'And now,' concluded Pasteur, when laying before the Academy a rapid survey of the etiology of splenic fever, 'is not the remedy naturally indicated? We should never bury animals in fields destined either for cultivation, for forage, or for sheep pasture. When it is possible a sandy soil should be chosen for the purpose, or any poor calcareous soil, dry, and easily desiccated--in a word, soil not suited to the existence of earth-worms.' M. Tisserand, Director of Agriculture, has remarked that splenic fever is unknown in the region of the Savarts of Champagne, although it is surrounded by countries invaded by the disease. If the conditions of commerce introduce splenic fever, it is but a passing accident. Must not this be attributed to the fact that in these poor soils, such as that of the camp at Châlons, where the thickness of arable soil is only from 4 to 5 inches, superposed upon chalk, the worms cannot live? In such a soil the burial of a splenic fever animal will give rise to great quantities of germs, which, owing to the absence of earth-worms, will abide in the depths of the soil and remain harmless. Finally, it has been proved that the countries subject to splenic fever have an argillaceous-calcareous soil, and that the disease is unknown in schistose and granitic soils. The contrast of the results, in relation to such differences of soil, is seen sometimes in the Department of the Aveyron, between the right and left side of one and the same road or watercourse. May we not now in all confidence assert that, if the cultivators choose, splenic fever may soon be a thing of the past among their animals, their shepherds, and among the butchers and the tanners of the towns, because splenic fever and malignant pustule are never spontaneous? The disease exists only where it has been sown, or where it has been diffused by the unconscious instrumentality of the earth-worm. The progress of vaccination will also contribute to the disappearance of splenic fever; for this preventive, if extensively used, as there is no doubt it will be, must end by establishing a race of domestic animals which, having all sprung from vaccinated parents, will in consequence be more resistant to the disease in its worst form. It will be with them in relation to splenic fever as it is with ourselves in relation to small-pox. It is a well-known fact that the ravages of small-pox are much less considerable in our days than when it first appeared in Europe. It is difficult not to attribute this, at least in part, to the prevalence of vaccination. In the populations where small-pox is introduced for the first time it has an exceptional intensity. Some months ago a significant fact of this nature occurred in Paris. A whole family of Esquimaux perished from small-pox in the 'Jardin d'Acclimatation.' They had never been vaccinated, nor had their ancestors. They were new to the attacks of small-pox, which did not spread beyond them.