On Tuesday last, the 20th of October, with the obliging assistance of Drs. Vulpian and Grancher, I began to treat a young man fifteen years old, who had been bitten six days before, in both hands, and whose condition was exceptionally grave.
The Academy will perhaps not be uninterested to bear the story of this young man's courage and presence of mind. He is a shepherd, named Jean-Baptiste Jupille, of Villers Farlay in the Jura, who, seeing a large dog of suspicious appearance rush at a group of six of his comrades, all younger than himself, sprang, whip in hand, in front of the animal. The dog seized Jupille by the left hand. Jupille then knocked the dog down, held it under himself, opened its jaw with his right hand to relieve his left, not without receiving several new bites, and then, with the thong of his whip tied up its muzzle, and, taking off one of his wooden shoes, dispatched the dog with it.
I shall promptly make known to the Academy the outcome of this new experiment.
[After the reading of M. Pasteur's paper, M. Vulpian remarked that the Academy should not be surprised to see one of the members of the Section of Medicine and Surgery take the floor to express the feelings of admiration which the communication had inspired in him. These feelings, he continued, "will be shared, I am convinced, by the whole medical profession. A remedy has at last been found for rabies, that terrible malady, against which all therapeutic measures had miscarried till now. M. Pasteur, who has had no precursor in this road, has been led, by a series of researches pursued uninterruptedly for years, to create a method of treatment that enables him surely to prevent the development of hydrophobia in a man who has been bitten by a mad dog: I say surely, because, after what I have seen in M. Pasteur's laboratory, I do not doubt the constant success of this treatment whenever it is put in practice in its completeness within a few days after the rabid bite has been inflicted. It becomes henceforth necessary to take into consideration the organization of a service for the treatment of hydrophobia by M. Pasteur's method. Every person bitten by a mad dog must be made able to enjoy the benefit of this great discovery, which affixes the seal to the glory of our illustrious associate, and which will shed an incomparable luster upon our dear country." On motion of Baron Larrey, a prize was proposed for young Jupille, in recognition of his bravery and devotion.
The President of the Academy, M. Bouley, expressed his full sympathy with the feelings which the Academy had just manifested by its applause. The date of the 20th of October, 1885, he said, would be marked as a great day among the festivals of French biology and medicine, and among the festivals of the medicine of the whole world. He would ask M. Pasteur whether, if, during the course of the preventive inoculations, an inoculated dog should bite a person or other animals in play, it would communicate rabies to them.
