Rabies Past Present in Scientific Review
Millicent Morden (Physician & Surgeon)

Rabies was an old superstition — a relic of the times when devils ran to and fro between animal and man carrying disease.

Pasteur, who had previously had a hemorrhage of the brain, changed this old superstition into a money-making disease.

Rabies is now a pet child of the Vivisection Trust which works internationally.

If vivisection has proven anything it has proven the impossibility of man contracting any real disease from a dog.

How long will filthy lucre keep the facts from the fooled public?

In early times, as recorded in articles available in old libraries, the kiss of a king would cure rabies. It was later discovered that a piece of the king’s garment would be as efficacious.

Still later the "mad stone" when applied over the area of the bite would "draw out the madness". Later some of the "hair of the dog that bit you" could either be chewed and swallowed or bound on the wound.

A still later discovery was that which employed an extract of "wild cockroach".

In 1806 a Mr. Kraus was awarded $1000, by the then rulers of New York temtory for his scientific discovery which had kept rabies out of New York for Over twenty years. His formula is a matter of record and consisted of the ground-up jaw bone of an ass or dog, a piece of colt’s tongue and the green rust off a penny of George the First reign.

This latter seems to have kept rabies out of the limelight until the time of Pasteur. Medicine has heard much of the startling cure of Joseph Meister by Pasteur. Little mention is made of the fact that three relatives of the Meister boy were bitten by the same dog and without benefit of the Pasteur treatment recovered completely.

Dr. H. Bastian, a contemporary, took sharp issue with Pasteur’s scientific ideas and conclusions. Another contemporary of Pasteur, Dr. Antoine Bechamp, took violent exceptions to Pasteur’s reports on rabies and, incidentally, it was Dr. Bechamp who claimed to have previously discovered the cause of the silkworm disease. He also (Bechamp) was the man who made the discoveries on fermentation. The records of the French Academy of Science substantiate Bechamp’s claims.

Dr. W. R. Hadwen of England was also in controversy with Pasteur. Dr. William A. Bruette, former assistant chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry in Washington, was also a contemporary of Pasteur and gave many proofs of Pasteur’s incorrect findings. Dr. Bruette has proved, as a matter of fact, that rabies vaccine is not only a fraud, but harmful. He scores the use of rabies vaccine and states that "inoculation spreads disease." He goes as far as to call the sale of rabies vaccine an out and out racket.

Dr. Matthew Woods, another contemporary of Pasteur, then a leading member of the Philadelphia Medical. Society, wrote much on the subject of rabies. He stated, "at the Philadelphia dog pound, where on an average more than 6,000 vagrant dogs are taken annually, and where the catchers and keepers are frequently bitten while handling them, not one case of hydrophobia has occurred during it’s entire history of twenty-five years, in which time 150,000 dogs have been handled."

"The records of the London Hospital, a few years ago, showed 2,668 persons bitten by angry dogs. None of them developed hydrophobia."

St. George’s Hospital, London, records 4,000 patients bitten by dogs supposed to have been mad. No case of hydrophobia.

"In the record of all the diseases which have occurred at the Pennsylvania Hospital in one hundred and forty years, only two cases which were supposed to be hydrophobia have occurred. One of these, however, the only one submitted to bacteriological test, did not confirm the diagnosis, ‘hydrophobia’ and the local health authorities refused to register the death as due to rabies."

Dr. Charles W. Dulles, lecturer on the History of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who was appointed by the Medical Societies of the state to investigate rabies stated that he is "inclined to the view that there is no such specific malady" because after sixteen years of investigation he had "failed to find a single case on record that can be conclusively proved to have resulted from the bite of a dog or any other cause." The report and Dr. Woods’ letter were endorsed by Dr. Theophilus Parvin of Jefferson Medical College and President of the National Academy of Medicine; Dr. Thomas G. Morten, Coroners Physician; Dr. Charles K. Mills of the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Thomas I. Mays of the Polyclinic Hospital.

Dr. Woods recently wrote a discourse of mimetic diseases, in which he discussed rabies. His evidence supports the view that so-called human rabies is the result of a disordered imagination (fear). In animals, so-called rabies is fundamentally due to maltreatment or malnutrition or both.

Dr. Wilcox of New York investigated a "rabies scare" because of eleven alleged deaths from rabid dog bites. Upon complete investigation, it was found that not one of these deaths was due to rabies. With the publication of his report to the city council, the "rabies scare" ended forthwith.

