210 BOAED OF AGRICULTUEE. ! 



I 

 ated virus was that of chicken cholera. The vitality of the 

 germs of this plague he found could be lessened by simply j 

 cultivating artificially and allowing them plenty of oxygen. 

 The fowls were first inoculated with a very mild virus, and ! 

 in a few days a stronger one was used, and these two inocu- 

 lations were sufficient to protect poultry from the ravages 

 of chicken cholera. He then undertook to attenuate the 

 bacilli of anthrax, and found that this could be done by cul- 

 tivating them at a higher temperature than that of the 

 animal body, and in 1881 astonished the scientific world by 

 proving the efficacy of his vaccine for anthrax. 



Pasteur has also prepared a vaccine for rouget, a disease 

 of the pig, resembling our hog cholera, but not identical with 

 it. About two years ago he announced the discovery, which 

 has interested the world more than any of his previous ones 

 (although it is not as important to agriculturists as much of j 

 his fomier work), that he could protect persons from ' 

 rabies, aftei- they had been bitten by a rabid animal, by 

 means of a series of inoculations, beginning with a very 

 mild virus and ending with a strong one. 



This virus was made by hanging the medulla and part of 

 the spinal cord of a rabbit just dead of rabies in a perfectly 

 dry jar for a certain number of days, and then beating it up 

 in a mortar with a little distilled water and a little veal 

 broth, and inoculating with a hypodermic syringe. A 

 cord dried for fourteen or fifteen days was first used, fol- 

 lowed by a fresher one for ten days, until a perfectly fresh 

 one was used, and the patient's life was thus saved, — pro- 

 vided the inoculations were commenced soon after receiving 

 the oriscinal wound. 



A man like Pasteur is of incalculable benefit to his day 

 and generation. Few have done more to advance the physi- 

 cal well-being of the world than this man, that our great 

 nineteenth century has shown. We cannot all be geniuses, 

 out we can all aim to do our best work for the improvement 

 of our fellow-man and of the lower creation. 



Inoculation is not altogether a new idea, for it was used 

 to produce a mild form of small-pox before Jenner intro- 

 duced vaccination, and has been known to the Chinese for 

 Qundreds of years. 



