634 
M. RENAULT ON THE 
part, succeed in preventing or mitigating infection. Let us, by 
way of example, examine the opinions entertained about the infec¬ 
tion of syphilis. 
Hunter said, and others have repeated after him, that “ chancre 
originating from contagion is for some days at first purely a local 
affection .”— “ If it be destroyed as soon as it makes its appearance,” 
says this great surgeon, “ little need be feared of general infection; 
since then it is to be reasonably presumed that insufficient time 
has been given for infection of the system to take place. 
RlVES and RlCORD are of the same opinion. GlBERT does not 
go so far. “ Cauterization of the chancre on the third, or at fur¬ 
thest the fourth day, appears a probability but not a certainty of 
arresting the disease.” 
VELPEAU, on the other hand, does not assert that cauterization 
of the chancre as soon as it appears will hinder infection; he 
vouches only for its possibility. And ROCHOUX, Rous, and Clo¬ 
quet, are of opinion that absorption in general is so prompt and 
rapid, that we never can flatter ourselves that we have cauterized 
time enough to save infection. 
Concerning the vaccine and variolous viruses, M. Bousquet, in 
the excellent treatise he has just published on the subject, informs 
us, that “ according to some vaccinators, vaccination is purely a 
local affection up to the time the virus is taken up from the pustule 
and carried into the current of the circulation.” Whereas, accord¬ 
ing to another new treatise on vaccination, “ there is no period 
whatever of inertia in vaccine virus. The pustular eruption is but 
the effect of its antecedent secret action: a theory which makes 
infection of the system almost simultaneous with vaccination.” 
So, according to one theory, cow-pox begins by being local , and 
afterwards becomes constitutional; according to the other, it begins 
by being constitutional, and speedily after shews itself in a local form. 
With a view of clearing up these doubts, or at least of casting 
some light on their resolution, it was that M. Renault undertook 
the experiments whose results have been summarily r made known 
to the Academy. The viruses which he has chosen for experiment 
are those of acute glanders and sheep-pox; and these viruses he 
selected because he thought that of glanders was analogous in some 
respects to the virus of syphilis, whilst the pox in sheep bore the 
most complete relationship to small-pox and vaccination in man. 
The question M. Renault undertook tosolve was— when a portion 
of glandered or sheep-pox matter vms inserted underneath the 
epidermis, to ascertain the rapidity or tardiness with which ab¬ 
sorption of it took place, reckoning from the moment of ino¬ 
culation. 
In other words, and in another point of view, 
