370 
ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
threaten to become abortive by reason of their being exercised 
in a wrong direction. Indeed, there is no concealing the fact, 
that the scientific public is leading itself astray in its attempts 
to discover the nature of viruses and of virulence. It has 
received with the same amount of enthusiasm, facts differing 
very widely in their force and signification. Its critical spirit is 
not exercised with sufficient vigour and severity on the demon¬ 
strations which have been presented to it. The result has 
been much confusion. If the attempt which I make to-day 
dispels this confusion, my labour will not be altogether lost. 
If it succeeds in completely rectifying the errors of those 
engaged in the study of virulent maladies, it will, I think, 
have rendered a real service to science. This thought has 
incited me. The experience, dearly and laboriously acquired, 
that I am able to place at their service, authorises me in be¬ 
lieving that my intervention will not be altogether futile. 
To work, then; the moment’s propitious ! The whole 
world now understands the importance of researches in com¬ 
parative pathology and experimental medicine. There is not, 
in the vast domain of biology, ground better prepared for 
receiving the culture of the experimental method. The most 
fruitful of all is, indubitably, that of virulent maladies. It is 
an inexhaustible mine. What investigations to undertake ! 
What problems to solve! What practical applications to 
make! What precious results to obtain for the welfare of 
humanity ! We already press on, fired with ambition, in the 
road which leads to the most useful conquest of modern 
science. When our teaching institutions are reformed ; when 
experimental medicine and comparative pathology shall enjoy 
the means of study worthy of the services which they have 
already rendered and which they are called to render, the 
multitude will enlist itself with more ardour on the side of 
the study of viruses. 
To prepare the soil for this study; to demonstrate what 
still remains to be done, by showing that which has been ac¬ 
quired, is then a work of the highest scientific utility. This 
is why I have overcome my repugnance for an enterprise 
which cannot in any way pretend to a complete success, and 
concerning which the issue will remain, on certain points, 
plunged more or less profoundly in the clouds of uncer¬ 
tainty. 
It is well, otherwise, that in seeing the experimental 
method applied to the theory of viruses, you should learn 
that the problems to be resolved are not yet disengaged from 
all their mysteries, notwithstanding the numerous and labo¬ 
rious efforts which have been made for their solution. You 
