228 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



organism under the influence of accessible causes, which \vi 

 seek everywhere in order to cut down the evil in its roots." 



A reception somewhat similar to that given to Villemin was 

 reserved for Davaine, who, having meditated on Pasteur's 

 works on butjTic ferment and the part played by that ferment, 

 compared it and its action T\ath certain parasites visible with 

 a microscope and observed by him in the blood of animals which 

 had died of charbon disease. By its action and its rapid multi- 

 plication in the blood, this agent endowed with life probably 

 acted, said Davaine, after the manner of ferments. The blood 

 was modified to that extent that it speedily brought about the 

 death of the infected animal. Davaine called those filaments 

 found in anthrax ''bacteria," and added, ''They have a place 

 in the classification of living beings." But what was that 

 animated virus to many doctors? They answered experimental 

 proofs by oratorical arguments. 



At the very time when Pasteur took his seat at the Academy 

 of Medicine, Davaine was being violently attacked; his experi- 

 ments on septicaemia were the cause, or the pretext. But the 

 mere tone of the discussions prepared Pasteur for future battles. 

 The theory of germs, the doctrine of virus ferments, all this 

 was considered as a complete reversal of acquired notions, a 

 heresy which had to be suppressed. A well-known surgeon, 

 Dr. Chassaignac, spoke before the Academic de Medecine of 

 what he called ^'laboratory surgery, which has destroyed very 

 many animals and saved very few human beings." In order to 

 remind experimentalists of the distance between them and 

 practitioners, he added: "Laboratory results should be brought 

 out in a circumspect, modest and reserved manner, as long as 

 they have not been sanctioned by long clinical researches, a 

 sanction without which there is no real and practical medical 

 science." Everything, he said, could not be resolved into a 

 question of bacteria ! And, ironically, far from realizing the 

 truth of his sarcastic prophecy, he exclaimed, "Typhoid fever, 

 bacterization ! Hospital miasma, bacterization ! " 



Every one had a word to say. Dr. Piorry, an octogenarian, 

 somewhat weighed down with the burden of his years and 

 reputation, rose to speak with his accustomed solemnity. He 

 had found for Villemin 's experiments the simple explanation 

 that "the tuberculous matter seems to be no other than pus, 

 which, in consequence of its sojourn in the organs, has under- 

 gone varied and numerous modifications"; and he now inx' 



