M. PASTEUR'S STATISTICS.
[TO TER EDITOR Or THE 4. 8.-scrixoz.-] Sin,—In M. Pasteur's absence from Paris, his latest communi- cation on his method for preventing hydrophobia was read last month by Dr. Vulpian at the Academy of Sciences, and as yet I have seen no comment upon the remarkable statistics it con- tained. We know that only about 5 per cent. of the dogs supposed to be mad are really so ; but when by thousands people who have been bitten undergo M. Pasteur's treatment,. then we hear that between 80 and 90 per cent. of the dogs that bit them were known to have been mad. And this, though we remember that when the "Pasteur craze" was at its height, almost any pretence would take people to Paris for his inoculations. One " eminent " medical man, with his whole family (a very large one) underwent M. Pasteur's treatment, because a " suspicions-looking dog" had licked them, one of the dumb ways in which we have been accustomed to. think the poor creatures try to show us their affection ! If eminent medical men can set such an example as this to those who look to the profession for guidance in matters of the kind, we can form some idea of the character of many of the 2,682 cases treated by M. Pasteur. Quite lately, a telegram was received from Russia stating : "The ten soldiers recently treated by M. Pasteur are quite well; so is the dog that bit them !" These are but two instances, where so many might be given showing the condition of the dogs more than 80 per cent. of which were " certified " to have been mad !
And now, with respect to the deaths of M. Pasteur's patients. In this same " communication," these are given as 29 during- the fourteen months from October, 1885, to December, 1886;. but a published list I have before me, giving in each instance the name, age, country, with date of treatment and date of death, shows that these deaths for twelve months, from one December to the other, were 53 ! To exaggerate to an absurdity the madness of the poor dogs, and to halve the number of the deaths, was certainly the way to make results appear favour- able. But, unfortunately for M. Pasteur, his statistics proved too much, for he claimed from them to have saved 346 lives as the result of his treatment ; and those who received this announce- ment with " enthusiastic applause," never thought of asking themselves where they could have come from, these 346 witnesses to the "signal success" of M. Pasteur's system Hydrophobia, so rare a disease anywhere, is in most countries altogether unknown, and probably in the whole world fewer lives are lost from it in one year than M. Pasteur professes to have saved. Bat there is no need of speculation, or to travel so far for proof of the absurdity of M. Pasteur's pretension& His own country, that would furnish quite a third of his patients, most have derived the most benefit from his treatment ; and official statistics show that the annual deaths from hydro- phobia in France average about 30, while last year—the year in which M. Pasteur was saving these "hundreds" of lives (had he called them thousands, his hearers would have still more frantically applauded)—these deaths were 35 ! Now, let M. Pasteur try to reconcile these official
statistics with his own ; and till he has done this, we claim to have proved from them, what from the first we have maintained, that his system is as worthless as it is cruel. We are told exactly the number of those who underwent inoculation with "rabid virus," with the wild idea that it would prevent rabies, and the exact number of those whose lives were saved in consequence; bat past all count must be the number of the wretched animals doomed to a lingering death of torture, that this virus might be obtained. No week ever passes without M. Pasteur's practice being denounced by the first physicians and savants of Paris, as an outrage upon the very name of science, as 'charlatanism" that has owed its success "to the credulity of his contemporaries ;" and if but a few of the leading men in our own medical profession had joined in its condemnation, instead of encouraging it, by this time it would probably have been almost abandoned. And with each fresh proof of its failure —each of the constantly recurring deaths of M. Pasteur's "successfully treated" patients—some of ns have looked anxiously, and vainly, for the appearance of some influential and well-known name urging the discontinuance of the use- less practice. Vainly, indeed ! For from the Spectator of January 22nd, we learned that many of the leading members of the medical profession are lamenting it as a "national dis- credit " that it has been impossible in England to carry on M. Pasteur's experiments—and learned, too, their proposal to found a laboratory for physiological and pathological research where -experiments will be possible that will rival those of Paris and Berlin—and the grateful thanks of all those who would look upon such an Institute as a national disgrace are doe to the Spectator for its earnest protest against the scheme.—I am, Sir, S. W.
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