Appendix to Third report of the Commissioners : minutes of evidence, April to July, 1907.
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Vivisection (1906)
- Date:
- 1907
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Appendix to Third report of the Commissioners : minutes of evidence, April to July, 1907. Source: Wellcome Collection.
219/272 page 213
![details Hogyes (Buda-Pesth) concluded from 855 cases that it was 13.9 per cent. If all the cases are added up together, and the number of deaths, the average comes to 17.9 per cent. as the estimated mortality when. bitten by a rabid dog. That estimate is based upon 2,264 cases. 11660. I thought these were percentages of the persons bitten who had contracted the disease. Is this last figure the average mortality ?—Yes. I have added the number of cases observed by each man together, and the number of deaths returned by each man. 11661. (Sir John McFadyean.) Of persons un treated ?—Yes, this is of persons untreated. (Chairman.) It is not quite clear. You begin by saying that Bouley,in an official inquiry into the history of 320 cases made under the Second Empire, found 40 per cent. of the persons bitten contracted the disease. (Sir John McFadyean.) They all died. 11662. (Chairman.) It does not say so. That is as- sumed ?—-In the paragraph before I stated that rabies is a fata] disease. 11663. (Sir John McFadyean.) You might say “ in- variably” ?—I will put, if you think it is stronger, “invariably fatal.” 11664. (Mr. Tomkinson.) Rabies in the dog?—No rabies in man, 1) 11665. Do you not call it hydrophobia?—If you like I will call it hydrophobia—hydrophobia is an in- variably fatal disease in man. 11666. But dogs do not have hydrophobia; the dog has rabies ?—Rabies is one name for the disease, and hydrophobia is another. 11667. Is it correct to use the word hydrophobia in the case of a dog ?—I think so, certainly. 11668. I thought not. I thought the dog did not have the fear of water. 11669. (Sir William Collins.) Do all these figures refer to the period prior to inoculation?—No; some figures are collected later; but they are all of cases which have not undergone treatment. ~ 11670. But your figures in the Table start with the year 1886 ?—Yes. _ 11671. Is that what you regard as the commence- ment of the inoculation period ?—Yes; but everybody does not undergo treatment for rabies even now. _/ 11672. Would you be so good as to answer that ques- tion?, Do you regard 1886 as the period from which the;inoculation method was introduced ?—Certainly. 11673. Do the figures which you have just given us in regard to the number of cases that were bitten and attacked relate to the pre-inoculation period ?—Not entirely. 11674. Do all except those that you have just added with regard to Buda-Pesth ?—No, not entirely. - 11675. It seems desirable to senarate those, because there may be a question whether they are*all of the ‘pre-inoculation period or whether you are adding some ‘Cases now which though not. treated belong to the post- ‘inoculation period ?—In the case of Buda-Pesth that ‘is ‘so. _ 11676. Then will you be so good as to indicate in what cases you are dealing with the post-inoculation seriod ?—I am not certain off-hand about Faber’s at urtemberg; but I believe those were of pre-inocu- lation date. ; . 11677. Then are there any except the additional cases which you have added from Buda-Pesth, which were of the post-inoculation period ?—I am not sure ‘about Faber’s, without looking the thing up again. 2138 the others I put the dates in. 11679. I gathered from the dates that you were pur- posely obtaining cases which were pre-inoculation wondered whether they related to post or to pre-inocu- lation. I understand now that they relate to post- inoculation ?—Yes, but untreated. 11680. (Sir John McFadyean.) 1 suppose you really took all the statistics that you could find on that subject ?—Yes. 11681. You did not select them because they were of the pre-inoculation period ?—No. 11682. There have been no records made of those of Bouley and others ?—No. 11683. You could not find any in the literature to the same extent ?—No. . 11684. Are you sure that the Pasteur treatment only began in 1886. It would be rather extraordinary if in the first year’s treatment 2,671 persons were treated. Were not those the first published statistics merely ?— Yes, you are right; I have previously stated that ‘The return for 1886 includes the year before, too. 11685. (Sir William Collins.) But you state the mortality since the introduction of the treatment began with the year 1886?—Yes, that is the first year for which the returns were published and are available. 11686. (Sir Mackenzie Chalmers.) But still they are untreated cases ?—Yes. 11687. Does it make any difference whether they were bitten before or after the invention, as long as they were not treated ?—I imagine not. 11688. I do not know. It might?—I see no reason why it should. 16689. There is just this point, that the more severe cases might be treated, and the untreated cases would be the more doubtful cases?—That might be so, of course. But that will be in favour of my argument, 11690. I know ?—TI can only deal with the figures as they are available. 11691. (Sir William Collins.) And it might not be so?—It might not be so. to be quite clear whether these statistics relate. to people who were bitten merely by dogs suspected of rabies; because many returns distinguish between persons bitten by dogs suspected of rabies and those bitten by dogs experimentally proved to have been rabid or certified by a veterinary surgeon to have been rabid, The older statistics were not ex- perimentally proved. They were on the opinion of the veterinary surgeon. The most careful statistics, so far as I can judge, are the last ones from Buda- Pesth, from Hoygés. biggest Pasteur Institutes in the world, which is situated in, Buda-Pesth. And in Hungary hydro- phobia is particularly important as a disease. 11693. (Sir William Collins.) But would the figures: which appear in your statement be correct, that of the 470 case of Hogyes an attack rate of 9.5 per cent. was observed ?—That. was in the first 470 cases, 11694. Would you give us separately what the addi- tional cases are which you now add which produce an attack rate of 13.9 per cent. in the total ?—T cannot do it now. 11695. It will complete the statement ?-—Yer, Martin, M.B.,. D.SC.; F.R.S,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32182181_0219.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
