232 LOUIS PASTEUE. 



from the disease in future. In order to acquire such 

 a sense of security he would have to expose himself to 

 experiments of direct inoculation, which he would 

 hardly care to do. Animals alone offer the possibility 

 of. solving this problem. Yet it is not to all species 

 of animals that we can have recourse. Every sheep 

 inoculated with splenic fever infection is a sheep lost ; 

 but the ox and the cow have more power of resistance. 

 Among them there are frequent cases of cure. An 

 incident occurred which enabled Pasteur to push very 

 far this experimental study. 



In 1879 the Minister of Agriculture appointed him 

 to give judgment upon the value of a proposed mode 

 of cure for cows smitten with splenic fever, which had 

 been devised by M. Louvrier, a veterinary surgeon of 

 the Jura. Choosing M. Chamberland as his assistant 

 to watch the application of M. Louvrier's remedy, 

 Pasteur instituted a series of comparative experiments. 

 Some cows were inoculated, two and sometimes four 

 at a time, with the virulent splenic fever virus. Half 

 of these cows w r ere treated by M. Louvrier's method ; 

 the other half were left without treatment. A certain 

 number of the cows under M. Louvrier's care resisted 

 the disease, but an equal number of those not under 

 treatment recovered also. The inefficacy of the 

 remedy was demonstrated as well as the cause of the 

 inventor's illusions. But one precious result remained 

 from the trial of this remedy. Pasteur and Chamber- 



