NINETEENTH-CENTURY MEDICINE 



uation of the virulence, but also its complete suppres- 

 sion by a simple method of cultivation. Moreover, we 

 see also the possibility of preserving and cultivating 

 the terrible microbe in an inoffensive state. What is 

 it that happens in these eight days at 43 that suffices 

 to take away the virulence of the bacteria? Let us 

 remember that the microbe of chicken cholera dies in 

 contact with the air, in a period somewhat protracted, 

 it is true, but after successive attenuations. Are we 

 justified in thinking that it ought to be the same in re- 

 gard to the microbe of anthrax? This hypothesis is 

 confirmed by experiment. Before the disappearance 

 of its virulence the anthrax microbe passes through 

 various degrees of attenuation, and, moreover, as is 

 also the case with the microbe of chicken cholera, each 

 of these attenuated states of virulence can be obtained 

 by cultivation. Moreover, since, according to one of 

 our recent Communications, anthrax is not recurrent, 

 each of our attenuated anthrax microbes is, for the 

 better-developed microbe, a vaccine that is to say, a 

 virus producing a less - malignant malady. What, 

 therefore, is easier than to find in these a virus that will 

 infect with anthrax sheep, cows, and horses, without 

 killing them, and ultimately capable of warding off the 

 mortal malady? We have practised this experiment 

 with great success upon sheep, and when the season 

 comes for the assembling of the flocks at Beauce we 

 shall try the experiment on a larger scale. 



"Already M. Toussaint has announced that sheep 

 can be saved by preventive inoculations; but when 

 this able observer shall have published his results, on 

 the subject of which we have made such exhaustive 



237 



