846 Experiments 



The left hind leg remains almost constantly stiff (local action?). 

 Sensitivity continues to decrease, disappearing in the eye (the cornea 

 - last) before the limbs. Slight convulsions, which seem to be excited 

 by pinching. 



After three quarters of an hour, it remains' lying on its side; the 

 temperature drops rapidly; after an hour and a half, it is 29°. 



It dies in about 2 hours. 



Hemorrhage in the brain and the cerebellum; no local inflamma- 

 tion. 



So the effect of scorpion's poison persists with all its character- 

 istics which I noted before, 3 after the venom had been subjected 

 to oxygen at high tension. Besides, I was not at all surprised, be- 

 cause venom resists (the venom of the scorpion, without even being 

 dissolved by it) even the action of pure alcohol. 



4. Viruses. 



I was able to make a greater number of experiments on viruses. 



A. Vaccine. 



Experiment CCCCXC. November 10. Twelve newly born babies 

 are vaccinated with vaccine taken from the same child; two leave 

 the hospital before pustules develop; in a third, the vaccine does not 

 take; in the other 9, pustules develop to the number of 35 (from 

 1 to 6) per 54 punctures. 



From the same vaccine-bearing child and from the same pustules, 

 Bretonneau tubes are filled, which from November 11 to November 18 

 are subjected to a pressure of 23 superoxygenated atmospheres. 



November 18. With the compressed vaccine seven newly born 

 children are vaccinated. Four of them leave the next day but one, 

 before any development could be noted; on the other three the vaccine 

 takes, and produces 13 pustules (6, 6, 1) from 18 punctures. 



(Operations performed by Dr. Budin, then an intern.) 



So clear an experiment seems to me sufficient for drawing con- 

 clusions. And my conclusion is that the vaccine virus, which re- 

 sists so completely the action of oxygen at high tension, does not 

 owe its special power to living organisms (bacteria, vibriones) or 

 to cells (leucocytes, special corpuscles), acting like true ferments. 



And yet I am far from denying that the corpuscles, irregular in 

 form and dimensions, which float in the vaccine, contain in them 

 the virulent principle, as seems very probable since the research 

 of M. Chauveau. But I am certain that living organisms are not 

 there. 



Perhaps the virulent material is thus precipitated in insoluble 

 flakes; perhaps these corpuscles are endowed with the power of 

 fixing the active principle, as the blood corpuscles fix the hemo- 



