128 PASTEUR 



How were the flocks and herds to be preserved? 

 It was through his study of chicken cholera, 

 carried on simultaneously with that of anthrax, 

 that he was set upon the right path. He had 

 noticed that the cholera microbes (at this time 

 the word microbe, as a generic term for vibri- 

 ons, bacterides, etc., had just been coined by 

 Sedillot, a surgeon at Strasburg, approved by 

 Littre, and generally adopted by scientists), if 

 left exposed to the air, and then used for a new 

 culture, lost their virulence to the point of be- 

 coming actually harmless. This attenuation 

 was due to the oxygen in the air. This discov- 

 ery was destined to revolutionise the science of 

 medicine, and to lead Pasteur to the employ- 

 ment of vaccines, which he obtained after sev- 

 eral years of extremely delicate experiments. 



It was on the 28th of February, 1881, that 

 Pasteur made his communication to the Acad- 

 emy of Sciences regarding the vaccine of an- 

 thrax. It was received by some with enthusi- 

 asm, and by others with mistrust. Pasteur 

 himself was certain of the effects of his discov- 



