1880—1882 309 



horse pox) inoculated into man and humanised by its successive 

 transmissions on man," Pasteur answered ironically that he 

 might as well say, ** Vaccine is — vaccine." 



Those who were accustomed to speak to Pasteur with absolute 

 sincerity advised him not to let himself be dragged further into 

 those discussions when his adversaries, taking words for ideas, 

 drowned the debate in a flood of phrases. Of what good 

 were such debates to science, since those who took the first 

 place among veterinary surgeons, physicians and surgeons, 

 loudly acknowledged the debt which science owned to Pasteur? 

 Why be surprised that certain minds, deeply disturbed in their 

 habits, their principles, their influence, should feel some diffi- 

 cult}', some anger even in abandoning their ideas? If it is 

 painful to tenants to leave a house in which they have spent 

 their youth, what must it be to break with one's whole 

 education? 



Pasteur, who allowed himself thus to be told that he lacked 

 philosophical serenity, acknowledged this good advice with an 

 affectionate smile. He promised to be calm; but when once in 

 the room, his adversaries' attacks, their prejudices and 

 insinuations, enervated and irritated him. All his promises 

 were forgotten. 



*'To pretend to express the relation between human variola 

 *»,nd vaccine by speaking but of vaccine and its relations with 

 cow pox and horse pox, without even pronouncing the word 

 small-pox, is mere equivocation, done on purpose to avoid the 

 real point of the debate." Becoming excited by Guerin's 

 antagonism, Pasteur turned some of Guerin's operating pro- 

 cesses into ridicule with such effect that Guerin started from 

 his place and rushed at him. The fiery octogenarian was 

 stopped by Baron Larrey; the sitting was suspended in con- 

 fusion. The following day, Guerin sent two seconds to ask for 

 reparation by arms from Pasteur. Pasteur referred them to 

 M. Beclard, Permanent Secretary to the Academic de Medicine, 

 and M. Bergeron, its Annual Secretary, who were jointly 

 responsible for the Official Bulletin of the Academy. *'I am 

 ••eady," said Pasteur, ''having no right to act otherwise, to 

 modify whatever the editors may consider as going beyond the 

 jrights of criticism and legitimate defence." 



In deference to the opinion of Messrs. Beclard and Bergeron, 

 Pasteur consented to terminate the quarrel by writing to the 

 <3hairman of the Academy that he had no intention of offending 



