Details
PASTEUR, LOUIS. Autograph letter signed ("L. Pasteur") to an unidentified correspondent, a member of the Conseil Général of Chartres, 17 November 1879. 1 1/2 pages, 8vo, integral blank leaf, one or two minute fold breaks.
PASTEUR DISCUSSES BACTERIAL CONTAMINATION
"I was pleased to learn that you have no serious objection on the subject of anthrax etiology, as it results from our research of these past two years. Should any come to mind, we will consider them together at the first opportunity. There is one point that you had discussed with M. Chamberland [one of Pasteur's assistants] and of which he told me, concerining which I would like to obtain further details, since it seems very important to signal it as evidence for this new etiology. I am referring to the case of Nogent-le-Rotrou, where according to you the disease was imported at a specific moment.
"Since the disease maintains itself and propogates itself, nothing can prevent the infection from gradually taking over a locality or a district in just a few years. A first dead animal buried in a field can spread the disease the following year through the plants, the soil and so on. Hence the beneficent influence of quartering, burning, field ovens, etc.
"I am hoping to go to Chartres, at Easter for example, at the time of the April session of the general Council, to submit my views on the terrible malady to you and you colleagues..."
Since 1877 Pasteur had been engaged in his study of anthrax, a disease that had recently wiped out some 20 of the sheep and cattle of certain regions of France. By the fall of 1879, having proven that the disease was caused by a bacterial agent, and having localized the anatomical starting-point of the disease as the mouth or back of the throat, he and his assistants had begun investigating its means of propagation. Experiments carried out in October 1879 showed that the bacteria multiply in the soil and are rapidly transformed into easily identifiable corpuscular spores. Later experiments were to establish the normal channels of propagation of the disease, and in 1881 Pasteur developed an attenuated culture of anthrax germs which was effective in its prevention.
PASTEUR DISCUSSES BACTERIAL CONTAMINATION
"I was pleased to learn that you have no serious objection on the subject of anthrax etiology, as it results from our research of these past two years. Should any come to mind, we will consider them together at the first opportunity. There is one point that you had discussed with M. Chamberland [one of Pasteur's assistants] and of which he told me, concerining which I would like to obtain further details, since it seems very important to signal it as evidence for this new etiology. I am referring to the case of Nogent-le-Rotrou, where according to you the disease was imported at a specific moment.
"Since the disease maintains itself and propogates itself, nothing can prevent the infection from gradually taking over a locality or a district in just a few years. A first dead animal buried in a field can spread the disease the following year through the plants, the soil and so on. Hence the beneficent influence of quartering, burning, field ovens, etc.
"I am hoping to go to Chartres, at Easter for example, at the time of the April session of the general Council, to submit my views on the terrible malady to you and you colleagues..."
Since 1877 Pasteur had been engaged in his study of anthrax, a disease that had recently wiped out some 20 of the sheep and cattle of certain regions of France. By the fall of 1879, having proven that the disease was caused by a bacterial agent, and having localized the anatomical starting-point of the disease as the mouth or back of the throat, he and his assistants had begun investigating its means of propagation. Experiments carried out in October 1879 showed that the bacteria multiply in the soil and are rapidly transformed into easily identifiable corpuscular spores. Later experiments were to establish the normal channels of propagation of the disease, and in 1881 Pasteur developed an attenuated culture of anthrax germs which was effective in its prevention.