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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

THE
LIFE OF PASTEUR

BY RENÉ VALLERY-RADOT

TRANSLATED FROM THE

FRENCH BY MRS. R. L.

DEVONSHIRE

VOL n

L*oetnrre de Pasteur est admirable } die montre son
génie, mais it fiut aToir vécu dans son intimité pour
connaître toute la bonté de son coeur.— Ds. Rom

NEW YORK

McCLURE, PHILLIPS AND CO

1902

V/2.7

BUTU» ft TAMMMt,

Thb Sblwood Printing Worki»
Fkoms, and London.

.3 :.' 1904

CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO

CHAPTER I

1873— 1877

Pastear elected to the Académie de Médecine, 4. General Condition
of Medicine, 5. Surgery before Pastear, 15. Influence of his
Work^ 18. Letter from Lister, 2a Debates at the Académie de
Médecine, 23 ; Sdence and Religion, 28. National Testimonial,
3a Pasteur a Candidate for the Senate, 33. Speech at the Milan
Congress ci Sériciculture, 35. Letter from Tyndall, 39. Dis-
cussion with Dr. Bastian, 41.

CHAPTER II

1877— 1879

Charbon, or Splenic Fever, 45; Pasteur studies it, 48. Traditional
Medicine and Pastorian Doctrines, 53. Progress of Suigery, 57.
The word Microbe invented, 57 ; renewed Attacks against Pasteur,
59. Charbon given to Hens— experiment before the Académie
de Médecine^ 6a Pasteur's Note on the Germ Theory, 64.
Campaign of Researches on Charbon, 68. Critical Examination
of a posthumous Note by Claude Bernard, 76. Pasteur in the
Hospitals, 86 ; Puerperal Fever, B7,

CHAPTER III

1 880—1882

Chicken Cholera, 97. Attenuation of the Virus, loa Suggested Re-
searches on the bubonic Plague, 103. The Share of Earthworms
in the Development of Charbon, 106 ; an Incident at the Acadânie
de Médedne^ 1 13. The Vaccine of Charbon, 1 16 ; public Experiment
at PoniUy le Fort on the Vaccination of Sftoiic Fever, 123. First

CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO

Experiments on Hydrophobia, 125. Death of Sainte-Claire
Deville, 136 ; Pasteur's Speech, 137. Pasteur at the London
Medical Congress, 139 ; Virchow and Antivivisection, 143. Yellow
Fever, 150; Pasteur at Pauillac, 151.

CHAPTER IV
1882— 1884

Pasteur elected a Member of the Académie Française, 155 ; his Opinions
on Positivism, 157 ; J. B. Dumas and Nisard, his Sponsors, 159 ;
Pasteur welcomed by Renan into the Académie Française, 161.
Homage from Melun, from Aubenas, 167 ; Pasteur at N£mes and
at Montpellier, 171. Speech of J. B. Dumas^ 173 ; Pasteur's Answer,
174. Pasteur at the Geneva Conference of Hygiene, 177. Studies
on the Rouget of Pigs— Journey to Bollène^ 180. Typhoid Fever and
the Champions of old Medical Methods,i85. Pasteur and the Turin
Veterinary School, 190. Marks of Gratitude from Agriculturists,
196; Pasteur at Aurillac, 197. Another Testimonial of national
Gratitude, 199 ; a commemorative Plate on the House where Pasteur
was bom, 201 ; his Speech at the Ceremony, 202. Cholera, 204 ;
French Mission to Alexandria, 305. Death of Thuillier, 207.
J. B. Dumas' last Letter to Pasteup 211. Third Centenary of
the University of Edinburgh— the French Delegation, 212 ;
<h«tkxi to Pasteor, 214 ; Fatteuz's Speech, 215.

CHAPTER V
1884— 1885

The Hydrq^hobia Probkn^ 219 ; preventive Inoculations on Dogs, 226.
Experiments on Hydrophobia verified by a Commissioni 227* The
Copenhagen Medical Congress, Pasteur in Denmark, 231. In-
stallation at Villeneuve TEtang of a Branch Establishment of
Pasteur's Laboratory, 24a Former Remedies against Hydrophobia,
241. Kenneb at Villeneuve TEtang, 245.

CHAPTER VI

1885—1888

Fim Anttcabic Inoculation on llaii, 249 ; the litHe Alsatian Boy, Joseph

▼i

CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO

Mdstery 251. Pastetir at Arbois ; his Speech for the Wekome of
Joseph Bertrand, succeeding J. B. Damas at the Académie Fraoçaûse,
255. Perraod the Sculptor, 258. Inoculation of the Shepherd
JupiUe, 259 ; the Discovery of the Preventive Treatment of Rabies
announced to the Académie des Sciences and the Académie de
Médecine, 26a Death of Louise Pelletier, 265 ; Pasteur's Solici-
tude for inoculated Patients, 266. Foundation of the Pasteur
Institute, 268 ; the Russians from Smolensk, 269 ; English Commis-
sion for the Verification of the Inoculations against Hydrophobia,
271, Fete at the Trocadéro, 272. Temporary Buildings in the rue
Vauqudin for the Treatment of Hydrophobia, 273. Ill-health of
Pasteur, 275 ; his Stay at Bordighera, 276. Foundation of the
Annals of the Pasteur Institute, 277. Discussions on Rabies at the
Académie de Médecine^ 277. Earthquake at Bordighera, 279.
Pasteur returns to France, 28a Rq|)ort of the English Commission
on the Treatment of Rabies, 28a Pasteur elected Permanent
Secretary of the Académie des Sciences, 282 ; his Resignation, 283.
Inauguration of the Pasteur Institute, 284.

CHAPTER VII
1888— 1895

Influence of Pasteur's Labours, 290; his Jubilee, 293; Speech, 296.
Pasteur's Name given to a District in Canada and to a Village in
Algeria, 298. Diphtheria, M. Roux* Studies in Sero-Then^y, 300 ;
Pasteur at Lille. Lecture by M. Rous on Sero-Therapy, 304;
repeated at the Buda-Pesth Congress, 305. Subscription for the
Oiganization of the Antidiphtheritic Treatment, 305. Pasteur's
Disciples, 306. Pasteur's Illness, 307 ; Visit from Alexandre Dumas,
309; Visit from former Ecole Normale Students, 310. Pasteur
refuses a German Decoration, 311. Conversations with Chappuis,
312. Departure for Villeneuve PEtang, 313 ; last Weeks, 314.
Project for a Pasteur Hospital, 314. Death of Pasteur 315.

Thb End.

} Î-.

. : ... 1904 i

CHAPTER I

1873-1877

PASTEUR had glimpses of another world beyond the
phenomena of fermentation — ^the world of virus
ferments. Two centuries earlier, an English physicist,
Robert Boyle, had said that he who could probe to the
bottom the nature of ferments and fermentation would
probably be more capable than any one of explaining
certain morbid phenomena. These words often recurred
to the mind of Pasteur, who had, concerning the problem
of contagious diseases, those sudden flashes of light wherein
genius is revealed. But, ever insisting on experimental
proofs, he constrained his exalted imagination so as to
follow calmly and patiently the road of experimental
method. He could not bear the slightest error, or even
hasty interpretation, in the praises addressed to him. One
day, during the period of the most ardent polemics, in the
nudst of the struggle on q)ontaneous generation, a medical
man named Déclat, who declared that Pasteur's experi-
ments were " the glory of our century and the salvation of
future generations," gave a lecture on '' The Infinitesimally
Small and their Rôle in the World." " After the lecture,"
relates Dr. Déclat himself, '^ M. Pastetur, whom I only knew
by name, came to me, and, after the usual compliments,
condemned the inductions I had drawn from his experi-
ments. ^ The arguments,' he said, ^ by which you support

VOL. II. I fi

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

my theories, are most ingenious, but not founded on
demonstrated facts; analogy is no proof.*"

Pasteur used to speak very modestly of his work. He
said, in a speech to some Arbois students, that it was
'' through assiduous work, with no special gift but that of
perseverance joined to an attraction towards all that is
great and good," that he had met with success in his
researches. He did not add that an ardent kindness of
heart was ever urging him forward. After the services
rendered within the last ten years to vin^ar makers, silk-
worm cultivators, vine growers, and brewers, he now
wished to tackle what he had had in his mind since 1861 —
the study of contagious diseases. Thus, with the consis-
tent Ic^c of his mind, showing him as it did the pos-
sibility of realizing in the future Robert Boyle's prophecy,
he associated the secret power of his feelings; not to
give those feelings their share would be to leave one side
of his nature entirely in the shade. He had himself re-
vealed this great factor in his character when he had
said, '^ It would indeed be a grand thing to give the heart
its share in the progress of science." He was ever giving
it a greater share in his work.

His sorrows had only made him incline the more towards
the griefs of others. The memory of the children he had
lost, the mournings he had witnessed, caused him to
passionately desire that there might be fewer empty places
in desolate homes, and that this might be due to the applica-
tipn of methods derived from his discoveries, of which he
foresaw the inunense bearings on pathology. Beyond this,
patriotism being for him a ruling motive, he thought of the
thousands of young men lost to France every year, victims
of the tiny germs of murderous diseases. And, at the thought
of epidemics and the heavy tax they levy on the whole
world, his compassion extended itself to all human suffering.

I873-I877

He regretted that he was not a medical man, fancying
that it might have facilitated his task. It was true that,
at every incursion on the domain of Medicine, he was
looked upon as a chemist — a chynUaster^ some said — ^who
was poaching on the preserves of others. The distrust
felt by the physicians in the chemists was of a long stand-
ing. In the Traité de Thérapeuiique^ published in 1855 by
Trousseau and Pidoux, we find this passage: ''When a
chemist has seen the chemical conditions of respiration, of
digestion, or of the action of some drug, he thinks he has
given the theory of those functions and phenomena. It is
ever the same delusion which chemists will never get over.
We must make up our minds to that, but let us beware of
trjring to profit by the precious researches which they
would probably never undertake if they were not stimu-
lated by the ambition of explaining what is outside their
range." Pidoux never retrenched anything from two other
phrases, also to be found in that same treatise : '' Between
a phy^ological fact and a pathological fact there is the
same difference as between a mineral and a vegetable";
and : '* It is not within the power of jdiysiology to explain
the simplest pathological affection.** Trousseau, on the
other hand, was endowed with the far-seeing intelligence
of a great physician attentive to the progress of science.
He was greatly interested in Pasteur's work, and fully ap-
preciated^the possibilities opened by each of his discoveries.

Pasteur, with the simplicity which contrasted with his
extraordinary powers, supposed that, if he were armed with
diplomas, he woukl have greater authority to direct Medi-
cine towards the study of the conditions of existence of
phenomena, and--correlatively to the traditional method of
observation, which consists in knowing and describing
exactly the course of the disease — ^to inspire practitioners
with the desire to prevent and to determine its cause. An

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

unexpected offer went some way towards filling what he
considered as a blank. At the b^inning of the year 1873,
a place was vacant in the section of the Free Associates of
the Academy of Medicine. He was asked to stand for it,
and hastened to accept. He was elected with a majority
of only one vote, though he had been first on the section's
list The other suffrages were divided between Messrs.
Le Roy de Méricourt, Brochin, Lhéritier, and Bertillon.

Pasteur, as soon as he was elected, promised himself that
he would be a most punctual academician. It was on a
Tuesday in April that he attended his first meeting. As
he walked towards the desk allotted to him, his paralyzed
left leg dragging a little, no one among his colleagues
suspected that this quiet and unassuming new member
would become the greatest revolutionary ever known in
Medicine.

One thing added to Pasteur's pleasure in being elected —
the fact that he would join Claude Bernard. The latter
had often felt somewhat forlorn in that centre, where some
hostility was so often to be seen towards all that was
outside the Clinic. This was the time when the " princes
of science," or those who were considered as such, were all
physicians. Every great physician was conscious of being
a ruling power. The almost daily habit of advising and
counselling was added to that idea of haughty or benevolent
superiority to the rest of the world; and, accustomed to
dictate his wishes, the physician frequently adopted an
authoritative tone and became a sort of personage. " Have
you noticed," said Claude Bernard to Pasteur with a smile
imder which many feelings were hidden, "that, when a
doctor enters a room, he always looks as if he was going to
say, * I have just been saving a fellow-man ' ? "

Pasteur knew not those harmless shafts which are a
revenge for prolonged pomposity. Why need Claude

I873-I877

Bernard trouble to wonder what So-and-so might think?
He had the consciousness of the work accomplished and the
esteem and admiration of men whose suffrage more than
satisfied him. Whilst Pasteur was already desirous of
spreading in the Académie de Médecine the faith which
inspired him, Claude Bernard remembered the refrac-
tory state of mind of those who, at the time of his first
lectures on experimental physiology applied to medicine,
afiSrmed that ^^ physiolc^y can be of no practical use in
medicine ; it is but a science de luxe which could well be
dispensed with." He energetically defended this science de
luxe as the very science of life. In his opening lecture at
the Museum in 1870, he said that '' descriptive anatomy is
to physiology as geography to history; and, as it is not
sufficient to understand the topography of a country to
know its history, so is it not enough to know the anatomy
of an organ to understand its functions." Méry, an old
surgeon, familiarly compared anatomists to those errand
boys in large towns, who know the names of the streets
and the numbers of the houses, but do not know what goes
on insicte. There are indeed in tissues and organs physico-
chemical phenomena for which anatomy cannot account.

Claude Bernard was convinced that Medicine would grad-
ually emerge from quackery, and this by means of the
experimental method, like all other science. ^' No doubt,"
he said, '' we shall not live to see the blossoming out of
scientific medicine, but such is the fate of humanity ; those
that sow on the field <^ science are not destined to reap the
fruit of their labours." And so saying, Claude Bernard
continued to sow.

It is true that here and there flashes of light had preceded
Pasteur ; Imt, instead of being guided by them, most doctors
continued to advance majestically in the midst of darkness.
Whenever murderous diseases, scourges of humanity, were

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

in question, long French or Latin words were pat forward,
such as ''Epidemic genius/' fatum^ quid igttatum quid
divinufHy etc. Medical constitution was also a useful word,
elastic and applicable to anything.

When the Val de Grâce physician, Villemin-— a modest,
gentle-voiced man, who, under his quiet exterior, hid a
veritable thirst for scientific truth — after experimental
researches carried on from 1865 to 1869, brought the proof
that tuberculosis is a disease which reproduces itself, and
cannot be reproduced but by itself; in a word, specific,
inoculable, and contagious, he was treated almost as a
perturber of medical order.

Dr. Pidoux, an ideal representative of traditional medi*
cine, with his gold-buttoned blue coat and his reputation
equally great in Paris and at the Eaux-Bonnes, declared
that the idea of specificity was a fatal thought Himself a
pillar of the doctrine of diathesis and of the morbid spon-
taneity of the organism, he exclaimed in some much
applauded speeches: '' Tuberculosis I but that is the com-
mon result of a quantity of divers external and internal
causes, not the product of a specific agent ever the same ! "
Was not this disease to be looked upon as '' one and multi-
ple at the same time, bringing the same final conclusion,
the necrobiotic and infecting destruction of the plasmatic
tissue of an organ by a ntunber of roads which the hygien-
ist and physician must endeavour to close." Where would
these specificity doctrines lead to? "Applied to chronic
diseases, these doctrines condemn us to the research of
specific remedies or vaccines, and all progress is arrested.
. . . Specificity immobilizes medicine." These phrases
were reproduced by the medical press.

The bacillus of tuberculosis had not been discovered by
Villemin ; it was only found and isolated much later, in
1882, by Dr. Koch ; but Villemin suspected the existence

I873-I877

of a virus. In order to demonstrate the infectious nature
of tuberculosis, he experimented on animals, multipljring
inoculations ; he took the sputum of tuberculous patients,
spread it on cotton wool, dried it, and then made the cotton
wool into a bed for little guinea-pigs, who became tuber-
culous. Pidoux answered these precise facts by declaring
that Villemin was fascinated by inoculation, adding ironi-
cally, ^' Then all we doctors have to do is to set out nets
to catch the sporules of tuberculosis, and find a vaccine."

That sudden theory of phthisis, falling from the clouds,
resembled Pasteur's theory of germs floating in air. Was
it not better, urged Pidoux the heterogenist, to remain in
the truer and more philosophical doctrine of spontaneous
generation ? " Let us believe, until the contrary is proved,
that we are right, we partisans of the common etiology of
phthisis, partisans of the spontaneous tuberculous degenera-
tion of the organism under the influence of accessible
causes, which we seek everywhere in order to cut down the
evil in its roots."

A reception somewhat similar to that given to Villemin
was reserved for Davaine, who, having meditated on
Pasteur's works on butyric ferment and the part played by
that ferment, compared it and its action with certain para-
sites visible with a microscope and observed by him in
the blood of animals which had died of charbon disease.
By its action and its rapid multiplication in the blood, this
agent endowed with life probably acted, said Davaine, after
the manner of ferments. The blood was modified to that
extent that it speedily brought about the death of the
infected animal. Davaine called those filaments found in
anthrax '^ bacteria," and added, '' They have a place in the
classification of living beings." But what was that ani-
mated virus to many doctors? They answered experi-
mental proofs by oratorical arguments.

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

At the very time when Pasteur tock his seat at the
Academy of Medicine, Davaine was being violently at-
tacked ; his experiments on septicaemia were the cause, or
the pretext But the mere tone of the discussions prepared
Pasteur for future battles. The theory of germs, the
doctrine of virus ferments, all this was considered as a
complete reversal of acquired notions, a heresy which had
to be suppressed. A well known surgeon, Dr. Chassaignac,
spoke before the Académie de Médecine of what he called
" laboratory sui^ery, which has destroyed very many
animals and saved very few human beings." In order to
remind experimentalists of the distance between them and
practitioners, he added: ''Laboratory results should be
ta-ought out in a circumspect, modest and reserved manna*,
as long as they have not been sanctioned by long clinical
researches, a sanction without which there is no real and
practical medical science." Everything, he said, could not
be resolved into a question of bacteria I And, ironically,
far from realizing the truth of his sarcastic prophecy, he
excl^dmed, ''Typhoid fever, bacterization I Hospital mi-
asma, bacterization I "

Every one had a word to say. Dr. Piorry, an octoge-
narian, somewhat weighed down with the burden of his
years and reputation, rose to speak with his accustomed
solemnity. He had found for Villemin's experiments the
simple explanation that " the tuberculous matter seems to
be no other than pus, which, in consequence of its sojourn
in the organs, has undergone varied and numerous modifi-
cations " ; and he now imagined that one of the principal
causes of fatal accidents due to septicaemia after surgical
operations was the imperfect ventilation of hospital wards.
It was enough, he thought, that putrid odours should not be
perceptiWe, for the rate of mortality to be decreased.

It was then affirmed that putrid infection was not an

I 873-1 877

organized ferment, that inferior organisms had in them-
selves no toxic action, in fact, that they were the result
and not the cause of putrid alteration; whereupon Dr.
Bouillaud, a contemporary of Dr. Piorry, called upon their
new colleague to give his opinion on the subject.

It would have been an act of graceful welcome to Pasteur,
and a fitting homage to the memory of the celebrated
Trousseau, who had died five years before, in 1867, if any
member present had then quoted one of the great practi-
tioner's last lectures at the Hôtel Dieu, wherein he predicted
a future for Pasteur's works:

^' The great theory of ferments is therefore now connected
with an organic function ; every ferment is a germ, the life
of which is manifested by a special secretion. It may be
that it is so for morbid viruses; they may be ferments,
which, deposited within the oi^nism at a given moment
and under determined circumstances, manifest themselves
by divers products. So will the variolous ferment produce
variolic fermentation, giving birth to thousands of pustules,
and likewise the virus of glanders, that of sheep pox,

*' Other viruses appear to act locally, but, nevertheless,
they ultimately modify the whole organism, as do gan-
grene, malignant pustula, contagious erysipelas, etc. May
it not be supposed, under such circumstances, that the
ferment or organized matter of thpse viruses can be carried
about by the lancet, the atmosphere or the linen ban-
dages?"

But it occurred to no one in the Academy to quote those
forgotten words.

Pasteur, answering Bouillaud, recalled his own researches
on lactic and butyric fermentations and spoke of his studies
on beer. He stated that the alteration of beer was due to
the presence of filiform organisms ; if beer becomes altered,

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

it is because it contains germs of organized ferments.
<< The correlation is certain, indisputable, between the dis-
ease and the presence of organisms." He spoke those last
words with so much emphasis that the stenographer
who was taking down the extempore speeches underlined
them.

A few months later, on November 17, 1873, he read to
the Academy a paper containing further developments of
his principles. ^' In order that beer should become altered
and become sour, putrid, slimy, ' ropy,' acid or lactic, it is
necessary that foreign organisms should develop within it,
and those organisms only appear and multiply when those
germs are already extant in the liquid mass." It is possible
to oppose the introduction of those germs ; Pasteur drew on
die blackboard the diagram of an apparatus which only
communicated with the outer air by means of tubes ful*
filling the office of the sinuous necks of the glass vessels he
had used for his experiments on so-called spontaneous
generations. He entered into every detail, demonstrating
that as long as pure yeast alone had been sown, the security
was absolute. '* That which has been put forward on the
subject of a possible transformation of yeast into bacteria,
vibriones, mycoderma aceti and vulgar mucors, or vice
versa, is mistaken."

He wrote in a private letter on the subject: "These
simple and dear results have cost me many sleepless nights
before presenting themselves before me in die precise form
I have now given them."

But his own conviction had not yet penetrated the minds
of his adversaries, and M. Trécul was still supporting his
hypothesis of transformations, the so-called proofs 01
which, according to Pasteur, rested on a basis of confused
facts tainted with involuntary errors due to imperfect
experiments.

I873-I877

In December, 1873, ^t a sitting of the Academy, he pre-
sented M. Trécol with a few little flagons, in which he had
sown some pure seed of pénicillium glaucum^ begging him
to accept them and to observe them at his leisure, assuring
him that it would be impossible to find a trace of any
transformation of the spores into yeast cells.

^^ When M. Trécul has finished the little task which I am
soliciting of his ctevotion to the knowledge of truth," con-
tinued Pasteur, *^ I shall give him the elements of a similar
work on the n^oderma vini ; in other words, I shall bring
to M. Trécul some absolutely pure mycodemta vini with
which he can reproduce his former experiments and
reo^nize the eicactness of the facts which I have lately
announced/'

Pasteur concluded thus : *' The Academy will allow me to
make one last remark. It must be owned that my con-
tradictors have been peculiarly unlucky in taking the
occasion of my paper on the diseases of beer to renew this
discussion. How is it they did not understand that my
process for the fabrication of inalterable beer could not
exist if beer wort in contact with air could present all the
transformations of which they speak ? And that work on
beer, entirely founded as it is on the discovery and know-
ledge of some microscopic beings, has it not followed my
studies on vinegar, on the mycoderma aceti and on die new
process of acetification which I have invented ? Has not
that work been followed by my studies on the causes of
wine diseases and the means 01 preventing them, still
founded on the discovery and knowledge of non-spontaneous
microscopic beings? Have not these last researches been
followed by the discovery of means to prevent the silk-
worm disease, equally deducted from the study of non-
spontaneous microscopic beings ?

*' Are not all the researches I have pursued for seventeen

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

years, at the cost of many efforts» the product of the same
ideas, the same principles, pushed by incessant toil into
consequences ever new î The best proof that an observer
is in the right track lies in the uninterrupted fruitfulness
ofhisworkc"

This fruitfulness was evidenced, not only by Pasteur's
personal labours, but by those he inspired and encouraged.
Thus, in that same period, M. Gayon, a former student of
the Ecole Normale, whom he had chosen as curator, started
oa some researches on the alteration of ^gs. He stated
that when an ^g is stale, rotten, this is due to the presence
and multiplication of infinitesimally small beings; the germs
of those organisms and the organisms themselves come
from the oviduct of the hen and penetrate even into the
points where the shell membrane and the albumen are
formed. " The result is," concluded M. Gayon, " that, during
the formation of those various elements, the egg may or may
not, according to circumstances, gather up organisms or
germs of organisms, and consequently bear within itself,
as soon as it is laid, the cause of ulterior alterations. It
will be seen at the same time that the number of eggs
susceptible of alteration may vary from one hen to another,
as well as between the ^gs of one hen, for the organisms
to be observed on the oviduct r.ise to variable heights."

If the organisms which alter the eggs and cause them to
rot " were formed," said Pasteur, " by the spontaneous self-
organization of the matter within the egg into those small
beings, all eggs should putrefy eqxially, whereas they do
not" At the end of M. Gayon's thesis — which had not
taken so long as Raulin's to prepare, only three years — we
find the following conclusion: *' Putrefaction in eggs is
correlative with the development and multiplication o(
beings which are bacteria when in contact with air and
vibriones when away from the contact of air. Eggs, from

I 873-1 877

that point of view, do not depart from the general law
discovered by M. Pasteur."

Pasteur's influence was now spreading beyond the Labora-
tory of Physiological Chemistry, as the small laboratory at
the Ecole Normale was called.

In the treatise he had published in 1862, criticising
the doctrine of spontaneous generation, he had mentioned
among the organisms produced by urine in putrefac-
tion, the existence of a torulacea in very small-grained
chaplets. A physician, Dr. Traube, in 1864, had demon-
strated that Pasteur was right in thinking that ammoni-
acal fermentation was due to this torulacea, whose proper-
ties were afterwards studied with infinite care by M. Van
Tieghem, a former student of the Ecole Normale, who had
inspired Pasteur with a deep affection. Pasteur, in his
turn, completed his own observations and assured himself
that this little organized ferment was to be found in every
case of ammoniacal urine. Finally, after proving that
boracic acid impeded the development of that ammoniacal
ferment, he suggested to M. Guyon, the celebrated surgeon,
the use of boracic acid for washing out the bladder ; M.
Guyon put the advice into practice with success, and attri-
buted the credit of it to Pasteur.

In a lett&r written at the end of 1873, Pasteur wrote:
'^ How I wish I had enough health and sufficient knowledge
to throw myself body and soul into the experimental study
cf one of our infectious diseases ! "^ He considered that his
studies on fermentations would lead him in that direction ;
he thought that when it should be made evident that every
serious alteration in beer was due to the micro-organisms
which find in that liquid a medium favourable to their
development, when it should be seen that — in contradiction
to the old ideas by which those alterations are looked upon
as spontaneous, inherent in those liquids, and depending on

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

their nature and composition — the cause of those diseases
is not interior but exterior, then would indeed be defeated
the doctrine of men like Pidoux, who, à propos of diseases,
said : " Disease is in us, of us, by us," and who, à propos oi
small-pox, even said that he was not certain that it could
only proceed from inoculation and contagion.

