The Effects of the Injection of Normal Brain Emulsion into Rabbits, with Special Reference to the Aetiology of the Paralytic Accidents of Antirabic Treatment

Abstract

The occasional occurrence of ”paralytic accidents” during the course of antirabic inoculation is well recognised as an unfortunate complication of that therapeutic measure. The cases have to be distinguished from the rare instances of paralytic rabies in which, usually after extensive bites from rabid wolves, the disease assumes an unusual form and in which the virus can be recovered from the central nervous system. The paralytic accidents on the other hand are in no way related to the date or severity of the original injury—on occasion the suspected animal has later been proved healthy—but are definitely associated in time with the commencement of the treatment; almost all occur within 7–23 days of the first inoculation, and fatal cases show no rabic virus in the nervous structures.