1885—1888 213 



added : " The medical men who have been chosen by M. 

 Pasteur to assist him in his work have not hesitated to practise 

 the antirabic inoculation on themselves, as a safeguard against 

 an accidental inoculation of the virus which they are constantly 

 handling. What greater proof can they give of their bona fide 

 convictions ? " He showed that the mortality amongst the 

 cases treated remained below 1 per 100. " M. Pasteur will 

 soon publish foreign statistics from Samara, Moscow, St. 

 Petersburg, Odessa, Warsaw and Vienna : they are all abso- 

 lutely favourable." 



As it was insinuated that the laboratory of the Ecole Kormale 

 kept its failures a secret, it was decided that the Annals of the 

 Pasteur Institute would publish a monthly list and bulletin of 

 patients under treatment. 



Vulpian, at another meeting (it was almost the last time he 

 was heard at the Academie de Medecine), said, a propos of what 

 he called an inexcusable opposition, " This new benefit adds 

 to the number of those which our illustrious Pasteur has already- 

 rendered to humanity. . . . Our works and our names will soon 

 be buried under the rising tide of oblivion : the name and the 

 works of M. Pasteur will continue to stand on heights too great 

 to be reached by its sullen waves." Pasteur was much dis- 

 turbed by the noise of these discussions ; every post increased his 

 feverishness, and he spoke every morning of returning to Paris 

 to answer his opponents. 



It was a pitiful thing to note on his worn countenance the 

 visible signs of the necessity of the peace and rest offered by 

 this beautiful land of serene sunshine ; and to hear at the same 

 time a constant echo of those angry debates. Anonymous 

 letters were sent to him, insulting newspaper articles — all that 

 envy and hatred can invent ; the seamy side of human nature 

 was being revealed to him. " I did not know I had so many 

 enemies," he said mournfully. He was consoled to some extent 

 by the ardent support of the greatest medical men in France. 



Vulpian, in a statement to the Academie des Sciences, con- 

 stituted himself Pasteur's champion. Pasteur indeed was saf< 

 from attacks in that centre, but certain low slanderers who 

 attended the public meetings of the Academie continued to 

 accuse Pasteur of concealing the failures of his method. Vulpian 

 — who was furiously angry at such an insinuation against ' ' a 

 man like M. Pasteur, whose good faith, loyalty and scientific 

 integrity should be an example to his adversaries as they are to 



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