Though the majority of physicians and surgeons con-
sidered that it was waste of time to listen to ''a mere
chemist," there was a small group of yoimg men, under-
graduates, who, in their thirst for knowledge, assembled at
the Académie de Médecine every Tuesday, hoping that Pas-
teur might bring out one of his communications concerning
a scientific method *' which resolves each difficulty by an
easily interpreted experiment, delightful to the mind, and
at the same time so decisive that it is as satisfying as a
geometrical demonstration, and gives an impression of
security."

Those words were written by one of those who came to
the Académie sittings, feeling that they were on the eve of
some great revelations. He was a clinical assistant of Dr^
Béhier's, and, busy as he was with medical analysis, he was
going over Pasteur's experiments on fermentations for his
own edification. He was delighted with the sureness of
the Pastorian methods, and was impatient to continue the
struggle now begun. Enthusiasm was evinced in his bril-
liant eyes, in the timbre of his voice, clear, incisive, slightly
imperious perhaps, and in his implacable desire for logic.
Of solitary habits, with no ambition for distinction or
degrees, he worked unceasingly for sheer love of science.
The greatest desire of that young man of twenty-one, quite
unknown to Pasteur, was to be one day admitted, in the
very humblest rank, to the Ecole Normale laboratory. His
name was Roux.

Was not that medical student, that disciple lost in the

I873-I877

crowd, an image of the new generation hungering for new
ideas, more convinced than the preceding one had been of the
necessity of proofs ? Struck by the unstable basis of medical
theories, those yoimg men divined that the secret of progress
in hospitals was to be found in the laboratories. Medicine
and surgery in those days were such a contrast to what
they are now that it seems as if centuries divided them.
No doubt one day some professor, some medical historian,
will give us a full account of that vast and immense pro-
gress. But, whilst awaiting a fully competent work of that
kind, it is possible, even in a book such as this (which is,
from many causes, but a hasty epitome of many very diflferent
things spread over a very simple biography), to give to a
reader unfamiliar with such studies a certain idea of one of
the most interesting chapters in the history of civilization,
affecting the preservation of innumerable human lives.

'' A pin prick is a door open to Death," said the surgeon
Velpeau. That open door widened before the smallest oper-
ation; the lancing of an abcess or a whitlow sometimes
had such serious consequences that surgeons hesitated
before the slightest use of the bistoury. It was much
worse when a great surgical intervention was necessary,
though, through the irony of things, the immediate success
of the most difficult operations was now guaranteed by the
pn^^ess of skill and the precious discovery of anaesthesia.
The patient, his will and consciousness suspended, awoke
from the most terrible operation as from a dream. But at
that very moment when the surgeon's art was emboldened
by being able to disregard pain, it was arrested, disconcerted,
and terrified by the fatal failures which supervened after
almost every operation. The words pyaemia, gangrene,
erysipelas, septicaemia, purulent infection, were bywords in
those days.

In the face of those terrible consequences, it had been

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

thought better, about forty years ago, to discourage and
even to prohibit a certain operation, then recently invented
and practised in England and America, ovariotomy, " even,"
said Velpeau, " if the reported cures be true." In order
to express the terror inspired by ovariotomy, a physician
went so far as to say that it should be '^ classed among the
attributes of the executioner."

As it was supposed that the infected air of the hospitals
might be the cause of the invariably fatal results of that
operation, the Assistance Publique ^ hired an isolated house
in the Avenue de Meudon, near Paris, a salubrious spot
In 1863, ten women in succession were sent to that house ;
the neighbouring inhabitants watched those ten patients
entering the house, and a short time afterwards their ten
coffins being taken away. In their terrified ignorance they
called that house the House of Crime.

Surgeons were asking themselves whether they did not
carry death with them, unconsciously scattering virus and
subtle poisons.

Since the b^inning of the nineteenth century, surgery
had positively retrograded ; the mortality after operations
was infinitely less in the preceding centuries, because anti-
sepsis was practised unknowingly, through cauterizations
by fire, boiling liquids and disinfecting substances. In a
popular handbook published in 1749, and entitled Medicine
and Surgery for the Poor^ we read that wounds should be
kept from the contact of air ; it was also recommended not
to touch the wound with fingers or instruments. "It is
very salutary, when uncovering the wound in order to dress
it, to begin by applying over its whole surface a piece of
cloth dipped into hot wine or brandy." Good results had
been obtained by the great surgeon Larrey, under the first

^ Assistance Publique^ official oiganization of the charitable works
supported by the State. [Trans.]

I873-I877

Empire, by hot oil, hot brandy, and unfrequent dressings.
But, under the influence of Broussais, the theory of inflam-
mation catised a retr<^^ression in surgery. Then came forth
basins for making poultices, packets of charpie (usually
made of old hospital sheets merely washed), and rows of
pots of ointment It is true that, during the second half of
the last century, a few attempts were made to renew the
use of alcoholized water for dressings. In 1868, at the
time when the mortality after amputation in hospitals was
over sixty per cent, Surgeon Léon Le Fort banished
sponges, exacted from his students scrupulous cleanliness
and constant washing of hands and instruments before
every operation, and employed alcoholized water for dress-
ings. But though he obtained such satisfactory results as
to lower, in his wards at the Hôpital Cochin, the average of
mortality after amputations to twenty-four per cent., his
colleagues were very far from suspecting that the first
secret for preventing fatal results after operations consisted
in a reform of the dressings.

Those who visited an ambulance ward during the war of
1870, especially those who were medical students, have pre-
served such a recollection of the sight that they do not, even
now, care to speak about it. It was perpetual agony, the
wounds of all the patients were suppurating, a horrible fetor
pervaded the place, and infectious septicaemia was every-
where. "Pus seemed to germinate everywhere," said a
student of that time (M. Landouzy, who became a professor
at the Faculty of Medicine), " as if it had been sown by the
stu^eon." M. Landouzy also recalled the words of M. De-
nonvilliers, a surgeon of the Charité Hospital, whom he calls
<'a splendid operator, ... a virtuoso, and a dilettante in the
art of operating," who said to his pupils: " When an amputa-
tion seems necessary, think ten times about it, for too often,
when we decide upon an operation, we sign the patient's

VOL. II. 17 c

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

death-warrant." Another surgeon, who must have been
profoundly discouraged in spite of his youthful energy,
M. Vemeuil, exclaimed : " There were no longer any pre-
cise indications, any rational previsions ; nothing was suc-
cessful, neither abstention, conservation, restricted or radical
mutilation, early or postponed extraction of the bullets,
dressings rare or frequent, emollient or excitant, dry or
moist, with or without drainage; we tried everything in
vain!" During the si^e of Paris, in the Grand Hôtel,
which had been turned into an ambulance, Nélaton, in
despair at the sight of the death of almost every patient
who had been operated on, declared that he who should
conquer purulent infection would deserve a golden statue.

It was only at the end of the war that it occurred to
Alphonse Guérin— (who to his intense irritation was so
often confounded with another surgeon, his namesake and
opponent, Jules Guérin) — ^that " the cause of purulent infec-
tion may perhaps be due to the germs or ferments dis-
covered by Pasteur to exist in the air." Alphonse Guérin
saw, in malarial fever, emanations of putrefied v^fetable
matter, and, in purulent infection, animal emanations,
septic, and capable of causing death.

" I thought more firmly than ever," he declared, " that
the miasms emanating from the pus of the wounded were
the real cause of this frightful disease, to which I had the
sorrow of seeing the wounded succumb— whether their
wounds were dressed with charpie and cerate or with
alcoholized and carbolic lotions, either renewed several times
a day or impregnating linen bandages which remained
applied to the wounds. In my despair— ever seeking some
means of preventing these terrible complications — I be-
thought me that the miasms, whose existence I admitted,
because I could not otherwise explain the production of
purulent infection — and which were only known to me by

I873-I877

their deleterious influence — might well be living corpuscles,
of the kind which Pasteur had seen in atmospheric air, and,
from that moment, the history of miasmatic poisoning
became clearer to me. If,*' I said, <' miasms are ferments,
I might protect the wounded from their fatal influence by
filtering the air, as Pasteur did. I then conceived the idea
of cotton- wool dressings, and I had the satisfaction of seeing
my anticipations realized."

After arresting the bleeding, ligaturing the blood vessels
and carefully washing the wound with carbolic solution or
camphorated alcohol, Alphonse Guérin applied thin layers
of cotton wool, over which he placed thicker masses of the
same, binding the whole with strong bandages of new linen.
This dressing looked like a voluminous parcel and did not
require to be removed for about twenty days. This was
done at the St. Lx>uis Hospital to the wounded of the Com-
mune from March till June, 1871. Other surgeons learnt
with amazement that, out of thirty-four patients treated in
that way, nineteen had survived operation. Dr. Reclus,
who could not bring himself to believe it, said : *' We had
grown to look upon purulent infection as upon an inevitable
and necessary disease, an almost Divinely instituted con-
sequence of any important operation."

There is a much greater danger than that of atmospheric
germs, that of the contagium germ, of which the surgeon's
hands, sponges and tools are the receptacle, if minute and
infinite precautions are not taken against it. Such pre-
cautions were not even thought of in those days ; charpie,
odious charpie, was left lying about on hospital £uid
ambulance tables, in contact with dirty vessels. It had,
therefore, been sufficient to institute careful washing ol the
wounds, £uid especially to reduce the frequency of dress-
sings, and so diminish the chances of infection to obtain —
thanks to a reform inspired by Pasteur's labours — this

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precious and unexpected remedy to fatalities subsequent to
operations. In 1873, Alphonse Guérin, now a surgeon at
the Hôtel Dieu, submitted to Pasteur all the facts which
had taken place at the hospital St. Louis, where surgery
was more '* active/' he said, than at the Hôtel Dieu ; he
asked him to come and see his cotton-wool dressings, and
Pasteur gladly hastened to accept the invitation. It was
with much pleasure that Pasteur entered upon this new
period of visits to hospitals and practical discussions with
his colleagues of the Académie de Médecine. His joy at
the thought that he had been the means of awakening in
other minds ideas likely to lead to the good of humanity
was increased by the following letter from Lister, dated
from Edinburgh, February 13, 1874, which is here repro-
duced in the original —

" My dear Sir — ^allow me to beg your acceptance of a
pamphlet, which I send by the same post, containing an
account of some investigations into the subject which you
have done so much to elucidate, the germ theory of fer-
mentative changes. I flatter myself that you may read
with some interest what I have written on the organism
which you were the first to describe in your Mémoire sur la
fertnetUatian appelée lactique.

*' I do not know whether the records of British Surgery
ever meet your eye. If so, you will have seen from time to
time notices of the antiseptic system of treatment, which I
have been labouring for the last nine years to bring to
perfection.

'' Allow me to take this opportunity to tender you my most
cordial thanks for having, by your brilliant researches,
demonstrated to me the truth of the germ theory of putre-
faction, and thus furnished me with the principle upon
which alone the antiseptic system can be carried out.

I873-I877

Should you at any time visit Edinburgh, it would, I
believe, give you sincere gratification to see at our hospital
how largely mankind is being benefited by your labours.

" I need hardly add that it would afford me the highest
gratification to show you how greatly sui^ery is indebted
to you.

"Forgive the freedom with which a common love of
science inspires me, and

"Believe me, with profound respect,

" Yours very sincerely,

" Joseph Lister."

In Lister's wards, the instruments, sponges and other
articles used for dressings were first of all purified in a
strong solution of carbolic acid. The same precautions were
taken for the hands of the surgeon and of his assistants.
During the whole course of each operation, a vaporizer of
carbolic solution created around the wound an antiseptic
atmosphere ; after it was over, the wound was again
washed with the carbolic solution. Special articles were
used for dressing : a sort of gauze, similar to tarlatan and
impregnated with a mixture of r^n, paraflBn and carbolic,
maintained an antiseptic atmosphere around the wound.
Such was — ^in its main lines — ^Lister's method.

A medical student, M. Just Lucas-Championnière — ^who
later on became an exponent in Prance of this method, and
who described it in a valuable treatise published in 1876
— had already in 1869, after a journey to Glasgow, stated
in the Journal de médecine et de chirurgie pratique what were
those first principles of defence against gangrene — " ex-
treme and minute care in the dressing of wounds." But
his isolated voice was not heard ; neither was any notice
taken of a celebrated lecture given by Lister at the be-
ginning of 1870 on the penetrating of germs into a purulent

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œntre and on the utility of antisepsis applied to clinical
practice. A few months before the war, Tyndall, the great
English physicist, alluded to this lecture in an article
entitled '' Dusts and Diseases,*' which was published by the
Revue des cours scietUifiques. But the heads of the pro-
fession in France had at that time absolute confidence in
themselves, and nobody took any interest in the rumour oi
success attained by the antiseptic method. Yet, between
1867 and 1869, thirty-lour of Lister's patients out of forty had
survived after amputation. It is impossible on reading oi
this not to feel an immense sadness at the thought of the
hundreds and thousands of young men who perished in
ambulances and hospitals during the fatal year, and who
might have been saved by Lister's method. In his own
country. Lister had also been violently criticized. " People
turned into ridicule Lister's minute precautions in the
dressing of wounds/' writes a competent judge. Dr. Auguste
Reaudin, a professor at the Geneva Faculty of Medicine,
'' and those who lost nearly all their patients by poulticing
them had nothing but sarcasms for the man who was so
infinitely superior to them." Lister, with his calm courage
and smiling kindliness, let people talk, and endeavoured
year by year to perfect his method, testing it constantly
and improving it in detail. No one, however sceptical,
whom he invited to look at his results, could preserve his
scepticism in the face of such marked success.

Some of his opponents thought to attack him on another
point by denying him the priority of the use of carbolic
acid. Lister never claimed that priority, but his enemies
took pleasure in recalling that Jules Lemaire, in i860, had
proposed the use of weak carbolic solution for the treat-
ment of open wounds, and that the same had been pre-
scribed by Dr. Déclat in 186 x, and also by Maisonneuve,
Demarquay and others. The fact that should have been

I873-I877

proclaimed was that Lister had created a surgical method
which was in itself an immense and beneficial progress ;
and Lister took pleasure in declaring that he owed to
Pasteur the principles which had guided him.

At the time when Pasteur received the letter above
quoted, which gave him deep gratification, people in
France were so far from all that concerned antisepsis and
asepsis, that, when he advised surgeons at the Académie
de Médecine to put their instruments through a flame before
using them, they did not understand what he meant, and he
had to explain —

'' I mean that surgical instruments should merely be put
through a flame, not really heated, and for this reason : if
a sound were examined with a microscope, it would be seen
that its surface presents grooves where dusts are harboured,
which cannot be completely removed even by the most
careful cleansing. Fire entirely destroys those organic
dusts ; in my laboratory, where I am surrounded with dust
of all kinds, I never make use of an instrument without
previously putting it through a flame."

Pasteur was ever ready to help others, giving them willing
advice or information. In November, 1874, when visiting
the Hôtel Dieu with Messrs. Larrey and Gosselin, he had
occasion to notice that a certain cotton-wool dressing had
been very badly done by a student in one of Guérin's
wards. A wound on the dirty hand of a labouring man
had been bandaged with cotton wool without having been
washed in any way. When the bandaging was removed in
the presence of Guérin, the pus exhaled a repugnant odour,
and was found to swarm with vibriones. Pasteur, in a
sitting of the Académie des Sciences, entered into details as
to the precautions which are necessary to get rid of the
germs originally present on the surface of the wound or of
the cotton wool; he declared that the layers of cotton

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

wool should be heated to a very high temperature. He also
suggested the following eitperiment : " In order to demon-
strate the evil influence of ferments and proto-organisms in
the suppuration of wounds, I would make two identical
wounds on the two symmetrical limbs of an animal under
chloroform; on one of those wotmds I would apply a
cotton-wool dressing with every possible precaution; ^n
the other, on the contrary, I would cultivate, so to speak,
micro-organisms abstracted from a strange sore, and offer-
ing, more or less, a septic character.

'^ Finally, I should like to cut open a wound on an animal
under chloroform in a very carefully selected part of the
body — for the experiment would be a very delicate one —
and in absolutely pure air, that is, air absolutely devoid of
any kind of germs, afterwards maintaining a pure atmo-
sphere around the wound, and having recourse to no dress-
ing whatever. I am inclined to think that perfect healing
would ensue under such conditions, for there would be
nothing to hinder the work of repair and reorganization
which must be accomplished on the surface of a wound if
it is to heal."

He explained in that way the advantage accruing to
hygiene, in hospitals and elsewhere, from infinite pre-
cautions of cleanliness and the destroying of infectious
germs. Himself a great investigator of new ideas, he
intended to compel his colleagues at the Académie de
Médecine to include the pathogenic share of the infinitesi-
mally small among matters demanding the attention of
medicine and surgery. The struggle was a long, unceasing
and painful one. In February, 1875, his presence gave
rise to a discussion on ferments, which lasted until the end
of March. In the course of this discussion he recalled the
experiments he had made fifteen years before, describing
how — in a liquid composed of mineral elements, apart

I873-I877

from the contact of atmospheric air and previously raised
to ebullition — vibriones could be sown and subsequently seen
to iSourish and multiply, offering the sight of those two
important phenomena : life without air, and fermentation.

" They are far behind us now," he said ; " they are now
rel^^ted to the rank of chimeras, those theories of fermenta-
tion imagined by Berzelius, Mitscherlich, and Liebig, and
re-edited with an accompaniment of new hypotheses by
Messrs. Pouchet, Frémy, Trécul, and Béchamp. Who
would now dare to affirm that fermentations are contact
frfienomena, phenomena of motion, communicated by an
altering albuminoid matter, or phenomena produced by semi-
organized materia, transforming themselves into this or
into that ? All those creations of fancy fall to pieces before
this simple and decisive experiment."

Pasteur ended up his speech by an unexpected attack on
the pompous etiquette of the Academy's usual proceedings,
urging his colleagues to remain within the bounds of a
scientific discussion instead of making flowery speeches.
He was much applauded, and his exhortation taken in good
part His colleagues also probably s]rmpathized with his
irritation in hearing a member of the assembly, M. Poggiale,
formerly apothecary in chief to the Val de Grâce, give a
somewhat sceptical dissertation on such a subject as
spontaneous generation, saying disdainfully —

** M. Pasteur has told us that he had looked for spontaneous
generation for twenty years without finding it ; he will long
continue to look for it, and, in spite of his cotu-age, per-
severance and sagacity, I doubt whether he ever will find
it. It is almost an unsolvable question. However those
who, like me, have no fixed opinion on the question of
spontaneous generation reserve the right of verifying, of
sifting and of disputing new facts, as they appear, one by
one and wherever they are produced."

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"What I" cried Pasteur, wrathful whenever those great
questions were thoughtlessly tackled, " what I I have been
for twenty years engaged in one subject and I am not to
have an opinion I and the right of verifying, sifting, and
disputing the facts is to belong to him who does nothing to
become enlightened but merely to read our works more or
less attentively, his feet on his study fender ! ! I "

"You have no opinion on spontaneous generation, my
dear colleague ; I can well believe that, while regretting it.
I am not speaking, of course, of those sentimental opinions
that everybody has, more or less, in questions of this
nature, for in this assembly we do not go in for sentiment.
You say that, in the present state of science, it is wiser to
have no opinion: well, I have an opinion, not a senti-
mental one, but a rational one, having acquired a right to
it by twenty years of assiduous labour, and it would be
wise in every impartial mind to share it. My opinion — nay
more, my conviction— is that, in the present state of science,
as you rightly say, spontaneous generation is a chimera ;
and it would be impossible for you to contradict me, for my
experiments all stand forth to prove that spontaneous
generation is a chimera. What is then your judgment on
my experiments? Have I not a hundred times placed
organic matter in contact with pure air in the best condi-
tions for it to produce life spontaneously? Have I not
practised on those organic materia which are most favour-
able, according to all accounts, to the genesis of spontaneity,
such as blood, urine, and grape juice ? How is it that you
do not see the essential difference between my opponents
and myself? Not only have I contradicted, proof in hand,
every one of their assertions, while they have never dared
to seriously contradict one of mine, but, for them, every
cause of error benefits their opinion. For me, afl&rming as
I do that there are no spontaneous fermentations, I am

I873-I877

bound to eliminate every cause ol error, every perturbing
influence, I can maintain my results only by means of
most irreproachable experiments; their opinions, on the
contrary, profit by every insufficient experiment and that is
where they find their support."

Pasteur having been abruptly addressed by a colleague,
who remarked that there were yet many tmexplained facts
in connection with fermentation, he answered by thus
apostrophizing his adversaries —

"What is then your idea of the progress of Science?
Science advances one step, then another, and then draws
back and meditates before taking a third. Does the
impossibility of taking that last step suppress the success
acquired by the two others ? Would you say to an infant
who hesitated before a third step, having ventured on two
previous ones : * Thy former eflforts are of no avail ; never
shalt thou walk ' ?

" You wish to upset what you call my theory, apparently
in order to defend another ; allow me to tell you by what
signs these theories are recognized : the characteristic of
erroneous theories is the impossibility of ever foreseeing new
facts; whenever such a fact is discovered, those theories
have to be grafted with further hypotheses in order to
account for thenL True theories, on the contrary, are the
expression of actual facts and are characterized by being
able to predict new facts, a natural consequence of those
already known. In a word, the characteristic of a true
theory is its fruitfulness."

" Science," said he again at the following sitting of the
Academy, " should not concern itself in any way with the
philosophical consequences of its discoveries. If through
the development of my experimental studies I come to
demonstrate that matter can organize itself of its own
accord into a cell or into a living being, I would come

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

here to proclaim it with the legitimate pride of an inventor
conscious of having made a great discovery» and I wbuld
add, if provoked to do so, " All the worse for those whose
doctrines or systems do not fit in with the truth of the
natural facts."

'* It was with similar pride that I defied my opponents to
contradict me when I said, *' In the present state of science
the doctrine of spontaneous generation is a chimera.'' And
I add, with similar independence, '' All the worse for those
whose philosophical or political ideas are hindered by my
studies."

"This is not to be taken to mean that, in my beliefs and in
the conduct of my life, I only take account of acquired
science : if I would, I could not do so, for I should then have
to strip myself of a part of myself. There are two men in
each one of us : the scientist, he who starts with a clear
field and desires to rise to the knowledge of Nature through
observation, experimentation and reasoning, and the man
of sentiment, the man of belief, the man who mourns his
dead children and who cannot, alas, prove that he will see
them again, but who believes that he will, and lives in that
hope, the man who will not die like a vibrio, but who feels
that the force that is within him cannot die. The two
domains are distinct, and woe to him who tries to let them
trespass on each other in the so imperfect state of human
knowledge."

And that separation, as he understood it, caused in him
none of those conflicts which often determine a crisis in a
human soul. As a scientist, he claimed absolute liberty of
research; he considered, with Claude Bernard and Littré
that, it was a mistaken waste of time to endeavour to pene-
trate primary causes ; " we can only note correlations," he
said. But, with the spiritual sentiment which caused him
to claim for the inner moral life the same liberty as for

I873-I877

scientific research, he could not understand certain givers
of easy explanations who affirm that matter has organized
itself, and who, considering as perfectly simple the spectacle
of the Universe of which Earth is but an infinitesimal part,
are in no wise moved by the Infinite Power who created the
worlds. With his whole heart he proclaimed the inmior-
tality of the soul.

His mode of looking upon human life, in spite of sorrows,
of struggles, of heavy burdens, had in it a strong element
of consolation : '' No efibrt is wasted," he said, giving thus
a most virile lesson of philosophy to those inferior minds
who only see inmiediate results in the work they undertake
and are discouraged by the first disappointment. In his
respect for the great phenomenon of Conscience, by which
almost all men, enveloped as they are in the mystery of the
Uùiverse, have the prescience of an Ideal, of a God, he con-
sidered that "the greatness of human actions can be
measured by the inspirations which give them birth." He
was convinced that there are no vain prayers. If all is
simple to the simple, all is great to the great; it was
through " the Divine regions of Knowledge and of Light "
that he had visions of those who are no more.

It was very seldom that he spoke of such things, though
he was sometimes induced to do so in the course of a
discussion so as to manifest his repugnance for vainglorious
n^;ations and barren irony ; sometimes too he would enter
into such feelings when speaking to an assembly of young
men.

Those discussions at the Academy of Medicine had the
advantage of inciting medical men to the research of the
infinitesimally small, described by the Annual Secretary
Roger as " those subtle artisans of many disorders in the
living economy."

M. Roger, at the end of a brief accotmt of bis colleague's

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

work, wrote, " To the signal services rendered by M. Pasteur
to science and to our country, it was but fair that a signal
recompense should be given : the National Assembly has
undertaken that care.''

That recompense, voted a few months previously, was the
third national recompense accorded to French scientists since
the beginning of the century. In 1837, Arago, before the
Chamber of I>eputies, and Gay Lussac before the Chamber
of Peers, had obtained a glorious recognition of the services
rendered by Daguerre and Niepce. In 1845 another
national recompense was accorded to M. Vicat, the
engineer. In 1874, Paul Bert, a member of the National
Assembly, gladly reporting on the projected law tending
to oflfer a national recompense to Pasteur, wrote quoting
those precedents :

'' Such an assurance ot gratitude, given by ^ nation to
men who have made it richer and more illustrious, honours
it at least as much as it does them. . . ." Paul Bert con-
tinued by enumerating Pasteur's discoveries, and spoke of
the millions Pasteur had assured to France, '' without re-
taining the least share of them for himself." In séricicul-
ture alone, the losses in twenty years, before Pasteur's
interference, rose to 1,500 millions of francs.

"M. Pasteur's discoveries, gentlemen," concluded Paul
Bert, " after throwing a new light on the obscure question of
fermentations and of the mode of appearance of microscopic
beings, have revolutionized certain branches of industry,
of agriculture, and of pathology. One is struck with
admiration when seeing that so many, and such divers
results, proceed — ^through an unbroken chain of facts,
nothing being left to hypothesis — ^from theoretical studies on
the manner in which tartaric acid deviates polarized light.
Never was the famous saying, ' Genius consists in sufficient
patience ' more amply justified. The Government now pro-

I873-I877

poses that you should honour this admirable combination ot
theoretical and practical study by a national recompense ;
your Commission unanimously approves of this propo-
sition.

