ANTISEPTIC SURGERY 169 



position in bacteriological research. Going over 

 one of the fields Pasteur noticed a part in which 

 the soil had a color somewhat different from the 

 rest. This part the owner explained was where the 

 sheep, which had died of anthrax, had been buried 

 the year before. Observing the little pellets of 

 earth which had been brought to the surface by 

 earthworms Pasteur thought that some of this earth 

 might contain spores of anthrax carried from near 

 the bodies of the buried animals. The pellets 

 therefore must be tested. Inoculated into guinea 

 pigs this earth produced anthrax. "One should 

 insist," says Pasteur, "that animals are never 

 buried in fields intended for growing hay or pas- 

 turing sheep. Whenever it is possible, one should 

 choose burying grounds on sandy or chalky soils, 

 infertile, readily dried, and unsuitable to the life 

 of earthworms." 



Pasteur's crowning achievement in the battle with 

 anthrax had to wait upon a very remarkable dis- 

 covery which he made in connection with chicken 

 cholera. Poultry raisers, the world over, have long 

 had experience with this fatal malady. Fowls pre- 

 viously healthy may be stricken and die in only a 

 few days. The ruffed up feathers, drooping head, 

 and drowsy aspect of the fowls, as they sit quietly 



