ANTHRAX, CHICKEN-CHOLERA, ROUGET 61 



imaginary " something else " out of existence : 

 still, the fortieth flask, one drop of it, would produce 

 anthrax in a rabbit or a guinea-pig. There was 

 the argument, that certain rabbits, inoculated with 

 blood from cases of anthrax, had indeed died, but 

 not of anthrax ; for the germs of the disease had 

 not been found in their blood. He refuted this 

 argument by showing that the blood, with which 

 they had been inoculated, had contained not only 

 germs of anthrax but germs of septicaemia: the 

 rabbits had died not of anthrax but of septicaemia. 

 There was the notable passage of arms between him 

 and Colin. Were fowls, by nature, proof against 

 anthrax ? Pasteur said that they were ; Colin, that 

 they were not. In the end, Pasteur solved the 

 question by some experiments as ingenious as they 

 were simple. The normal temperature of fowls is 

 higher than that of mammals. A fowl, if its 

 temperature be brought down, by a cold bath, to 

 that of a rabbit or a guinea-pig, becomes, like them, 

 susceptible to anthrax. Moreover, if a fowl, thus 

 cooled down, be inoculated with anthrax, and then, 

 when the disease begins to show itself, the fowl be 

 taken out of the water and kept warm, the disease 

 will be arrested, and the fowl will recover. These 

 facts, which he demonstrated joyfully, on March 19, 

 1878, bringing his cage of fowls into the grave 

 presence of the Academic de Medecine, are of 