** The suggested recompense consists in a life annuity of
i2yOoo francs, which is the BfiproximaXe amount of the
salary of the Sorbonne professorship, which M. Pasteur's
ill health has compelled him to give up. It is indeed smal
when compared with the value of the services rendered, and
your Commission much r^rets that the state of our finances
does not allow us to increase that amount. But the Com-
mission agrees with its learned chairman (M. Mares) * that
the economic and hygienic results of M. Pasteur's discoveries
will presently become so considerable that the French
nation will desire to increase later on its testimony of grati-
tude towards him and towards Science, of which he is one
of the most glorious representatives."

Half the amount of the annuity was to revert to Pasteur's
widow. The Bill was passed by 532 votes against 24.

"Where is the government which has secured such a
majority?" wrote Pasteur's old friend Chappuis, now
Rector of the Grenoble Academy. The value of the recom-
pense was certainly much enhanced by the fact that the
Assembly, divided upon so many subjects, had been almost
unanimous in its feeling of gratitude towards him who had
laboured so hard for Science, for the country and for
Humanity.

"Bravo, my dear Pasteur: I am glad for you and for
myself, and proud for us all. Your devoted friend. Sainte
Clah-e DeviUe."

" You are going to be a happy scientist," wrote M: Duclaux,
for you can already see, and you will see more and more,
the triumph of your doctrines and of your discoveries."

Those who imagined that this national recompense was

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

the close of a great chapter, perhaps even the last chapter
of the book of his life, gave him, in their well meaning
ignorance, some advice which highly irritated him: they
advised him to rest. It is true that his cerebral hemorrhage
had left him with a certain d^^ree of lameness and a slight
stiffness of the left hand, those external signs reminding
him only too well of the threatening possibility of another
stroke ; but his mighty soul was more than ever powerful
to master his infirm body. It was therefore evident that
Nisard, usually very subtle in his insight into character,
did not thoroughly understand Pasteur when he wrote to
him, " Now, dear friend, you must give up your energies
to living for your family, for all those who love you, and a
little too for yourself."

In spite of his deep, even passionate tenderness for his
family, Pasteur had other desires than to limit his life to
such a narrow circle. Every man who knows he has a
mission to fulfil feels that there are rays of a light purer
and more exalted than that proceeding from the hearth.
As to the suggestion that Pasteur should take care of his
own health, it was as useless as it would be to advise
certain men to take care of that of others.

Dr. Andral had vainly said and written that he should
forbid Pasteur any assiduous labour. Pasteur considered
that not to work was to lose the object of living at alL If,
however, a certain equilibrium was established between
the anxious solicitude of friends, the prohibitions of medical
advisers and the great amount of work which Pasteur
insisted on doing, it was owing to her who with a discreet
activity watched in silence to see that nothing outside his
work should complicate Pasteur's life, herself his most
precious collaborator, the confidante of every experiment

EverjTthing was subordinate to the laboratory ; Pasteur
never accepted an invitation to those large social gatherings

I873-I877

which are a tax laid by those who have nothing to do on
the time of those w1k> are busy, especially if they be cele-
brated. Pasteur's name, known throughout the world, was
never mentioned in fashionable journals ; he did not even
go to theatres. In the evening, after diimer, he usually
perambulated the hall and corridor of' his rooms at the
Ecole Normale, cogitating over various details of his work.
At ten o'clock, he went to bed, and at eight the next morn-
ing, whether he had had a good night or a bad one, he
resiuned his work in the laboratory.

That r^ular life, preserving its even tenor through so
many polemics and discussions, was momentarily perturbed
by politics in January, 1876. Pasteur, who, in his extra-
ordinary, almost disconcerting, modesty believed that a
medical diploma would have facilitated his scientific revolu-
tion, imagined — after the pressing overtures made to him
by some of his proud compatriots — that he would be able to
serve more usefully the cause of higher education if he
were to obtain a seat at the Senate.

He addressed from Paris a letter to the senatorial electors
of the department of Jura. " I am not a political man," he
said, '' I am bound to no party ; not having studied politics,
I am ignorant of many things, but I do know this, that I love
my country and have served her with all my strength."
Like many good citizens, he thought that a renewal of the
national grandeur and prosperity might be sought in a
serious experimental trial of the Republic. If honoured
with the suffrages of his countrymen, he would " represent
in the Senate, Science in all its purity, dignity and indepen-
dence." Two Jura newspapers, of different opinions, agreed
in r^^etting that Pasteur should leave ^'the peaceful
altitudes of science," and come down into the Jura to solicit
the electors' suffrages.

In his answers to such articles, letters dictated to his son

VOL. II. 33 D

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

— ^who acted as his secretary during that electoral campaign
and accompanied him to Lons-le-Saulnier, where they spent
a week, published addresses, posters, etc — ^Pasteur invoked
the following motto, " Science et Patrie^ Why had France
been victorious in 1792? ^'Because Science had given to
our fathers the material means of fighting.*' And he
recalled the names of Monge, of Camot, of Fourcroy, 01
Guyton de Morveau, of BerthoUet, that concourse of men of
science, thanks to whom it had been possible— during that
grandiose epoch — ^to hasten the working of steel and the
preparation of leather for soldiers' boots, and to find means
of extracting saltpetre for gunpowder from plaster rubbish,
of making use of reconnoitring balloons and of perfecting
tel^^phy.

The senatorial electors numbered 650. Jules Grévy came
to Lons-le-Saulnier to support the candidature of MM.
Tamisier and ThureL In a meeting which took place the
day before the election he said, '* You will give them your
suffrage to-morrow, and in so doing you will have deserved
well oi the Republic and of France." He mentioned,
incidentally, that "M. Pasteur's character and scientific
work entitle him to universal respect and esteem; but
Science has its natural place at the Institute," he added,
insisting on the Senate's political attributes. Grévy's
intervention in favour of his two candidates was decisive.
M. Tamisier obtained 446 votes, M. Thurel 445, General
Picard 113, M. Besson, a monarchist, 153, Pasteur 62 only.

He had received on that very morning a letter from his
daughter, wishing him a failure — a bright, girlish letter,
frankly eicpressing the opinion that her father could be
most useful to his country by confining himself to laboratory
work, and that politics would necessarily hinder such
work.

It was easy to be absolutely frank with Pasteur, who

I873-I877

willingly accepted every truthful statement. No man was
ever more beloved, more admired, and less flattered in his
own home than he was.

" What a wise judge you are, my dearest girl ! " answered
Pasteur the same evening; '' you are perfectly right. But
I am not sorry to have seen all this, and that your brother
should have seen it ; all knowledge is useful."

That little incursion into the domain of politics was ren-
dered insignificant in Pasteur's life by the fact that his long-
desired object was almost reached. Three months later, at
the distribution of prizes of the Concours GAt/ral. the Minister
of Public Instruction pronounced a speech, of which Pasteur
preserved the text, underlining with his own hand the fol-
lowing passages : '' Soon, I hope, we shall see the Schools
of Medicine and of Pharmacy reconstructed ; the Collège de
France provided with new laboratories; the Faculty of
Medicine transferred and enlarged, and the ancient Sor-
bonne itself restored and extended."

And while the Minister spoke of '' those higher studies of
Philosophy, of History, of disinterested Science which are
the glory of a nation and an honour to the human mind . . .
which must retain the first rank to shed their serene light
over inferior studies, and to remind men of the true goal and
the true grandeur of human intelligence. . . ." Pasteur
could say to himself that the great cause which he had
pleaded since he was made Dean of Faculty at Lille in 1854,
which he had supported in 1868 and again on the morrow
of the war, was at last about to be won in 1876.

He had a patriotic treat during the summer holidays of
that same year. A great international congress of sérici-
culture was gathered at Milan ; there were del^;ates from
Russia, Austria, Italy and France, and Pasteur represented
France. He was accompanied by his former pupils, his
associates in his silkworm studies, Duclaux and Raulin,

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

both of whom had become professors at the Lyons Faculty
of Sciences, and Maillot, who was then manager of the
silkworm establishment of Montpellier. The members of
the Congress had been previously informed of the pro-
gramme of questions, and each intending speaker was
armed with facts and observations. The open discussions
allowed Duclaux, Raulin and Maillot to demonstrate the
strictness and perfection of the experimental method which
they had learned from their master and which they were
teaching in their turn.

Excursions formed a delightful interlude ; one on the lake
of Como was an enchantment. Then the French déliâtes
were offered the pleasant surprise of a visit to an immense
seeding establishment in the neighbourhood of Milan, which
had been named after Pasteur. We have an account of
this visit in a letter to J. B. Dumas (September 17).

** My dear Master ... I very much regret that you are
not here: you would have shared my satisfaction. I am
dating my letter from Milan, but in reality, the congn^ess
being ended, we are staying at Signor Susani*s country
house for a few days. Here, from July 4, sixty or seventy
women are busy for ten hours every day with microscopic
examinations of absolute accuracy. I never saw a better
arranged establishment. 400,000 moth cells are put under
the microscope every day. The order and cleanliness are
admirable ; any error is made impossible by the organiza-
tion of a second test following the first."

''I felt, in seeing my name in large letters on the façade of
that splendidestablishment, a joy which compensates for much
of the frivolous opposition I have encountered from some ot
my countrymen these last few years ; it is a spontaneous
homage from the proprietor to my studies. Many sericicul-
tors do their seeding themselves, by selection, or have it
done by competent workers accustomed to the operation.

I873-I877

The harvest from that excellent seed depends on the climate
only; in a moderately favourable season the production
often reaches fifty or seventy kilogrammes per ounce of
twenty-five gnunmes."

Signor Susani was looking forward to producing for that
one year 30,000 ounces of seed. In the presence of the pro-
digious activity of this veritable factory — ^where, besides the
microscope women, more than one hundred persons were
occupied in various ways, washing the mortars with which
the moths are pounded before being put under the micro-
scopes, cleansing the slides, etc.; in fact, doing those various
delicate but simple operations* which had formerly been pro-
nounced to be impracticable — ^Pasteur's thoughts went back
to his experiments in the Pont-Gisquet greenhouse, to the
modest beginnings of his process, now so magnificently
applied in Italy. A month before this, J. B. Dumas, presid-
ing at a scientific meeting at Clermont Ferrand, had said —

^*The future belongs to Science; woe to the nations
who close their eyes to this fact . . . Let us call to our aid
on this neutral and pacific ground of Natural Philosophy,
where defeats cost neither blood nor tears, those hearts
which are moved by their country's grandeur; it is by
the exaltation of science that France will recover her
prestige."

Those same ideas were expressed in a toast given by
Pasteur in the name of France at a farewell banquet, when
the 300 members of the Sériciculture Congress were
present.

" Gentlemen, I propose a toast— To the peaceful strife of
Science. It is the first time that I have the honour of being
present on foreign soil at an international congress ; I ask
myself what are the impressions produced in me, besides
these courteous discussions, by the brilliant hospitality of
the noble Milanese city, and I find myself deeply impressed

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

by two propositions. First, that Science is of no nationality ;
and secondly, in apparent, but only in apparent, contra-
diction, that Science is the highest personification of nation-
ality. Science has no nationality because knowledge is
the patrimony of humanity, the torch which gives light to
the world. Science should be the highest personification of
nationality because, of all the nations, that one will always
be foremost which shall be first to progress by the labours
of thought and of intelligence.

" Let us therefore strive in the pacific field of Science
for the pre-eminence of our several countries. Let us
strive, for strife is effort, strife is life when progress is
the goal.

" You Italians, try to multiply on the soil of your beautiful
and glorious country the Tecchi, the Brioschi, the Tacchini,
the Sella, the Comalia. . . . You, proud children of Austria-
Hungary, follow even more firmly than in the past the
fruitful impulse which an eminent statesman, now your
representative at the Court of England, has given to Science
and Agriculture. We, who are here present, do not forget
that the first sériciculture establishment was founded in
Austria. As to you, Japanese, may the cultivation of
Science be numbered among the chief objects of your care
in the amazing social and political transformation of which
you are giving the marvellous spectacle to the world. We
Frenchmen, bending under the sorrow of our mutilated
country, should show once again that great trials may
give rise to great thoughts and great actions.

" I drink to the peaceful strife of Science."

" You will find," wrote Pasteur to Dumas, telling him of
this toast, which had been received with enthusiastic
applause, *'an echo of the feelings with which you have
inspired your pupils on the grandeur and the destiny of
Science in modern society."

I873-I877

The tender and delicate side of this powerful spirit was
thus once again apparent in this deference to his master
in the midst of acclamaticms, and in those deep and noble
ideas expressed in the middle of a noisy banquet But it
was chiefly in his private life that his open-heartedness,
his desire to love and to be loved, became apparent
That great genius had a childlike heart, and the charm
of this was incomparable.

He once said: ''The recompense and the ambition of a
scientist is to conquer the approbation of his peers and of
the masters whom he venerates." He had already known
that recompense and could satisfy that ambition. Ehunas
had known and appreciated him for thirty years; Lister
had proclaimed his gratitude; Tyndall— an indefatigable
excursionist, who loved to survey wide horizons, and who
in his celebrated classes was wont to make use of com-
parisons with altitudes and heights and everything which
opens a clear and vast outlook — ^had a great admiration for
the wide development of Pasteur's work. Now, Pasteur's
experiments had been strongly attacked by a young English
phjrsician. Dr. Bastian, who had excited in the English and
American public a bitter prejudice against the results
announced by Pasteur on the subject of spontaneous
generation.

"The confusion and uncertainty," wrote Tjrndall to
Pasteur, " have finally become such that, six months ago,
I thought that it would be rendering a service to Science,
at the same time as justice to yourself, if the question
were subjected to a fresh investigation.

" Putting into practice an idea which I had entertained
six years ago— the details of which are set out in the article
in the British Medical Journal which I had the pleasure to
send you — ^I went over a large portion of the ground on
which Dr. Bastian had taken up his stand, and refuted,

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

I think, many of the fallacies which had misled the public.

''The change which has taken place since then in the
tone of the English medical journals is quite remarkable,
and I am disposed to think that the general confidence of
the public in the accuracy of Dr. Bastian's experiments
has been considerably shaken.

''In taking up these investigations, I have had the
opportunity of refreshing my memory about your labours ;
they have reawakened in me all the admiration which I felt
for them when I first read of them. I intend to continue
these investigations until I have dispersed all the doubts
which may have arisen as to the indisputable accuracy
of your conclusions."

And Tyndall added a paragraph for which Pasteur
modestly substituted asterisks in communicating this letter
to the Academy.

"For the first time in the history of Science we have
.'the right to cherish the sure and certain hope that, as
regards epidemic diseases, medicine will soon be delivered
from quackery and placed on a real scientific basis.
When that day arrives. Humanity, in my opinion, will
- know how to recognize that it is to you that will be due
the largest share of her gratitude."

Tyndall was indeed qualified to sign this passport to
immortality. But in the meanwhile a struggle was
necessary, and Pasteur did not wish to leave the burden
of the discussion even on such shoulders as Tyndall'sl
Moreover he was interested in his opponent.

" Dr. Bastian," writes M. Duclaux, " had some tenacity,
a fertile mind, and the love, if not the gift, of the experi-
mental method." The discussion was destined to last for
months. In general (according to J. B. Dumas* calcula-
tion) " at the end of ten years, judgment on a great thing
is usually formed ; it is by then an accomplished fact, an

I873-I877

idea adopted by Science or irrevocably repudiated." Pasteur,
on the morrow of the Milan Congress, might feel that it
had been so for the adoption of his system of cellular
seeding, but such was not the case in this question of
spontaneous generation. The quarrel had started again
at the Academy of Sciences and at the Academy of
Medicine; it was now being revived in England, and
Bastian proposed to come himself and experiment in the
laboratory of the Ecole Normale.

"For nearly twenty years," said Pasteur, "I have
pursued, without finding it, a proof of life existing with-
out an anterior and similar life. The consequences of
such a discovery would be incalculable ; natural science in
general, and medicine and philosophy in particular, would
receive therefrom an impulse which cannot be foreseen.
Therefore, whenever I hear that this discovery has been
made, I hasten to verify the assertions of my fortunate
rival. It is true that I hasten towards him with some
d^;ree of mistrust, so many times have I experienced
that, in the difficult art of experimenting, the very
cleverest stagger at every step, and that the interpretation
of facts is no less perilous."

Dr. Bastian operated on acid urine, boiled and neutral-
ized by a solution of potash heated to a temperature of
i20^C. If, after the flask of urine had cooled down, it was
heated to a temperature of 50^ C. in order to facilitate the
development of germs, the liquid in ten hours' time
swarmed with bacteria. "Those facts prove spontaneous
generation," said Dr. Bastian.

Pasteur invited him to replace his boiled solution of
potash by a fragment of solid potash, after heating it to
1 10^ C, in order to avoid the bacteria germs which might be
contained in the aqueous solution. This question of the
germs of inferior organisms possibly contained in water

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

was— during the course of that protracted discussion —
studied by Pasteur with the assistance of M. Joubert,
Professor of Physics at the Collège RoUin. Such germs were
to be found even in the distilled water of laboratories ; it
was sufficient that the water should be poured in a thin
stream through the air to become contaminated. Spring
water, if slowly filtered through a solid mass of ground,
alone contained no germs.

There was also the question of the urine and that of the
recipient. The urine, collected by Dr. Bastian in a vase
and placed into a retort, neither of which had been put
through a flame, might contain spores of a bacillus called
bacillus subtilisy which offer a great resistance to the action
of heat. Those spores do not develop in notably acid
liquids, but the liquid having been neutralized or rendered
slightly alkaline by the potash, the development of germs
took place. The thing therefore to be done was to collect
the urine in a vase and introduce it into a retort both oi
which had been put through a flame. After that, no
organisms were produced, as was stated in the thesis of
M. Chamberland, then a curator at the laboratory, and who
took an active part in these experiments.

A chapter might well have been written by a moralist
" On the use of certain opponents " ; for it was through
that discussion with Bastian that it was discovered how it
was that — at the time of the celebrated discussions on
spontaneous generation — ^the heterc^enists, Pouchet, Joly,
and Musset, operating as Pasteur did, but in a different
medium, obtained results apparently contradictory to
Pasteur's. If their flasks, filled with a decoction of hay,
almost constantly showed germs, whilst Pasteur's, full ot
yeast water, were alwajrs sterile, it was because the hay
water contained spores of the bacillus subtilis. The spores
remained inactive as long as the liquid was preserved from

I873-I877

the contact of air, but as soon as oxygen re-entered the
flask they were able to develop.

The custom of raising liquids to a temperature of 120® C.
in order to sterilize them dates from that conflict with
Bastian. "But," writes M. Duclaux, "the heating to 120*^
of a flask half filled with liquid can sterilize the liquid part
only, allowing life to persist in those regions which are not
in contact with the liquid. In order to destroy everything,
the dry walls must be heated to 180° C."

A former pupil of the Ecole Normale, who had been
a curator in Pasteur's laboratory since October, 1876,
Boutroux by name, who witnessed all these researches,
wrote in his thesis : " The knowledge of these facts makes
it possible to obtain absolutely pure neutral culture
mediums, and, in consequence, to study as many generations
as are required of one unmixed micro-organism, whenever
pure seed has been procured."

Pasteur has defined what he meant by putting tubes,
cotton, vases, etc., through a flame. " In order to get rid
of the microscopic germs which the dusts of air and of the
water used for the washing of vessels deposit on every
object, the best means is to place the vessels (their openings
closed with pads of cotton wool) during half an hour in a
gas stove, heating the air in which the articles stand to a
temperature of about about 150*=* C. to 200^ C. The vessels,
tubes, etc., are then ready for use. The cotton wool is
enclosed in tubes or in blotting-paper."

What Pasteur had recommended to surgeons, when he
advised them to pass through a flame all the instruments
they used, had become a current practice in the laboratory ;
the least pad of cotton-wool used as a stopper was
previously sterilized. Thus was an entirely new technique
rising fully armed and ready to repel new attacks and
ensure new victories.

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

If Pasteur was so anxious to drive Dr. Bastian to the
wall, it was because he saw behind that so-called experiment
on spontaneous generation a cause of perpetual conflict with
physicians and surgeons. Some of them desired to repel
purely and simply the whole theory of germs. Others,
disposed to admit the results of Pasteur's researches, as
laboratory work, did not admit his experimental incursions
on clinical ground. Pasteur therefore wrote to Dr. Bastian
in the early part of July, 1877 —

"Do you know why I desire so much to fight and
conquer you? it is because you are one of the principal
adepts of a medical doctrine which I believe to be fatal to
progress in the art of healing — ^the doctrine of the spontaneity
of all diseases . . . That is an error which, I repeat it, is
harmful to medical progress. From the prophylactic as
well as from the therapeutic point of view, the fate of the
physician and surgeon depends upon the adoption of the
one or the other of these two doctrines."

CHAPTER n

187 7- 1879

THE confusion of ideas on the origin of contagious
and epidemic diseases was about to be suddenly
enlightened ; Pasteur had now taken up the study of the
disease known as charbon or splenic fever. This disease was
ruining agriculture; the French provinces of Beauce,
Brie, Burgundy, Nivernais, Berry, Champagne, Dauphiné
and Auvergne, paid a formidable yearly tribute to this
mysterious scourge. In the Beauce, for instance, twenty
sheep out of every hundred died in one flock; in some
parts of Auvergne the proportion was ten or fifteen per cent.,
sometimes even twenty-five, thirty-five, or fifty per cent.
At Provins, at Meaux, at Fontainebleau, some farms were
called charbon farms ; elsewhere, certain fields or hills were
looked upon as accursed and an evil spell seemed to be
thrown over flocks bold enough to enter those fields or
ascend those hills. Animals stricken with this disease
almost always died in a few hours ; sheep were seen to lag
behind the flock, with drooping head, shaking limbs and
gasping breath; after a rigor and some sanguinolent
evacuations, occurring also through the mouth and nostrils,
death supervened, often before the shepherd had had time
to notice the attack. The carcase rapidly became distended,
and the least rent in the skin gave issue to a flow of black,
thick and viscid blood, hence the name of anthrax given

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

to the disease. It was also called splenic fever, because
necropsy showed that the spleen had assumed enormous
dimensions ; if that were opened, it presented a black and
liquid pulp. In some places the disease assumed a
character of extreme virulence; in the one district of
Novgorod, in Russia, 56,000 head of cattle died of splenic
infection between 1867 and 1870. Horses, oxen, cows,
sheep, everything succumbed, as did also 528 persons,
attacked by the contagion under divers forms ; a pin prick
or a scratch is sufficient to inoculate shepherds, butchers,
knackers or farmers with the malignant pustule.

Though a professor at the Alfort Veterinary School,
M. Delafond, did point out to his pupils as far back as 1838
that charbon blood contained ^Uittle rods," as he called
them ; it was only looked upon by himself and them as
a curiosity with no scientific importance. Davaine, when
he — ^and Rayer as well — recognized in 1850 those little
filiform bodies in the blood of animals dying of splenic
fever, he too merely mentioned the fact, which seemed to
him of so little moment that he did not even report it in the
first notice of his works edited by himself.

It was only eleven years later that Davaine — ^struck, as
he himself gladly acknowledged, by reading Pasteur's paper
on*the butyric ferment, the little cylindrical rods of which
offer all the characteristics of vibriones or bacteria — asked
himself whether the filiform corpuscles seen in the blood of
the charbon victims might not act after the manner of
ferments and be the cause of the disease. In 1863, ^
medical man at Dourdan, whose neighbour, a farmer, had
lost twelve sheep of charbon in a week, sent blood from
one of these sheep to Davaine, who hastened to inoculate
some rabbits with this blood. He recogtdzed the presence
ù[ those little transparent and motionless rods which
he called bacteridia (a diminutive of bacterium, or rod-

I877-I879

shaped vihriones). It might be thought that the cause of
the evU was found, in other words that the relation between
those bacteridia and the disease which had caused death
could not be doubted. But two professors of the Val de
Grâce, Jaillard and Leplat, refuted these experiments.

They had procured, in the middle of the summer, from a
knacker's yard near Chartres, a little blood from a cow
which had died of anthrax, and they inoculated some
rabbits with it. The rabbits died, but without presenting
any bacteridia. Jaillard and Leplat therefore affirmed
that splenic fever was not an affection caused by parasites,
that the bacteridium was an epiphenomenon of the disease
and could not be looked upon as the cause of it

Davaine, on repeating Jaillard and Leplat's experiments,
found a new interpretation ; he allied that the disease they
had inoculated was not anthrax. Then Jaillard and Leplat
obtained a little diseased sheep's blood from M. Boutet, a
veterinary surgeon at Chartres, and tried that instead of
cow's blood. The result was identical : death ensued, but no
bacteridia. Were there then two diseases ?

Others made observations in their turn. It occurred to
a young German physician. Dr. Koch, who in 1876 was
b^^inning his career in a small village in Germany, to
seek a culture medium for the bacteridium. A few drops
of aqueous humour, collected in the eyes of oxen or of
rabbits, seemed to him favourable. After a few hours
of this nutrition the rods seen under the microscope were
ten or twenty times larger than at first ; they lengthened
immoderately, so as to cover the whole slide of the
microscope, and might have been compared to a ball of
tangled thread. Dr. Koch examined those lengths, and
after a certain time noticed little spots here and there
looking like a punctuation of spores. Tyndall, who knew
how to secure continuous attention by a variety of

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

comparisons, said at a scientific conference in Glasgow a
few months later that those little ovoid bodies were
contained within the envelope of the filament like peas in
their pods. It is interesting to note that Pasteur, when he
studied, in connexion with silkworm diseases, the mode of
reproduction of the vibriones of fiachery, had seen them
divide into spores similar to shining corpuscles; he had
demonstrated that those spores, like seeds of plants, could
revive after a lapse of years and continue their disastrous
work. The bacterium of charbon, or bacillus anthracis as
it now began to be called, reproduced itself in the same
way, and, when inoculated by Dr. Koch into guineapigs ,
rabbits and mice, provoked splenic fever as easily and
inevitably as blood from the veins of an animal that had
died of the disease. Bacilli and spores therefore yielded
the secret of the contagion, and it seemed that the fact was
established, when Paul Bert, in January, 1877, announced
to the Société de Biologie that it was '* possible to destroy
the bacillus anthracis in a drop of blood by compressed
oxygen, to inoculate] what remained, and to reproduce the
disease and death without any trace of the bacteridium . . .
Bacteridia," he added, '^ are therefore neither the cause nor
the necessary efiect of splenic fever, which must be due to
a virus."

