258 LOUIS PASTEUK. 



depths where they lie buried, the terrible microbes. In 

 the tiny cylinders of earth which the worms deposit on 

 the surface of the soil, after the dews of the morning 

 or after rain, the splenic germs are to be found. It is 

 easy to prove this directly. If in earth, with which 

 spores of the microbe have been previously mingled, 

 we place some worms, and at the end of several days 

 open the bodies of these worms, with all necessary 

 precautions, so as to extract from them the earthy 

 matter which fills their intestinal canals, we find in 

 them large numbers of splenic fever spores. It is, then, 

 absolutely proved, that if splenic fever germs exist, as 

 they often do, in the light earth which covers the pits 

 in which animals dead of that disease lie buried, these 

 germs result from the disintegration by rain of the 

 little excremental cylinders deposited by the earth 

 worms. The dust of this disintegrated earth spreads 

 itself over the grasses on a level with the soil, and 

 thus it is that animals come to find on the pasture-field, 

 and in particular kinds of forage, the germs of splenic 

 fever by which they are infected. 



' In these results,' said Pasteur a short time ago at 

 the Academy of Medicine, ' what outlooks are opened 

 to the mind in regard to the possible influence of 

 earths in the etiology of diseases, and the possible 

 danger of the earth of cemeteries ! ' 



The earth-worms also bring to the surface other 

 germs, which, while they are as harmless to the 



