HISTORY OF PNEUMOCOCCUS: 1875-1890 3 



dead from rabies, the latter with normal saliva, isolated Pneumo- 

 coccus for the first time through animal passage. Pasteur, con- 

 trary to the subsequent opinions of others, thought that he had 

 discovered a new disease.* Sternberg reported that the fatal septi 

 cemia which normal saliva produced in rabbits was due to an or- 

 ganism that later, upon microscopic examination, appeared to 

 agree exactly with the description given by Pasteur. 



Pasteur 1065 " 6 passed his virus from infected to normal rabbits, 

 producing infection each time, recovered the organism from the 

 blood by cultivation in bouillon and other media, and with these 

 cultures induced a similar fatal septicemia in other rabbits. On 

 microscopic examination he found the bacteria to be very short 

 rods, somewhat depressed in the center, with a visible aureola due, 

 as he thought, to mucin. 



Sternberg 1316 " 8 ascertained that the ability to incite fatal rab- 

 bit septicemia was a peculiarity of the saliva of some normal in- 

 dividuals but not of others, and that normal blood, putrid urine, 

 liquid feces, and bouillon undergoing spontaneous putrefaction 

 failed to produce a similar infection. In a later study appearing 

 after the publication of Pasteur's paper, using aniline violet as a 

 stain and making a permanent record by photomicrographs, 

 Sternberg confirmed Pasteur's and his own findings. Here the dates 

 are worth noting. Pasteur announced his discovery before the 

 French Academy of Sciences in December, 1880, the report ap- 

 pearing in the Academy's Comptes Rendus in January, 1881. 

 Sternberg began his experiments in the summer of 1880, and made 

 his report which was first published in April, 1881. 



There then arose a misconception of Pasteur's claims which was 

 to persist for a long time. By his fellow countryman, Colin, 269 he 

 was gratuitously credited with the claim that he had isolated the 

 microbe of rabies. Pasteur emphatically replied, J'ignore absolu- 

 ment les relations de cette nouvelle maladie avec la rage. Pasteur 



* The original communication was presented by Pasteur, but the work was 

 done with the collaboration of Chamberland and Roux. 



