198 LOUIS PASTEUR 



will in the laboratory, has proven of capital im- 

 portance in later work on disease. Like so many 

 of Pasteur's discoveries its value is attested by the 

 great benefits that were to flow from it in the 

 future. 



In the Academy of Medicine the reactionaries 

 still kept up the battle over the germ theory of 

 disease. A Dr. Peter was particularly active and 

 persistent in his attacks. "The excuse of M. Pas- 

 teur," he exclaimed, "is that he is a chemist, who, 

 inspired by the desire of being useful, has tried 

 to reform medicine, to which he is a complete 

 stranger," and he prophesied a victory to the "old 

 medicine" over the new-fangled notions which were 

 misleading so many of his colleagues. This "old 

 medicine" had made little progress since it incurred 

 the delightful and well deserved ridicule of Moliere. 

 Pasteur, who, wearied by its sterile squabbles, had 

 not been present for some months at the Academy 

 of Medicine, returned and defended his position, 

 but he might have made a better use of his time. 



From some professors of the Veterinary School 

 at Turin there had come the report of a complete 

 failure of an inoculation against anthrax. All the 

 sheep vaccinated and unvaccinated alike died after 

 being inoculated with the blood of a sheep which 



