National decline fears made republicans embrace Pasteur’s microbiology as security policy

Evidence

Although the implications of this discovery were initially resisted, by the 188o’s a constellation of circumstances predisposed several different interest groups to act upon Pasteur’s findings. Defeat in 1870 followed by the Paris Commune, continued outbreaks of cholera and typhoid, and a falling birthrate convinced many legislators that the nation was degenerating. The especially high number of doctors in republican ranks-doctors who were used to thinking of the nation (and of its decline) in medical terms-encouraged this perception. Microbiology offered scientific and objective solutions to what was increasingly perceived as a problem of national security. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 208

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the republican theme of regenerating a ‘degenerating’ nation, echoing the civilizing mission’s logic of national renewal applied to colonies.