1877—1879 269 



that it had died on the Monday at five o'clock, twenty-nine 

 hours after the inoculation. He also explained, in his own 

 name, and in the names of Messrs. Joubert and Chamberland, 

 how in the presence of the curious fact that hens were refrac- 

 tory to charbon, it had occurred to them to see whether that 

 singular and hitherto mysterious preservation did not have its 

 cause in the temperature of a hen's body, ''higher by several 

 degrees than the temperature of the body of all the animal 

 species which can be decimated by charbon." 



This preconceived idea was followed by an ingenious experi- 

 ment. In order to lower the temperature of an inoculated 

 hen's body, it was kept for some time in a bath, the water 

 covering one-third of its body. When treated in that way, 

 said Pasteur, the hen dies the next day. "All its blood, 

 spleen, lungs, and liver are filled with bacilli anthracis sus- 

 ceptible of ulterior cultures either in inert liquids or in the 

 bodies of animals. We have not met with a single exception." 



As a proof of the success of the experiment, the white hen 

 lay on the floor of the cage. As people might be forthcoming, 

 even at the Academy, who would accuse the prolonged bath 

 of having caused death, one of the two living hens, a gray 

 one, who was extremely lively, had been placed in the same 

 bath, at the same temperature and during the same time. 

 The third one, a black one, also in perfect health, had been 

 inoculated at the same time as the white hen, with the same 

 liquid, but with ten drops instead of five, to make the com- 

 parative result more convincing; it had not been subjected to 

 the bath treatment. "You can see how healthy it is," said 

 Pasteur; "it is therefore impossible to doubt that the white 

 hen died of charbon; besides, the fact is proved by the bac- 

 teridia which fill its body." 



A fourth experiment remained to be tried on a fourth hen, 

 but the Academy of Medicine did not care to hold an all-night 

 sitting. Time lacking, it was only done later, in the labora- 

 tory. Could a hen, inoculated of charbon and placed in a 

 bath, recover and be cured merely by being taken out of its 

 bath? A hen was taken, inoculated and held down a prisoner 

 in a bath, its feet fastened to the bottom of the tub, until it 

 was obvious that the disease was in full progress. The hen 

 was then taken out of the water, dried, and wrapped up in 

 cotton wool and placed in a temperature of 35° C. The bao- 



