This was a mild way of putting it; M. Le Fort’s words were, “That theory, in its applications to clinical surgery, is absolutely inacceptable.” For him, the original purulent infection, though coming from the wound, was born under the influence of general and local phenomena _within_ the patient, and not _outside_ him. He believed that the economy had the power, under various influences, to produce purulent infection. A septic poison was created, born spontaneously, which was afterwards carried to other patients by such medicines as the tools and bandages and the hands of the surgeon. But, originally, before the propagation of the contagium germ, a purulent infection was spontaneously produced and developed. And, in order to put his teaching into forcible words, M. Le Fort declared to the Académie de Médecine: “I believe in the _interiority_ of the principle of purulent infection in certain patients; that is why I oppose the extension to surgery of the germ theory which proclaims the constant _exteriority_ of that principle.” Pasteur rose, and with his firm, powerful voice, exclaimed: “Before the Academy accepts the conclusion of the paper we have just heard, before the application of the germ theory to pathology is condemned, I beg that I may be allowed to make a statement of the researches I am engaged in with the collaboration of Messrs. Joubert and Chamberland.” His impatience was so great that he formulated then and there some headings for the lecture he was preparing, propositions on septicæmia or putrid infection, on the septic vibrio itself, on the germs of that vibrio carried by wind in the shape of dust, or suspended in water, on the vitality of those germs, etc. He called attention to the mistakes which might be made if, in that new acquaintance with microbes, their morphologic aspect alone was taken account of. “The septic vibrio, for instance, varies so much in its shape, length and thickness, according to the media wherein it is cultivated, that one would think one was dealing with beings specifically distinct from each other.” It was on April 30, 1878, that Pasteur read that celebrated lecture on the germ theory, in his own name and in that of Messrs. Joubert and Chamberland. It began by a proud exordium: “All Sciences gain by mutual support. When, subsequently to my early communications on fermentations, in 1857--1858, it was admitted that ferments, properly so called, are living beings; that germs of microscopical organisms abound on the surface of all objects in the atmosphere and in water; that the hypothesis of spontaneous generation is a chimera; that wines, beer, vinegar, blood, urine and all the liquids of the economy are preserved from their common changes when in contact with pure air--Medicine and Surgery cast their eyes towards these new lights. A French physician, M. Davaine, made a first successful application of those principles to medicine in 1863.”