Pasteur tackled the subject A little drop of the blood ot
an animal which had died of anthrax — a microscopic drop
— ^was laid, sown, after the usual precautions to ensure
purity, in a sterilized balloon which contained neutral or
slightly alkaline urine. The culture medium might equally
be common household broth, or beer-yeast water, either of
them neutralized by potash. After a few hours, a sort of
flake was floating in the liquid; the bacteridia could be
seen, not under the shape of short broken rods, but with
the appearance of filaments, tangled like a skein; the

I877-I879

culture medium being highly favourable, they were rapidly
growing longer. A drop of that liquid, abstracted from the
first vessel, was sown into a second vessel, of which one
drop was again placed into a third, and so on, until the
fortieth flask; the seed of each successive culture came
from a tiny drop of the preceding one. If a drop from one
of those flasks was introduced under the skin of a rabbit
or guinea-pig, splenic fever and death immediately ensued,
with the same symptoms and characteristics as if the
original drop of blood had been inoculated. In the presence
of the results from those successive cultures, what became
of the hypothesis of an inanimate substance contained in
the first drop of blood ? It was now diluted in a proportion
impossible to imagine. It would therefore be absurd,
thought Pasteur, to imagine that the last virulence owed
its power to a virulent agent existing in the original drop
of blood; it was to the bacteridium, multiplied in each
culture, and to the bacteridium alone, that this power was
due ; the life of the bacteridium had made the virulence.
" Anthrax is therefore," Pasteur declared, " the disease of
the bacteridium, as trichinosis is the disease of the
trichina, as itch is the disease of its special acarus, with
this circumstance, however, that, in anthrax, the parasite
can only be seen through a microscope, and very much
enlarged." After the bacteridium had presented those
long filaments, within a few hours, two days at the most,
another spectacle followed; amidst those filaments, appeared
the oval shapes, the germs, spores or seeds, pointed out by
Dr. Koch. Those spores, sown in broth, reproduced in
their turn the little packets of tangled filaments, the
bacteridia. Pasteur reported that ''one single germ of
bacteridiiun in the drop which is sown multiplies during
the following hours and ends by filling the whole liquid
with such a thickness of bacteridia that, to the naked eye,
VOL. II. 49 B

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

it seems that carded cotton has been mixed with the
broth."

M. Chamberland, a pupil who became intimately associ-
ated with this work on anthrax, has defined as follows what
Pasteur had now achieved : " By his admirable process of
culture outside organism, Pasteur shows that the rods which
exist in the blood, and for which he has preserved the name
of bacteridia given them by Davaine, are living beings
capable of being indefinitely reproduced in appropriate
liquids, after the manner of a plant multiplied by suc-
cessive cuttings. The bacterium does not reproduce itseli
only under the ffi^art^^ovfs^ fo^t^^lmt also through spores
or germs, after/^ W»flEer>^ mai^plants which present
two modes of r^eppoduçtion. by clitlings and by seeds."
The first poiilt was tïïerèfore iettled. The ground sus-
pected and inHfêated J^NvDava^e/was now part of the
domain of science^aija^^oei^^ed^om any new attacks.

Yet Jaillard and Leplat's experiments remained to be
explained: how had they provoked death through the
blood of a splenic fever victim and found no bacteridia
afterwards ? It was then that Pasteur, guided, as Tyndall
expressed it, by " his extraordinary faculty of combining
facts with the reasons of those facts," placed himself, to
begin with, in the conditions of Jaillard and Leplat, who
had received, during the height of the sunmier, some blood
from a cow and a sheep which had died of anthrax, that
blood having evidently been abstracted more than twenty-
four hours before the experiment. Pasteur, who had
arranged to go to the very spot, the knacker's yard near
Chartres, and himself collect diseased blood, wrote to
ask that the carcases of animals which had died of splenic
fever should be kept for him for two or three days:

He arrived on June 13, 1877, accompanied by the
veterinary surgeon, M. Boutet. Three carcases were await-

I877-I879

ing him: that of a sheep which had been dead sixteen
hours, that of a horse whose death dated from the pre-
ceding day, and that of a cow which must have been dead
for two or three days, for it had been brought from a
distant village. The blood of the recently deceased sheep
contained bacteridia of anthrax only. In the blood of the
horse, putrefaction vibriones were to be found, besides the
bacteridia, and those vibriones existed in a still greater
proportion in the blood of the cow. The sheep's blood,
inoculated into guinea-pigs, provoked anthrax with pure
bacteridia ; that of the cow and of the horse brought a
rapid death with no bacteridia.

Henceforth what had happened in Jaillard and Leplat's
experiments, and in the incomplete and uncertain experi-
ments of Davaine, became siniple and perfectly clear to
Pasteur, as well as the confusion caused by another
experimentalist who had said his say ten years after the
discussions of Jaillard, Leplat and Davaine.

This was a Paris veterinary surgeon, M. Signol. He
had written to the Academy of Sciences that it was enough
that a healthy animal should be felled, or rather asphyxi-
ated, for its blood, taken from the deeper veins, to become
violently virulent within sixteen hours. M. Signol thought
he had seen motionless bacteridia similar to the bacillus
anthracis; but those bacteridia, he said, were incapable of
multiplying in the inoculated animals. Yet the blood was
so very virulent that animals rapidly succumbed in a
manner analogous to death by splenic fever. A Com-
mission was nominated to ascertain the facts ; Pasteur was
made a member of it, as was also his colleague Bouillaud —
still so quick and alert, in spite of his eighty years, that he
looked less like an old man than like a wrinkled young
man — ^and another colleague, twenty years younger, Bouley,
the first v^erinary surgeon in France who had a seat at

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

the Institute. The latter was a tall, handsome man, with
a somewhat military appearance, and an expression of
energetic good humour which his disposition fully justified.
He was eager to help in the propagation of new ideas and
discoveries, and soon, with eager enthusiasm, placed his
marked talents as a writer and orator at Pasteur's disposal.
On the day when the Commission met, M. Signol showed
the carcase of a horse, which he had sacrificed for this
experiment, having asphyxiated it when in excellent
health. Pasteur uncovered the deep veins of the horse
and showed to Bouley, and also to Messrs. Joubert and
Chamberland, a long vibrio, so translucid as to be almost
invisible, creeping, flexible, and which, according to
Pasteur's comparison, slipped between the globules of the
blood as a serpent slips between high grasses ; it was the
septic vibrio. From the peritoneum, where it swarms, that
vibrio passes into the blood a few hours after death; it
represents the vanguard of the vibriones of putrefaction.
When Jaillard and Leplat had asked for blood infected
with anthrax, they had received blood which was at
the same time septic. It was septicaemia (so prompt in its
action that inoculated rabbits or sheep perish in twenty-
four or thirty-six hours) that had killed Jaillard and
Leplat's rabbits. It was also septicaemia, provoked by this
vibrio (or its germs, for it too has germs), that M. Signol
had unknowingly inoculated into the animals upon which
he experimented. Successive cultures of that septic vibrio
enabled Pasteur to show, as he had done for the bacillus
anthracis, that one drop of those cultures caused septicaemia
in an animal. But, while the bacillus anthracis is aerobic,
the septic vibrio, being anaerobic, must be cultivated in
a vacuum, or in carbonic acid gas. And, cultivating
those bacteridia and those vibriones with at least as much
care as a Dutchman might give to rare tulips, Pasteur

I877-I879

succeeded in parting the bacillus anthracis and the septic
vibrio when they were temporarily associated. In a cul-
ture in contact with air, only bacteridia developed, in a
culture preserved from air, only the septic vibrio.

What Pasteur called " the Paul Bert fact " now alone
remained to be explained; this also was simple. The
blood Paul Bert had received from Chartres was of the
same quality as that which Jaillard and Leplat had had ;
that is to say already septic. If filaments of bacillus
anthracis and of septic vibriones perish under compressed
oxygen, such is not the case with the germs, which are
extremely tenacious ; they can be kept for several hours at
a temperature of 70® C, and even of 95® C. Nothing injures
them, neither lack of air, carbonic acid gas or 'compressed
oxygen. Paul Bert, therefore, killed filamentous bacteridia
under the influence of high pressure; but, as the germs
were none the worse, those germs revived the splenic
fever. Paul Bert came to Pasteur's laboratory, ascertained
facts and watched experiments. On June 23, 1877, he
hastened to the Société de Biologie and proclaimed his
mistake, acting in this as a loyal Frenchman, Pasteur said.

In spite of this testimony, and nothwithstanding the
admiration conceived for Pasteur by certain medical men —
notably H. Gueneau de Mussy, who published in that very
year (1877) a paper on the theory of the contagium germ and
the application of that theory to the etiology of typhoid
fever — ^the struggle was being continued between Pasteur
and the current medical doctrines. In the long discussion
which began at that time in the Académie de Médecine on
typhoid fever, some masters of medical oratory violently
attacked the germ theory, proclaiming the spontaneity of
living organism. Typhoid fever, they said, is engendered
by ourselves within ourselves. Whilst Pasteur was con-
vinced that the day would come — and that was indeed the

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supreme goal of his life work — ^when contagious and
virulent diseases would be effaced from the preoccupations,
mournings and anxieties of humanity, and when the
infinitesimally small, known, isolated and studied, would at
last be vanquished, his ideas were called Utopian dreams.

The old professors, whose career had been built on a com-
bination of theories which they were pleased to call medical
truth, dazed by such startling novelties, endeavoured, as
did Piorry, to attract attention to their former writings.
''It is not the disease, an abstract being," said Piorry,
'' which we have to treat, but the patient, whom we must
study with the greatest care by all the physical, chemical
and clinical means which Science offers."

The contagion which Pasteur showed, appearing clearly
in the disorders visible in the carcases of inoculated guinea-
pigs, was counted as nothing. As to the assimilation of a
laboratory experiment on rabbits and guinea-pigs to what
occurred in human pathology, it may be guessed that it
was quite out of the question for men who did not even
admit the possibility of a comparison between veterinary
medicine and the other. It would be interesting to recon-
stitute these hostile surroundings in order to appreciate the
efforts of will required of Pasteur to enable him to triumidi
over all the obstacles raised before him in the medical and
the veterinary world.

The Professor of Alfort School, Colin, who had, he said,
made 500 experiments on anthrax within the last twelve
years, stated, in a paper^of seventeen pages, read at the
Academy of Medicine on July 31, that the results of
Pasteur's experiments had not the importance which
Pasteur attributed to them. Among many other objections,
one was considered by Colin as a fatal one — the existence
of a virulent agent situated in the blood, besides the
bacteridia.

I877-I879

Bouley, who had just communicated to the Academy of
Sciences some notes by M. Toussaint, professor at the
Toulouse veterinary school, whose experiments agreed with
those of Pasteur, was nevertheless a little moved by Colin's
reading. He wrote in that sense to Pasteur, who was then
spending his holidays in the Jura. Pasteur addressed to
him an answer as vigorous as any of his replies at the
Academy.

"Arbois, August 18, 1877. — My dear colleague . .
I hasten to answer your letter. I should like to accept
literally the honour which you confer upon me by calling
me 'your master,' and to give you a severe reprimand,
you faithless man, who would seem to have been shaken by
M. Colin's reading at the Académie des Sciences, since you
are still holding forth on the possibility of a virulent agent,
and since your uncertainties seem to be appeased by a new
notice, read by yourself, last Monday, at the Académie des
Sciences.

" Let me tell you frankly that you have not sufficiently
imbibed the teaching contained in the papers I have
read, in my own name and in that of M. Joubert, at the
Académie des Sciences and at the Academy of Medicine.
Can you believe that I should have read those papers if
they had wanted the confirmation you mention, or if
M. Colin's contradictions could have touched them? You
know what my situation is, in these grave controversies ;
you know that, ignorant as I am of medical and veterinary
knowledge, I should immediately be taxed with presump-
tion if I had the boldness to speak without being armed for
struggle and for victory 1 All of you, physicians and
veterinary surgeons, would quite reasonably fall upon me if
I brought into your debates a mere semblance of proof.

'^ How is it that you have not noticed that M. Colin has
travestied — Ishouldevensay suppressed — ^because it hindered

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

his theory, the important experiment of the successive
cultures of the bacteridium in urine ?

" If a drop of blood, infected with anthrax, is mixed with
water, with pure blood or with humour from the eye, as
was done by Davaine, Koch and M. Colin himself, and
some of that mixture is inoculated and death ensues, doubt
may remain in the mind as to the cause of virulence,
especially since Davaine's well known experiments on
septicaemia. Our experiment is very different ..."

And Pasteur showed how, from one artificial culture to
another, he reached the fiftieth, the hundredth, and how a
drop of this hundredth culture, identical with the first, could
bring about death as certainly as a drop of infected blood.

Months passed, and — as Pasteur used to wish in his
youth that it might be — ^few passed without showing one
step forward. In a private letter to his old Arbois school-
fellow, Jules Vercel, he wrote (February ii, T878) : " I am
extremely busy ; at no epoch of my scientific life have I
worked so hard or been so much interested in the results of
my researches, which will, I hope, throw a new and a great
light on certain very important branches of medicine and
of surgery."

In the face of those successive discoveries, every one had
a word to say. This accumulation of facts was looked
down upon by that category of people who borrow assur-
ance from a mixture of ignorance or prejudice. Others, on
the other hand, amongst whom the greatest were to be
found, proclaimed that Pasteur's work was immortal and
that the word " theory " used by him should be changed into
that of " doctrine." One of those who thus spoke with the
right given by full knowledge, was Dr. Sédillot, whose open
and critical mind had kept him from becoming like the old
men described by Sainte Beuve as stopping their watch at a

I877-I879

given time and refusing to recognize further progress. He
was formerly Director of the Army Medical School at
Strasburg, and had already retired in 1870, but had joined
the army again as volunteer sui^eon. It will be remem-
bered that he had written from the Hagueneau ambulance
to the Académie des Sciences — of which he was a corre-
sponding member — to call the attention of his colleagues to
the horrors of purulent infection, which defied his zeal and
devotion.

No one followed Pasteur's work with greater attention
than this tall, sad-looking old man of seventy-four ; he was
one of those who had been torn away from his native
Alsace, and he could not get over it. In March, 1878, he
read a paper to the Academy, entitled, " On the Influence
of M. Pasteur's Work on Medicine and Surgery."

Those discoveries, he said, which had deeply modified the
state of surgery, and particularly the treatment of wounds,
could be traced back to one principle. This principle was
applicable to various facts, and explained Lister's success,
and the fact that certain operations had become possible,
and that certain cases, formerly considered hopeless, were
now being recorded on all sides. Real progress lay there.
Sédillot's concluding paragraph deserves to be handed
down as a comment precious from a contemporary : " We
shall have seen the conception and birth of a new surgery,
a daughter of Science and of Art, which will be one of the
greatest wonders of our century, and with which the names
of Pasteur and Lister will remain gloriously connected."

In that treatise, Sédillot invented a new word to charac-
terize all that body of organisms and infinitely small
vibriones, bacteria, bacteridia, etc. ; he proposed to designate
them all under the generic term of microbe. This word had,
in Sédillot's eyes, the advantage of being short and of hav-
ing a general signification. He however felt some scruple

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before using it, and consulted Littré, who replied on Feb-
ruary 26, 1878 : '^ Dear colleague and friend, microbe and
microMa are very good words. To designate the animal-
culse I should give the preference to microbe^ because, as
you say, it is short, and because it leaves microbia, a femi-
nine noun, for the designation of the state of a microbe."

Certain philologists criticized the formation of the word
in the name of the Greek language. Microbe, they said,
means an animal with a short life, rather than an infinitesi-
mally small animal. Littré gave a second testimonial to
the word microbe —

" It is true," he wrote to Sédillot, " that fuxpo/Su^ and
fjkaxpofiui^ probably me^i in Greek short-lived and long-
lived. But, as you justly remark, the question is not what
is most purely Greek, but what is the use made in our
language of the Greek roots. Now the Greek has filo^^ life,
fiMvvj to live, /3u>uç, living, the root of which may very
well figure under the form of W, bia with the sense living^
in aerobiUf anaërobia and microbe. I should advise you not
to trouble to answer criticisms, but let the word stand for
itself, which it will no doubt do." Pasteur, by adopting it,
made the whole world familiar with it.

Though during that month of March, 1878, Pasteur had
had the pleasure of hearing Sédillot's prophetic words at
the Académie des Sciences, he had heard very different
language at the Académie de Médecine. Colin of Alfort,
from the isolated comer where he indulged in his misan-
thropy, had renewed his criticisms of Pasteur. As he
spoke unceasingly of a state of virulent anthrax devoid
of bacteridia, Pasteur, losing patience, begged of the
Académie to nominate a Commission of Arbitration.

*'I desire expressly that M. Colin should be urged to
demonstrate what he states to be the fact, for his assertion
implies another, which is that an organic matter, contain-

1877-1879

ing neither bacteridia nor germs of bacteridia, produces
within the body of a living animal the bacteridia of anthrax.
This would be the spontaneous generation of the bacillus
anthracis I "

Colin's antagonism to Pasteur was such that he contra-
dicted him in every point and on every subject Pasteur
having stated that birds, and notably hens, did not take the
charbon disease, Colin had hastened to say that nothing
was easier than to give anthrax to hens ; this was in July,
1877. Pasteur, who was at that moment sending Colin
some samples of bacteridia culture which he had promised
him, begged that he would kindly bring him in exchange a
hen suffering from that disease, since it could contract it
so easily.

Pasteur told the story of this episode in March, 1878 ; it
was an amusing interlude in the midst of those technical
discussions. ''At the end of the week, I saw M. Colin
coming into my laboratory, and, even before I shook hands
with him, I said to him : ' Why, you have not brought me
that diseased hen ? ' — * Trust me>' answered M. Colin, * you
shall have it next week.' — I left for the vacation ; on my
return, and at the first meeting of the Academy which I
attended, I went to M. Colin and said, * Well, where is my
dying hen ? ' * I have only just b^un experimenting again,'
said M. Colin ; * in a few days I will bring you a hen suffer-
ing from charbon.' — ^Days and weeks went by, with fresh
insistence on my part and new promises from M. Colin.
One day, about two months ago, M. Colin owned to me that
he had been mistaken, and that it was impossible to give
anthrax to a hen. ' Well, my dear colleague,' I said to him,
• I will show you that it is possible to give anthrax to hens ;
in fact, I will one day myself bring you at Alfort a hen
which shall die of charbon.'

« I have told the Academy this story of the hen M. Colin

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had promised in order to show that our colleague's contra-
diction of our observations on charbon had never been very
serious."

Colin, after speaking about several other things, ended by
sajring : " I regret that I have not until now been able to
hand to M. Pasteur a hen dying or dead of anthrax. The
two that I had bought for that purpose were inoculated
several times with very active blood, but neither of them
has fallen ill. Perhaps the experiment might have
succeeded afterwards, but, one fine day, a greedy dog
prevented that by eating up the two birds, whose cage
had probably been badly closed." On the Tuesday which
followed this incident, the passers-by were somewhat sur-
prised to see Pasteur emerging from the Ecole Normale,
carrying a cage, within which were three hens, one of
them dead. Thus laden, he took a fiacre, and drove to
the Académie de Médecine, where, on arriving, he deposited
this unexpected object on the desk. He explained that the
dead hen had been inoculated with charbon two days before,
at twelve o'clock on the Sunday, with five drops of yeast water
employed as a nutritive liquid for pure bacteridium germs,
and that it had died on the Monday at five o'clock, twenty-
nine hours' after the inoculation. He also explained, in his
own name, and in the names of Messrs. Joubert and
Chamberland, how in the presence of the curious fact that
hens were refractory to charbon, it had occurred to them to
see whether that singular and hitherto mysterious preserva-
tion did not have its cause in the temperature of a hen's
body, " higher by several durées than the temperature of
the body of all the animal species which can be decimated
by charbon."

This preconceived idea was followed by an ingenious
experiment. In order to lower the temperature of an in-
oculated hen's body, it was kept for some time in a bath,

I877-I879

the water covering one-third of its body. When treated
in that way, said Pasteur, the hen dies the next day. " All
its blood, spleen, lungs, and liver are filled with bacilli
anthracis susceptible of ulterior cultures either in inert
liquids or in the bodies of animals. We have not met with
a single exception."

As a proof of the success of the experiment, the white
hen lay on the floor of the cage. As people might be forth-
coming, even at the Academy, who would accuse the pro-
longed bath of having caused death, one of the two living
hens, a gray one, who was extremely lively, had been
placed in the same bath, at the same temperature and
during the same time. The third one, a black hen, also in
perfect health, had been inoculated at the same time as the
white hen, with the same liquid, but with ten drops instead
of five, to make the comparative result more convincing ;
it had not been subjected to the bath treatment. '' You can
see how healthy it is," said Pasteur ; " it is therefore im-
possible to doubt that the white hen died of charbon ; besides,
the fact is proven by the bacteridia which fill its body."

A fourth experiment remained to be tried on a fourth hen,
but the Academy of Medicine did not care to hold an all-
night sitting. Time lacking, it was only done later, in the
laboratory. Could a hen, inoculated of charbon and placed
in a bath, recover and be cured merely by being taken out
of its bath ? A hen was taken, inoculated and held down a
prisoner in a bath, its feet fastened to the bottom of the tub,
until it was obvious that the disease was in full progress.
The hen was then taken out of the water, dried, and wrapped
up in cotton wool and placed in a temperature of 35^ C.
The bacteridia were reabsorbed by the blood, and the hen
recovered completely.

This was, indeed, a most suggestive experiment, proving
that the mere fall of temperature from 42^ C. (the tempera-

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ture of hens) to 38^ C. was sufficient to cause a receptive
condition; the hen, brought down by immersion to the
temperature of rabbits or guinea-pigs, became a victim
like them.

Between Sédillot's enthusiasm and Colin's perpetual con-
tradiction, many attentive surgeons and physicians were
taking a middle course, watching for Pasteur's results and
ultimately accepting them with admiration. Such was the
state of mind of M. LerebouUet, an editor of the Weekly
Gasette of Medicine and Surgery^ who wrote in an account
of the Académie de Médecine meeting that " those facts
throw a new light on the theory of the genesis and develop-
ment of the bacillus anthracis. They will be ascertained
and verified by other experimentalists, and it seems very
probable that M. Pasteur, who never brings any premature
or conjectural assertion to the academic tribune, will deduce
from them conclusions of the greatest interest concerning
the etiology of virulent diseases."

But even to those who admired Pasteur as much as did
M. LerebouUet, it did not seem that such an important part
should inmiediately be attributed to microbes. Towards
the end of his report (dated March 22, 1878) he reminded
his readers that a discussion was open at the Académie de
Médecine, and that the surgeon, Léon Le Fort, did not
admit the germ theory in its entirety. M. Le Fort recog-
nised " all the services rendered to surgery by laboratory
studies, chiefly by calling attention to certain accidents of
wounds and sores, and by provoking new researches with a
view to improving methods of dressing and bandaging.'*
"Like all his colleagues at the Academy, and like our
eminent master, M. Sédillot," added M. LerebouUet, " M. Le
Fort renders homage to the work of M. Pasteur ; but he
remains within his rights as a practitioner and reserves his
opinion as to its general application to surgery."

I877-I879

This was a mUd way of putting it ; M. Le Fort's words
were, " That theory, in its applications to clinical surgery, is
absolutely inacceptable." For him, the original purulent
infection, though coming from the wound, was bom under
the influence of general and local phenomena toUhin the
patient, and not outside him. He believed that the economy
had the power, under various influences, to produce purulent
infection. A septic poison was created, bom spontaneously,
which was afterwards carried to other patients by such
medicines as the tools and bandages and the hands of the
surgeon. But, originally, before the propagation of the
contagium germ, a purulent infection was spontaneously
produced and developed. And, in order to put his teaching
into forcible words, M. Le Fort declared to the Académie
de Médecine : ** I believe in the interiority of the principle ol
purulent infection in certain patients ; that is why I oppose
the extension to surgery of the germ theory which pro-
claims the constant exteriority of that principle."

Pasteur rose, and with his firm, powerful voice, exclaimed,
'^ Before the Academy accepts the conclusion of the paper
we have just heard, before the application of the germ
theory to pathology is condemned, I beg that I may be
allowed to make a statement of the researches I am
engaged in with the collaboration of Messrs. Joubert and
Chamberland.^'

His impatience was so great that he formulated then and
there some headings for the lecture he was preparing,
propositions on septicemia or putrid infection, on the septic
vibrio itself, on the germs of that vibrio carried by wind
in the shape of dust, or suspended in water, on the vitality
of those germs, etc. He called attention to the mistakes
which might be made if, in that new acquaintance with
microbes, their morphologic aspect alone was taken account
of. *' The septic vibrio, for instance, varies so much in its

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

shape, length and thickness, according to the media wherein
it is cultivated, that one would think one was dealing with
beings specifically distinct from each other."

