ANTISEPTIC SURGERY 175 



torial pronouncement Rossignol began an active 

 campaign for funds for the purpose of purchasing 

 animals for his proposed experiment. Pasteur's 

 alleged discovery of a vaccine for anthrax should 

 not remain as a mere laboratory procedure. Would 

 Pasteur dare to subject his vaccine to a public test? 

 "The excitement which these experiments will nec- 

 essarily arouse/' said he, "will strike all minds and 

 end by convincing those who are still skeptical; the 

 evidence of facts will have the result of dispelling 

 all uncertainty." The Agricultural Society of 

 Melun endorsed the proposal, and its chairman was 

 delegated to wait upon Pasteur with the proposal, 

 or perhaps we should say the challenge, that he 

 carry on a public demonstration under the condi- 

 tions laid down. The conditions had been printed 

 and widely distributed by Rossignol. 



Pasteur was game. He prepared his attenuated 

 virus and made the preliminary inoculations at the 

 farm Pouilly le Fort, near Melun, where the trial 

 was to be staged. A large crowd had assembled, 

 for the test had been widely advertised. Doctors, 

 farmers, and veterinarians turned out in numbers 

 and were speculating on the probable success or 

 failure of the experiment. Many were secretly 

 rejoicing over the prospect of a humiliating failure, 



