THE LIFE OF PASTEUB 



im , in infli: ssible causes, which we 



to cut down the evil in its rot 

 \ recepti I milar to that given to Villemin v 



. who. haying meditated on Pasteur's 



x -in. Tit and the part played by that 



1 its action with certain parasites visible with 

 a microscope as I by him in the blood of animals which 



of ch urbon di By its action and its rapid multi- 



in the blood, this agent endowed with life probably 



favaine, after the manner of ferments. The blood 



! to thai extent that it speedily brought about the 



th of the infected animal. I'avaine called those filaments 



found in anthrax "bacteria," and added, "They have a place 



in the classification of living beings." But what was that 



animated virus to many doctors? They answered experimental 



proofs by oratorical arguments. 



At the very time when Pasteur took his seat at the Academy 



of Medicine, Davaine was being violently attacked ; his experi- 



ats on septicemia were the cause, or the pretext. But the 



re tone of the discussions prepared Pasteur for future battles. 



Th • iry of germs, the doctrine of virus ferments, all this 



as a complete reversal of acquired notions, a 



her :i had to be suppressed. A well-known surgeon. 



1 >r. < gnao, spol fore the Academic de Medecine of 

 what he called "laboratory Burgery, which has destroyed very 

 many animals and v human beings." In order to 



rimentalistl of the distance between them and 

 !: " Laboratory results should be brou 

 out in -\ circumspect, modest and • d manner, as long as 



they have not been i oed by long clinical researches, a 



• on with. tut which there is no real and practical medi 



j. he said, could not be n solved into a 

 question "f I ■> ! And. ironically, far from realizing the 



ith "f Ins sarcastic [ v. he exclaimed, " Typhoid fe^ 



bactei ■: ! Hospital miasma, bacterization 1 " 



• j had a word to say. l>r. Piorry, an octogenarian, 

 somewhat weighed down with the burd.n of his years and 

 ' ' tion • leak with his accustomed solemnity, lie 



had found for Villemin'l experiments the simple explanation 

 th 'the tuberculous m " ms to be no other than p 1 



which, in OOnsequi '' its sojourn in the organs, has under- 



gone varie.i ind numerous modifications"; and he now im- 