Dr. Elmer Lee ended another rabies scare on Staten Island. On autopsy the rabid dog was found to have died of thread worms and not rabies. The worms were lodged in the heart of the animal.

A similar finding of worms ended the Kiondike Rabies Panic.

Dr. Stillman, in 1922 voiced the opinion that rabies was "pure humbug" and that in over forty years as a practicing physician with a very busy practice and wide travels throughout Europe, he stated that he had "never seen a case of hydrophobia or rabies."

In a letter answering a request for information, Dr. Stillman stated: "Several years ago there was considerable excitement occasioned by the declaration of a rabies quarantine by the state department of agriculture in Albany, N. Y. It lasted two years. Many dogs were killed. Their heads were sent on for official examination at Cornell College Veterinary department. Many were pronounced rabid, but the test was dependent upon the presence of certain Negri bodies in the animal’s brain."

"I was told by a pupil of Pasteur in France that these Negri bodies were sometimes present when there was no suspicion whatever of rabies. We sent the head of a harmless little dog without any disease symptoms whatever to Cornell and it was promptly pronounced rabid. Finally I went to the department of Agriculture, which had charge, and insisted that our society would hold all dogs declared rabid and we would see if any cases of rabies would develop. Not one case of rabies appeared and we have never had any since. When the animals were held simply to show whether they had rabies, none of them died and the entire scare subsided after two years of fanatical unrest and excitement which ought to have developed lyssophobia, or imaginary hydrophobia."

Dr. J. W. Hodge reported that of 56,000 stray dogs and cats collected in one year, not one case of rabies was found. He further states that there is no rabies in England nor is the Pasteur treatment permitted to be used. Dr. Hodge has in his possession the names and addresses of more than 2500 persons reported as having died of "hydrophobia" shortly after having received the Pasteur preventive treatment. This would seem to prove that the cure is more deadly than the disease when one considers that nearly 300 of these "victims" of the Pasteur treatment had no recollection of ever having been bitten by a dog. Dr. Hedge predicted that "future generations will look upon the present day delusion about hydrophobia and the Pasteur treatment with feelings akin to those which we experience when reading the history of witchcraft delusion."

Dr. Dulles, previously referred to, has said, "I might cite my own experience in the treatment of persons bitten by dogs supposed to be mad, which has furnished not a single case of the developed disease in thirty years. And I have probably seen more cases of so-called hydrophobia than any other medical man." Dr.Dulles was lecturer on the History of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Consulting Surgeon to Rush Hospital and Manager of University Hospital.

Dr. William Brady, nation-wide columnist, has stated that, "The Pasteur treatment for rabies is a blind treatment and no one knows whether Pasteur treatment confers any protection against rabies. I’d never willingly receive Pasteur treatment or give it to any one under any conceivable circumstances, because I fear the material so injected has a disastrous effect in some instances. It is not always successful and, occasionally, paralysis follows its use." It Is Dr. Brady’s opinion that rabies "does not occur in man."

"We, of the medical profession, have witnessed many errors perpetrated by good-intentioned, but misguided individuals and methods. The digitalis standardization by the dog’s heart, it will be recalled, resulted in a 300 per cent variance from standard."

In a hook entitled, "Bechamp or Pasteur," by E. D. Hume, there may be found much proof pertinent to our discussion. A notable failure of the Pasteur treatment was that of a young postman, named Pierre Roscol, who, with another man, was attacked by a dog supposed to be mad, but was not bitten, for the dog’s teeth did not penetrate his clothing; but his companion received severe bites. The latter refused to go to the Pasteur Institute and remained in perfect health; but the unfortunate Roscal was forced by the postal authorities to undergo the treatment, beginning March 9th. On the following April 12th severe symptoms set in with pain at the point of inoculation, not at the place of the bite, for he had never been bitten. On April 14th he died of paralytic "hydrophobia" the new disease brought into the world by Pasteur.

Another incident extracted from the same book shows the power of suggestion or fear in the causation of so-called rabies. It is hard to credit, but the case is recorded as follows.

"Two young Frenchmen were bitten by the same dog at Havre. One died from the effects within a month, but, before this, his friend had sailed for America, where he lived for fifteen years in ignorance of the end of his former companion. Returning to France, he heard of the tragedy and, actually himself, developed symptoms, and within three weeks was dead of "hydrophobia."

