Colin, however, returned to the subject, and at an Academy meeting of July 9 said somewhat insolently, “I wish we could have seen the bacteridia of that dead hen which M. Pasteur showed us without taking it out of its cage, and which he took away intact instead of making us witness the necropsy and microscopical examination.” “I will take no notice,” said Pasteur at the following meeting, “of the malevolent insinuations contained in that sentence, and only consider M. Colin’s desire to hold in his hands the body of a hen dead of anthrax, full of bacteridia. I will, therefore, ask M. Colin if he will accept such a hen under the following condition: the necropsy and microscopic examination shall be made by himself, in my presence, and in that of one of our colleagues of this Academy, designated by himself or by this Academy, and an official report shall be drawn up and signed by the persons present. So shall it be well and duly stated that M. Colin’s conclusions, in his paper of May 14, are null and void. The Academy will understand my insistence in rejecting M. Colin’s superficial contradictions. “I say it here with no sham modesty: I have always considered that my only right to a seat in this place is that given me by your great kindness, for I have no medical or veterinary knowledge. I therefore consider that I must be more scrupulously exact than any one else in the presentations which I have the honour to make to you; I should promptly lose all credit if I brought you erroneous or merely doubtful facts. If ever I am mistaken, a thing which may happen to the most scrupulous, it is because my good faith has been greatly surprised. “On the other hand, I have come amongst you with a programme to follow which demands accuracy at every step. I can tell you my programme in two words: I have sought for twenty years, and I am still seeking, spontaneous generation properly so called. “If God permit, I shall seek for twenty years and more the spontaneous generation of transmissible diseases. “In these difficult researches, whilst sternly deprecating frivolous contradiction, I only feel esteem and gratitude towards those who may warn me if I should be in error.” The Academy decided that the necropsy and microscopic examination of the dead hen which Pasteur was to bring to Colin should take place in the presence of a Commission composed of Pasteur, Colin, Davaine, Bouley, and Vulpian. This Commission met on the following Saturday, July 20, in the Council Chamber of the Academy of Medicine. M. Armand Moreau, a member of the Academy, joined the five members present, partly out of curiosity, and partly because he had special reasons for wishing to speak to Pasteur after the meeting.