396 BIOLOGY: GENERAL AND MEDICAL 



When the statement was made by Pasteur that by the 

 use of vaccines consisting of properly selected cultures of 

 attenuated anthrax bacilli, he would be able to prevent 

 the occurrence of anthrax, a storm of opposition and 

 ridicule was aroused but quickly quelled for on May 5, 

 1882, at the farm of Pouilly le Fort near Melun, France, 

 he gave a large public exhibition and vaccinated twenty- 

 five sheep, five cows, and an ox with the first virus, 

 before a large gathering of agriculturists, physicians, 

 and veterinarians. On May 17, the second inoculation 

 with a more virulent virus was made. On May 31, 

 the final test was made , and all of the animals were inocu- 

 lated with a triple dose of virulent virus. On June 2 

 all of the many control animals were dead, but the 

 vaccinated animals were all well and remained so. 



This was the inception of a method that has saved 

 millions of dollars to the farmers, by enabling them 

 to protect their stock whenever anthrax makes its 

 appearance. 



Almost at the same time Arloing, Cornevin and Tho- 

 mas, and Kitt applied a similar method for protecting 

 animals from quarter-evil. The vaccine, however, was 

 not made with pure cultures of the microbe, but by 

 drying and heating the muscular tissue of an animal 

 inoculated with it. The muscle contained innumerable 

 bacilli, which attenuated when the dry muscle was 

 heated for a time. The dry muscle thus treated was 

 ground to a powder, suspended in some indifferent 

 fluid, and injected with a hypodermic syringe into the 

 animal to be protected. An injection of this kind was 

 found to be sufficient to afford immunity. This method 

 is also now in general use and has been of great economic 

 value to agriculturalists. 



Pasteur next extended his immunological researches 

 to human pathology and devoted himself to rabies, or 

 hydrophobia, a terrible disease, invariably fatal, caused 

 by the bites of rabid animals. He found that the 

 virus, though present in the saliva and transmitted by it, 



