Luck Favors The Mind That Is Prepared.

Science Advances Through Tentative Answers To A Series Of More And More Subtle Questions Which Reach Deeper And Deeper Into The Essence Of Natural Phenomena.

Virulence Appears In A New Light Which Cannot But Be Alarming To Humanity; Unless Nature, In Her Evolution Down The Ages (an Evolution Which, As We Now Know, Has Been Going On For Millions, Nay, Hundreds Of Millions Of Years), Has Finally Exhausted All The Possibilities Of Producing Virulent Or Contagious Diseases - Which Does Not Seem Very Likely.

In That Memorable Year, 1822: Oersted, A Danish Physicist, Held In His Hands A Piece Of Copper Wire, Joined By Its Extremities To The Two Poles Of A Volta Pile. On His Table Was A Magnetized Needle On Its Pivot, And He Suddenly Saw (by Chance You Will Say, But Chance Only Favours The Mind Which Is Prepared) The Needle Move And Take Up A Position Quite Different From The One Assigned To It By Terrestrial Magnetism. A Wire Carrying An Electric Current Deviates A Magnetized Needle From Its Position. That, Gentlemen, Was The Birth Of The Modern Telegraph.

No, There Is Now No Circumstance Known In Which It Can Be Affirmed That Microscopic Beings Came Into The World Without Germs, Without Parents Similar To Themselves. Those Who Affirm It Have Been Duped By Illusions, By Ill-conducted Experiments, Spoilt By Errors That They Either Did Not Perceive Or Did Not Know How To Avoid.

These Microscopic Organisms Form An Entire World Composed Of Species, Families And Varieties Whose History, Which Has Barely Begun To Be Written, Is Already Fertile In Prospects And Findings Of The Highest Importance. The Names Of These Organisms Are Very Numerous And Will Have To Be Defined And In Part Discarded. The Word Microbe Which Has The Advantage Of Being Shorter And Carrying A More General Meaning, And Of Having Been Approved By My Illustrious Friend, M. Littré, The Most Competent Linguist In France, Is One We Will Adopt.