204 LOUIS PASTEUR. 



will make the autopsy and you will yourself recognise 

 your leptothrix.' The doctor accepted the test. Pasteur 

 inoculated three guinea-pigs, had them placed in a cage 

 and sent by rail to the professor. They arrived the 

 following morning and died twenty-four hours after- 

 wards under the doctor's own eyes. The first had 

 been inoculated with the infectious blood of the dead 

 woman, the second with the bacterium of splenic fever 

 blood from Chartres, the third with the blood of a cow 

 wliich had died of splenic fever in the Jura. At the 

 autopsy it was impossible to discover the slightest 

 difference in the blood of the three animals. Not only 

 the blood but the internal organs, and especially the 

 spleen, were in exactly the same condition. 



Then, in the most honourable manner, the doctor 

 hastened to state, in a communication to the Academy 

 of Sciences, that he regretted doubly not having known 

 about splenic fever the year before, as he might have 

 been able, on the one hand, to diagnose the formid- 

 able complication which had manifested itself in the 

 woman who died on April 4, 1878, and, on the other 

 hand, to have traced out the mode of contamination 

 which now eluded him. He had, however, succeeded in 

 learning a few details regarding the unhappy woman. 

 She was a charwoman, and lived in a little room 

 adjoining the stables of a horse-dealer. Through 

 these stables a large number of horses passed con- 

 tinually. 



