourself, which I desire to place in the Carlsberg laboratory in token of the services rendered to chemistry, physiology117, and beer-manufacture, by your studies on fermentation, a foundation to all future progress in the brewer’s trade.” Paul Dubois’ bust is a masterpiece: it is most characteristic of Pasteur—the deep thoughtful far-away look in his eyes, a somewhat stern expression on his powerful features.
Actuated, like his father, by a feeling of gratitude, the younger Jacobsen had placed a bronze reproduction of this bust in a niche118 in the wall of the brewery, at the entrance of the Pasteur Street, leading to Ny Carlsberg.
This visit to the brewery was an object lesson to the members of the Congress, who were magnificently entertained by Jacobsen and his son; no better demonstration was ever made of the services which industry may receive from science. In the great laboratory, the physiologist119 Hansen had succeeded in finding differences in yeast120; he had just separated from each other three kinds of yeast, each producing beer with a different flavour.
The French scientists were delighted with the practical sense and delicate feelings of the Danish people. Though they had gone through bitter trials in 1864, though France, England, and Russia had countenanced121 the unrighteous invasion, in the face of the old treaties which guaranteed to Denmark the possession of Schleswig, the diminished and impoverished122 nation had not given vent to barren recriminations or declamatory protests. Proudly and silently sorrowing, the Danes had preserved their respect for the past, faith in justice and the cult25 of their great men. It is a strange thing that Shakespeare should have chosen that land of good sense and well-balanced reason for the surroundings of his mysterious hero, of all men the most haunted by the maddening enigma123 of destiny.
Elsinore is but a short distance from Copenhagen, and no{402} member of the Congress, especially among the English section, could have made up his mind to leave Denmark without visiting Hamlet’s home.
A Transport Company organized the visit to Elsinore for a day when the Congress had arranged to have a complete holiday. Five steamers, gay with flags, were provided for the thousand medical men and their families, and accomplished124 the two hours’ crossing to Elsinore on a lovely, clear day, with an absolutely calm sea. The scientific tourists landed at the foot of the old Kronborg Castle, ready for the lunch which was served out to them and which proved barely sufficient for their appetites; there was not quite enough bread for the Frenchmen, proverbially bread-eaters, and the water, running a little short, had to be supplemented with champagne125.
Some of the visitors returned from a neighbouring wood, where they had been to see the stones of the supposed tomb of Hamlet, disappointed at having looked in vain for Ophelia’s stream and for the willow127 tree which heard her sing her last song, her hands full of flowers. Evidently this place was but an imaginary scenery given by Shakespeare to the drama which stands like a point of interrogation before the mystery of human life; but his life-giving art has for ever made of Elsinore the place where Hamlet lived and suffered.
Pasteur, to whom the Danish character, in its strength and simplicity128, proved singularly attractive, remained in Copenhagen for some time after the Congress was over. He had much pleasure in visiting the Thorwaldsen Museum. Copenhagen, after showering honours on the great artist during his lifetime, has continued to worship him after his death. Every statue, every plaster cast, is preserved in that Museum with extraordinary care. Thorwaldsen himself lies in the midst of his works—his simple stone grave, covered with graceful129 ivy130, is in one of the courtyards of the Museum.
Pasteur went on to Arbois from Copenhagen. The laboratory he had built there not being large enough to take in rabid dogs, he dictated131 from his study the experiments to be carried out in Paris; his carefully kept notebooks enabled him to know exactly how things were going on. His nephew, Adrien Loir, now a curator in the laboratory of Rue d’Ulm, had gladly given up his holidays and remained in Paris with the faithful Eugène Viala. This excellent assistant had come{403} to Paris from Alais in 1871, at the request of Pasteur, who knew his family. Viala was then only twelve years old and could barely read and write. Pasteur sent him to an evening school and himself helped him with his studies; the boy was very intelligent and willing to learn. He became most useful to Pasteur, who, in 1885, was glad to let him undertake a great deal of the laboratory work, under the guidance of M. Roux; he was ultimately entrusted132 with all the trephining operations on dogs, rabbits, and guinea-pigs.
The letters written to him by Pasteur in 1884 show the exact point reached at that moment by the investigations133 on hydrophobia. Many people already thought those studies advanced enough to allow the method of treatment to be applied to man.