It was on April 30, 1878, that Pasteur read that celebrated
lecture on the germ theory, in his own name and in that of
Messrs. Joubert and Chamberland. It began by a proud
exordium : '' All Sciences gain by mutual support. When,
subsequently to my early conununications on fermentations,
in 1857-1858, it was admitted that ferments, properly so
called, are living beings; that germs of microscopical
organisms abound on the surface of all objects in the atmo-
sphere and in water ; that the hypothesis of spontaneous
generations is a chimera ; that wines, beer, vin^ar, blood,
urine and all the liquids of the economy are preserved from
their common changes when in contact with pure air —
Medicine and Surgery cast their eyes towards these new
lights. A French physician, M. Davaine, made a first suc-
cessful application of those principles to medicine in 1863.*'

Pasteur himself, elected to the Académie des Sciences as
a mineralc^st, proved by the concatenation of his studies
within the last thirty years that Science was indeed one
and all embracing. Having thus called his audience*s
attention to the bonds which connect one scientific subject
with another, Pasteur proceeded to show the connection
between his yesterday's researches on the etiology of
Charbon to those he now pursued on septicaemia. He hastily
glanced back on his successful cultures of the bacillus
anthracis, and on the certain, indisputable proof that the
last culture acted equally with the first in producing
charbon within the body of animals. He then owned to the
failure, at first, of a similar method of cultivating the
septic vibrio : '' All our first experiments failed in spite of
the variety of culture media that we used; beer yeast
water, meat broth, etc., etc. ..."

i8:^7-i879

He then expounded, in the most masterly manner: (i) the
idea which had occurred to him that this vibrio might be
an exclusively anaerobic organism, and that the sterility of
the liquids might proceed from the fact that the vibrio was
killed by the oxygen held in a state of solution by those
liquids; (2) the similarity offered by analogous facts in
connection with the vibrio of butyric fermentation, which
not only lives without air, but is killed by air; (3) the
attempts made to cultivate the septic vibrio in a vacuum or
in the presence of carbonic acid gas, and the success of
both those attempts ; and, finally, as the result of the fore-
going, the proof obtained that the action of the air kills the
septic vibriones, which are then seen to perish, under the
shape of moving threads, and ultimately to disappear, as if
burnt away by oxygen.

" If it is terrifying," said Pasteur, "to think that life may
be at the mercy of the multiplication of those infinitesimally
small creatures, it is also consoling to hope that Science will
not always remain powerless before such enemies, since it
is already now able to inform us that the simple contact
<tf air is sometimes sufficient to destroy them. But," he
continued, meeting his hearers' possible arguments, "if
oxygen destroys vibriones, how can septicaemia exist, as it
does, in the constant presence of atmospheric air ? How
can those facts be reconciled with the germ theory ? How
can blood exposed to air become septic through the dusts
contained in air? All is dark, obscure and open to dis-
pute when the cause of the phenomena is not known ; all is
light when it is grasped."^

In a septic liquid exposed to the contact of air, vibriones
die and disappear ; but, below the surface, in the depths of
the liquid — (one centimetre of septic liquid may in this case
be called depths), " the vibriones are protected against the
action of oxygen by their brothers, who are dying above

VOL. II. 65 F

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

them, and they continue for a time to multiply by division ;
they afterwards produce germs or spores, the filiform vi-
briones themselves being gradually reabsorbed. Instead of
a quantity of moving threads, the length of which often
extends beyond the field of the microscope, nothing is seen
but a dust of isolated, shiny specks, sometimes surrounded
by a sort of amorphous gangue hardly visible. Here then
is the septic dust, living the latent life of germs, no longer
fearing the destructive action of oxygen, and we are now
prepared to understand what seemed at first so obscure :
the sowing of septic dust into putrescible liquids by the
surrounding atmosphere, and the permanence of putrid
diseases on the surface of the earth.''

Pasteur continued from this to open a parenthesis on
diseases '* transmissible, contagious, infectious, of which
the cause resides essentially and solely in the presence oi
microscopic organisms. It is the proof that, for a certain
number of diseases, we must for ever abandon the ideas of
spontaneous virulence, of contagious and infectious elements
suddenly produced within the bodies of men or of animals
and originating diseases afterwards propagated under
identical shapes; all those opinions fatal to medical pro-
gress and which are engendered by the gratuitous hypo-
theses of the spontaneous generation of albimiinoid-ferment
materia, of hemiorganism, of archebiosis, and many other
conceptions not founded on observation."

Pasteur recommended the following experiment to sur-
geons. After cutting a fissure into a 1^ of mutton, by
means of a bistoury, he introduced a drop of septic vibrio
culture ; the vibrio immediately did its work. " The meat
under those conditions becomes quite gangrened, green on
its surface, swollen with gases, and is easily crushed into a
disgusting, sanious pulp." And addressing the surgeons
present at the meeting : " The water, the sponge, the charpie

I877-I879

with which 3rou wash or dress a wound, lay on its surface
germs which, as you see, have an extreme facility of propa-
gating within the tissues, and which would infallibly bring
about the death of the patients within a very short time if
life in their limbs did not oppose the multiplication of
germs. But how often, alas, is that vital resistance power-
less I how often do the patient's constitution, his weakness,
his moral condition, the unhealthy dressings, oppose but an
insufficient barrier to the invasion of the Infinitesimally Snmll
with which you have covered the injured part 1 If I had
the honour of being a surgeon, convinced as I am of the
dangers caused by the germs of microbes scattered on the
surface of every object, particularly in the hospitals, not
only would I use absolutely clean instruments, but, after
cleansing my hands with the greatest care and putting
them quickly through a flame, (an easy thing to do with a
little practice), I would only make use of charpie, bandages,
and spunges which had previously been raised to a heat of
I30**C. to i5o**C. ; I would only employ water which had been
heated to a temperature of 1 10^ to 120^ C. All that is easy in
practice, and, in that way, I should still have to fear the
germs suspended in the atmosphere surrounding the bed of
the patient ; but observation shows us every day that the
number of those germs is almost insignificant compared to
that ot those which lie scattered on the surface of objects,
or in the clearest ordinary water."

He came down to the smallest details, seeing in each one
an application of the rigorous principles which were to
transform Surgery, Medicine and Hygiene. How many
human lives have since then been saved by the dual
development of that one method! The defence against
microbes afiforded by the substances which kill them or
arrest their development, such as carbolic acid, sublimate,
iodoform, salol, etc., etc., constitutes antisepsis; then the

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

other progressi bom of the first, the obstacle opposed to the
arrival of the microbes and germs by complete disinfection,
absolute cleanliness of the instruments and hands, of all
which is to come into contact with the patient ; in one word,
asepsis.

It might have been prophesied at that date that Pasteur's
surprised delight at seeing his name gratefully inscribed on
the great Italian establishment of sériciculture would one
day be surpassed by his happiness in living to see realized
some of the progress and benefits due to him, his name
invoked in all operating theatres, engraved over the doors
of medical and surgical wards, and a new era inaugurated.

A presentiment of the future deliverance of Humanity
from those redoubtable microscopic foes gave Pasteur a fever
for work, a thirst for new research, and an immense hope.
But once again he constrained himself, refrained from throw-
ing himself into varied studies, and, continuing what he
had begun, reverted to his studies on splenic fever.

The neighbourhood of Chartres being most afflicted, the
Minister of Agriculture, anticipating the wish of the Conseil
Général of the department of Eure et Loir, had entrusted
Pasteur with the mission of studying the causes of so-
called spontaneous charbon, that which bursts out unex-
pectedly in a flock, and of seeking for curative and preven-
tive means of opposing the evil. Thirty-six years earlier,
the learned veterinary surgeon, Delafond, had been sent to
seek, particularly in the Beauce country, the causes of the
charbon disease. Bouley, a great reader, said that there
was no contrast more instructive than that which could be
seen beVween the reasoning method followed by Delafond,
and the experimental method practised by Pasteur. It was
in 1842 that Delafond received from M. Cunin Gridaine,
then Minister of Agriculture, the mission of *^ going to
study that malady on the spot, to seek for its causes, and to

I877-I879

examine particularly whether those causes did not reside in
the mode of culture in use in that part of the country."
Delafond arrived in the Beauce, and, having seen that the
disease struck the strongest sheep, it occurred to him that
it came from " an excess of blood circulating in the vessels."
He concluded from that that there might be a correlation
between the rich blood of the Beauce sheep and the rich
nitrogenous pasture of their food.

He therefore advised the cultivators to diminish the
daily ration; and he was encouraged in his views by
noting that the frequency of the disease diminished in poor,
damp, or sandy soils.

Bouley, in order to show up Delafond's efforts to make
facts accord with his reasoning, added that to explain '' a
disease, of which the essence is general plethora, becoming
contagious and expressing itself by charbon symptoms in
man," Delafond had imagined that the atmosphere of the
pens, into which the animals were crowded, was laden with
evil gases and putrefying emanations which produced an
alteration of the blood *' due at the same time to a slow
asphyxia and to the introduction through the lungs of
septic elements into the blood."

It would have been but justice to recall other researches
connected with E>elafond's name. In 1863, Delafond had
collected some blood infected with charbon, and, at a time
when such experiments had hardly been thought of, he had
attempted some experiments on the development of the
bacteridium, under a watch glass, at the normal blood
temperature. He had seen the little rods grow into fila-
ments, and compared them to a "very remarkable my-
celium." "I have vainly tried to see the mechanism of
fructification," added Delafond, " but I hope I still may."
Death struck down Delafond before he could continue his
work.

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

In 1869 a scientific congress was held at Chartres ; one
of the questions examined being this : '' What has been
done to oppose splenic fever in sheep?" A veterinary
surgeon enumerated the causes which contributed, accord-
ing to him, to produce and augment mortality by splenic
fever: bad hygienic conditions; tainted food, musty or
cryptogamized ; heated and vitiated air in the crowded pens,
full of putrid manure ; paludic miasma or effluvia ; damp
soil flooded by storms, etc., etc. A well known veteri-
nary surgeon, M. Boutet, saw no other means to preserve
what remained of a stricken flock but to take it to another
soil, which, in contradiction with his colleague, he thought
should be chosen cool and damp. No conclusion could be
drawn. The disastrous loss traused by splenic fever in the
Beauce alone was terrible ; it was said to have reached
20,000,000 francs in some particularly bad years. The
migration of the tainted flock seemed the only remedy, but
it was difficult in practice and offered danger to other
flocks, as carcases of dead sheep were wont to mark the
road that had been followed.

Pasteur, starting from the fact that the charbon disease
is produced by the bacteridium, proposed to prove that, in a
department like that of Eure et Loir, the disease main-
tained itself by itself. When an animal dies of splenic
fever in a field, it is frequently .buried in the very spot
where it fell ; thus a focus of contagion is created, due to
the anthrax spores mixed with the earth where other flocks
are brought to graze. Those germs, thought Pasteur, are
probably like the germs of the flachery vibrio, which
survive from one year to another and transmit the disease.
He proposed to study the disease on the spot.

It almost always happened that, when he was most
anxious to give himself up entirely to the study of a
problem, some new discussion was started to hinder him.

I 877-1 879

He had œrtainly thought that the experimental power of
giving anthrax to hens had been fully demonstrated, and
that that question was dead, as dead as the inoculated and
immersed hen.

Colin, however, returned to the subject, and at an
Academy meeting of July 9 said somewhat insolently, " I
wish we could have seen the bacteridia of that dead hen
which M. Pasteur showed us without taking it out of its
cage, and which he took away intact instead of making us
witness the necropsy and microscopical examination."
" I will take no notice," said Pasteur at the following meet-
ing, ''of the malevolent insinuations contained in that
sentence, and only consider M. Colin*s desire to hold in his
hands the body of a hen dead of anthrax, full of bacteridia.
I will, therefore, ask M. Colin if he will accept such a hen
under the following condition: the necropsy and micro-
scopic examination shall be made by himself, in my
presence, and in that of one of our colleagues of this
Academy, designated by himself or by this Academy, and
an official report shall be drawn up and signed by the per-
sons present. So shall it be well and duly stated that M.
Colin's conclusions, in his paper of May 14, are null and
void. The Academy will understand my insistence in
rejecting M. Colin's superficial contradictions.

" I say it here with no sham modesty : I have always
considered that my only right to a seat in this place is that
given me by your great kindness, for I have no medical or
veterinary knowledge. I therefore consider that I must be
more scrupulously exact than any one else in the presenta-
tions which I have the honour to make to you ; I should
promptly lose all credit if I brought you erroneous or
merely doubtful facts. If ever I am mistaken, a thing
which may happen to the most scrupulous, it is because my
good faith has been greatly surprised.

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

'* On the other hand, I have come amongst you with a
programme to follow which demands accuracy at every
step. I can tell you my programme in two words : I have
sought for twenty years, and I am still seeking, spontaneous
generation properly so-called.

♦* If God permit, I shall seek for twenty years and more
the spontaneous generation of transmissible diseases.

" In these diflScult researches, whilst sternly deprecating
frivolous contradiction, I only feel esteem and gratitude
towards those who may warn me if I should be in error."

The Academy decided that the necropsy and microscopic
examination of the dead hen which Pasteur was to bring to
Colin should take place in the presence of a Commission
composed of Pasteur, Colin, Davaine, Bouley, and Vulpian.
This Commission met on the following Saturday, July 20,
in the Council Chamber of the Academy of Medicine. M.
Armand Moreau, a member of the Academy, joined the five
members present, partly out of curiosity, and partly because
he had special reasons for wishing to speak to Pasteur after
the meeting.

Three hens were lying on the table, all of them dead.
The first one had been inoculated under the thorax with
five drops of yeast water slightly alkalized, which had been
given as a nutritive medium to some bacteridia anthracis ;
the hen had been placed in a bath at 25^ C, and had died
within twenty-two hours. The second one, inoculated with
ten drops of a culture liquid, had been placed in a warmer
bath, 30^ C, and had died in thirty-six hours. The third
hen, also inoculated and immersed, had died in forty-six
hours.

Besides those three dead hens, there was a living one
which had been inoculated in the same way as the first hen.
This one had remained for forty-three hours with one-third of
its body immersed in a barrel of water. When it was seen

I877-I879

in the laboratory that its temperature had gone down to
36^ C, that it was incapable of eating and seemed very ill,
it was taken out of the tub that very Saturday morning,
and warmed in a stove at 42° C. It was now getting
better, though still weak, and gave signs of an exœllent
appetite before leaving the Academy council chamber.

The third hen, which had been inoculated with ten drops,
was dissected then and there. Bouley, after noting a serous
infiltration at the inoculation focus, showed to the judges
sitting in this room, thus suddenly turned into a testing
laboratory, numerous bacteridia scattered throughout every
part of the hen.

"After those ascertained results,'* wrote Bouley, who
drew up the report, •* M. Colin declared that it was useless
to proceed to the necropsy of the two other hens, that
which had just been made leaving no doubt of the presence
of bacilli anthracis in the blood of a hen inoculated with
charbon and then placed under the conditions designated
by M. Pasteur as making inoculation efficacious.

" The hen No. 2 has been given up to M. Colin to be used
for any examination or experiment which he might like to
try at Alfort.

" Signed : G. Colin, H. Bouley, C. Davaine, L. Pasteur,
A. Vulpian."

''This is a precious autograph, headed as it is by M.
Colin's signature!" gaily said Bouley. But Pasteur,
pleased as he was with this conclusion, which put an end
to all discussion on that particular point, was already
turning his thoughts into another channel. The Acade-
mician who had joined the members of the Commission
was showing him a number of the Remte Scientifique
which had appeared that morning, and which contained an
article of much interest to Pasteur.

In October, 1877, Claude Bernard, staying for the last

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

time at St. Julien, near Villefranche, had b^un some
experiments on fermentations. He had continued them on
his return to Paris, alone, in the study which was above his
laboratory at the Collège de France.

When Paul Bert, his favourite pupil, M. d'Arsonval, his
curator, M. Dastre, a former pupil, and M. Armand Moreau,
his friend, came to see him, he said to them in short,
enigmatical sentences, with no comment or experimental
demonstration, that he had done some good work during
the vacation. "Pasteur will have to look out . . .
Pasteur has only seen one side of the question ... I
make alcohol without cells . . . There is no life without
air . . y

Bernard's and Pasteur's seats at the Academy of Sciences
were next to each other, and they usually enjoyed inter-
changing ideas. Claude Bernard had come to the November
and December sittings, but, with a reticence to which he
had not accustomed Pasteur, he had made no allusion to his
October experiments. In January, 1878, he became seriously
ill; in his conversations with M. d'Arsonval, who was
affectionately nursing him, Claude Bernard talked of his
next lecture at the Museum, and said that he would discuss
his ideas with Pasteur before handling the subject of
fermentations. At the end of January M. d'Arsonval
alluded to these incomplete revelations. " It is all in my
head," said Claude Bernard, " but I am too tired to explain
it to you." He niiade the same weary answer two or three
days before his death. When he succimibed, on February
10, 1878, Paul Bert, M. d'Arsonval and M. Dastre thought
it their duty to ascertain whether their master had left any
notes relative to the work which embodied his last thoughts.
M. d'Arsonval, after a few days' search, discovered some
notes, carefully hidden in a cabinet in Claude Bernard's
bedroom ; they were all dated from the ist to the 20th of

I877-I879

October, 1877 î of November and December, there was no
record. Had he then not continued his experiments during
that period ? Paul Bert thought that these notes did not
represent a work, not even a sketch, but a sort of pro-
gramme. '' It was all condensed into a series of masterly
conclusions,'* said Paul Bert, "which evidenced certitude, but
there were no means of discussing through which channel
that certitude had come to his prudent and powerful mind."
What should be done with those notes ? Claude Bernard's
three followers decided to publish them. " We must," said
Paul Bert, " while telling the conditions under which the
manuscript was found, give it its character of incomplete
notes, of confidences made to itself by a great mind seeking
its way, and marking its road indiscriminately with facts
and with hypotheses in order to arrive at that feeling of
certainty which, in the mind of a man of genius, often
precedes proof." M. Berthelot, to whom the manuscript
was brought, presented these notes to the readers of the
Revue Scientifique. He pointed to their character, too
abbreviated to conclude with a rigorous demonstration, but
he explained that several friends and pupils of Claude
Bernard had " thought that there would be some interest
for Science in preserving the trace of the last subjects of
thought, however incomplete, of that great mind."

Pasteur, after the experiment at the Académie de Méde-
cine, hurried back to his laboratory and read with avidity
those last notes of Claude Bernard. Were they a precious
find, explaining the secrets Claude Bernard had hinted at ?
" Should I," said Pasteur, " have to defend my work, this
time against that colleague and friend for whom I professed
deep admiration, or should I come across unexpected revela-
tions, weakening and discrediting the results I thought I
had definitely established?"

His reading reassured him on that point, but saddened

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

him on the other hand. Since Claude Bernard had neither
desired nor even authorized the publication of those notes,
why, said Pasteur, were they not accompanied by an experi-
mental commentary ? Thus Claude Bernard would have
been credited with what was good in his MSS., and he
would not have been held responsible for what was in-
complete or defective.

" As for me, personally," wrote Pasteur in the first pages
of his Critical ExanHnation of a Posthunums Work of Claude
Bernard on Fermentation^ " I found myself cruelly puzzled ;
had I the right to consider Claude Bernard's MS. as the
expression of his thought, and was I free to criticize it
thoroughly?'' The table of contents and headings of
chapters in Claude Bernard's incomplete MS. condemned
Pasteur's work on alcoholic fermentation. The non-
existence of life without air ; the ferment not originated by
exterior germs ; alcohol formed by a soluble ferment outside
life • . . such were Claude Bernard's conclusions.
"If Claude Bernard was convinced," thought Pasteur,
" that he held the key to the masterly conclusions with
which he ended his manuscript, what could have been his
motive in withholding it from me ? I looked back upon the
many marks of kindly affection which he had given me
since I entered on a scientific career, and I came to the
conclusion that the notes left by Bernard were but a
programme of studies, that he had tackled the subject, and
that, following in this a method habitual to him, he had, the
better to discover the truth, formed the intention of trying
experiments which might contradict my opinions and
results."

Pasteur, much perplexed, resolved to put the case before
his colleagues; and did so two days later. He spoke of
Bernard's silence, his abstention from any allusion at their
weekly meetings. " It seems to me almost impossible," he

I 877-1 879

said, " and I wonder that those who are publishing these
notes have not perceived that it is a very delicate thing to
take upon oneself, with no authorization from the author,
the making public of private notebooks! Which of us
would care to think it might be done to him! . . .
Bernard must have put before himself that leading idea,
that I was in the wrong on every point, and taken that
method of preparing the subject he intended to study."
Such was also the opinion of those who remembered that
Claude Bernard's advice invariably was that every theory
should be doubted at first and only trusted when found
capable of resisting objections and attacks.

'' If then, in the intimacy of conversation with his friends
and the yet more intimate secret of notes put down on
paper and carefully put away, Claude Bernard develops a
plan <rf research with a view to judging of a theory — if he
imagines experiments — ^he is resolved not to speak about it
until those experiments have been clearly checked; we
should therefore not take from his notes the most expressly
formulated propositions without reminding ourselves that
all that was but a project, and that he meant to go once
again through the experiments he had already made/'

Pastetu: declared himself ready to answer any one who
would defend those experiments which he looked upon as
doubtful, erroneous, or wrongly interpreted. ''In the
opposite case," he said, " out of respect for Claude Bernard's
memory, I will repeat his experiments before discussing
them."

Some Academicians discoursed on these notes as on
simple suggestions and advised Pasteur to continue his
studies without allowing himself to be delayed by mere
control experiments. Others considered these notes as the
expres^on of Claude Bernard's thought. " That opinion,"
said Pasteur — ^man of sentiment as he was — '' that opinion,

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

however, does not explain the enigma of his silence towards
me. But why should I look for that explanation elsewhere
than in my intimate knowledge of his fine character?
Was not his silence a new proof of his kindness, and one of
the effects of our mutual esteem ? Since he thought that he
held in his hands a proof that the interpretation I had given
to my experiments was fallacious, did he not simply wish
to wait to inform me of it until the time when he thought
himself ready for a definite statement ? I prefer to attribute
high motives to my friend's actions, and, in my opinion, the
surprise caused in me by his reserve towards the one
colleague whom his work most interested should give way
in my heart to feelings of pious gratitude. However,
Bernard would have been the first to remind me that
scientific truth soars above the proprieties of friendship, and
that my duty lies in discussing views and opinions in my
turn with full liberty."

Pasteur having made this communication to the Academy
on July 22, hastily ordered three glass houses, which he
intended to take with him into the Jura, " where I possess,
he told his colleagues, *' a vineyard occupying some thirty
or forty square yards."

Two observations expounded in a chapter of his Studies
an Beer tend to establish that yeast can only appear about
the time when grapes ripen, and that it disappears in the
winter only to show itself again at the end of the summer."
Therefore "germs of yeast do not yet exist on green
grapes." '* We are," he added, " at an epoch in the year
when, by reascm of the lateness of v^etation due to a cold
and rainy season, grapes are still in the green stage in the
vineyards of Arbois. If I choose this moment to enclose
some vines in almost hermetically closed glass houses, I
shall have in October during the vintage some vines bearing
ripe grapes without the exterior germs of wine yeast.

I877-I879

Those grapes, crushed with precautions which will not
allow of the introduction of yeast germs, will neither
ferment nor produce wine. I shall give myself the pleasure
of bringing some back to Paris, to present them to the
Academy and to offer a few bunches to those of our
colleagues who are still able to believe in the spontaneous
generation of yeast"

In the midst of the agitation caused by that posthumous
work some said, or only insinuated, that if Pasteur was
announcing new researches on the subject, it was because
he felt that his work was threatened.

'' I will not accept such an interpretation of my conduct,"
he wrote to J. B. Dumas on August 4, 1878, at the very
time when he was starting for the Jura ; I have clearly
explained this in my notice of July 22, when I said I
would make new experiments solely from respect to
Bernard's memory."

As soon as Pasteur's glass houses arrived, they were put
up in the little vineyard he possessed, two kilometres from
Arbois. While they were being put together, he examined
whether the yeast germs were really absent from the
btmches of green grapes ; he had the satisfaction of seeing
that it was so, and that the particular branches which were
about to be placed under glass did not bear a trace of yeast
germs. Still, fearing that the closing of the glass might be
insufficient and that there might thus be a danger of germs,
he took the precaution, " while leaving some bimches free,
of wrapping a few on each plant with cotton wool previously
heated to 150^ C."

He then returned to Paris and his studies on anthrax,
whilst patiently waiting for the ripening of his grapes.

Besides M. Chamberland, Pasteur had enrolled M. Roux,
the young man who was so desirous of taking part in the
work at the laboratory. He and M. Chamberland were to

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

settle down at Chartres in the middle of the summer. A
recent student of the Alfort Veterinary School, M. Vinsot,
joined them at his own request. M. Roux has told of those
days in a paper on Pasteur* $ Medical Work :

"Our guide was M. Boutet, who had unrivalled know-
ledge of the splenic fever country, and we sometimes met
M. Toussaint, who was studying the same subject as we
were. We have kept a pleasant memory of that campaign
against charbon in the Chartres neighbourhood. Early in
the morning, we would visit the sheepfolds scattered on
that wide plateau of the Beauce, dazzling with the splen-
dour of the August sunshine ; then necropsies took place in
M. Rabourdin*s knacker's yard or in the farmyards. In
the afternoon, we edited our experiment notebooks, wrote
to Pasteur, and arranged for new experiments. The day
was well filled, and how interesting and salutary was that
bacteriology practised in the open air !

" On the days when Pasteur came to Chartres, we did not
linger over our lunch at the Hôtel de France ; we drove off
to St. Germain, where M. Maimoury had kindly put his
farm and flocks at our disposal. During the drive we
talked of the week's work and of what remained to be
done.

" As soon as P&steur left the carriage he hurried to the
folds. Standing motionless by the gate, he would gaze at
the lots which were being experimented upon, with a care-
ful attention which nothing escaped ; he would spend hours
watching one sheep which seemed to him to be sickening.
We had to remind him of the time and to point out to him
that the towers of Chartres Cathedral were b^^inning to
disappear in the falling darkness before we could prevail
upon him to come away. He questioned farmers and
their servants, giving much credit to the opinions of shep-
herds, who» on account of their solitary life, give their

I877-I879

whole attention to their flocks and often become sagacious
observers."

When again at Arbois, on September 17, Pasteur b^;an
to write to the Minister of Agriculture a note on the
practical ideas suggested by this first campaign. A few
sheep, bought near Chartres and gathered in a fold, had
received, amongst the armfuls of forage offered them, a few
anthrax spores. Nothing had been easier than to bring
these from the laboratory, in a liquid culture of bacteria,
and to scatter them on the field where the little flock
grazed. The first meals did not give good scientific results,
death was not easily provoked. But when the experimental
menu was completed by prickly plants, likely to wound
the sheep on their tongue or in their pharynx, such, for
instance, as thistles or ears of barley, the mortality began.
It was perhaps not as considerable as might have been
wished for demonstration purposes, but nevertheless it was
sufficient to explain how charbon could declare itself,
for necropsy showed the characteristic lesions of the so-
called spontaneous splenic fever. It was also to be con-
cluded therefrom that the evil b^^ in the mouth, or at
the back of the throat, supervening on meals of infected
food, alone or mixed with prickly plants likely to cause
abrasion.

