CHAPTER VI 



THE CURATIVE POISON 



INNOVATORS, whether in the arts or the 

 sciences, are combatted at the outset. Pas- 

 teur was not destined to escape the general 

 rule, which demands that all truth shall be 

 forced upon us. In spite of the evidence which 

 he had obtained in support of his theories from 

 long and difficult experiments with fermenta- 

 tions, a group of scientists, and they by no 

 means the lesser lights, . refused to accept his 

 conclusions. He had to face a controversy with 

 Trecul, who maintained that microscopic or- 

 ganisms could transform themselves, one into 

 another, and he must needs demonstrate that, 

 contrary to this opinion, they remained fixed 

 and with a specific character. In the course of 

 the study necessitated by this discussion he 

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