Pasteur wrote to Viala on September 19, “Tell M. Adrien (Loir) to send the following telegram: ‘Surgeon Symonds, Oxford134, England. Operation on man still impossible. No possibility at present of sending attenuated virus.’ See MM. Bourrel and Béraud, procure135 a dog which has died of street-rabies, and use its medulla to inoculate a new monkey, two guinea-pigs and two rabbits.... I am afraid Nocard’s dog cannot have been rabid; even if you were sure that he was, you had better try those tests again.
“Since M. Bourrel says he has several mad dogs at present, you might take two couple of new dogs to his kennels; when he has a good biting dog, he can have a pair of our dogs bitten, after which you will treat one of them so as to make him refractory (carefully taking note of the time elapsed between the bites and the beginning of the treatment). Mind you keep notes of every new experiment undertaken, and write to me every other day at least.”
Pasteur pondered on the means of extinguishing hydrophobia or of merely diminishing its frequency. Could dogs be vaccinated? There are 100,000 dogs in Paris, about 2,500,000 more in the provinces: vaccination137 necessitates138 several preventive inoculations; innumerable kennels would have to be built for the purpose, to say nothing of the expense of keeping the dogs and of providing a trained staff capable of performing the difficult and dangerous operations. And, as M. Nocard truly remarked, where were rabbits to be found in sufficient number for the vaccine emulsions?
Optional vaccination did not seem more practicable; it could{404} only be worked on a very restricted scale and was therefore of very little use in a general way.
The main question was the possibility of preventing hydrophobia from occurring in a human being, previously bitten by a rabid dog.
The Emperor of Brazil, who took the greatest interest in the doings of the Ecole Normale laboratory, having written to Pasteur asking when the preventive treatment could be applied to man, Pasteur answered as follows—
“September 22.
“Sire—Baron Itajuba, the Minister for Brazil, has handed me the letter which Your Majesty139 has done me the honour of writing on August 21. The Academy welcomed with unanimous sympathy your tribute to the memory of our illustrious colleague, M. Dumas; it will listen with similar pleasure to the words of regret which you desire me to express on the subject of M. Wurtz’s premature140 death.
“Your Majesty is kind enough to mention my studies on hydrophobia; they are making good and uninterrupted progress. I consider, however, that it will take me nearly two years more to bring them to a happy issue....
“What I want to do is to obtain prophylaxis of rabies after bites.
“Until now I have not dared to attempt anything on men, in spite of my own confidence in the result and the numerous opportunities afforded to me since my last reading at the Academy of Sciences. I fear too much that a failure might compromise the future, and I want first to accumulate successful cases on animals. Things in that direction are going very well indeed; I already have several examples of dogs made refractory after a rabietic bite. I take two dogs, cause them both to be bitten by a mad dog; I vaccinate77 the one and leave the other without any treatment: the latter dies and the first remains141 perfectly142 well.
“But even when I shall have multiplied examples of the prophylaxis of rabies in dogs, I think my hand will tremble when I go on to Mankind. It is here that the high and powerful initiative of the head of a State might intervene for the good of humanity. If I were a King, an Emperor, or even the President of a Republic, this is how I should exercise my right of pardoning criminals condemned143 to death. I should invite the counsel of a condemned man, on the eve of the day fixed{405} for his execution, to choose between certain death and an experiment which would consist in several preventive inoculations of rabic virus, in order to make the subject’s constitution refractory to rabies. If he survived this experiment—and I am convinced that he would—his life would be saved and his punishment commuted144 to a lifelong surveillance, as a guarantee towards that society which had condemned him.
“All condemned men would accept these conditions, death being their only terror.
“This brings me to the question of cholera145, of which Your Majesty also has the kindness to speak to me. Neither Dr. Koch nor Drs. Straus and Roux have succeeded in giving cholera to animals, and therefore great uncertainty prevails regarding the bacillus to which Dr. Koch attributes the causation of cholera. It ought to be possible to try and communicate cholera to criminals condemned to death, by the injection of cultures of that bacillus. When the disease declared itself, a test could be made of the remedies which are counselled as apparently146 most efficacious.
“I attach so much importance to these measures, that, if Your Majesty shared my views, I should willingly come to Rio Janeiro, notwithstanding my age and the state of my health, in order to undertake such studies on the prophylaxis of hydrophobia and the contagion147 of cholera and its remedies.
In other times, the right of pardon could be exercised in the form of a chance of life offered to a criminal lending himself to an experiment. Louis XVI, having admired a fire balloon rising above Versailles, thought of proposing to two condemned men that they should attempt to go up in one. But Pilatre des Roziers, whose ambition it was to be the first a?ronaut, was indignant at the thought that “vile criminals should be the first to rise up in the air.” He won his cause, and in November, 1783, he organized an ascent149 at the Muette which lasted twenty minutes.
