206 MICROBES, FERMENTS, AND MOULDS. 
after inoculating himself, he performed the same 
operation on several of his friends; then on thousands 
of people in different towns of the province of Barce- 
lona, and throughout Spain. 
His inoculation consists in introducing, by means 
of the small syringe used for hypodermic injection, 
about a cubic centimetre of the vaccinal liquid, the 
nature of which is kept secret by its author. There 
is always a certain discomfort after the operation, 
but it disappears at the end of a few hours, Ferran 
himself states that one inoculation will not suffice 
to ward off the contagion. A second, third, and even 
more, are necessary for the attainment of this object, 
but the discomfort caused by the operation always 
becomes less. 
Up to this time the results obtained by the pro- 
cess during the recent epidemic in Spain are not 
accurately known, since Ferran has been unable to 
produce the official statistics which are necessary to 
confirm his assertions. 
We are, therefore, entitled to reserve our judg- 
ment, both as to the value claimed for this vac- 
cination, and as to the true nature of the microbe 
cultivated by Ferran, and considered by him to be 
the infecting agent of cholera. If, again, we recur 
to the facts established by Bochefontaine, it may be 
asked whether subcutaneous injection is the true 
mode of inoculation applicable to this disease, and 
if the process adopted by Bochefontaine, of intro- 
