4 MICROBES, FERMENTS, AND MOULDS. 
cause of the more or less serious diseases which affect 
animals or plants. Naturalists who regard these para- 
sites as animals have termed them Microzoaria (from 
two Greek words signifying small animals). Those 
who regard them as plants have called them Micro- 
phyta (small plants), and it is still disputed which 
term is the most applicable to them. In other words, 
it is still undecided whether they should be classed in 
the animal or vegetable kingdom. 
It was at the Paris Academy of the Sciences, on 
the 11th of March, 1878, that Sédillot took part in one 
of the probably interminable discussions between the 
advocates of the Microzoaria and those of the Micro- 
phyta, and he suggested, with the critical sense for 
which he was distinguished, the word microbe, to 
which it appeared to him that every one could give 
their assent. 
In fact, the word microbe, which only signifies a 
small living being, decides nothing as to the animal 
or vegetable nature of the beings in question.* It has 
been adopted by Pasteur, and approved by Littré, 
whose competence to decide on neologisms is generally 
admitted ; it has been in common use in France for 
the last four or five years, and may now be regarded 
as definitively adopted into the French language, 
This word has not yet been fully introduced into 
* Béchamp terms microbes microzyma, or small ferments, since the 
chemical reactions which result from their vital activity are goncrally 
fermentations. 
