284 LOUIS PASTEUE. 



II. 



In 1882, a new malady occupied the attention of 

 the laboratory of the Ecole Normale, a malady the 

 name of which was not even known in Paris, but 

 which made great ravages in the country namely, 

 swine fever (rouget). Here, again, it is a microbe 

 which causes the disorder. This microbe was first 

 perceived by Thuillier, in a little commune of the De- 

 partement de Vienne, when examining the blood and 

 humours of pigs which had died of the fever. Ex- 

 periments were at once set on foot in the laboratory, 

 with the view of proving that the microbe was really 

 the cause of the disease. The microbe was cultivated 

 in a sterilised infusion of veal. This cultivation was 

 passed on to a succeeding one, a small drop of the 

 preceding cultivation being always taken for seed. 

 Inoculations from these last cultivations produced the 

 fever in certain breeds of pigs. The proof was thus 

 given that the microbe was really the origin of the 

 disease. 



Pasteur then, accompanied by Thuillier and a 

 young assistant, M. Loir, went, in his turn, to study 

 the disease in the Department of Yaucluse. He re- 

 mained more than a month in the canton of Bollene, 

 in the house of a veterinary surgeon, M. Maucuer, 

 who took him to all the pigsties in the arrondissement. 



