323 
SYNOPSIS OF CONTINENTAL VETERINARY 
JOURNALS. 
By John Henry Steel, Demonstrator of Anatomy at the 
Royal Veterinary College. 
[Continued from p. 216.) 
Summary of Contents.—llecueil de Medecine Veterinaire, 
28th February, 1879:— M. Louis Pasteur, “ Report on the 
Etiology and Prophylaxis of Charbon.” M. Possignol, on 
“The Thermo-cautery of Paquelin,” 15th February, 1879. 
M. Toussaint, “ Researches on Charbon.” M. Boidey, 
“ Veterinary Associations discussed at the Congres Veteri¬ 
naire Honours and Appointments,” Revue Veterinaire de 
Toulouse , March, 1879. M. LabaCs record of M. Colin’s 
paper, “On the causes of death in Charbonaceous and Septic 
Affections.” 
The Recueil de Medecine Veterinaire , 28th February, 
1879, contains a report to the Minister of Agriculture and of 
Commerce, by M. Louis Pasteur, “ Researches on the Etio¬ 
logy and Prophylaxis of Charbon in the Department of 
Eure and Loire.” After touching upon the extreme preva¬ 
lence of this generally distributed malady, especially in the 
Department in question, where a farmer considers himself 
very fortunate if he loses only two or three per cent, of his 
sheep in this way, the author examines that form of the dis¬ 
ease supposed to be “spontaneous.” MM. Chamberland, 
Vinset, and Boutet (senior and junior) co-operated in the in¬ 
vestigation. “ Every experimental research requires from him 
who undertakes it, an acquaintance of a comprehensive nature 
with the results obtained by former workers in the matter. 
Those ideas which have particularly guided me have been 
derived from recent experiments which I have made with the 
assistance of M. Joubert, at first, then of MM. Joubert and 
Chamberland. In the summary of conclusions on the work 
mentioned we have affirmed, with less hesitation than our 
predecessors, that charbon is due to Bacteria, the minute or¬ 
ganisms first pointed out by the French physician, Dr. 
Davaine, in the blood of animals suffering from charbon. 
(But the veterinary Professor, Delafond, of Alfort, taught, as 
early as the year 1838, that in the blood of such animals 
there were microscopic staff-like bodies. The works of the 
Professor contain, as far as I know, no mention of the fact 
before Dr. Davaine drew attention to it in 1850. So, though 
