One hundred years ago
M. Pasteur is really a competitor for the prize of £25,000 offered by New South Wales for the destruction of rabbits, and as a competitor has exported, it is stated, chicken cholera to that Colony, with agents to ensure its effectual use. He boasts that the microbe of chicken- cholera is harmless to all animals except birds and rabbits, and that he has fed sheep for a whole fortnight on veget- ables sprinkled with the germ of chicken-cholera without producing any ill-effects. A whole fortnight! Why, nothing is more certain than that the time during which a poison lies latent in the system differs enormously even from individual to individual of the same species, and much more, there- fore, it is reasonable to suppose, from one species to another. We have heard an eminent surgeon say that he believed the poison infused by the bite of a mad dog had remained latent in one indi- vidual for thirteen years, while in most cases it produces hydrophobia, if at all, in the course of a few months. M. Pasteur is an essentially rash man. We should not be in the least surprised to find that hq had killed more sheep, or even men, by the remoter consequences of his chicken-cholera than any epidemic had ever contrived to destroy. Exporting plague, warranted (by M. Pasteur) to harm only fowls and rabbits, is one of the most dangerous games at which even a French pathologist ever attempted to play.
The Spectator, 3 March 1888
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