Louis Pasteur: His Life and LaboursVallery-Radot, René
Science
Louis Pasteur: His Life and Labours
Vallery-Radot, René
Pasteur, Louis, 1822-1895; Scientists -- France -- Biography
The pus of the first boil, which was situated on the nape of the
neck, was collected in great purity; some days afterwards, the pus of
a second boil, then of a third boil, was collected. The pus, or the
blood-stained lymph of the red swelling which preceded the formation of
the pus, were sown in a sterilised infusion, and each time a microbe,
formed of little spherical points connected in pairs, frequently united
in small clusters, was seen to develop itself. The cultivating liquid
was sometimes infusion of fowl, sometimes of yeast. In the infusion of
yeast the little grains are suspended in pairs throughout the liquid,
which is uniformly thickened with them. In the fowl infusion, the
grains are united into little clusters, which cover the sides of the
vessels, the liquid remaining clear as long as it is not shaken.
New observations were made upon a series of boils, in the case of a
man sent to Pasteur by Dr. Maurice Raynaud. The same parasite was
again found--a unique parasite, distinct from all others. At the
Hospital Lariboisière, a woman whose back was covered with boils,
offered another opportunity for experiment, and with the same result.
It appears certain, then, that every boil contains a microscopic
aerobic microbe, and that to it are due the local inflammation and the
consequent formation of pus.
When guinea-pigs or rabbits are inoculated with the cultivating
liquids, little abscesses are formed, which, however, quickly
disappear. As long as the cure of these little abscesses is not quite
completed, one can extract from them the microscopic organism which
has formed them. When the little parasite is sought for in the general
blood of those attacked with boils it is not found. The cause of this,
no doubt, is that an aerobic parasite has always some difficulty in
developing itself in the blood. The blood corpuscles appropriate, and
do not willingly give up to a foreign organism, the oxygen which they
require. There is a struggle for life, and in the struggle against the
boils the victory is not doubtful. It might be thought, then, that
the little organism of boils does not exist in the blood, but there
is no doubt that if, instead of a small drop of blood, one could put
several grammes or more into cultivation fruitful results would follow.
The little parasite is no doubt conveyed by the blood at one time or
other. It is transported from a boil, in the process of development, to
another point of the body, where it may be fortuitously arrested, there
to cultivate itself and form a new boil.
'It is to be wished,' said Pasteur, 'that a patient would submit to a
number of punctures on different parts of the body, distant from boils
already formed or in process of formation, and that with the blood thus
taken from the general circulation a multitude of cultivations might be
carried on. I am persuaded,' he added, 'that, among these cultivations,
we should find some fruitful in the little organism of the boils.'
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