1880—1882 101 



collaborators, a murmur of applause arose, which soon became 

 loud acclamation, bursting from all lips. Delegates from the 

 Agricultural Society of Melun, from medical societies, 

 veterinary societies, from the Central Council of Hygiene of 

 Seine et Marne, journalists, small farmers who had been divided 

 in their minds by laudatory or injurious newspaper articles — 

 all were there. The carcases of twenty-two un vaccinated sheep 

 were lying side by side ; two others were breathing their last ; 

 the last survivors of the sacrificed lot showed all the 

 characteristic symptoms of splenic fever. All the vaccinated 

 sheep were in perfect health. 



Bouley's happy face reflected the feelings which were so 

 characteristic of his attractive personality : enthusiasm for a 

 great cause, devotion to a great man. M. Eossignol, in one of 

 those loyal impulses which honour human nature, disowned 

 with perfect sincerity his first hasty judgment ; Bouley con- 

 gratulated him. He himself, many years before, had allowed 

 himself to judge too hastily, he said, of certain experiments of 

 Davaine's, of which the results then appeared impossible. 

 After having witnessed these experiments, Bouley had thought 

 it a duty to proclaim his error at the Academie de Medecine, 

 and to render a public homage to Davaine. " That, I think," 

 he said, "is the line of conduct which should always be 

 observed ; we honour ourselves by acknowledging our mistakes 

 and by rendering justice to neglected merit." 



No success had ever been greater than Fasteur's. Tht; 

 veterinary surgeons, until then the most incredulous, now 

 convinced, desired to become the apostles of his doctrine. 

 M. Biot spoke of nothing less than of being himself 

 vaccinated and afterwards inoculated with the most active 

 virus. Colin's absence was much regretted. Pasteur was 

 not yet satisfied. " We must wait until the 5th of June," 

 he said, "for the experiment to be complete, and the proof 

 decisive." 



M. Eossignol and M. Biot proceeded on the spot to the 

 necropsy of two of the dead sheep. An abundance of bac- 

 teridia was very clearly seen in the blood through the 

 microscope. 



Pasteur was accompanied back to the station by an enthu- 

 siastic crowd, saluting him — with a luxury of epithets con- 

 trasting with former ironies — as the immortal author of the 

 magnificent discovery of splenic fever vaccination, and it was 



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