SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 351 



markable labors of that remarkable man. Observer after 

 observer had strayed and fallen in this land of pitfalls, a 

 multitude of opposing conclusions and mutually destruc- 

 tive theories being the result. In association with a 

 younger physiological colleague, M. Joubert, Pasteur 

 struck in amid the chaos, and soon reduced it to har- 

 mony. They proved, among other things, that in cases 

 where previous observers in France had supposed them- 

 selves to be dealing solely with splenic fever, another 

 equally virulent factor was simultaneously active. Splenic 

 fever was often overmastered by septicaemia, and results 

 due solely to the latter had been frequently made the 

 ground of pathological inferences regarding the character 

 and cause of the former. Combining duly the two fac- 

 tors, all the previous irregularities disappeared, every re- 

 sult obtained receiving the fullest explanation. On study 

 ing the account of this masterly investigation, the words 

 wherewith Pasteur himself feelingly alludes to the difficul- 

 ties and dangers of the experimenter's art came home to 

 me with especial force: "J'ai tant de fois dprouvd que 

 dans cet art difficile de 1' experimentation les plus habiles 

 bronchent a chaque pas, et que Tinterprdtation des faits 

 n'est pas moins pdrilleuse." * 



1 "Comptes-Eendus," Ixxxiii. p. 177. 