In England, in the eighteenth century, before Jenner’s discovery, successful attempts had been made at the direct inoculation of small-pox. In some historical and medical Researches on Vaccine, published in 1803, Husson relates that the King of England, wishing to have the members of his family inoculated, began by having the method tried on six{406} criminals condemned to death; they were all saved, and the Royal Family submitted to inoculation.
There is undoubtedly150 a beautiful aspect of that idea of utilizing151 the fate of a criminal for the cause of Humanity. But in our modern laws no such liberty is left to Justice, which has no power to invent new punishments, or to enter into a bargain with a condemned criminal.
Before his departure from Arbois, Pasteur encountered fresh and unforeseen obstacles. The successful opposition152 of the inhabitants of Meudon had inspired those of St. Cloud, Ville d’Avray, Vaucresson, Marnes, and Garches with the idea of resisting in their turn the installation of Pasteur’s kennels at Villeneuve l’Etang. People spoke91 of public danger, of children exposed to meet ferocious rabid dogs wandering loose about the park, of popular Sundays spoilt, picnickers disturbed, etc., etc.
A former pupil of Pasteur’s at the Strasburg Faculty, M. Christen, now a Town Councillor at Vaucresson, warned Pasteur of all this excitement, adding that he personally was ready to do his best to calm the terrors of his townspeople.
Pasteur answered, thanking him for his efforts. “...I shall be back in Paris on October 24, and on the morning of the twenty-fifth and following days I shall be pleased to see any one desiring information on the subject.... But you may at once assure your frightened neighbours, Sir, that there will be no mad dogs at Villeneuve l’Etang, but only dogs made refractory to rabies. Not having enough room in my laboratory, I am actually obliged to quarter on various veterinary surgeons those dogs, which I should like to enclose in covered kennels, quite safely secured, you may be sure.”
Pasteur, writing about this to his son, could not help saying, “Months of fine weather have been wasted! This will keep my plans back almost a year.”
Little by little, in spite of the opposition which burst out now and again, calm was again re-established. French good sense and appreciation153 of great things got the better of the struggle; in January, 1885, Pasteur was able to go to Villeneuve l’Etang to superintend the arrangements. The old stables were turned into an immense kennel, paved with asphalte. A wide passage went from one end to the other, on each side of which accommodation for sixty dogs was arranged behind a double barrier of wire netting.{407}
The subject of hydrophobia goes back to the remotest antiquity154; one of Homer’s warriors155 calls Hector a mad dog. The supposed allusions156 to it to be found in Hippocrates are of the vaguest, but Aristotle is quite explicit157 when speaking of canine rabies and of its transmission from one animal to the other through bites. He gives expression, however, to the singular opinion that man is not subject to it. More than three hundred years later we come to Celsus, who describes this disease, unknown or unnoticed until then. “The patient,” said Celsus, “is tortured at the same time by thirst and by an invincible158 repulsion towards water.” He counselled cauterization159 of the wound with a red-hot iron and also with various caustics160 and corrosives.
Pliny the Elder, a worthy162 precursor163 of village quacks165, recommended the livers of mad dogs as a cure; it was not a successful one. Galen, who opposed this, had a no less singular recipe, a compound of cray-fish eyes. Later, the shrine167 of St. Hubert in Belgium was credited with miraculous168 cures; this superstition169 is still extant.
Sea bathing, unknown in France until the reign95 of Louis XIV, became a fashionable cure for hydrophobia, Dieppe sands being supposed to offer wonderful curing properties.
In 1780 a prize was offered for the best method of treating hydrophobia, and won by a pamphlet entitled Dissertation170 sur la Rage, written by a surgeon-major of the name of Le Roux.
This very sensible treatise171 concluded by recommending cauterization, now long forgotten, instead of the various quack166 remedies which had so long been in vogue172, and the use of butter of antimony.
Le Roux did not allude173 in his paper to certain tenacious174 and cruel prejudices, which had caused several hydrophobic persons, or persons merely suspected of hydroprobia, to be killed like wild beasts, shot, poisoned, strangled, or suffocated.
It was supposed in some places that hydrophobia could be transmitted through the mere136 contact of the saliva or even by the breath of the victims; people who had been bitten were in terror of what might be done to them. A girl, bitten by a mad dog and taken to the H?tel Dieu Hospital on May 8, 1780, begged that she might not be suffocated!
