THE SILKWOEM-DISEASE. 141 



and Raulin, grouped themselves around their master. 

 Thus, in an out-of-the-way corner of the Cevennes 

 was formed a colony seeking with ardour the solution 

 of an obscure problem, and the means of curing or 

 preventing a disease which had for so long a time 

 blighted one of the great sources of the national 

 wealth. 



One of the first cares of Pasteur was to settle the 

 question as to the contagion of the disease. Many 

 hypotheses had been formed regarding this contagion, 

 but few experiments had been made, and none of 

 them were decisive. Opinions were also very much 

 divided. Some considered that contagion was cer- 

 tain ; the majority, however, either doubted or denied 

 its existence ; some considered it as accidental. It was 

 said, for example, that the evil was not contagious by 

 itself, but that it became so through the presence and 

 complication of other diseases which were themselves 

 contagious. This hypothesis was convenient, and it 

 enabled contradictory facts to be explained. If some 

 persons had seen healthy worms, which had been 

 mixed up either by mistake or intention with sickly 

 ones, perish, and if they insisted on contagion, 

 others forthwith replied by diametrically opposite 

 observations. 



But whatever the divergences of opinion might 

 be, everyone at all events believed in the existence of 

 a poisonous medium rendered epidemic by some occult 



