1877—1879 45 



1878 : "Dear colleague and friend, microbe and microbia are 

 very good words. To designate the animalculae I should give 

 the preference to microbe, because, as you say, it is short, and 

 because it leaves microbia, a feminine noun, for the designation 

 of the state of a microbe." 



Certain philologists criticized the formation of the word in 

 the name of the Greek language. Microbe, they said, means 

 an animal with a short life, rather than an infinitesimally 

 small animal. Littre" gave a second testimonial to the word 

 microbe — 



"It is true," he wrote to Sedillot, "that /juxpoftcos and 

 (laxpofttos probably mean in Greek short-lived and long-lived. 

 But, as you justly remark, the question is not what is most 

 purely Greek, but what is the use made in our language of the 

 Greek roots. Now the Greek has /3t'o?, life, fiiovv, to live, 

 ,8t,ov<;, living, the root of which may very well figure under the 

 form of bi, bia with the sense living, in aerobia, a7iaerobia and 

 microbe. I should advise you not to trouble to answer 

 criticisms, but let the word stand for itself, which it will no 

 doubt do." Pasteur, by adopting it, made the whole world 

 familiar with it. 



Though during that month of March, 1878, Pasteur had had 

 the pleasure of hearing Sedillot's prophetic words at the 

 Academie des Sciences, he had heard very different language 

 at the Academie de Medecine. Colin of Alfort, from the iso- 

 lated corner where he indulged in his misanthropy, had 

 renewed his criticisms of Pasteur. As he spoke unceasingly 

 of a state of virulent anthrax devoid of bacteridia, Pasteur, 

 losing patience, begged of the Academie to nominate a Com- 

 mission of Arbitration. 



' I desire expressly that M. Colin should be urged to demon- 

 strate what he states to be the fact, for his assertion implies 

 another, which is that an organic matter, containing neither 

 bacteridia nor germs of bacteridia, produces within the body of 

 a living animal the bacteridia of anthrax. This would be the 

 spontaneous generation of the bacillus anthracis ! " 



Colin's antagonism to Pasteur was such that he contra- 

 dicted him in every point and on every subject. Pasteur having 

 stated that birds, and notably hens, did not take the charbon 

 disease, Colin had hastened to say that nothing was easier than 

 to give anthrax to hens ; this was in July, 1877. Pasteur, who 

 was at that moment sending Colin some samples of bacteridia 