It was therefore necessary, in a department like that of
Eure et Loir, which must be full of anthrax germs, — parti-
cularly on the surface of the graves containing carcases of
animals which had fallen victims to the disease, — that sheep
farmers should keep from the food of their animals plants
such as thistles, ears of barley, and sharp pieces of straw ;
for the least scratch, usually harmless to sheep, became
dangerous through the possible introduction of the germs of
the disease.

" It would also be necessary," wrote Pasteur, " to avoid all

VOL. II. 81 G

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

probable diffusion ^ charbon germs through the carcases of
animals dying of that disease, for it is likely that the de-
partment of Eure et Loir contains those germs in greater
quantities than the other departments; splenic fever having
long been established there, it always goes on, dead animals
not being disposed of so as to destroy all germs of ulterior
contagion."

After finishing this report, Pasteur went to his little
vineyard on the Besançon road, where he met with a dis-
appointment ; his precious grapes had not ripened, all the
strength of the plant seemed to have gone to the wood and
leaves. But the grapes had their turn at the end of Sep-
tember and in October, those bunches that were swathed
in cotton wool as well as those which had remained free
tmder the glass ; there was a great difference of colour be-
tween them, the former being very pale. Pasteur placed
grapes from the two series in distinct tubes. On October
10, he compared the grapes of the glass houses, free or
swathed, with the neighbouring open-air grapes. "The
result was beyond my expectations ; the tubes of open-air
grapes fermented with grape yeast after a thirty-six
or forty-eight hours' sojourn in a stove from 25® C. to 30^ ;
not one, on the contrary, of the numerous tubes of grapes
swathed in cotton wool entered into alcoholic fermentation,
neither did any of the tubes containing grapes ripened free
tmder glass. It was the experiment described in my Studies
on Beer. On the following days I repeated these experi-
ments with the same results." He went on to another
experiment. He cut some of the swathed bunches and
htmg them to the vines grown in the open air, thinking
that those bunches--exactly similar to those which he had
fotmd incapable of fermentation — would thus get covered
with the germs of alcoholic ferments, as did the bunches

I877-I879

grown in the open air and their wood. After that, the
bunches taken from under the glass and submitted to the
usual régime would ferment under the influence of the
germs which they would receive as well as the others ; this
was exactly what happened.

The difficulty now was to bring to the Académie des
Sciences these branches bearing swathed bunches of grapes ;
in order to avoid the least contact to the grapes, these vine
plants, as precious as the rarest orchids, had to be held
upright all the way from Arbois to Paris. Pasteur came
back to Paris in a coupé carriage on the express train,
accompanied by his wife and daughter, who took it in turns
to carry the vines. At last, they arrived safely at the Ecole
Normale, and from the Ecole Normale to the Institute, and
Pasteur had the pleasure of bringing his grapes to his
colleagues as he had brought his hens. ''If you crush
them while in contact with pure air," he said, " I defy you
to see them ferment." A long discussion then ensued with
M. Berthelot, which was prolonged until February, 1879.

'' It is a characteristic of exalted minds," wrote M. Roux,
"to put passion into ideas. . . . For Pasteur, the
alcoholic fermentation was correlative with the life of the
ferment ; for Bernard and M. Berthelot, it was a chemical
action like any other, and could be accomplished without
the participation of living cells." '' In alcoholic fermenta-
tion," said M. Berthelot, '' a soluble alcoholic ferment may
be produced, which perhaps consumes itself as its pro-
duction goes on."

M. Roux had seen Pasteur try to "extract the soluble
alcohdic ferment from yeast cells by crushing them in a
mortar, by freezing them until they burst, or by putting
them into concentrated saline solutions, in order to force by
osmose the succus to leave its envelope." Pasteur confessed

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that his efforts were vain. In a communication to the
Académie des Sciences on December 30, 1878, he said —

'' It ever is an enigma to me that it should be believed
that the discovery of soluble ferments in fermentations
properly so called, or of the formation of alcohol by
means of sugar, independently of cells would hamper
me. It is true — I own it without hesitation, and I am
ready to explain myself more lengthily if desired — that at
present I neither see the necessity for the existence of those
ferments, nor the usefulness of their action in this order of
fermentations. Why should actions of diastase^ which are
but phenomena of hydration, be confused with those of
organized ferments, or vice versa? But I do not see
that the presence of those soluble substances, if it were
ascertained, could change in any way the conclusions
drawn from my labours, and even less so if alcohol were
formed by electrolysis.

" They agree with me who admit :

" Firstly. That fermentations, properly so called, offer
as an essential condition the presence of microscopic
organisms.

''Secondly. That those organisms have not a sponta-
neous origin.

" Thirdly. That the life of every organism which can
exist away from free oxygen is suddenly concomitant with
acts of fermentation ; and that it is so with every cell which
continues to produce chemical action without the contact
of oxygen."

When Pasteur related this discussion, and formed of it an
appendix to his book : Critical ExandnatUm of a Pùsthunums
Work of Claude Bernard on Fermentations, his painful feelings
in opposing a friend who was no more were so clearly
evidenced that Sainte Claire DeviUe wrote to him (June 9,
1879) : " My dear Pasteur, I read a few passages of your

i877-i879

new book yesterday to a small party of professors and
savanis. We all were much moved by the expressions with
which you praise our dear Bernard, and by your feelings
of friendship and pure fraternity."

Sainte Claire Deville often spoke of his admiration for
Pasteur's precision of thought, his forcible speech, the
clearness of his writings. As for J. B. Dumas, he called
the attention of his colleagues at the Académie Française
to certain pages of that Critical Examination. Though
unaccustomed to those particular subjects, they could not
but be struck by the sagacity and ingenuity of Pasteur's
researches, and by the eloquence inspired by his genius.
A propos of those ferment germs, which turn grape juice
into wine, and from which he had preserved his swathed
bunches, Pasteur wrote —

^' What meditations are induced by those results 1 It is
impossible not to observe that, the further we penetrate into
the experimental study of germs, the more we perceive
sudden lights and clear ideas on the knowledge of the
causes of contagious diseases ! Is it not worthy of atten-
tion that, in that Arbois vineyard (and it would be true of
the million hectares of vineyards of all the countries in the
world), there should not have been, at the time when I
made the aforesaid experiments, one single particle of
earth which would not have been capable of provoking
fermentation by a grape yeast, and that, on the other hand,
the earth of the glass houses I have mentioned should have
been powerless to fulfil that office ? And why ? Because,
at a given moment, I covered that earth with some glass.
The death, if I may so express it, of a bunch of grapes
thrown at that time on any vineyard, would infallibly have
occurred through the saccharomyces parasites of which I
speak ; that kind of death would have been impossible, on
the contrary, on the little space enclosed by my glass

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houses. Those few cubic yards of air, those few square
yards of soil, were there, in the midst of a universal possible
contagion, and they were safe from it."

And suddenly looking beyond those questions of yeast
and vintage, towards the germs of disease and of death :
"Is it not permissible to believe, by analogy, that a day
will come when easily applied preventive measures will
arrest those scourges which suddenly desolate and terrify
populations; such as the fearful disease (yellow fever)
which has recently invaded Senegal and the valley of the
Mississippi, or that other (bubonic plague), yet more terrible
perhaps, which has ravaged the banks of the Volga."

Pasteur, with his quick answers, his tenacious refutations,
was looked upon as a great fighter by his colleagues at the
Academy, but in the laboratory, while seeking Claude
Bernard's soluble ferment, he tackled subjects from which
he drew conclusions which were amazing to physicians.

A worker in the laboratory had had a series of funmcles.
Pasteur, whose proverb was " Seek the microbe," asked him-
self whether the pus of furuncles might not have an organism,
which, carried to and fro, — for it may be said that a funmcle
never comes alone — ^would explain the centre of inflamma-
tion and the recurrence of the furuncles. After abstract-
ing — ^with the usual purity precautions — some pus from
three successive furuncles, he found in some sterilized broth,
a microbe, formed of little rounded specks which clustered
to the sides of the culture vessel. The same was observed
on a man whom Dr. Maurice Raynaud, interested in those
researches on furuncles, had sent to the laboratory, and
afterwards on a female patient of the Lariboisière Hos-
pital, whose back was covered with furuncles. Later on,
Pasteur, taken by Dr. Lannelongue to the Trousseau Hos-
pital, where a little girl was about to be operated on for that
disease of the bones and marrow called osteomyelitis^

I877-I879

gathered a few drops of pus from the inside and the out-
side ci the bone, and again fou(id clusters of microbes.
Sown into a culture liquid, this microbe seemed so identical
with the furuncle organism that '' it might be affirmed at
first sight/' said Pasteur, '' that osteomyelitis is the furuncle
of bones."

The hospital now took as much place in Pasteur's life as
the laboratory. '' Chamberland and I assisted him in those
studies," writes M. Roux. <' It was to the Hôpital Cochin
or to the Maternité that we went most frequently, taking
our culture tubes and sterilized pipets into the wards or
operating theatres. No one knows what feelings of repulsion
Pasteur had to overcome before visiting patients and
witnessing post-mortem examinations. His sensibility was
extreme, and he suflTered morally and physically from the
pains of others ; the cut of the bistoiuy opening an abscess
made him wince as if he himself had received it. The
sight of corpses, the sad business of necropsies, caused him
real disgust ; we have often seen him go home ill from those
operating theatres. But his love of science, his desire for
truth were the stronger ; he returned the next day."

He was highly interested in the study of puerperal fever
which was still enveloped in profoimd darkness. Might not
the application of his theories to the progress of surgery
be realized in obstetrics? Could not those epidemics be
arrested which passed like scourges over lying-in hospitals ?
It was still remembered with horror how, in the Paris
Maternity Hospital, between April ist and May lo, 1856,
64 fatalities had taken place out of 347 confinements. The
hospital had to be closed, and the survivors took refuge at
the Lariboisière Hospital, where they nearly all succumbed,
pursued, it was thought, by the epidemic.

Dr. Tamier, a student residing at the Maternité during
that disastrous time, related afterwards how the ignorance

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

of the causes of puerperal fever was such that he was
sometimes called away, by one of his chiefs, from some
post-mortem business, to assist in the maternity wards;
nobody being struck by the thought of the infection which
might thus be carried from the theatre to the bed of the
patient.

The discussion which arose in 1858 at the Académie de
Médecine lasted four months, and hypotheses of all kinds
were brought forward. Trousseau alone showed some pre-
science of the future by noticing an analogy between infec-
tious surgical accidents and infectious puerperal accidents;
the idea of a ferment even occurred to him. Years passed ;
women of the lower classes looked upon the Maternité as
the vestibule of death. In 1864, 3^^ deaths occurred out
of 1,350 confinement cases ; in 1865, the hospital had to be
closed. Works of cleansing and improvements gave rise
to a hppe that the " epidemic genius " might be driven
away. " But, at the very beginning of 1866," wrote Dr.
Trélat, then surgeon-in-chief at the Maternité, " the sani-
tary condition seemed perturbed, the mortality rose in
January, and in February we were overwhelmed." Twenty-
eight deaths had occurred out of 103 cases.

Trélat enumerated various causes, bad ventilation, neigh-
bouring wards, etc, but where was the origin of the evil?

" Under the influence of causes which escape us," wrote
M. Léon Lefort about that time, " puerperal fever develops
in a recently delivered woman; she becomes a centre ot
infection, and, if that infection is freely exercised, the epi-
demic is constituted."

Tamier, who took Trélat's place at the Maternité, in 1867,
had been for eleven years so convinced of the infectious
nature of puerperal fever that he thought but of arresting
the evil by every possible means of defence, the first of
which seemed to him isolation of the patients.

I877-I879

In 1874, I>r. Budin, then walking the hospitals, had noted
in Edinburgh the improvement due to antisepsis, thanks to
Lister. Three or four years later, in 1877 «wid 1878, after
having seen that, in the various maternity hospitals of
Holland, Germany, Austria, Russia and Denmark, anti-
sepsis was practised with success, he brought his impres-
sions with him to Paris. Tamier hastened to employ
carbolic acid at the Maternité with excellent results, and
his assistant, M. Bar, tried sublimate. While that new
period of victory over fatal cases was beginning, Pasteur
came to the Académie de Médecine, having found, in certain
puerperal infections, a microbe in the shape of a chain or
chaplet, which lent itself very well to culture.

" Pasteur," wrote M. Roux, " does not hesitate to declare
that that microscopic organism is the most frequent cause
of infection in recently delivered women. One day, in a
discussion on puerperal fever at the Academy, one of
his most weighty colleagues was eloquently enlarging upon
the causes of epidemics in lying-in-hospitals ; Pasteur inter-
rupted him from his place. ' None of those things cause
the epidemic ; it is the nursing and medical staff who carry
the microbe from an infected woman to a healthy one.'
And as the orator replied that he feared that microbe
would never be found, Pasteur went to the blackboard and
drew a diagram of the chain-like organism, saying:
' There, that is what it is like 1 ' His conviction was so
deep that he could not help expressing it forcibly. It would
be impossible now to picture the state of surprise and
stupefaction into which he would send the students and
doctors in hospitals, when, with an assurance and sim-
plicity almost disconcerting in a man who was entering a
lying-in ward for the first time, he criticized the appliances,
and declared that all the linen should be put into a steriliz-
ing stove."

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Pasteur was not satisfied with offering advice and criti-
cism, making for himself irreconcilable enemies amongst
those who were more desirous of personal distinction than
of the progress of Science. In order the better to convince
those who still doubted, he afltoned that, in a badly infected
patient — what he usually and sorrowfully called an invaded
patient — he could bring the microbe into evidence by a
simple pin prick on the finger tip of the unhappy woman
doomed to die the next day.

" And he did so,'* writes M. Roux. " In spite of the
tyranny of medical education which weighed down the
public mind, some students were attracted, and came to the
laboratory to examine more closely those matters, which
allowed of such precise diagnosis and such confident
prc^nosis."

What struggles, what efforts, were necessary before it
could be instilled into every mind that a constant watch
must be kept in the presence of those invisible foes, ready
to invade the human body through the least scratch — ^that
surgeons, dressers and nurses may become causes of infec-
tion and propagators of death through forgetfulness ! and
before the theory of germs and the all powerfulness of
microbes could be put under a full light à propos of that
discussion on puerperal fever!

But Pasteur was supported and inspired during that
period, perhaps the most fruitful of his existence, by
the prescience that those notions meant the salvation
of human lives, and that mothers need no longer be
torn by death from the cradle of their new-bom in-
fants.

'< I shall force them to see; they will have to see ! " he
repeated with a holy wrath against doctors who continued
to talk, from their study or at their clubs, with some
scepticism, of those newly discovered little creatures, of

I877-I879

those ultra-microscopic parasites, trying to moderate
enthusiasm and even confidence.

An experimental fact which occurred about that time
was followed with interest, not only by the Académie des
Sciences, but by the general public, whose attention was
beginning to be awakened. A professor at the Nancy
Faculty, M. Peltz, had annoimced to the Académie des
Sciences in March, 1897, that, in the blood abstracted from
a woman, who had died at the Nancy Hospital of puerperal
fever, he had found motionless filaments, simple or articu-
lated, transparent, straight or curved, which belonged, he
said, to the genus leptothrix. Pasteur, who in his studies
on puerperal fever had seen nothing of the kind, wrote
to Dr. Feltz, asking him to send him a few drops of that
infected blood. After receiving and examining the sample,
Pasteur hastened to inform M. Feltz that that leptothrix
was no other than the bacillus anthracis. M. Feltz, much
surprised and perplexed, declared himself ready to own
his error and to proclaim it if he were convinced by
examining blood infected by charbon, and which, he said,
he should collect wherever he could find it. Pasteur de-
sired to save him that trouble, and offered to send him
three little guinea-pigs alive, but inoculated, the one with
the deceased woman's blood, the other with the bacteridia
of charbon-infected blood from Chartres, the third with
some charbon-infected blood from a Jura cow.

The three rodents were inoculated on May 12, at three
o'clock in the afternoon, and arrived, living, at Nancy, on
the morning of the thirteenth. They died on the fourteenth,
in the laboratory of M. Feltz, who was thus able to observe
them with particular attention until their death.

"After carefully examining the blood of the three
animals after their death, I was tmable," said M. Feltz,
'' to detect the least difierence ; not only the blood, but

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the internal organs, and notably the spleen, were afifected
in the same manner." ... "It is a certainty to my
mind," he wrote to Pasteur, "that the contaminating
agent has been the same in the three cases, and that it
was the bacteridium of what you call anthrax."

There was therefore no such thing as a leptothriz
puerperalis. And it was at a distance, without having
seen the patient, that Pasteur said : " That woman died of
charbon." With an honourable straightforwardness, M.
Feltz wrote to the Académie des Sciences relating the
facts.

"It is doubly regrettable," he concluded, "that I
should not have known charbon already last year, for, on
the one hand, I might have diagnosed the redoubtable
complication presented by the case, and, on the other
hand, sought for the mode of contamination, which at
present escapes me almost completely." All he had been
able to find was that the woman, a charwoman, lived in
a little room near a stable belonging to a horse dealer.
Many animals came there ; the stable might have contained
diseased ones ; M. Feltz had been unable to ascertain the
fact. " I must end," he added, " with thanks to M. Pasteur
for the great kindness he has shown me during my inter-
course with him. Thanks to him, I was able to con-
vince myself of the identity between the bacillus
anthracis and the bacteridium found in the blood of a
woman who presented all the sjrmptoms of grave puerperal
fever."

At the time when that convincing episode was taking
place, other experiments equally precise were being imder-
taken concerning splenic fever. The question was to
discover whether it would be possible to find germs of
charbon in the earth of the fields which had been con-
taminated purposely, fourteen months before, by pouring

I877-I879

culture liquids over it. It seemed beyond all probability that
those germs might be withdrawn and isolated from the
innumerable other microbes contained in the soil. It was
done, however ; 500 grammes of earth were mixed with
water, and infinitesimal particles of it isolated. The spore
of the bacillus anthracis resists a, temperature of 80^ C. or
90^ C, which would kill any other microbe ; thoee particles
of earth were accordingly raised to that degree of heat
and then injected into some guinea-pigs, several of which
died of splenic fever. It was therefore evident that flocks
were exposed to infection merely by grazing over certain
fields in that land of the Beauce. For it was sufficient
that some infected blood should have remained on the
grotmdy for germs of bacteridia to be found there, perhaps
years later. How often was such blood spilt as a dead
animal was being taken to the knacker's yard or buried
on the spot ! Millions of bacteridia, thus scattered on and
below the surface of the soil, produced their spores, seeds
of death ready to germinate.

And yet negative facts were being opposed to these
positive facts, and the theory of spontaneity invoked 1 <' It
is with deep sorrow," said Pasteur at the Académie de
Médecine on November 11, 1873, " that I so frequently find
myself obliged to answer thoughtless contradiction; it
also grieves me much to see that the medical Press speaks
of these discussions in apparent ignorance of the true
principles of experimental method. . . .

" That aimlessness of criticism seems explicable to me,
however, by this circumstance — that Medicine and Sur-
gery are, I think, going through a crisis, a transition.
There are two opposite currents, that of the old and
that of the new-bom doctrine; the first, still followed
by innumerable partisans, rests on the belief in the
spontaneity of transmissible diseases ; the second is the

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theory of germs, of the living contagium with all its
legitimate consequences. . . ."

The better to point out that difference between epochs^
Pasteur respectfully advised M. Bouillaud, who was taking
part in the discussion, to read over Littré*s Medicine and
Physicians^ and to compare with present ideas the chapter
on epidemics written in 1836, four years after the cholera
which had spread terror over Paris and over France.
« Poisons and venoms die out on the spot after working
the evil which is special to them," wrote Littré, "and
are not reproduced in the body of the victim, but virus
and miasmata are reproduced and propagated. Nothing
is more obscure to physiologists than those mysterious
combinations of organic elements ; but there lies the dark
room of sickness and of death which we must try to
open." '' Among epidemic diseases," said Littré in another
passage equally noted by Pasteur, "some occupy the
world and decimate nearly all parts of it, others are limited
to more or less wide areas. The origin of the latter
may be sought either in local circumstances of dampness,
of marshy ground, of decomposing animal or vegetable
matter, or in the changes which take place in men's mode
of life."

" If I had to defend the novelty of the ideas introduced
into medicine by my labours of the last twenty years,"
wrote Pasteur from Arbois in September, 1879, " I should
invoke the significant spirit of Littré*s words. Such was
then the state of Science in 1836, and those ideas on the
etiology of great epidemics were those of one of the most
advanced and penetrating minds of the time. I would
observe, contrarily to Littré*s opinion, that nothing proves
the spontaneity of great epidemics I As we have lately
seen the phylloxera, imported from America, invade Europe,
so it might be that the causes of great pests were originated,

I877-I879

unknowingly to stricken countries, in other countries which
had had fortuitous contact with the latter. Imagine a
microscopic being, inhabiting some part of Africa and
existing on plants, on animals, or even on men, and capable
of communicating a disease to the white race ; if brought
to Europe by some fortuitous circumstance, it may become
the occasion of an epidemic. ..."

And, writing later, about the same passage: '^Nowa-
days, if an article had to be written on the same subject,
it would certainly be the idea of living ferments and
microscopic beings and germs which would be mentioned
and discussed as a cause. That is the great progress,'*
added Pasteur with legitimate pride, '' in which my labours
have had so large a share. But it is characteristic of
Science and Progress that they go on opening new fields
to our vision ; the scientist, who is exploring the unknown,
resembles the traveller who perceives further and higher
summits as he reaches greater altitudes. In these days,
more infectious diseases, more microscopic beings appear to
the mind as things to be discovered, the discovery of which
will render a wonderful account of pathological conditions
and of their means of action and propagation, of self-
multiplication within and destruction of the organism.
The point of view is very different from Littré's ! ! "

On his return to Paris, Pasteur, his mind overflowing
with ideas, had felt himself impelled to speak again, to
fight once more the fallacious theory of the spontaneity
of transmissible diseases. He foresaw the triumph of the
germ theory arising from the ruin of the old doctrines — at
the price, it is true, of many efforts, many struggles, but
those were of little consequence to him.

The power of his mind, the radiating gifts that he
possessed, were such that his own people were more and
more interested in the laboratory, every one trying day by

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

day to penetrate further into Pasteur's thoughts. His
family circle had widened ; his son and his daughter had
married, and the two new-comers had soon been initiated
into past results and recent experiments. He had, in his
childhood and youth, been passionately loved by his
parents and sisters, and now, in his middle age, his
tenderness towards his wife and children was eagerly
repaid by the love they bore him. He made happiness
around him whilst he gave glory to France.

CHAPTER m

1880 1882

ANEW microbe now became the object of the same
studies of culture and inoculation as the bacillus
anthracis. Readers of this book may have had occasion to
witness the disasters caused in a farmyard by a strange
and sudden epidemic. Hens, believed to be good sitters,
are found dead on their nests. Others, surrounded by their
brood, allow the chicks to leave them, giving them no
attention ; they stand motionless in the centre of thé yard,
staggering under a deadly drowsiness. A young and
superb cock, whose triumphant voice was yesterday heard
by all the neighbours, falls into a sudden agony, his beak
closed, his eyes dim, his purple comb drooping limply.
Other chickens, respited till the next day, come near the
dying and the dead, picking here and there grains soiled
with excreta containing the deadly germs: it is chicken
cholera.

An Alsatian veterinary surgeon of the name of Moritz
had been the first to notice, in 1869, some '^ granulations " in
the corpses of animals struck down by this lightning
disease, which sometimes kills as many as ninety chickens
out of a hundred, those who survive having probably
recovered from a slight attack of the cholera. Nine years
after Moritz, Perroncito, an Italian veterinary surgeon,
made a sketch of the microbe, which has the appearance

VOL. 11. 97 H

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of little specks. Toussaint studied it, and demonstrated
that this microbe was indeed the cause of virulence in the
blood. He sent to Pasteur the head of a cock that had died
of cholera. The first thing to do, after isolating the microbe,
was to try successive cultures; Toussaint had used neu-
tralized urine. This, though perfect for the culture of the
bacillus anthracis, proved a bad culture medium for the
microbe of chicken cholera ; its multiplication soon became
arrested. If sown in a small flask of yeast water, equally
favourable to bacteridia, the result was worse still: the
microbe disappeared in forty-eight hours.

" Is not that," said Pasteur— with the gift of comparison
which made him turn each failure into food for reflection—
<<an image of what we observe when a microscopic or-
ganism proves to be harmless to a particular animal
species ? It is harmless because it does not develop within
the body, or because its development does not reach the
organs essential to life.'*

After trying other culture mediums, Pasteur found that
the one which answered best was a broth of chicken gristle,
neutralized with potash and sterilized by a temperature of
iio^C. to iis^'C.

'' The facility of multiplication of the micro-organism in
that culture medium is really prodigious,*' wrote Pasteur in
a duplicate communication to the Academies of Sciences
and of Medicine (February, 1880), entitled Of Virulent
Diseases^ and in particular that comnundy called Chicken
Cholera. '' In a few hours, the most limpid broth becomes
turgid and is found to be full of little articles of an extreme
tenuity, slightly strangled in their middle and looking at
first sight like isolated specks ; they are incapable of loco-
motion. Within a few days, those beings, already so small,
change into a multitude of specks so much smaller, that the
culture liquid, which had at first become turgid, almost

i88o-i882

milky, becomes nearly clear again, the specks being of such
narrow diameter as to be impossible to measure, even
approximately.

'' This microbe certainly belongs to quite another group
than that of the vibriones. I imagine that it will one day
find a place with the still mysterious virus, when the latter
are successfully cultivated, which will be soon, I hope.'*

Pasteur stated that the virulence of this microbe was
such that the smallest drop of recent culture, on a few
crumbs, was sufficient to kill a chicken. Hens fed in this
way contracted the disease by their intestinal canal, an
excellent culture medium for the micro-organism, and
perished rapidly. Their infected excreta became a cause
of contagion to the hens which shared with them the
laboratory cages. Pasteur thus described one of these sick
hens—

''The animal suflfering from this disease is powerless,
staggering, its wings droop and its bristling feathers give
it the shape of a ball ; an irresistible somnolence over-
powers it If its eyes are made to open, it seems to awake
from a deep sleep, and death frequently supervenes after a
dumb agony, before the animal has stirred from its place;
sometimes there is a faint fluttering of the wings for a few
seconds.*'

Pasteur tried the effect of this microbe on guinea-pigs
which had been brought up in the laboratory, and found it
but rarely mortal ; in general it merely caused a sore,
terminating in an abscess, at the point of inoculation. If
this abscess were opened, instead of being allowed to heal of
its own accord, the little microbe of chicken cholera was to
be found in the pus, preserved in the abscess as it might be
in a phial.