Those dreadful occurrences must have been only too frequent, for, in 1810, a philosopher asked the Government to enact176 a Bill in the following terms: “It is forbidden, under pain of{408} death, to strangle, suffocate21, bleed to death, or in any other way murder individuals suffering from rabies, hydrophobia, or any disease causing fits, convulsions, furious and dangerous madness; all necessary precautions against them being taken by families or public authorities.”
In 1819, newspapers related the death of an unfortunate hydrophobe, smothered177 between two mattresses178; it was said à propos of this murder that “it is the doctor’s duty to repeat that this disease cannot be transmitted from man to man, and that there is therefore no danger in nursing hydrophobia patients.” Though old and fantastic remedies were still in vogue in remote country places, cauterization was the most frequently employed; if the wounds were somewhat deep, it was recommended to use long, sharp and pointed126 needles, and to push them well in, even if the wound was on the face.
One of Pasteur’s childish recollections (it happened in October, 1831) was the impression of terror produced throughout the Jura by the advent179 of a rabid wolf who went biting men and beasts on his way. Pasteur had seen an Arboisian of the name of Nicole being cauterized180 with a red-hot iron at the smithy near his father’s house. The persons who had been bitten on the hands and head succumbed to hydrophobia, some of them amidst horrible sufferings; there were eight victims in the immediate36 neighbourhood. Nicole was saved. For years the whole region remained in dread175 of that mad wolf.
The long period of incubation encouraged people to hope that some preventive means might be found, instead of the painful operation of cauterization; some doctors attempted inoculating181 another poison, a viper’s venom182 for instance, to neutralize183 the rabic virus—needless to say with fatal results. In 1852 a reward was promised by the Government to the finder of a remedy against hydrophobia; all the old quackeries came to light again, even Galen’s remedy of cray-fish eyes!
Bouchardat, who had to report to the Academy on these remedies, considered them of no value whatever; his conclusion was that cauterization was the only prophylactic treatment of hydrophobia.
Such was also Bouley’s opinion, eighteen years later, when he wrote that the object to keep in view was the quickest possible destruction of the tissues touched by rabietic saliva. Failing an iron heated to a light red heat, or the sprinkling of{409} gunpowder184 over the wound and setting a match to it, he recommended caustics, such as nitric acid, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, potassa fusa, butter of antimony, corrosive161 sublimate185, and nitrate of silver.
Thus, after centuries had passed, and numberless remedies had been tried, no progress had been made, and nothing better had been found than cauterization, as indicated by Celsus in the first century.
As to the origin of rabies, it remained unknown and was erroneously attributed to divers186 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 uproot187 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 abhor188 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 pestered189 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.{410} 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 untoward190 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.
“I am equally satisfied with my new experiments in this difficult study. Perhaps practical application on a large scale may not be far off....”
In May, everything at Villeneuve l’Etang was ready for the reception of sixty dogs. Fifty of them, already made refractory to bites or rabic inoculation, were successively accommodated in the immense kennel, where each had his cell and his experiment number. They had been made refractory by being inoculated with fragments of medulla, which had hung for a fortnight in a phial, and of which the virulence was extinguished, after which further inoculations had been made, gradually increasing in virulence until the highest degree of it had again been reached.
All those dogs, which were to be periodically taken back to Paris for inoculations or bite tests, in order to see what was{411} the duration of the immunity conferred, were stray dogs picked up by the police. They were of various breeds, and showed every variety of character, some of them gentle and affectionate, others vicious and growling191, some confiding192, some shrinking, as if the recollection of chloroform and the laboratory was disagreeable to them. They showed some natural impatience193 of their enforced captivity194, only interrupted by a short daily run. One of them, however, was promoted to the post of house-dog, and loosened every night; he excited much envy among his congeners. The dogs were very well cared for by a retired195 gendarme196, an excellent man of the name of Pernin.
A lover of animals might have drawn an interesting contrast between the fate of those laboratory dogs, living and dying for the good of humanity, and that of the dogs buried in the neighbouring dogs’ cemetery197 at Bagatelle198, founded by Sir Richard Wallace, the great English philanthropist. Here lay toy dogs, lap dogs, drawing-room dogs, cherished and coddled during their useless lives, and luxuriously199 buried after their useless deaths, while the dead bodies of the others went to the knacker’s yard.
