92 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



willing to prove the efficacy of his discovery by actual application 

 of the method in that colony. 



With that object, his son-in-law, M. Valery Radot, with a 

 skilled assistant, set out for Sydney " with large supplies of the 

 choleraic microbe," and would have proceeded to carry out their 

 object had they been permitted to do so by the colonial Govern- 

 ment. At the last moment it would seem that a reaction set in. 

 Those who had hailed with satisfaction the announcement that a 

 remedy for the Rabbit-plague was at hand, now paused to con- 

 sider whether, after all, the proposed cure might not prove worse 

 than the disease. The result of the deliberation was that the 

 experiment was not permitted to be carried out, and M. Pasteur's 

 assistants had to return home without the expected reward, 

 though we presume, of course, that all their expenses were paid 

 by the Government on whose behalf they had undertaken the 

 voyage. 



We have been asked to state why M. Pasteur's proposed 

 remedy for the Rabbit-plague was not adopted and applied in 

 Australia. The fact appears to be that on the eve of the arrival 

 of his assistants at Sydney, certain resident members of the 

 medical profession, feeling it incumbent upon them to examine into 

 the matter carefully before committing themselves to an opinion 

 which they were asked or expected to express, arrived at a con- 

 clusion adverse to the adoption of M. Pasteur's proposed experi- 

 ment. Amongst those who strongly opposed the project was 

 Dr. H. C. Wigg, who, in a paper read before the Royal Society 

 of Victoria, in March, 1888, stated the principal objections to 

 the scheme. 



As his views may be taken to be those of others besides 

 himself, and as they undoubtedly embody some serious objec- 

 tions, it may be well to quote them here, for the benefit of our 

 readers, who will then be in possession of the whole story ; for 

 hitherto, as some of them have pointed out, they have been 

 furnished only with statistics relating to the introduction of the 

 Rabbit in the Colonies, the damage caused by such unwise in- 

 troduction, the cost incurred by the Government in attempts to 

 stamp out the plague, and the nature of the remedy proposed by 

 M. Pasteur. 



In opposing the scheme, Dr. Wigg wrote as follows*: — 



* Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, 1889, pp. 28-33. 