Another interesting recorded case is that of a lady, who returning from bathing, stated that she had been bitten by a dog. "The anxious parents rushed her for Pasteur treatments, she became violently ill, death followed. On the way home from the funeral the girl companions who were bathing with her told the parents of the dead girl that she was not bitten by a dog but by her young man friend."

There are over 3.000 deaths on record in reports from the Pasteur Institute, of persons bitten by dogs. All died after treatments. On the other hand, the record of the London Hospital, a few years ago, showed 2,668 persons bitten by angry dogs: not one of them developed hydrophobia and not one had been treated by the Pasteur method.

"Who was this man Pasteur? What did he actually discover? The answer to the first is that he was a chemist of sorts. The second question can be answered only with the reminder that he separated L & D tartic acids. That is absolutely all he did. The rest of his work—yea——even the silkworm disease and bacterial work was plagiarized from that, not too well-known and much neglected professor of Montpellier, Antoine Bechamp. Professor Bechamp’s writings, when properly studied, will be found to have afforded the solution to many of the problems which had puzzled biologists, physiologists, pathologists and philosophers for many years." —flume.

Speaking of Professor Bechamp’s works, Dr. Leverson of England says, "I also found in those truths absolute proof of the absurdity of the germ theory of disease; and, by the study of the writings of Pasteur, to which Bechamp’s works unavoidably led me, I found full proof that the great god of the (supposedly) men of science of the latter half of the last century and of many of the present, was in fact, the most astonishing of plagiarists and distorter of other men’s discoveries; chiefly those of Professor Antoine Bechamp, and of his collaborators and pupils; and that this plagiarist was the most monumental charlatan, whose existence is disclosed to us, in the entire recorded history of medicine."

"You have already surmised who was this plagiarist and charlatan. It was Louis Pasteur, to whose memory France has erected statues all over the land and endowed the Pasteur Institute."

Since this record is not an enviable one, let us view rabies from the standpoint of the known facts. We have seen that normal dogs are also classified as rabid by the so-called microscation of these so-called Negri bodies. We have also seen that the identification of these so-called Negri bodies is dependent upon the individual observer. Seldom do observers agree. Experts at the Pasteur Institute admit that Negri bodies are not a specific indication of rabies. They also record many deaths by treatment with the Pasteur system.

On the other hand, reported untoward effects in nontreated patients (very few cases are reported it will be noticed) can be explained on the basis of fear or susceptibility to slight injuries. For example, Dr. W. W. Duke of Kansas City, among others, on writing on allergy, cites cases of violent convulsions and deaths following slight injuries in individuals seemingly in perfect mental and physical condition.

These violent deaths are reported as resulting from scratches, tooth extraction, hypodermic injections, extremes of heat or cold, shock due to various causes, love affairs, etc. The allergy experts often lay stress on the relative importance of former illness which may have undermined the health of the patient. Such varied causes would indicate "fear" plays a profound role in the sequelae observed.

Dr. Buisson of France had been badly bitten by a dog and was given up to die of hydrophobia. He recited that his fear was, of course, intense as was his suffering. He decided to try to relieve his sufferings by a warm bath. After soaking for one and a quarter hours, his convulsions disappeared and he became well. He cured all other cases which came to him in a similar way. The Buisson baths were employed with great success in France in rabies cases.

In Germany, cases of dog bites are sensibly treated by applying suction to the wound or squeezing it to induce and low free bleeding. They leave the clotted and dried blood on the wound without further treatment and they never have further trouble.

In my experience, nothing stronger than mild soap and water should be used on such wounds. I feel that cauterization is too shocking to the tissues.

Is rabies then a disease? Have we isolated a virus or germ? Is the Pasteur-treatment specific? Is rabies, in short, fact or fancy? I believe it is fancy, for I have handled so-called rabid animals and humans without benefit of Pasteur treatment and in no case has there been a death or any other symptoms of rabies. I submit that rabies is non-existent and that the Pasteur treatment for rabies is worse than the disease, if it were a disease, which it is not.

P. S. I have examined and witnessed the repeated examinations of every part of the brains of the so-called rabid dogs. The mouse and rabbit tests have proved ridiculous ever since the time of Pasteur.

Source: Poisoned Needle by E. McBean