1877—1879 55 



new discussion was started to hinder him. He had certainly 

 thought that the experimental power of giving anthrax to hens 

 had been fully demonstrated, and that that question was dead, 

 as dead as the inoculated and immersed hen. 



Colin, however, returned to the subject, and at an Academy 

 meeting of July 9 said somewhat insolently, " I wish we could 

 have seen the bacteridia of that dead hen which M. Pasteur 

 showed us without taking it out of its cage, and which he 

 took away intact instead of making us witness the necropsy 

 and microscopical examination." "I will take no notice," 

 eaid Pasteur at the following meeting, "of the malevolent 

 insinuations contained in that sentence, and only consider M. 

 Colin's desire to hold in his hands the body of a hen dead of 

 anthrax, full of bacteridia. I will, therefore, ask M. Colin if 

 he will accept such a hen under the following condition : the 

 necropsy and microscopic examination shall be made by him- 

 self, in my presence, and in that of one of our colleagues of this - 

 Academy, designated by himself or by this Academy, and an 

 official report shall be drawn up and signed by the persons 

 present. So shall it be well and duly stated that M. Colin's 

 conclusions, in his paper of May 14, are null and void. The 

 Academy will understand my insistence in rejecting M. Colin's 

 superficial contradictions. 



' ' I say it here with no sham modesty : I have always con- 

 sidered that my only right to a seat in this place is that given 

 me by your great kindness, for I have no medical or veterinary 

 knowledge. I therefore consider that I must be more scrupu- 

 lously exact than any one else in the presentations which I have 

 the honour to make to you ; I should promptly lose all credit if I 

 brought you erroneous or merely doubtful facts. If ever I am 

 mistaken, a thing which may happen to the most scrupulous, 

 it is because my good faith has been greatly surprised. 



"On the other hand, I have come amongst you with a pro- 

 gramme to follow which demands accuracy at every step. I 

 can tell you my programme in two words : I have sought for 

 twenty years, and I am still seeking, spontaneous generation 

 properly so called. 



' If God permit, I shall seek for twenty years and more the 

 spontaneous generation of transmissible diseases. 



"In these difficult researches, whilst sternly deprecating 

 frivolous contradiction, I only feel esteem and gratitude 

 towards those who may warn me if I should be in error." 



