310 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA.

in advance of the time when the organism is expected to
saturate the body with its toxic products.

This, in brief, is the theory and practice of Pasteur's
system of treating hydrophobia. It is exactly in keeping
with the ideas of the present, and is most extraordinary
in its reasonings and details when we remember that the
first application of the method to human medicine was
made October 26, 1885, nearly ten years before the time
we began to understand the production and use of anti-
toxins.