170 PASTEUR 



We ought to be allowed to try to give cholera 

 to criminals condemned to death by making 

 them swallow cultures of these bacilli. As soon 

 as the malady should make its appearance the 

 remedies regarded as most efficacious could im- 

 mediately be administered. 



"I attach so much importance to these meas- 

 ures that, if Your Majesty should share my 

 views, I would gladly set out for Rio Janeiro, 

 despite my age and state of health, in order to 

 devote myself to this sort of study of the 

 prophylaxis of hydrophobia, or the contagion of 

 cholera, and the remedies to be applied to it." 

 (Letter cited by M. Vallery-Radot, in La Vie 

 de Pasteur.) 



His conscience became so troubled by this 

 weight of responsibility that the famous sci- 

 entist even thought of inoculating himself, 

 when at last his experiments, repeatedly tried 

 upon animals, gave such unmistakable results 

 that he decided to apply his methods to human 

 beings. 



The first inoculation was given to a boy nine 



