178 LOUIS PASTEUK. 



The opposite doctrines of Liebig and Pasteur 

 are here brought into clear juxtaposition ; and thus 

 was their mutual and reciprocal influence established 

 in dealing with the etiology of one of the most serious 

 diseases of the bladder. So far back as 1862, Pasteur, 

 in his memoir on spontaneous generation, had an- 

 nounced, contrary to all the notions then held, that 

 whenever urine becomes ammoniacal, a little micro- 

 scopic fungus is the cause of this alteration. Later 

 on he established that in affections of the bladder 

 ammoniacal urine was never found without the pre- 

 sence of this fungus ; and in order to show how in 

 these studies therapeutic application often runs hand 

 in hand with scientific discovery, Pasteur, having 

 proved, with his assistant, M. Joubert, that boracic 

 acid is antagonistic to the development of the am- 

 moniacal ferment, advised Dr. Guyon, Clinical Pro- 

 fessor of Urinary Diseases in the Faculty of Paris, to 

 combat the dangerous ammoniacal fermentation by 

 injection of boracic acid into the bladder. The 

 celebrated surgeon hastened to follow this advice, and 

 with the most happy results. While attributing to 

 Pasteur the honour of this discovery, M. Guyon, in 

 one of his lectures, said : 



' Boracic acid has this immense advantage, that it 

 can be applied in large doses 3 to 4 per cent. with- 

 out causing the slightest pain. It has therefore 

 become, in our practice, the agent continually and 