Rabbit hutches and guinea-pig cages leaned against the dogs’ palace. Pasteur, having seen to the comfort of his animals, now thought of himself; it was frequently necessary that he should come to spend two or three days at Villeneuve l’Etang. The official architect thought of repairing part of the little palace of Villeneuve, which was in a very bad state of decay. But Pasteur preferred to have some rooms near the stables put into repair, which had formerly201 been used for non-commissioned officers of the Cent Gardes; there was less to do to them, and the position was convenient. The roof, windows, and doors were renovated202, and some cheap paper hung on the walls inside. “This is certainly not luxurious200!” exclaimed an astonished millionaire, who came to see Pasteur one day on his way to his own splendid villa164 at Marly.
On May 29 Pasteur wrote to his son—
“I thought I should have done with rabies by the end of April; I must postpone203 my hopes till the end of July. Yet I have not remained stationary204; but, in these difficult studies, one is far from the goal as long as the last word, the last decisive proof is not acquired. What I aspire205 to is the possibility of treating a man after a bite with no fear of accidents.
“I have never had so many subjects of experiment on hand{412}—sixty dogs at Villeneuve l’Etang, forty at Rollin, ten at Frégis’, fifteen at Bourrel’s, and I deplore206 having no more kennels at my disposal.
“What do you say of the Rue Pasteur in the large city of Lille? The news has given me very great pleasure.”
What Pasteur briefly207 called “Rollin” in this letter was the former Lycée Rollin, the old buildings of which had been transformed into outhouses for his laboratory. Large cages had been set up in the old courtyard, and the place was like a farm, with its population of hens, rabbits, and guinea-pigs.
Two series of experiments were being carried out on those 125 dogs. The first consisted in making dogs refractory to rabies by preventive inoculations; the second in preventing the onset208 of rabies in dogs bitten or subjected to inoculation.
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1
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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caresses
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| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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benevolence
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| n.慈悲，捐助 | |
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vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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investigators
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| n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 ) | |
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kennels
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| n.主人外出时的小动物寄养处，养狗场；狗窝( kennel的名词复数 )；养狗场 | |
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kennel
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| n.狗舍，狗窝 | |
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rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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darts
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| n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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saliva
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| n.唾液，口水 | |
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secondly
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spasms
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| n.痉挛( spasm的名词复数 )；抽搐；（能量、行为等的）突发；发作 | |
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shudders
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| n.颤动，打颤，战栗( shudder的名词复数 )v.战栗( shudder的第三人称单数 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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suffocated
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| （使某人）窒息而死( suffocate的过去式和过去分词 )； （将某人）闷死； 让人感觉闷热； 憋气 | |
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suffocate
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| vt.使窒息，使缺氧，阻碍；vi.窒息，窒息而亡，阻碍发展 | |
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inoculated
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inoculate
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| v.给...接种，给...注射疫苗 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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cult
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veal
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| n.小牛肉 | |
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broth
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| n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等) | |
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virulence
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| n.毒力，毒性；病毒性；致病力 | |
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query
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| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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attenuation
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| n.变薄；弄细；稀薄化；减少 | |
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virulent
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| adj.有毒的，有恶意的，充满敌意的 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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inoculation
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| n.接芽；预防接种 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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indefatigable
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| adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的 | |
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perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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alteration
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| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
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spinal
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| adj.针的，尖刺的，尖刺状突起的；adj.脊骨的，脊髓的 | |
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paralysis
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| n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症) | |
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sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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enunciated
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| v.（清晰地）发音( enunciate的过去式和过去分词 )；确切地说明 | |
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ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lingual
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| adj.语言的；舌的 | |
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glands
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| n.腺( gland的名词复数 ) | |
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mucous
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| adj. 黏液的，似黏液的 | |
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membrane
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| n.薄膜，膜皮，羊皮纸 | |
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cerebral
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| adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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sterilized
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| v.消毒( sterilize的过去式和过去分词 )；使无菌；使失去生育能力；使绝育 | |
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agitator
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| n.鼓动者；搅拌器 | |
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succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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isolate
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| vt.使孤立，隔离 | |
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feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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refractory
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| adj.倔强的，难驾驭的 | |
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caustic
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| adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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atmospheric
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| adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的 | |
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70
acceded
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| v.（正式）加入( accede的过去式和过去分词 )；答应；（通过财产的添附而）增加；开始任职 | |
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71
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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72
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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73
fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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74
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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75
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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76
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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77
vaccinate
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| vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘 | |
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78
vaccinated
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| [医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的 | |
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79
ferociously
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| 野蛮地，残忍地 | |
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80
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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81
immunity
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| n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权 | |
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82
attenuated
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| v.（使）变细( attenuate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）变薄；（使）变小；减弱 | |
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83
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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84
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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85
vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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86
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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87
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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88
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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89
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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90
contagious
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| adj.传染性的，有感染力的 | |
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91
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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92
appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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93
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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94
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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95
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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96
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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97
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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98
patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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99
durable
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| adj.持久的，耐久的 | |
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100
etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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101
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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102
expounding
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| 论述，详细讲解( expound的现在分词 ) | |
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103
arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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104
physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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105
prophylactic
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| adj.预防疾病的；n.预防疾病 | |
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106
avert
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| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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107
