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was also extremely aggressive in defending his faded. . . but here’s the mysterious thing: The The
interests, having destroyed several opponents occurrence of anthrax faded also. Today, it is symptoms
with manipulation and sharp rhetoric. a rare disease. So what was causing the death
The death of all the unvaccinated sheep is of so many animals, mostly sheep, during the of arsenic
easy to explain. Pasteur used “virulent anthrax”; nineteenth century, and why don’t sheep die of poisoning are
in other words, he poisoned them. What about anthrax today? remarkably
the vaccinated sheep—all of them—that lived? Let us consider sheep dip (a liquid prepa-
Did he inject them with “virulent anthrax” or ration for cleansing sheep of parasites). The similar to
merely anthrax, with which he had never suc- world’s first sheep dip—invented and produced those of
ceeded in killing any animals? As the French by George Wilson of Coldstream, Scotland in “anthrax,”
would say, “Il y avait quelque chose de louche.” 1830—was based on arsenic powder. One of
Something fishy was going on. the most successful brands was Cooper’s Dip, including the
After the trial, requests for supplies of his developed in 1852 by the British veterinary appearance
anthrax vaccines flooded surgeon and industrialist of black skin
Pasteur’s laboratory. The William Cooper. Cooper’s
laboratory soon acquired a dip contained arsenic pow- lesions.
monopoly on the manufac- der and sulfur. The powder
ture of commercial anthrax required mixing with wa-
vaccines, and Pasteur ag- ter, so naturally agricul-
gressively pursued foreign tural workers—let alone the
sales. Pasteur and his labo- sheep dipped in the arsenic
ratory enjoyed a net annual solution—were sometimes
profit of 130,000 francs poisoned.
from the sale of anthrax The symptoms of arse-
vaccines in the mid-1880s. nic poisoning are remark-
But Pasteur and also his as- ably similar to those of
sistants remained surpris- “anthrax,” including the
ingly reluctant to disclose appearance of black skin
any details about the type lesions. Like anthrax, arse-
of vaccine they used. nic can poison through skin
Soon problems arose, contact, through inhalation
furnishing another source and through the gastroin-
of suspicion that Pasteur had cheated—the testinal tract. If an injection contains arsenic, it
anthrax vaccine didn’t work. In Pasteur: Plagia- will cause a lesion at the site.
rist, Imposter!, author R.B. Pearson notes that Sheep dips today no longer contain arsenic,
Pasteur began to receive letters of complaint so anthrax has disappeared—except in develop-
from towns in France and from as far away as ing countries where it is still an ingredient in
Hungary, describing fields littered with dead industrial processes like tanning—hence the
sheep, vaccinated the day before. According 2008 death of the drum maker working with
3
to the Hungarian government, “the worst dis- imported animal skins. 1
eases, pneumonia, catarrhal fever, etc., have The real mystery is why scientists of the day
exclusively struck down the animals subjected did not make the connection between anthrax
to injection.” An 1882 trial carried out in Turin and arsenic. After all, the French knew a thing
found the vaccination worthless. In southern or two about arsenic. Every physician and phar-
Russia, anthrax vaccines killed 81 percent of macist stocked arsenic powder, and in Flaubert’s
the sheep that received them. 3 best-selling mid-century novel Madame Bovary,
his heroine kills herself by swallowing a handful
ARSENIC POISONING of arsenic. Flaubert graphically describes the
Gradually, use of the anthrax vaccine black lesions that mar the beautiful Madame

FALL 2020 Wise Traditions 29