" Chickens or rabbits," remarked Pasteur, " living in the
society of guinea-pigs presenting these abscesses, might

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

suddenly become ill and die without any alteration being
seen in the guinea-pigs* health. It would suffice for this
purpose that those abscesses should open and drop some of
their contents on the food of the chickens and rabbits.

'* An observer witnessing those facts, and ignorant of the
above-mentioned cause, would be astonished to see hens
and rabbits decimated without apparent cause, and would
believe in the spontaneity of the evil ; for he would be far
from supposing that it had its origin in the guinea-pigs, all
of them in good health. How many mysteries in the
history of contagions will one day be solved as simply as
thisll!"

A chance, such as happens to those who have the genius
of observation, was now about to mark an immense step in
advance and prepare the way for a great discovery. As
long as the culture flasks of chicken-cholera microbe had
been sown without interruption, at twenty-four hours*
interval, the virulence had remained the same ; but when
some hens were inoculated with an old culture, put away
and forgotten a few weeks before, they were seen with sur-
prise to become ill and then to recover. These unexpectedly
refractory hens were then inoculated with some new
culture, but the phenomenon of resistance recurred. What
had happened ? What could have attenuated the activity
of the microbe ? Researches proved that oxygen was the
cause; and, by putting between the cultures variable
intervals of days, of one, two or three months, variations of
mortality were obtained, eight hens dying out of ten, then
five, then only one out of ten, and at last, when, as in the
first case, the culture had had time to get stale, no hens died
at all, though the microbe could still be cultivated.

"Finally," said Pasteur, eagerly explaining this
phenomenon, ^' if you take each of these attenuated cultures
as a starting-point for successive and uninterrupted cul-

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i88o-i882

tures, all this series of cultures will reproduce the attenuated
virulence of that which served as the starting-point ; in the
same way non-virulence will reproduce non-virulence."

And, while hens who had never had chicken-cholera
perished when exposed to the deadly virus, those who had
undergone attenuated inoculations, and who afterwards
received more than their share of the deadly virus, were
affected with the disease in a benign form, a passing in-
disposition, sometimes even they remained perfectly well ;
they had acquired immunity. Was not this fact worthy of
being placed by the side of that great fact of vaccine, over
which Pasteur had so often pondered and meditated ?

He now felt that he might entertain the hope of obtaining,
through artificial culture, some vaccinating-virus against
the virulent diseases which cause great losses to agriculture
in the breeding of domestic animals, and, beyond that, the
greater hope of preserving humanity from those contagious
diseases which continually decimate it. This invincible
hope led him to wish that he might live long enough to
accomplish some new discoveries and to see his followers
step into the road he had marked out.

Strong in his experimental method which enabled him to
produce proofs and thus to demonstrate the truth ; able to
establish the connection between a virulent and a microbian
disease ; finally, ready to reproduce by culture, in several
degrees of attenuation, a veritable vaccine, could he not
now force those of his opponents who were acting in good
faith to acknowledge the evidence of facts ? Could he not
carry all attentive minds with him into the great move*^
ment which was about to replace old ideas by new and
precise notions, more and more accessible ?

Pasteur enjoyed days of incomparable happiness during
that period of enthusiasm, joys of the mind in its full power,
joys of the heart in all its expansion ; for good was being

lOI

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

done. He felt that nothing could arrest the coarse of his
doctrine, of which he said—" The breath of Truth is carry-
ing it towards the fruitful fields of the future.'* He had
that intuition which makes a great poet of a great scientist.
The innumerable ideas surging through his mind were like
so many bees all trying to issue from the hive at the same
time. So many plans and preconceived ideas only stimu-
lated him to further researches ; but, when he was once
started on a road, he distrusted each step and only pro-
gressed in the train of precise, clear and irrefutable
experiments.

A paper of his on the plague, dated April, 1880, illustrates
his train of thought The preceding year the Academy of
Medicine had appointed a commission composed of eight
members, to draw up a programme of research relative to
the plague. The scourge had appeared in a village situated
on the right bank of the Volga, in the district of Astrakhan.
There had been one isolated case at first, followed ten dajrs
later by another death ; the dread disease had then invaded
and devoured the whole village, going from house to house
like an inextinguishable fire ; 370 deaths had occurred in a
population of 1,372 inhabitants; thirty or forty people died
every day. In one of those sinister moments when men
forget everything in their desire to live, parents and rela-
tions had abandoned their sick and dying among the un-
buried dead, with 20^ C. of frost 1 1 The neighbouring
villages were contaminated; but, thanks to the Russian
authorities, who had established a strict sanitary cordon,
the evil was successfully localized. Some doctors, meeting
in Vienna, declared that that plague was no other than the
Black Death of the fourteenth century, which had depopu-
lated Europe. The old pictures and sculptures of the time,
which represent Death pressing into his lugubrious gang
children and old men, beggars and emperors, bear witness

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i88o-i882

to the formidaUe ravages of such a scourge. In France,
since the epidemic at Marseilles in 1720, it seemed as if the
plague were but a memory, a distant nightmare, almost a
horrible fairy tale. Dr. Rochard, in a report to the
Académie de Médecine, recalled how the contagion had
burst out in May, 1720 ; a ship, having lost six men from
the plague on its journey, had entered Marseilles harbour.
The plague, after an insidious first phase, had raged in all
its fury in July.

''Since the plague is a disease," wrote Pasteus (whose
paper was a sort of programme of studies), '' the cause of
which is absolutely unknown, it is not illogical to suppose
that it too is perhaps produced by a special microbe. All
experimental research must be guided by some preconceived
ideas, and it would probably be very useful to tackle the
study of that disease with the belief that it is due to a
parasite.

''The most decisive of all the proofs which can be
invoked in favour of the possible correlation between a
determined affection and the presence of a micro-organism,
is that afforded by the method of cultures of organisms in
a state of purity ; a method by which I have solved, within
the last twenty-two years, the chief difficulties relative to
fermentations properly so-called; notably the important
question, much debated formerly, of the correlation which
exists between those fermentations and their particular
ferments."

He then pointed out that if, after gathering either blood
or pus immediately before or immediately after the death
of a plague patient, one could succeed in discovering the
micro-organism, and then in finding for that microbe an
appropriate culture medium, it would be advisable to inocu-
late with it animals of various kinds, perhaps monkeys
for preference, and to look for the lesions capable of

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

establishing relations from cause to effect between that
organism and the disease in mankind.

He did not hide from himself the great difficulties to be
met with in experimenting; for, after discovering and isola-
ting the organism, there is nothing to indicate a priori
to the experimentalist an appropriate culture medium.
Liquids which suit some microbes admirably are absolutely
unsuitable to others. Take, for instance, the microbe of
chicken-cholera, which will not develop in beer yeast ; a
hasty experimentalist might conclude that the chicken-
cholera is not produced by a micro-organism, and that it
is a spontaneous disease with unknown immediate causes.
" The fallacy would be a fatal one," said Pasteur, "for in
another medium, say, for instance, in chicken-broth, there
would be a virulent culture."

In these researches on the plague, then, various mediums
should be tried; also the character, either aerobic or an-
aerobic, of the microbe should be present to the mind.

" The steriUty of a culture liquid may come from the
presence of air and not from its own constitution; the
septic vibrio, for instance, is killed by oxygen in air. From
this last circumstance it is plain that culture must be made
not only in the presence of air but also in a vacuum or
in the presence of pure carbonic acid gas. In the latter
case, immediately after sowing the blood or humor to be
tested, a vacuum must be made in the tubes, they must be
sealed by means of a lamp, and left in a suitable tempera-
ture, usually between 30 C. and 40 C." Thus he prepared
landmarks for the guidance of scientific research on the
etiology of the plague.

Desiring as Pasteur did that the public in general should
take an interest in laboratory research, he sent to his friend
Nisard the number of the Bulletin of the Académie de

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i88o-i882

Médecine which contained a first communication on chicken-
cholera, and also his paper on the plague.

" Read them if you have time," he wrote (May 3, 1880) :
" they may interest you, and there should be no blanks in
your education. They will be followed by others,

•* To-day, at the Institute, and to-morrow at the Académie
de Médecine, I shall give a new lecture.

"Do repeat to me every criticism you hear; I much
prefer them to praise, barren unless encouragement is
wanted, which is certainly not my case ; I have a lasting
provision of faith and fire.*'

Nisard answered on May 7: "My very dear friend, I
am almost dazed with the efibrt made by my ignorance to
follow your ideas, and dazzled with the beauty of your
discoveries on the principal point, and the number of secon-
dary discoveries enumerated in your marvellous paper.
You are right not to care for barren praise ; but you would
wrong those who love you if you found no pleasure in
being praised by them when they have no other means of
acknowledging your notes.

"I am reading the notice on chicken-cholera for the
second time, and I observe that the writer is following the
discoverer, and that your language becomes elevated,
supple and coloured, in order to express the various aspects
of the subject.

" It gives me pleasure to see the daily growth of your
fame, and I am indeed proud of enjoying your friendship."

Amidst his researches on a vaccine for chicken-cholera,
the etiology of splenic fever was unceasingly preoccupjring
Pasteur. Did the splenic germs return to the surface of
the soil, and how ? One day, in one of his habitual excur-
sions with Messrs. Roux and Chamberland to the farm
of St. Germain, near Chartres, he suddenly perceived an
answer to that enigma. In a field recently harvested, he

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

noticed a place where the colour of the soil differed a little
from the neighbouring earth. He questioned M. Maunoury,
the proprietor of the farm, who answered that sheep dead
of anthrax had been buried there the preceding year.
Pasteur drew nearer, and was interested by the mass of
little earth cylinders, those little twists which earth worms
deposit on the ground. Might that be, he wondered, the
explanation of the origin of the germs which reappear on
the surface ? Might not the worms, returning from their
subterranean journeys in the immediate neighbourhood of
graves, bring back with them splenic spores, and thus
scatter the germs so exhumed? That would again be a
singular revelation, unexpected but quite simple, due to
the germ theory. He wasted no time in dreaming of the
possibilities opened by that preconceived idea, but, with his
usual impatience to get at the truth, decided to proceed to
experiment.

On his return to Paris Pasteur spoke to Bouley of this
possible part of germ carriers played by earthworms, and
Bouley caused some to be gathered which had appeared on
the surface of pits where animals dead of splenic fever had
been buried some years before. ViUemin and Davaine
were invited as well as Bouley to come to the laboratory
and see the bodies of these worms opened; anthrax
spores were found in the earth cylinders which filled their
intestinal tube.

At the time when Pasteur revealed this pathogenic
action of the earthworm, Darwin, in his last book, was
expounding their share in agriculture. He too, with his
deep attention and force of method, able to discover the
hidden importance of what seemed of little account to
second-rate minds, had seen how earthworms open their
tunnels, and how, by turning over the soil, and by bringing

io6

i88o-i882

so many particles up to the surface by their '< castings,*'
they ventilate and drain the soil, and, by their incessant
and continuous work, render great services to agriculture.
These excellent labourers are redoubtable grave-diggers;
each of those two tasks, the one beneficent and the other
full of perils, was brought to Ught by Pasteur and Darwin,
unknowingly to each other.

Pasteur had gathered earth from the pits where splenic
cows had been buried in July, 1878, in the Jura. "At
three different times within those two years," he said to
the Académie des Sciences and to the Académie de Méde-
cine in July, 1880, " the surface soil of those same pits has
presented charbon spores." This fact had been confirmed
by recent experiments on the soil of the Beauce farm;
particles of earth from other parts of the field had no power
of provoking splenic fever.

Pasteur, going on to practical advice, showed how grazing
animals might find in certain places the germs of charbon,
freed by the loosening by rain of the little castings of earth*
worms. Animals are wont to choose the surface of the
pits, where the soil, being richer in hunras, produces thicker
growth, and in so doing risk their lives, for they become
infected somewhat in the same manner as in the experi-
ments when their forage was poisoned with a few drops of
splenic culture liquid. Septic germs are brought to the
surface of the soil in the same way.

'' Animals," said Pasteur, "should never be buried in
fields intended for pasture or the growing of hay. When-
ever it is possible, bmying-grounds should be chosen in
sandy or chalky soils, poor, dry, and unsuitable to the life
of earthworms."

Pasteur, like a general with only two aides de camp, was
obliged to direct the efforts of Messrs. Chamberland and
Roux simultaneously in different parts of France. Some-

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times facts had to be checked which had been over-hastily
announced by rash experimentalists. Thus M. Roux went,
towards the end of the month of July, to an isolated
property near Nancy, called Bois le Duc Farm, to ascertain
whether the successive deaths of nineteen head of cattle
were really, as affirmed, due to splenic fever. The water
of this pasture was allied to be contaminated; the absolute
isolation of the herd seemed to exclude all idea of con-
tagion. After collecting water and earth from various
points on the estate M. Roux had returned to the labora-
tory with his tubes and pipets. He was much inclined
to believe that there had been septicaemia and not splenic
fever.

M* Chamberland was at Savagna, near Lons-le-Saulnier,
where, in order to experiment on the contamination of the
surface of pits, he had had a little enclosure traced out and
surrounded by an open paling in a meadow where victims
of splenic fever had been buried two years previously. Four
sheep were folded in this enclosure. Another similar fold,
also enclosing four sheep, was placed a few yards above the
first one. This experiment was intended to occupy the
vacation, and Pasteur meant to watch it from Arbois.

A great sorrow awaited him there. " I have just had
the misfortune of losing my sister," he wrote to Nisard at
the b^inning of August, '*to see whom (as also my
parents' and children's graves) I returned yearly to
Arbois. Within forty-eight hours I witnessed life, sickness,
death and burial ; such rapidity is terrifying. I deeply
loved my sister, who, in difficult times, when modest ease
even did not reign in our home, carried the heavy burden
of the day and devoted herself to the little ones of whom I
was one. I am now the only survivor of my paternal and
maternal families."

io8

i88o-i882

In the first days of August, Toussaint, the young pro-
fessor of the Toulouse Veterinary School, declared that he
had succeeded in vaccinating sheep against splenic fever.
One process of vaccination (which consisted in collecting
the blood of an animal afiected with charbon just before or
immediately after death, defibrinating it and then passing
it through a piece of linen and filtering it through ten or
twelve sheets of paper) had been unsuccessful ; the
bacteridia came through it all and killed instead of pre-
serving the animal. Toussaint then had recourse to heat
to kill the bacteridia : " I raised,'' he said, " the defi-
brinated blood to a heat of 55^ C, for ten minutes ; the
result was complete. Five sheep inoculated with three
cubic cent of that blood, and afterwards with very active
charbon blood, have not felt it in the least." However,
several successive inoculations had to be made.

'' All ideas of holidays must be postponed ; we must set
to work in Jura as well as in Paris," wrote Pasteur to his
assistants. Bouley, who thought that the goal was reached,
did not hide from himself the difficulties of interpretation
of the allied fact. He obtained from the Minister of
Agriculture permission to try at Alfort this so-called
vaccinal liquid on twenty sheep.

" Yesterday," wrote Pasteur to his son-in-law on August
13, "I went to give M. Chamberland instructions so
that I may verify as soon as possible the Toussaint fact,
which I will only believe when I have seen it, seen it with
my own eyes. I am having twenty sheep bought, and I
hope to be satisfied as to the exactitude of this really extra-
ordinary observation in about three weeks' time. Nature
may have mystified M. Toussaint, though his assertions
seem to attest the existence of a very interesting fact."

Toussaint's assertion had been hasty, and Pasteur was
not long in clearing up that point. The temperature of 55® C.

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prolonged for ten minutes was not sufficient to kill the
bacteridia in the blood ; they were but weakened and retarded
in their development ; even after fifteen minutes' exposuie
to the heaty there was but a numbness of the bacteridium.
Whilst these experiments were being pursued in the Jura
and in the laboratory of the Ecole Normale, the Alfort
sheep were giving Bouley great anxiety. One died of
charbon one day after inoculation, three two days later.
The others were so ill that M. Nocard wanted to sacrifice one
in order to proceed to inunediate necropsy; Bouley ap-
prehended a complete disaster. But the sixteen remaining
sheep recovered gradually and became ready for the
counter test of charbon inoculation.

Whilst Pasteur was noting the decisive points, he heard
from Bouley and from Roux at the same time, that
Toussaint now obtained his vaccinal liquid, no longer by
the action of heat, but by the measured action of carbolic
acid on splenic fever blood. The interpretation by weaken-
ing remained the same.

" What ought we to conclude from that result ? " wrote
Bouley to Pasteur. << It is evident that Toussaint does not
vaccinate as he thought, with a liquid destitute of
bacteridia, since he gives charbon with that liquid ; but that
he uses a liquid in which the power of the bacteridium is
reduced by the diminished number and the attenuated
activity. His vaccine must then only be charbon liquid of
which the intensity of action may be weakened to the
point of not being mortal to a certain number of susceptible
animals receiving it. But it may be a most treacherous
vaccine, in that it might be capable of recuperating its
power with time. The Alfort experiment makes it probable
that the vaccine tested at Toulouse and found to be harm-
less, had acquired in the lapse of twelve days before it was
at Alfort, a greater intensity, because the bacteridium,

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i88o-ï882

numbed for a time by carbolic acid, had had time to awaken
and to swarnii in spite of the acid."

Whilst Toussaint had gone to Rheims (where sat the
French Association for the Advancement of Science) to
state that it was not, as he had announced, the liquid which
placed the animal into conditions of relative immunity
and to epitomize Bouley's interpretation, to wit, that it
was a bearable charbon which he had inoculated, Pastern-
wrote rather a severe note on the subject His insisting
on scrupulous accuracy in experiment sometimes made him
a little hard ; though the process was unreliable and the
explanation inexact, Toussaint at least had the merit of
having noted a condition of transitory attenuation in the
bacteridium. Bouley begged Pasteur to postpone his com*
munication out of consideration for Toussaint.

One of the sheep folded over splenic-fever pits had died
on August 35, its body, full of bacteridia, proving once
more the error of those who believed in the qxmtaneity of
transmissible diseases. Pasteur informed J. B. Dumas of
this, and at the same time expressed his opinion on the
Toussaint fact. This letter was read at the Académie des
Sciences.

'^ Allow me, before I finish, to tell you another secret I
have hastened, again with the assistance of Messrs.
Chamberland and Roux, to verify the extraordinary facts
recently announced to the Academy by M. Toussaint,
professor at the Toulouse Veterinary School.

" After numerous experiments leaving no room for doubt,
I can assure you that M. Toussaint's interpretations should
be gone over again. Neither do I agree with M. Toussaint
on the identity which he afiKrms as existing between acute
septicaemia and chicken-cholera ; those two diseases difier
absolutely."

Bouley was touched by this temperate language after all

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the verifying experiments made at the Ecole Normale and
in the Jura. When relating the Alfort incidents, and
while expressing a hope that some vaccination against
anthrax would shortly be discovered, he revealed that
Pasteur had had " the delicacy of abstaining from a detailed
criticism, so as to leave to M. Toussaint the care of check-
ing his own results."

The struggle against virulent diseases was becoming
more and more the capital question for Pasteur. He
constantly recurred to the subject, not only in the
laboratory, but in his home conversations, for he associated
his family with all the preoccupations of his scientific life.
Now that the oxygen of air appeared as a modifying
influence on the development of a microbe in the body of
animals, it seemed possible that there might be a general
law applicable to every virus ! What a benefit it would be
if the vaccine of every virulent disease could thxis be
discovered ! And in his thirst for research, considering
that the scientific history of chicken-cholera was more
advanced than that of variolic and vaccinal afifections —
the great fact of vaccination remaining isolated and un-
explained — he hastened on his return to Paris (September,
1880) to press physicians on this special point — the relations
between small-pox and vaccine. " From the point of view
of physiological experimentation," he said, " the identity of •
the variola virus with the vaccine virus has never been
demonstrated." When Jules Guérin — a bom fighter, still
desirous at the age of eighty to measure himself success-
fully with Pasteur— declared that ** human vaccine is the
product of animal variola (cow pox and horse pox) inocu-
lated into man and humanised by its successive trans-
missions on man," Pasteur answered ironically that he
might as well say, " Vaccine is — ^vaccine."

Those who were accustomed to speak to Pasteur with

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absolute sincerity adrised him not to let himself be
dragged further into those discussions when his adversaries,
taking words for ideas, drowned the debate in a flood of
phrases. Of what good were such debates to science, since
those who took the first place among veterinary surgeons,
physicians and surgeons, loudly acknowledged the debt
which science owed to Pasteur? Why be surprised that
certain minds, deeply disturbed in their habits, their prin-
ciples, their influence, should feel some difficulty, some
anger even in abandoning their ideas ? If it is painful to
tenants to leave a house in which they have spent their
youth, what must it be to break with one's whole educa-
tion?

Pasteur, who allowed himself thus to be told that he
lacked philosophical serenity, acknowledged this good
advice with an affectionate smile. He promised to be calm ;
but when once in the room, his adversaries' attacks, their
prejudices and insinuaticms, enervated and irritated him.
All his promises were forgotten.

''To pretend to express the relation between human
variola and vaccine by speaking but of vaccine and its
relations with cow pox and horse pox, without even pro-
nouncing the word small-pox, is mere equivocation, done
on purpose to avoid the real point of the debate." Be-
coming excited by Guérin's antagonism, Pasteur turned
some of Guérin's operating processes into ridicule with such
effect that Guérin started from his place and rushed at him.
The fiery oct(^narian was stopped by Baron Larrey ; the
sitting was suspended in confusion. The following day,
Guérin sent two seconds to ask for reparation by arms
from Pasteur. Pasteur referred them to M. Béclard,
Permanent Secretary of the Académie de Médecine, and
M. Bergercm, its Annual Secretary, who were jointly
responsible for the Official Bulletin of the Academy. '' I am

VOL. n. 113 Ï

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

ready," said Pasteur, " having no right to act otherwise, to
modify whatever the editors may consider as going beyond
the rights of criticism and Intimate defence."

In deference to the opinion of Messrs. Béclard and
Bergeron, Pasteur consented to terminate the quarrel by
writing to the chairman of the Academy that he had no
intention of offending a colleague, and that in all discus-
sions of that kind, he never thought of anything but to
defend the exactitude of his own work.

The Journal de la Médecine et de la Chimie^ edited by
M. Lucas-Championnière, said à propos of this very reason-
able letter — " We, for our part, admire the meekness of M.
Pasteur, who is so often described as combative and ever
on the war-path. Here we have a scientist, who now and
then makes short, substantial and extremely interesting
communications. He is not a medical man, and yet, guided
by his genius, he opens new paths across the most arduous
studies Of medical science. Instead of being offered the tribute
of attention and admiration which he deserves, he meets with
a raging opposition from some quarrelsome individuals, ever
inclined to contradict after listening as little as possible.
If he makes use of a scientific expression not understood
by everybody, or if he uses a medical expression slightly
incorrectly, then rises before him the spectre of endless
speeches, intended to prove to him that all was for the best
in medical science before it was assisted by the precise
studies and resources of chemistry and experimentation.
. . . Indeed, M. Pasteur's expression of equivocation seemed
to us moderate!"

How many such futile incidents, such vain quarrels,
traverse the life of a great man I Later on, we only see
glory, apotheosis, and the statues in public places; the
demigods seemed to have marched in triumph towards a
grateful posterity. But how many obstacles and opposi-

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tions are there to retard the progress of a free mind
desirous of bringing his task to a successful conclusion and
incited by the fruitful thought of Death, ever present to
spirits preoccupied with interests of a superior order?
Pasteur looked upon himself as merely a passing guest of
those homes of intellect which he wished to enlarge and
fortify for those who would come after him.

Confronted with the hostility, indifference and scepticism
which he found in the members of the Medical Academy,
he once appealed to the students who sat on the seats open
to the public.

" Young men, you who sit on those benches, and who are
perhaps the hope of the medical future of the country, do
not come here to seek the excitement of polemics, but come
and learn Method.''

His method, as opposed to vague concepti(ms and a priori
speculations, went on fortifying itself day by day. Artifi-
cial attenuation, that is, virus modified by the oxygen of
air, which weakens and abates virulence ; vaccination by
the attenuated virus — those two immense steps in advance
were announced by Pasteur at the end of 1880. But would
the same process apply to the microbe of charbon ? That
was a great problem. The vaccine of chicken-cholera was
easy to obtain ; by leaving pure cultures to themselves for
a time in contact with air, they soon lost their virulence.
But the spores of charbon, very indifferent to atmospheric
air, preserved an indefinitely prolonged virulence. After
eight, ten or twelve years, spores found in the graves
of victims of splenic fever were still in full virulent
activity. It was therefore necessary to turn the difficulty
by a culture process which would act on the filament-
shaped bacteridium before the formaticm of spores. What
may now be explained in a few words demanded long
weeks of trials, tests and counter tests.

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In neutralized chicken broth, the bacteridium can no
longer be cultivated at a temperature of 45^ C. ; it can still
be cultivated easily at a temperature of 42® C. or 43® C, but
the spores do not develop.

'' At that extreme temperature," explains M. Chamber-
land, '^the bacteridia yet live and reproduce themselves,
but they never give any germs. Thenceforth, when trying
the virulence of the phials after six, eight, ten or fifteen
days, we have found exactly the same phenomena as fn*
chicken-cholera. After eight days, for instance, our
culttu'e, which originally killed ten sheep out of ten, only
kills four or five ; after ten or twelve days it does not kill
any; it merely communicates to animals a benignant
malady which preserves them from the deadly form.

''A remarkable thing is that the bacteridia whose
virulence has been attenuated may afterwards be culti-
vated in a temperature of 30^ C. to 35^ C, at which temper-
ature they give germs presenting the same virulence as the
filaments which formed them.''

