PASTEUR, (LOUIS) et (JULES) JOUBERT - A FOUNDING PAPER IN BACTERIOLOGY

Étude sur la maladie charbonneuse.

(Paris, Gauthier-Villars), 1877. 4to. No wrappers. In: "Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences", Tome 84, No 18. Pp. (895-) 970. (Entire issue offered). Pasteur & Joubert's paper: pp. 900-906.

First appearance of the paper in which Pasteur and Jouber persuasively established that Anthrax is caused by a living organism, beeing Pasteur's first paper on Anthrax and of fundamental importence for bacteriology.


"By greatly increasing the number of cultures (Koch had stopped at eight) and by using a much larger volume of cultural liquid each time, Pasteur diluted an initial drop of anthrax blood to the point of virtual disappearance. Nonetheless, each successive culture retained the original virulence. In his view this result persuasively established the dependence of anthrax on a living microorganism, for no other agent could have retained its power through so drastic a dilution. Only an agent which reproduced itself in each successive culture—almost certainly a living organism-could be responsible for the continued virulence of the original drop of blood."(DSB).

Garrison & Morton: 5168.

Order-nr.: 48137