1882—1884 131 



taken an interest in all the tests on the vaccination of charbon, 

 had, in their turn, drawn up a programme of experiments. 



Pasteur arrived at a meeting of the Agricultural Society of 

 the Gard in time to hear the report of the veterinary surgeons 

 and to receive the congratulations of the Society. The 

 President expressed to him the gratitude of all the cattle- 

 owners and breeders, hitherto powerless to arrest the progress 

 of the disease which he had now vanquished. Whilst a com- 

 memoration medal was being offered to him and a banquet 

 being prepared— for Southern enthusiasm always implies a 

 series of toasts— Pasteur thanked these enterprising men who 

 were contemplating new experiments in order to dispel the 

 doubts of a few veterinary surgeons, and especially the 

 characteristic distrust, felt by some of the shepherds of every- 

 thing that did not come from the South. Sheep, oxen, and 

 horses, some of them vaccinated, others intact, were put at 

 Pasteur's disposal; he, with his usual energy, fixed the experi- 

 ments for the next morning at eight o'clock. After inoculating 

 all the animals with the charbon virus, Pasteur announced that 

 those which had been vaccinated would remain unharmed, but 

 that the twelve un vaccinated sheep would be dead or dying 

 within forty-eight hours. An appointment was made for next 

 day but one, on May 11, at the town knacker's, near the 

 Bridge of Justice, where post-mortem examinations were made 

 Pasteur then went on to Montpellier, where he was expected 

 by the Herault Central Society of Agriculture, who had also 

 made some experiments and had asked him to give a lecture 

 at the Agricultural School, He entered the large hall, feeling 

 very tired, almost ill, but his face lighted up at the 'sight of 

 that assembly of professors and students who had hurried from 

 all the neighbouring Faculties, and those agricultors crowding 

 from every part of the Department, all of them either full of 

 scientific curiosity or moved by their agricultural interests. 

 His voice, at first weak and showing marks of weariness, soon 

 became strengthened, and, forgetting his fatigue, he threw 

 himself into the subject of virulent and contagious diseases 

 He gave himself up, heart and soul, to this audience for two 

 whole hours, inspiring every one with his own enthusiasm. ' 

 He stopped now and then to invite questions, and his answers 

 to the objectors swept away the last shred of resistance. 



" We must not," said the Vice-President of the Agricultural 

 Society, M. Vialla, "encroach further on the time of M. 



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