Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/220

Rh 202 R A B R A C son. All wounds inflicted by strange or suspected dogs should be immediately attended to and treated by suction, washing, and expression, until proper surgical treatment can be adopted. In those countries in which the disease has not yet appeared, in order to prevent its admission, the importation of dogs should be forbidden or an extended period of quarantine imposed. We may here allude to the results of Pasteur's experi- ments in rabies. By passing modified virus into the bodies of dogs he has discovered that they are protected from an attack of the disease are, in fact, rendered refractory to rabies. For instance, rabific virus is obtained from a rabbit which has died after inoculation by tre- panning, and after a period of incubation longer by some days than the shortest period in these animals, which is invariably between seven and eight days subsequent to inoculation with the most active virus. The virus of the rabbit in the period of long incubation is inoculated by trepanning into a second rabbit, the virus of this into a third ; and on each occasion the virus, which becomes more and more potent, is inoculated into a dog. The latter at last becomes capable of supporting what would be to other dogs a deadly virus, and is entirely proof against rabies either by intravenous inoculation, by tre- panning, or by the virus of a rabid animal. By using the blood of rabid animals in certain determinate conditions Pasteur has been able to greatly simplify the operations of inoculation, and to render dogs most decidedly refrac- tory to the malady. There is great importance attached to the suggestion that now, and until rabies has been ex- tinguished altogether by inoculation, it may be possible to prevent development of the disease after bites from rabid dogs, owing to the long duration of the incubative period. Admitting that rabies is produced by the bite of rabid animals only, and that Pasteur's inoculations are really protective, it is suggested that a law compelling all dogs to be so protected would in the end extirpate the disease. But certain important points have yet to be decided before any definite conclusion can be arrived at. (G. FL.) RABUTIN, ROGER DE, COMTE DE BTJSSY (1618-1693), commonly known as BUSSY-RABUTIN (and for shortness BUSSY), is perhaps the most characteristic figure among the lesser noblesse of France in the 17th century, as La Rochefoucauld is among the greater. Bussy, however, except in point of gallantry and literary power, chiefly illustrated the evil sides of the character. He represented a family of distinction and age in Burgundy (see SEVIGNE, Madame de), and his father was Leonor de Rabutin, a soldier of merit and a man of position, holding the lieu- tenant-generalship of the province of Nivernais. Bussy- Rabutin (it is perhaps advisable to add the family name to distinguish him from the hardly less famous Bussy d'Amboise) was born in 1618. He was the third son, but by the death of his elder brothers became the representative of the family. He entered the army when he was only sixteen and fought through several campaigns, succeeding his father in the office of " mestre de camp." But he very early distinguished himself in other ways than that of military service, and in 1641 was sent to the Bastille by Richelieu for some months as a punishment for neglect of his duties in running after his ladyloves. In 1643 he married a cousin, Gabrielle de Toulongeon, who seems to have been fond of him, and for a short time he left the army. But in 1644 he again bought a commission and for some years was closely connected with the great Cond6. His wife died, and he became more famous, or at least more notorious, than ever by an attempt to abduct Madame de Miramion, a rich widow. This affair was with some diffi- culty made up and Bussy afterwards married Louise de Rouville. When the Fronde "broke out he, like others, went from party to party, but finally passed to the royal side. He fought with some distinction both in the civil war and on foreign service, and in 1655 he went to serve under Turenne in Flanders. He served there for several cam- paigns and distinguished himself at the battle of the Dunes and elsewhere ; but he did not get on well with his general, and his quarrelsome disposition, his overweening vanity, and his habit of composing libellous chansons by degrees made him the enemy of most persons of position both in the army and at court. In the year 1659 he fell into disgrace for having taken part in an orgy or series of orgies at Roissy near Paris during Holy Week, which caused great scandal, and shortly afterwards he began to compose for the amusement of his mistress, Madame de Montglas, his famous Histoire Amour euse des Gaules. This book a series of sketches of the chief ladies of the court, not without wit, but much less remarkable for wit than for ill nature and licence circulated freely in manuscript and had numerous spurious sequels. One of these stung the king, and Bussy was in 1665 sent to the Bastille, where he remained for more than a year, and from which he was only liberated on condition of retiring to his estates. Here he abode in what was then called exile for seventeen years. He was then restored to a modified degree of royal favour, but never received any great mark of it, and died in 1693. Although a man of considerable abilities, Bussy had very little in his character that was either amiable or estimable. Despite his extravagant pride of birth and rank, there is much reason for acquiescing in the verdict pronounced on him (by an anonymous contemporary apparently), that he was "a coxcomb, who never, either at court or in camp, lost the taste for bad company and the air of a rustic " ; his bravery was undoubted, but he seems to have much overrated his own military ability. He libelled friends and foes alike, and any toleration which might be extended to his innumerable gallantries is lessened by his incorrigible habit of telling tales and his spiteful scandal - mongering against women who had left him or whom he had left. He was, however, possessed of much literary power. The Histoire Amoureuse is in its most striking passages merely adapted from Petronius, and, except in a few portraits, its attractions are chiefly those of the scandalous chronicle. But his Memoires, published after his death, are ex- tremely lively and characteristic, and his voluminous correspond- ence yields in variety and interest to few collections of the kind, except Madame de Sevigne's, who indeed is represented in it to a great extent, and whose letters first appeared in it. The literary and historical student, therefore, owes Bussy some thanks. But it is impossible not to see that he united some of the worst charac- teristics of an aristocracy on the way to decadence relaxed morals, a glaring indifference to duty and to all motives but self-interest, insolence in prosperity, servility in adverse circumstances, jealousy of others more favoured than himself. The best edition of the Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules is that of Boiteaii and Livet in the Bibliotheque Elzevirienne (4 vols., Paris, 1856-76), of the Mimoires and Correspondance that of Lalanne (8 vols., Paris, 1857-59). Bussy wrote other tilings, of which the most important, his Genealogy of the Sabutin Family, re- mained in MS. till 1807. RACCOON. This name, 1 familiar to all readers of works on American natural history, is borne by a small carnivore belonging to that section of the order which contains the bears, weasels, badgers, &c. (see MAMMALIA, vol. xv. p. 440). The raccoon resembles in many respects a diminutive bear, both in its general build and in the pro- portions of its skull and teeth, which last are broad, blunt, and rounded, and more suited for a semi-vegetarian than for an exclusively animal diet. Its other more important zoological characters, with an account of its systematic position, have been already noted in the article just re- ferred to. The common North-American raccoon (Procyon lotor) is a clumsy thickly-built animal about the size of a badger, with a coat of long coarse greyish brown hairs, short ears, and a bushy black and white ringed tail. Its 1 A corruption of the North - American Indian "arrathkune" or " arathcone. " The French raton or raton laveur, German Waschbdr, and other European names are derived from a curious habit the raccoon has of dipping or washing its food in water before eating it.