174 LOUIS PASTEUR 



This discovery which was of so much promise 

 to the owners of cattle and sheep naturally excited 

 much comment. Some received it with enthusiasm 

 and others regarded it with distrust. The Society 

 of French Agriculturists offered Pasteur a medal of 

 honor, but as extensive experiments on the larger 

 animals had not been carried out, the general atti- 

 tude on the subject was one of suspended judg- 

 ment. 



An opportunity of performing an experiment on 

 an extensive scale soon presented itself through the 

 instrumentality of M. Rossignol, one of the editors 

 of the Veterinary Press. Rossignol represented a 

 typical attitude on the germ theory of disease. A 

 short time previously he had written, "Micro- 

 biolatry is now the fashion, it reigns as a sovereign; 

 it is a doctrine which one must not discuss; one 

 must accept it without objections, especially when 

 its chief priest, the learned Pasteur, has pro- 

 nounced the sacramental words, 'I have spoken.' 

 The microbe alone is and shall be the characteristic 

 of a disease; this is understood and agreed to; 

 henceforth the theory of germs should take prece- 

 dence over pure clinics; the microbe only is eter- 

 nally true and Pasteur is its prophet." 



Shortly after making this characteristically edi- 



