198 LOUIS PASTEUR. 



being aware of it, accompanied Jaillard and Leplat's 

 researches upon splenic fever infection. This impres- 

 sion will be derived from reading the successive 

 notes laid by them before the Academy of Sciences. 

 The blood of the cow which had died of splenic fever, 

 sent from the knacker's establishment of Sours, and the 

 blood of the sheep sent by M. Boutet, must both have 

 been taken from the bodies of animals which had been 

 dead a sufficient number of hours to render their blood 

 both splenic and septic ; and it was septicaemia, so 

 prompt in its action, that had killed the rabbits of 

 Jaillard and Leplat. As the examination of the blood 

 of these animals showed no signs of bacteria, they 

 had concluded, with great apparent truth, that the 

 inoculation of splenic blood could cause death without 

 any appearance of these organisms, even while the 

 blood used for inoculation was full of them. The 

 presence of septic vibrios in the blood of the inoculated 

 rabbits escaped their notice. When Davaine replied 

 that Jaillard and Leplat had not worked with pure 

 splenic blood he had hit upon the truth, but he could 

 not give plausible reasons for it. The contest was 

 carried on by experiments in which, on both sides, truth 

 and error were closely blended. 



The work of M. Paul Bert, at the close of 1876, 

 was surrounded with circumstances no less complex. 

 To thoroughly understand them we must call to mind 

 Pasteur's discovery as to the mode of reproducing the 



