ANTISEPTIC SURGERY 161 



poses to honor by a national recompense. Your 

 Commission unanimously approves the proposal." 

 The bill was passed by a vote of 523 to 24. 



This annuity was particularly acceptable to Pas- 

 teur, as he had been compelled on account of ill- 

 health to give up his academic positions. Although 

 his physician had strongly advised him not to un- 

 dertake serious work and notwithstanding the 

 counsel of his friends that he rest from his labors, 

 Pasteur, who thought that if he did not work he 

 might as well not live at all, was actively engaged 

 in his laboratory. 



The disease anthrax or splenic fever was then 

 engaging the attention of the medical world. This 

 disease had been for many years a scourge of cattle 

 and sheep causing an annual loss of several million 

 francs. Occasionally it attacks human beings who 

 have come into contact with infected animals or 

 their products. As far back as 1850 Davaine and 

 Royer had seen small rod-shaped bodies in the 

 blood of animals dying of anthrax, but they were 

 quite unaware of the significance of their observa- 

 tion. Stimulated by Pasteur's studies Davaine re- 

 curred to the subject in 1863 and proclaimed these 

 "bacteria" as he had named them, to be the sole 

 cause of the disease. This conclusion was disputed 