scourge
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| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
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108
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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109
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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110
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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111
vaccine
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| n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的 | |
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112
canine
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| adj.犬的，犬科的 | |
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113
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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114
munificent
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| adj.慷慨的，大方的 | |
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115
brewery
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| n.啤酒厂 | |
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116
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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117
physiology
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| n.生理学，生理机能 | |
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118
niche
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| n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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119
physiologist
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| n.生理学家 | |
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120
yeast
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| n.酵母；酵母片；泡沫；v.发酵；起泡沫 | |
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121
countenanced
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| v.支持，赞同，批准( countenance的过去式 ) | |
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122
impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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123
enigma
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| n.谜，谜一样的人或事 | |
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124
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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125
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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126
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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127
willow
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| n.柳树 | |
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128
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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129
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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130
ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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131
dictated
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| v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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132
entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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133
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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134
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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135
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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136
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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137
vaccination
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| n.接种疫苗，种痘 | |
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138
necessitates
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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139
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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140
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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141
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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142
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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143
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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144
commuted
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| 通勤( commute的过去式和过去分词 )； 减（刑）； 代偿 | |
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145
cholera
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| n.霍乱 | |
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146
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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147
contagion
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| n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延 | |
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148
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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149
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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150
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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151
utilizing
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| v.利用，使用( utilize的现在分词 ) | |
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152
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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153
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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154
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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155
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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156
allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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157
explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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158
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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159
cauterization
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| n.烧灼，腐蚀 | |
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160
caustics
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| n.苛性的( caustic的名词复数 )；腐蚀性的；尖刻的；刻薄的 | |
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161
corrosive
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| adj.腐蚀性的；有害的；恶毒的 | |
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162
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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163
precursor
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| n.先驱者；前辈；前任；预兆；先兆 | |
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164
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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165
quacks
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| abbr.quacksalvers 庸医，骗子(16世纪习惯用水银或汞治疗梅毒的人)n.江湖医生( quack的名词复数 )；江湖郎中；（鸭子的）呱呱声v.（鸭子）发出嘎嘎声( quack的第三人称单数 ) | |
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166
quack
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| n.庸医；江湖医生；冒充内行的人；骗子 | |
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167
shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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168
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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169
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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170
dissertation
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| n.（博士学位）论文，学术演讲，专题论文 | |
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171
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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172
Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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173
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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174
tenacious
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| adj.顽强的，固执的，记忆力强的，粘的 | |
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175
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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176
enact
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| vt.制定(法律)；上演，扮演 | |
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177
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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178
mattresses
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| 褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 ) | |
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179
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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180
cauterized
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| v.（用腐蚀性物质或烙铁）烧灼以消毒( cauterize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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181
inoculating
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| v.给…做预防注射( inoculate的现在分词 ) | |
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182
venom
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| n.毒液，恶毒，痛恨 | |
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183
neutralize
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| v.使失效、抵消，使中和 | |
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184
gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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185
sublimate
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| v.(使)升华，净化 | |
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186
divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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187
uproot
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| v.连根拔起，拔除；根除，灭绝；赶出家园，被迫移开 | |
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188
abhor
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| v.憎恶；痛恨 | |
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189
pestered
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| 使烦恼，纠缠( pester的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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190
untoward
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| adj.不利的，不幸的，困难重重的 | |
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191
growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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192
confiding
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| adj.相信人的，易于相信的v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的现在分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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193
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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194
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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195
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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196
gendarme
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| n.宪兵 | |
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197
cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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198
bagatelle
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| n.琐事；小曲儿 | |
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199
luxuriously
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| adv.奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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200
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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201
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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202
renovated
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| 翻新，修复，整修( renovate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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203
postpone
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| v.延期，推迟 | |
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204
stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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205
aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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206
deplore
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| vt.哀叹，对...深感遗憾 | |
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207
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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208
onset
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| n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始 | |
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