THE CURATIVE POISON 133 



Guerin in October, 1881, because of his rather 

 rough treatment of him on the subject of small- 

 pox. 



This whole epoch of Pasteur's life, extend- 

 ing from 1877 to 1882, was extremely prolific. 

 He was possessed by what amounted to a fever 

 for work, and his ideas radiated in all direc- 

 tions. His laboratory was a veritable hive. 

 Together with his anthrax vaccine, he found 

 that of chicken cholera; and his pupil, Thuil- 

 lier, discovered the microbe of rouget in swine. 

 But in the midst of all his polemics and his 

 divers other duties Pasteur's chief preoccupation 

 was that of human diseases. He turned his at- 

 tention to puerperal fever, and, having dem- 

 onstrated that it was due to a microbe, he out- 

 lined for doctors a whole series of measures of 

 precaution and cleanliness that were destined 

 to save many a mother. He collected notes on 

 the plague, he made a study of boils, he 

 haunted the hospitals in company of his stu- 

 dents, notwithstanding his sensitiveness and 

 physical repugnance. 



