A History of Science — Volume 4Williams, Henry Smith
History
A History of Science — Volume 4
Williams, Henry Smith
Science -- History
Two days later, June 2d, at the appointed hour of rendezvous, a vast
crowd, composed of veterinary surgeons, newspaper correspondents, and
farmers from far and near, gathered to witness the closing scenes of
this scientific tourney. What they saw was one of the most dramatic
scenes in the history of peaceful science--a scene which, as Pasteur
declared afterwards, "amazed the assembly." Scattered about the
enclosure, dead, dying, or manifestly sick unto death, lay the
unprotected animals, one and all, while each and every "protected"
animal stalked unconcernedly about with every appearance of perfect
health. Twenty of the sheep and the one goat were already dead; two
other sheep expired under the eyes of the spectators; the remaining
victims lingered but a few hours longer. Thus in a manner theatrical
enough, not to say tragic, was proclaimed the unequivocal victory of
science. Naturally enough, the unbelievers struck their colors and
surrendered without terms; the principle of protective vaccination,
with a virus experimentally prepared in the laboratory, was established
beyond the reach of controversy.
That memorable scientific battle marked the beginning of a new era
in medicine. It was a foregone conclusion that the principle thus
established would be still further generalized; that it would be
applied to human maladies; that in all probability it would grapple
successfully, sooner or later, with many infectious diseases. That
expectation has advanced rapidly towards realization. Pasteur himself
made the application to the human subject in the disease hydrophobia in
1885, since which time that hitherto most fatal of maladies has largely
lost its terrors. Thousands of persons bitten by mad dogs have been
snatched from the fatal consequences of that mishap by this method at
the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and at the similar institutes, built on
the model of this parent one, that have been established all over the
world in regions as widely separated as New York and Nha-Trang.
SERUM-THERAPY
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