348 



GIRARDIN, EMILE DE. 



proceeds at 42 and 43 by the mode of scis- 

 sion, and that no germs are produced at that 

 temperature. The culture did not remain alive 

 more than a month or six weeks. But long 

 before that time the microbes were found to 

 produce in sheep inoculated with them milder 

 forms of the anthrax disease, the violence of 

 the symptoms depending, as in the case with 

 the chicken-cholera, upon the length of the 

 exposure to the action of the air. These at- 

 tenuated anthracoid microbes acted as a vac- 

 cine against the severer grades of the disease. 

 These slender forms of infectious microbes, 

 cultivated under certain conditions, will fully 

 regain their virulent powers; but when ob- 

 tained in this impoverished state they act as 

 an effective protection against these two fatal 

 diseases, provided they are not too far attenu- 

 ated to produce the morbid symptoms of the 

 malady in a sufficiently decided form. Two 

 other kinds of vaccine virus have been obtained 

 by this same method of degeneration through 

 excess of oxygenation. 



The micro-organism which produces the 

 sheep-disease called maladie de Chabert has been 

 separated by some French veterinary physicians 

 and artificially cultivated. If certain graduated 

 quantities are carefully injected into the blood, 

 without contaminating the tissues, it is found 

 that the infection produces but a slight con- 

 stitutional disturbance, and at the same time 

 so hardens the system of the inoculated animal 

 that it is not subject to subsequent attacks of 

 the disease. The French Government have 

 publicly tested this discovery, which was made 

 by MM. Arloing, Cornevrin, and Thomas. An- 

 other ' veterinary surgeon, Galtier, tried the 

 same experiment with the virus of hydro- 

 phobia, with which Pasteur has likewise been 

 experimenting. Animals which received the 

 virus directly into their circulation, not only 

 suffered no ill effects, but when afterward in- 

 oculated with the hydrophobic virus they were 

 found to be impervious to the infection, while 

 animals which had not been thus protected 

 were invariably seized by the disease when 

 similarly inoculated. The question whether 

 such introduction of the virus into the veins of 

 animals after they have been infected with the 

 disease will avert its development, as the more 

 speedy action of vaccine lymph does in the 

 case of small-pox, is the subject of further ex- 

 perimentation, and seems probable, considering 

 the extreme slowness with which hydrophobic 

 symptoms usually show themselves. 



GIRARDIN, EMILE DE, French journalist, 

 died in Paris, of paralysis, April 27th. He was 

 born in Switzerland, in 1802, his mother being 

 Madame Dnpuy, the daughter of the Treasurer- 

 General Fagnan. He bore the name of Dela- 

 mothe until, in 1827, General de Girardin ac- 

 knowledged him as his son. Emile de Girardin 

 himself supposed, as some who were acquaint- 

 ed with the private life of the First Consul 

 had hinted, that his real father was Napoleon, 

 whom he resembled in feature. Girardin re- 



ceived no regular, education. He wrote for the 

 press when thrown upon his own resources. 

 A scheme for a cheap daily newspaper, to be 

 sold for a sou, occurred to him in 1830. The 

 popularization of the press became the main 

 object of his thoughts and efforts. He pub- 

 lished several cheap magazines, one of which 

 attained an extraordinary popularity. In 1830 

 he founded the " Presse," the success of which 

 realized his ambition of conducting a news- 

 paper calculated by the character of its con- 

 tents as well as by its low price to circulate 

 much more extensively among the people than 

 the journals of the time. The " Presse " sup- 

 ported the Orleans dynasty, and was conserv- 

 ative in its tendencies. In resentment of an 

 accusation which was repeated in the demo- 

 cratic newspapers that the ' Presse " was sub- 

 sidized by the Government, Girardin fought a 

 duel with Armand Carrel, mortally wounding 

 his antagonist, and himself receiving a bullet 

 in his thigh. From that day he forswore 

 dueling. One of Louis Philippe's ministers was 

 attacked by Girardin in an article charging 

 him with promising a peerage as a bribe. For 

 this he was tried before the Chamber of Peers 

 in 1847, and unexpectedly acquitted. Through 

 his popular newspaper, Girardin gained great 

 political influence. He entered the Chamber 

 of Deputies in 1834, and was a member almost 

 constantly until 1848. When the revolution 

 of that year broke out, Girardin visited the 

 King and prevailed upon him to abdicate in 

 favor of his grandson. Girardin received the 

 document from Louis Philippe, but it was torn 

 from his hands by the mob, and never known 

 until too late. In 1849 he was again elected 

 to the Chamber, where he voted with the 

 radicals, except in favoring Louis Napoleon's 

 election to the presidency. He condemned the 

 coup d'etat, but recommended no stronger 

 remedy than a popular demonstration by a ces- 

 sation of industry and traffic. After a brief 

 exile he was permitted to return. In 1856 he 

 disposed of his share in the ''Presse "for a 

 large sum. In 1866 he started the " Libert^" 

 which was subjected to penalties and restric- 

 tions for opposing the Government. On the 

 accession of the Ollivier Cabinet, Girardin gave 

 his support to the empire. This culminating 

 act of tergiversation won him the name of the 

 " weathercock," and gave occasion for the jest 

 that Girardin possessed the evil-eye, and his 

 adhesion to a party was a sign of its early fall. 

 In the beginning of the war of 1870 he led the 

 chorus of French boasting and over-confidence. 

 During the Commune, he proposed a scheme 

 for dividing France into fifteen federal states. 

 He became a strong supporter of the republic, 

 and through the columns of the " France," 

 which he founded in 1874, and the "Petit 

 Journal," which he also controlled, he helped 

 to frustrate the royalist plot of 1877. Emile 

 de Girardin married at the outset of his career 

 Mile. Delphine Gay, a poetess admired for her 

 beauty. In 1856 he took as his second wife 



