547

PARIS

(From our own Correspondent.)

RABIES IX RUMINANTS.

AMONG the papers recently communicated to the SocieteNationale d’Acclimatation may be cited one on Rabies in

Ruminating Animals, byilT. Pion, veterinary inspector of theslaughter yards at La Villette, and which has been reproducedin the Journal Officiel of Aug. 27th, 1888. In a generalway, rabies in the bovine species has, according to M. Pion,neither the violence nor the intensity which is observed indogs. The author thus explains the cause of the difference.The bovine animals, being peaceful, are not so subject tobeing bitten. On the other hand, the earlier authors whohad described the malady had greatly exaggerated the sym-ptoms. It is now known that, thanks to more careful obser-vations, rabies, as a rule, is not in the ox so dangerous orso terrifying. The author then describes certain symptomswhich more or less resemble those of rabies, and are con-sequently often mistaken for the latter malady. The lateM. H. Bouley, the well-known veterinarian, however, in hiswork on Rabies in the Bovine Species, summarises as followstheprogress of the disease as observed by him in twenty-sevencases. First day: Slight colicky pains, or something more orless analogous, as the animal no sooner lies down than he getsup again. The senses are excited; there is a very suddenrising of the temperature; pruriginous pains at the seat ofthe bite. Second day: Less agitation; slight tenesmus;diminution of the temperature of the body, as well as thatat the seat of the bite. Third day: Commencing para-plegia ; strong tenesmus, with rejection of faecal matter,covered with mucus of a yellowish-brown tint; insensitive-ness of the vertebral column; decreasing temperature.These symptoms are accompanied by bellowing. Fourthday: Complete paraplegia; violent tenesmus; excrementcovered with frothy mucus; foaming at the mouth; bellow-ing more frequent. Fifth day: Same symptoms, withconsiderable diminution of the temperature; bellowingmore rare; sense of taste not impaired. The period ofincubation has been exactly ascertained, as the same doghad infected the twenty-seven oxen noted above, whichwere dispersed among a herd of eighty. The average periodwas from three to six weeks in three-fourths of theseanimals; in the remainder it lasted from six weeks to threemonths. All treatment was inefficacious. The principallesions-indeed, the only ones-were observed on the spinalmarrow, which was redder than it ordinarily is, and dotted,particularly about the level of the loins, with numerousspots in the form of lentils. In other parts nothing par-ticular was seen. Inoculations practised on rabbits withthe saliva and with portions of the bulb, diluted, trans-mitted rabies. But nowhere, not even in the cases cited,was it seen that rabies had been inoculated mediately orimmediately from one herbivorous animal to another.Things must have happened otherwise among the deer ofRichmond Park.

M. PASTEUR’S INOCULATIONS.M. Pasteur has had a run of ill-luck with his antirabic

inoculations lately, as reported by the Sémaine Médicale.On the 23rd of July last a man aged twenty-eight yearsdied of rabies at the Hotel Dieu of St. Etienne. He hadbeen bitten by a rabid cat on the 16th of June, and wastreated at the Pasteur Institute at Paris from June 20thto July 7th. After having completed his treatment hythe antirabic inoculations, the man returned to his work asa domestic at St. Etienne, where the first symptoms ofrabies manifested themselves on the 18th of July, that isthirty-two days after he had been bitten. On August 8th a

young man aged twenty-two years died at the Necker

Hospital at Paris, from convulsive rabies. He had beenbitten by a mad dog on the 13th of July and was treated atthe Pasteur Institute from the 16th. Death from rabiestook place twenty-six days after the bite. On the 20th ofJune last a child eighteen months old died from rabies atGentilly (Seine), thirty-six days after having been bitten bya rabid dog and inoculated at the Pasteur Institute. Thechild, who had bpen bitten on the 15th of May last, wasfirst treated by the doctor of the place. Two days after—thatis, the 17th-the inoculations were commenced and continuedfor twenty-four days. The first symptoms became manifestabout the eighth day after the completion of the treatment

by the antirabic inoculations. A child at Marseilles agedthirty-one months, who was bitten on May 9th last by a rabiddog, and treated at the Pasteur Institute from May 14thto June 9th, died from rabies on June 23rd-fourteendays after the end of the treatment. An inhahitant ofCliatenay, aged forty-four years, who was bitten on

March 2ath last by a rabid cat, and treated at the PasteurInstitute from March 26th to April 12th, died from rabie&on July 30th. Madame Sarazin, of Saint-Maurice, inSwitzerland, aged forty-four years, who was bitten on

July lst last by a mad dog, and treated at the PasteurInstitute from the 4th of the same month, died from rabie&at the Hôpital Broussais in Paris on August 4th. Tothis list may be added the name of a work-nian of Chatenay,called Labeaume, who died from convulsive rabies at thebeginning of the month of July last at the Hospital ofVersailles, but who had not undergone the treatment

regularly. Bitten on May 29th, 1888, by a rabid cat,.Labeaume was put under treatment on the 30th of the samemonth, but he left the Pasteur Institute on June 2nd with-out signifying his intention to do so, and only returned onthe 14th. At that time he experienced severe pains in thebitten arm, accompanied with headache. The inoculations.were resumed and continued till June 29th.

TUBERCULOSIS.

Dr. Fremy, hospital physician, is charged with a mission.to the United States, with the view of visiting the private-and public establishments of that country that are devoted.to the treatment of tuberculosis.

Paris, Sept. llth. _________________

EGYPT.

(From our own Correspondent.)

REPORT OF THE SANITARY DEPARTMENT.

PROBABLY for the first time in the history of Egypt the-Public Health branch of the Government has issued a,

report. It treats only of the year 1887, and its well-wishershope that it may now be an annual institution and graduallyimprove every year. Three-fourths of it is in English, beingmostly contributed by English officials, and the remainder,in French, consists chiefly of translations from Arabic re-ports. The list of personnel includes 300 for the various.medical services, 540 hospital attendants, and 620 workmenfor watering and scavenging the streets, besides a huge-number of unpaid barbers and midwives for country work ;2444 barbers and 4612 midwives are exempted from taxesto a slight extent, and pick up a livelihood by vaccinationand minor surgery. During the year the provincial doctorswere called upon to write no less than 8440 medico-legalreports for the police and law courts. Towards the end ofthe year eight dispensaries were opened in different towns,and treated large numbers of patients, most of whom were-able to pay a small fee. A self-supporting Governmentdispensary in every large town would be a great boon.Registration of births and deaths is now carried out morethoroughly than it has ever been before ; but, as statisticsof the villages emanate from the barbers, and these worthies.are generally unable to read and write, it is difficult to seehow they can be made quite accurate. There is a tempta-tion to conceal births on account of the future army con-scription, and an excessive death-rate is hidden at first bytrving to extend it over many succeeding weeks. Everyvillage of more than 300 inhabitants is now supplied with aregister, and of such villages there are about 4000. Smallerhamlets are supposed to supply statistics to the nearestvillage.

HOSPITAL ENTRIES.

There is a great improvement in the willingness of bothmen and women to enter the twenty-one hospitals of theGovernment. Onlv live years ago natives never enteredthese buildings unless they were sent there by the police.The year’s figures show 11,674 admissions, of which half the.number entered Cairo and Alexandria hospitals. At Cairo,.where there is a large out-patient department, the attend-ance was upwards of 30,000, the prescriptions dispensedhaving been about 17,000.

IMPROVEMENTS AT ASSIONT.

Here an energetic and intelligent native doctor has suc-Céeded in getting a stagnant pond filled up, and also several