Bouley, who was a witness of all these facts, said, in
other words, that ''if that attenuated and degenerated
bacteridium is translated to a culture medium in a lower
temperature, favourable to its activity, it becomes once
again apt to produce spores. But those spores bom of
weakened bacteridia, will only produce bacteridia likewise
weakened in their swarming faculties."

Thus is obtained and enclosed in inalterable spores a
vaccine ready to be sent to every part of the world to
preserve animals by vaccination against splenic fever.

On the day when he became sure of this discovery,
Pasteur, returning to his rooms from his laboratory, said to
his family, with a deep emotion — ^''Nothing would have
consoled me if this discovery, which my collaborators and
I have made, had not been a French discovery."

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He desired to wait a little longer before proclaiming it.
Yet the cause of the evil was revealed, the mode of propa-
gation indicated, prophylaxis made easy; surely, enough
had been achieved to move attentive minds to enthusiasm
and to deserve the gratitude of sheep owners !

So thought the Society of French AgricuUors^ when it
decided, on February 21, 188 1, to o£fer to Pasteur a medal
of honour. J. B. Dumas, detained at the Académie des
Sciences, was unable to attend the meeting. He wrote to
Bouley, who had been requested to enumerate Pasteur's
principal discoveries at that large meeting — *' I had desired
to make public by my presence my heartfelt concurrence in
your admiration for him who will never be honoured to the
full measure of his merits, of his services and of his passion-
ate devotion to truth and to our country."

On the following Monday, Bouley said to Dumas, as they
were walking to the Académie des Sciences, '' Your letter
assures me of a small share of immortality."

" See," answered Dumas, pointing to Pasteur, who was
preceding them, '' there is he who will lead us both to
immortality."

On that Monday, February 28, Pasteur made his cele-
brated commimication on the vaccine of splenic fever and
the whole graduated scale of virulence. The secret of
those returns to virulence lay entirely in some successive
cultures through the body of certain animals. If a
weakened bacteridium was inoculated into a guinea-pig
a few days old it was harmless ; but it killed a new-bom
guinea-pig.

"If we then go from one new -bom guinea-pig to
another," said Pasteur, " by inoculation of the blood of the
first to the second, from the second to a third, and so on,
the virulence of the bacteridium — that is : its adaptability
to development within the economy — becomes gradually

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

strengthened It becomes by degrees able to kill guinea-
pigs three or four days old, then a week, a month, some
years old, then sheep themselves; the bacteridium has
returned to its original virulence. We may afifirm, without
hesitation, though we have not had the opportunity of
testing the fact, that it would be capable of killing cows
and horses ; and it preserves that virulence indefinitely if
nothing is done to attenuate it again.

" As to the microbe of chicken-cholera, when it has lost
its power of action on hens, its virulence may be restored
to it by applying it to small birds such as sparrows or
canaries, which it kills immediately. Then by successive
passages through the bodies of those animals, it gradually
assumes again a virulence capable of manifesting itself
anew on adult hens.

" Need I add, that, during that return to virulence, by the
way, virus- vaccines can be prepared at every degree of
virulence for the bacillus anthracis and for the chicken-
cholera microbe.

" This question of the return to virulence is of the greatest
interest for the etiology of contagious diseases."

Since charbon does not recur, said Pasteiu* in the course
of that communication, each of the charbon microbes
attenuated in the laboratory constitutes a vaccine for the
superior microbe. " What therefore is easier than to find
in those successive virus, virus capable of giving splenic
fever to sheep, cows and horses, without making them
perish, and assuring them of ulterior immunity from the
deadly disease? We have practised that operation on
sheep with the greatest success. When the season comes
for sheep-folding in the Beauce, we will try to apply it on
a large scale."

The means of doing this were given to Pasteur before
long ; assistance was offered to him by various people for

ii8

i88o*i882

various reasons ; some desired to see a brilliant demonstra-
tion of the truth ; others whispered their hopes of a signal
failure. The promoter of one very large experiment was a
Melun veterinary surgeon, M Rossignol.

In the Veterinary PresSy of which M. Rossignol was one of
the editors, an article by him might have been read on the
31st January, 1881, less than a month before that great
discovery on charbon vaccine, wherein he expressed himself
as follows: "Will you have some microbe? There is
some ever3rwhere. Micfobiolatry is the fashion, it reigns
undisputed'; it is a doctrine which must not even be
discussed, especially when its Pontiff, the learned M.
Pasteur, has pronounced the sacramental words, / have
spoken. The microbe alone is and shall be the character-
istic of a disease ; that is understood and settled ; henceforth
the germ theory must have precedence of pure clinics;
the Microbe alone is true, and Pasteur is its prophet"

At the end of March, M. Rossignol b^an a campaign,
begging for subscriptions, pointing out how much the
cultivators of the Brie — whose cattle suffered almost as
much as that of the Beauce — ^were interested in the
questi(m. The discovery, if it were genuine^ should not
remain confined to the Ecole Normale laboratory, or
monopolized by the privil^ed public of the Académie des
Sciences, who had no use for it M. Rossignol soon
collected about 100 subscribers. Did he believe that
Pasteur and his little phials would come to a hopeless
fiasco in a farmyard before a public of old practitioners who
had always been powerless in the presence of splenic fever ?
Microbes were a subject for ceaseless joking ; people had
hilarious visions of the veterinary profession confined some
twenty years hence in a model laboratory assiduously
cultivating numberless races, sub-races, varieties and sub-
varieties of microbes.

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

It is probable that, if light comes from above, a good
many practitioners would not have been sorry to see a
strong wind from below putting out Pasteur's light.

M. Rossignol succeeded in interesting every one in this
undertaking. When the project was placed before the
Melun Agricultural Society on the 2nd April, they hastened
to approve of it and to accord their patronage.

The chairman, Baron de la Rochette, was requested to
approach Pasteur and to invite him to organize public
experiments on the preventive vaccination of charbon in
the districts of Melun, Fontainebleau and Provins.

"The noise which those experiments will necessarily
cause,** wrote M. Rossignol, " will strike every mind and
convince those who may still be doubting ; the evidence of
facts will have the result of ending all uncertainty.*'

Baron de la Rochette was a typical old French gentle-
man ; his whole person was an ideal of old-time distinction
and courtesy. Well up to date in all agricultural pn^ess,
and justly priding himself, with the ease of a great land-
owner, that he made of agriculture an art and a science,
he could speak in any surroundings with knowledge of his
subject and a winning grace of manner. When he entered
the laboratory, he was at once charmed by the simplicity
of the scientist, who hastened to accept the proposal of an
extensive experiment.

At the end of April, P^teur wrote out the programme
which was to be followed near Melun at the farm of
Pouilly le Fort. M. Rossignol had a number of copies of
that programme printed, and distributed them, not only
throughout the Department of Seine et Marne, but in the
whole agricultural world. This prc^ramme was so
decidedly aflSrmative that some one said to Pasteur, with
a little anxiety : *' You remember what Marshal Gouvion
St. Cyr said of Napoleon, that ^ he liked hazardous games

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with a character of grandeur and audacity.' It was neck
or nothing with him; you are going on in the same way ! "

" Yes,** answered Pasteur, who meant to compel a
victory.

And as his collaborators, to whom he had just read the
precise and strict arrangements he had made, themselves
felt a little nervous, he said to them, *' What has succeeded
in the laboratory on fourteen sheep will succeed just as
well at Melun on fifty."

This prograoune left him no retreat. The Melun
Agricultural Society put sixty sheep at Pasteur's disposal ;
twenty-five were to be vaccinated by two inoculations, at
twelve or fifteen days' interval, with some attenuated
charbon virus. Some days later those twenty-five and also
twenty-five others would be inoculated with some very
virulent charbon culture.

"The twenty-five unvacdnated sheep will all perish,"
wrote Pasteur, "the twenty-five vaccinated ones will
survive." They would afterwards be compared with the
ten sheep which had undergone no treatment at alL It
would thus be seen that vaccination did not prevent sheep
from returning tq their normal state of health after a
certain time.

Then came other prescriptions, for instance, the burying
of the dead sheep in distinct graves, near each other and
enclosed within a paling.

" In May, 1882," added Pasteur, " twenty new sheep, that
is, sheep never before used for experimentation, will be shut
within that paling."

And he predicted that the following year, 1882, out of
those twenty-five sheep fed on the grass of that little
enclosure or on forage deposited there, several would
become infected by the charbon germs brought to the
surface by earthworms, and that they would die of splenic

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fever. Finally, twenty-five other sheep might be folded in
a neighbouring spot, where no charbon victims had ever
been buried, and under these conditions none would
contract the disease.

M. de la Rochette having expressed a desire that cows
should be included in the prognunme, Pasteur answered
that he was willing to try that new experiment, though
his tests on vaccine for cows were not as advanced as those
on sheep vaccine. Perhaps, he said, the results may not be
as positive, though he thought they probably would be.
He was offered ten cows ; six were to be vaccinated and
four not vaccinated. The experiments were to b^n on
the Thursday, 5th May, and would in all likelihood
terminate about the first fortnight in June.

At the time when M. Rossignol declared that all was
ready for the fixed time, an editor's notice in the Veterinary
Press said that the laboratory experiments were about to
be repeated in campo^ and that Pasteur could thus
'* demonstrate that he had not been mistaken when he
affirmed before the astonished Academy that he had
discovered the vaccine of splenic fever, a preventative to
one of the most terrible diseases with which animals and
even men could be attacked.'' This notice ended thus,
with an unexpected classical reminiscence: ''These
experiments are solemn ones, and they will become
memorable if, as M. Pasteur asserts, with such con-
fidence, they confirm all those he has already instituted.
We ardently wish that M. Pasteur may succeed and
remain the victor in a tournament which has now lasted
long enough. If he succeeds, he will have endowed his
country with a great benefit, and his adversaries should, as
in the days of antiquity, wreathe their brows with laurel
leaves and prepare to follow, chained and prostrate, the
chariot of the immortal Victor. But he must succeed : such

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is the price of triumph. Let M. Pasteur not forget that the
Tarpeian Rock is near the Capitol."

On May 5 a numerous crowd arriving from Melun
station or from the little station of Cesson, was seen
moving towards the yard of Pouilly le Fort farm; it
looked like a mobilisation of Conseillers Généraux^ agricuK
tors, phjrsicians, apothecaries, and especially veterinary
surgeons. Most of these last were full of scepticism — ^as
was remarked by M. Thierry, who represented the Veteri-
nary Society of the Yonne, and one of his colleagues,
M. Biot, of Pont-sur- Yonne. They were exchanging jokes
and looks to the complete satisfaction of Pasteur's
adversaries. They were looking forward to the last and
most virulent inoculation.

Pasteur, assisted not only by Messrs. Chamberland and
Roux, but also by a third pupil of the name of Thuillier,
proceeded to the arrangement of the subjects. At the
last moment, two goats were substituted for two of the
sheep.

Vaccination candidates and unvaccinated test sheep
were divided under a large shed. For the injection of the
vaccinal liquid, Pravaz*s little syringe was used; those
who have experienced morphia injections know how easily
the needle penetrates the subcutaneous tissues. Each of
the twenty-five sheep received, on the inner surface of the
right thigh, five drops of the bacteridian culture which
Pasteur called the first vaccine. Five cows and one ox
substituted for the sixth cow were vaccinated in thdr
turn, behind the shoulder. The ox and the cows were
marked on the right horn, and the sheep on the ear.

Pasteur was, after this, asked to give a lecture on splenic
fever in the large hall of the Pouilly farm. Then, in clear,
simple language, meeting every objection half-way, showing
no astonishment at ignorance or prejudice, knowing

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perfectly well that many were really hoping for a failure,
he methodically described the road already travelled and
pointed to the goal he would reach. For nearly an hour
he interested and instructed his mixed audience ; he made
them feel the genuineness of his faith, and, besides his
interest in the scientific problem, his desire to spare heavy
losses to cultivators. After the lecture, some, better
informed than others, were admiring the logical harmony
of that career, mingling with pure science results of
incalculable benefit to the public, an extraordinary alliance
which gave a special moral physiognomy to this man of
prodigious labours.

An appointment was made for the second inoculation.
In the interval— on May 6, 7, 8 and 9— Messrs. Chamberland
and Roux came to Pouilly le Fort to take the temperature
of the vaccinated animals, and found nothing abnormal.
On May 17 a second inoculation was made with a liquid
which, though still attenuated, was more virulent than the
first If that liquid had been inoculated to b^in with it
would have caused a mortality of 50 per 100.

" On Tuesday, May 31," wrote Pasteur to his son-in-law,
«< the third and last inoculation will take place — this time
with fifty sheep and ten cows. I feel great confidence — for
the two first, on the 5th and the 17th, have been effected
under the best conditions without any mortality amongst
the twenty-five vaccinated subjects. On June 5 at latest
the final result will be known, and should be twenty-five
survivors out of twenty-five vaccinated, and six cows. If
the success is complete, this will be one of the finest
examples of applied science in this century, consecrating
one of the greatest and most fruitful discoveries."

This great experiment did not hinder other studies being
pursued in the laboratory. The very day of the second
inoculation at Pouilly le Fort, Mme. Pasteur wrote to her

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daughter, '' One of the laboratory dogs seems to be sicken-
ing for hydrophobia ; it seems that that would be very
lucky, in view of the interesting experiment it would
provide."

On May 25, another letter from Mme. Pasteur shows how
deeply each member of the family shared Pasteur's pre-
occupations and hopes and was carried away with the
stream of his ideas : *' Your father has just brought great
news from the laboratory. The new dog which was
trephined and inoculated with hydrophobia died last night
after nineteen days' incubation only. The disease mani-
fested itself on the fourteenth day, and this morning the
same d(^ was used for the trephining of a fresh dog, which
was done by Roux with unrivalled skill. All this means
that we shall have as many mad dogs as will be required
for experiments, and those experiments will become
extremely interesting.

'' Next month one of the master's del^^tes will go to the
south of France to study the 'rouget' of swine, which
ordinarily rages at this time.

^' It is much hoped that the vaccine of that disease will
be found."

The trephining of that dog had much disturbed Pasteur.
He, who was described in certain anti-vivisectionist
quarters as a laboratory executioner, had a great horror of
inflicting suffering on any animal.

'^He could assist without too much effort," writes M.
Rotix, ''at a simple operation such as a subcutaneous
inoculation, and even then, if the animal screamed at all,
Pasteur was immediately filled with compassion, and tried
to comfort and encourage the victim, in a way which would
have seemed ludicrous if it had not been touching. The
thought of having a dog's cranium perforated was very
disagreeable to him ; he very much wished that the experi-

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ment should take place» and yet he feared to see it begun.
I performed it one day when he was out The next day, as
I was telling him that the intercranial inoculation had
presented no diflSculty, he b^;an pitying the dog. ' Poor
thing I His brain is no doubt injured, he must be
paralysed I ' I did i;iot answer, but went to fetch the dog,
whom I brought into the laboratory. Pasteur was not fond
of dogs, but when he saw this one, full of life, curiously
investigating every part of the laboratory, he showed the
keenest pleasure, and spoke to the dog in the most
affectionate manner. Pasteur was infinitely grateful to
this dog for having borne trephining so well, thus lessen-
ing his scruples for future trephining."

As the day was approaching for the last experiments at
Pouilly le Fort, excitement was increasing in the veteri-
nary world. Every chance meeting led to a discussion ;
some prudent men said " Wait." Those that believed were
still few in number.

One or two days before the third and decisive inoculation,
the veterinary surgeon of Pont-sur- Yonne, M. Biot, who
was watching with a rare scepticism the Pouilly le Fort
experiments, met Colin on the road to Maisons-Alfort.
" Our conversation " — M. Biot dictated the relation of this
episode to M. Thierry, his colleague, also very sceptical
and expecting the Tarpeian Rock — "our conversation
naturally turned on Pasteur's experiments. Colin said :
•You must beware, for there are two parts in the
bacteridia-culture broth: one upper part which is inert,
and one deep part very active, in which the bacteridia
become accumulated, having dropped to the bottom because
of their weight. The vaccinated sheep will be inoculated
with the upper part of the liquid, whilst the others will be
inoculated with the bottom liquid, which will kill them.' "
Colin advised M. Biot to seize at the last moment the phial

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containing the virulent liquid and to shake it violently,
" so as to produce a perfect mixture rendering the whole
uniformly virulent."

If Bouley had heard such a thing, he would have lost his
temper, or he would have laughed heartily. A year before
this, in a letter to M. Thierry, who not only defended but
extolled Colin, Bouley had written :

" No doubt Colin is a man of some value, and he has
cleverly taken advantage of his position of Chief of the
Anatomy department at Alfort to accomplish some
important labours. But it is notable that his negative
genius has ever led him to try and demolish really great
work. He denied Davaine, Marey, Oaude Bernard,
Chauveau ; now he is going for Pasteur." Bouley, to whom
Colin was indebted for his situation at Alfort, might have
added, " And he calls me his persecutor I " But Biot
refused to believe in Colin's hostility and only credited
him with scruples on the question of experimental physio-
logy. Colin did not doubt M. Pasteur*s bonft-fides, M. Biot
said, but only his aptitude to conduct experiments in anima
vili.

On May 31, every one was at the farm. M. Biot executed
Colin*s indications and shook the virulent tube with real
veterinary energy. He did more: still acting on advice
from Colin, who had told him that the effective virulence
was in direct proportion to the quantity injected, he asked
that a larger quantity of liquid than had been intended
should be inoculated into the animals. A triple dose was
given. Other veterinary surgeons desired that the virulent
liquid should be inoculated alternatively into vaccinated and
unvaccinated animals. Pasteur lent himself to these
divers requests with impassive indifference and without
seeking for their motives.
At half-past three everything was done, and a rendezvous

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fixed for June 2 at thesame place. The proportion between
believers and unbelievers was changing. Pasteur seemed
so sure of his ground that many were saying " He can
surely not be mistaken." One little group had that very
morning drunk to a fictsco. But, whether from a sly
desire to witness a failure, or from a generous wish to be
present at the great scientific victory, every man im-
patiently counted the hours of the two following days.

On June 4, Messrs. Chamberland and Roux went back to
Pouilly le Fort to judge of the condition of the patients.
Amongst the lot of unvaccinated sheep, several were
standing apart with drooping heads, refusing their food.
A few of the vaccinated subjects showed an increase of
temperature, one of them even had 40^ C. (104^ Fahrenheit) ;
one sheep presented a slight oedema of which the point of
inoculation was the centre ; one lamb was lame, another
manifestly feverish, but all, save one, had preserved their
appetite. All the unvaccinated sheep were getting worse
and worse. ''In all of them," noted M. Rossignol, ''breath-
lessness is at its maximum ; the heaving of the sides is now
and then interrupted by groans. If the most sick are
forced to get up and walk, it is with great difficulty that
they advance a few steps, their limbs being so weak
and vacillating." Three had died by the time M. Rossignol
left Pouilly le Fort. " Everything leads me to believe," he
wrote, " that a great number of sheep will succumb during
the night."

Pasteur's anxiety was great when Messrs. Chamberland
and Roux returned, having noticed a rise in the temperature
of certain vaccinated subjects. It was increased by the arrival
of a telegram from M. Rossignol announcing that he con-
sidered one sheep as lost. By a sudden reaction, Pasteur,
who had drawn up such a bold progranune, leaving no
margin for the unexpected, and who the day before seemed

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of an imperturbable tranquillity among all those sheep, the
life or death of whom was about to decide between an
immortal discovery and an irremediable failure, now felt
himself beset with doubts and anguish.

Bouley, who had that evening come to see his master^ as
he liked to call him, could not understand this reaction — the
result of too much strain on the mind, said M. Roux, whom
it did not astonish. Pasteur's emotional nature, strangely
allied to his fighting temperament, was mastering him.
" His faith staggered for a time," writes M. Roux, " as if
the experimental method could betray him." The night
was a sleepless one.

" This morning, at eight o'clock," wrote Mme. Pasteur to
her daughter, ** we were still very much excited and await-
ing the tel^^am which might announce some disaster.
Your father would not let his mind be distracted from his
anxiety. At nine o'clock the laboratory was informed, and
the telegram handed to me five minutes later. I had a
moment's emotion, which made me pass through all the
colours of the rainbow. Yesterday, a considerable rise of
temperature had been noticed with terror in one of the
sheep; this morning that same sheep was well again."

On the arrival of the tel^ram Pasteur's face lighted
up ; his joy was deep, and he desired to share it im-
mediately with his absent children. Before starting for
Melun, he wrote them this letter:

''June 2, 1881.

" It is only Thursday, and I am already writing to you ;
it is because a great result is now acquired. A wire from
Melun has just announced it. On Tuesday last, 31st May,
we inoculated all the sheep, vaccinated and non-vaccinated,
with very virulent splenic fever. It is not forty-eight hours
ago. Well, the telegram tells me that, when we arrive at
two o'clock this afternoon, all the non-vaccinated subjects

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will be dead ; eighteen were already dead this morning, and
the others dying. As to the vaccinated ones, they are all
well ; the tel^ram ends by the words ' stunning success ' ;
it is from the veterinary surgeon, M. Rossignol.

'' It is too early yet for a final judgment ; the vaccinated
sheep might yet fall ill. But when I write to you on Sunday,
if all goes well, it may be taken for granted that they will
henceforth preserve their good health, and that the success
will indeed have been startling. On Tuesday, we had a
foretaste of the final results. On Saturday and Sunday, two
sheep had been abstracted from the lot of twenty-five
vaccinated sheep, and two from the lot of twenty-five non-
vaccinated ones, and inoculated with a very virulent virus.
Now, when on Tuesday all the visitors arrived, amongst
whom were M. Tisserand, M. Patinot, the Prefect of Seine
et Marne, M. Foucher de Careil, Senator, etc., we found
the two unvaccinated sheep dead, and the two others
in good health. I then said to one of the veterinary sur-
geons who were present, * Did I not read in a newspaper,
signed by you, à propos of the virulent little organism of
saliva, * There ! one more microbe ; when there are loo we
shall make a cross.' ' It is true,* he immediately answered,
honestly. * But I am a converted and repentant sinner.'

* Well, I answered, allow me to remind you of the words of
the Gospel : Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons
which need no repentance.' Another veterinary surgeon
who was present said, * I will bring you another, M. Colin.'

* You are mistaken,' I replied. * M. Colin contradicts for
the sake of contradicting, and does not believe because he
will not believe. You would have to cure a case of
neurosis, and you cannot do thatl' Joy reigns in the
laboratory and in the house. Rejoice, my dear children."

When Pasteur arrived, at two o'clock in the afternoon, at

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the farmyard of Pouilly le Fort, accompanied by his young
collaborators, a murmur of applause arose, which soon
became loud acclamation, bursting from all lips. Dele-
gates from the Agricultural Society of Melun, from medical
societies, veterinary societies, from the Central Council of
Hygiene^of Seine et Marne, journalists, small farmers who
had been divided in their minds by laudatory or injurious
newspaper articles — all were there. The carcases of twenty-
two unvaccinated sheep were lying side by side ; two others
were breathing their last ; the last survivors of the sacri-
ficed lot showed all the characteristic symptoms of splenic
fever. All the vaccinated sheep were in perfect health.

Bouley's happy face reflected the feelings which were so
characteristic of his attractive personality : enthusiasm for
a great cause, devotion to a great man. M. Rossignol, in
one of those loyal impulses which honour human nature,
disowned with perfect sincerity his first hasty judgment ;
Bouley congratulated him. He himself, many years before,
had allowed himself to judge too hastily, he said, of certain
experiments of Davaine's, of which the results then ap-
peared impossible. After having witnessed these experi-
ments, Bouley had thought it a duty to proclaim his error
at the Académie de Médecine, and to render a public homage
to Davaine. " That, I think,'' he said, " is the line of con-
duct which should always be observed; we honour our-
selves by acknowledging our mistakes and by rendering
justice to neglected merit."

No success had ever been greater than Pasteur's. The
veterinary surgeons, until then the most incredulous, now
convinced, desired to become the apostles of his doctrine.
M. Biot spoke of nothing less than of being himself
vaccinated and afterwards inoculated with the most active
virus. Colin's absence was much regretted. Pasteur
was not yet satisfied. "We must wait until the 5th of

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June," be said, " for the experiment to be complete, and
the proof decisive/'

M. Rossignol and M. Biot proceeded on the spot to the
necropsy of two of the dead sheep. An abundance of
bacteridia was very clearly seen in the blood through the
microscope.

Pasteur was accompanied back to the station by an
enthusiastic crowd, saluting him — ^with a luxury of
epithets contrasting with former ironies — as the immortal
author of the magnificent discovery of splenic fever vaccin-
ation, and it was decided that the farm of Pouilly le Fort
would henceforth bear the name of Qos Pasteur.

The one remaining unvaccinated sheep died that same
night. Amongst the vaccinated lot one ewe alone caused
some anxiety. She was pregnant, and died on the 4th of
June, but from an accident due to her condition, and not
from the consequences of the inoculation, as was proved by
a post-mortem examination.

Amongst the cattle, those which had been vaccinated
showed no sign whatever of any disturbance ; the others
presented enormous oedemata.

Pasteur wrote to his daughter: "Success is definitely
confirmed; the vaccinated animals are keeping perfectly
well, the test is complete. On Wednesday a report of the
facts and results will be drawn up which I shall com-
municate to the Académie des Sciences on Monday, and on
Tuesday to the Académie de Médecine."

And, that same day, he^ addressed a joyful telegram to
Bouley, who, in his quality of General Inspector of Veterin-
ary Schools, had been obliged to go to Lyons. Bouley
answered by the following letter :

"Lyons, June 5, 188 1. Dearest Master, your triumph
has filled me with joy. Though the days are long past now
when my faith in you was still somewhat hesitating, not

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having sufficiently impregnated my mind with your spirit,
as long as the event — which has just been realized in a
a manner so rigorously in conformity with your predictions
— ^was still in the future, I could not keep myself from feel-
ing a certain anxiety, of which you were yourself the
cause, since I had seen you also a prey to it, like all
inventors on the eve of the day which reveals their glory.
At last your telegram, for which I was piningy has come
to tell me that the world has found you faithful to all your
promises, and that you have inscribed one more great date
in the annals of Science^ and particularly in those of
Medicine, for which you have opened a new era.

" I feel the greatest joy at your triumph; in the first place,
for you, who are to-day receiving the reward of your noble
efforts in the pursuit of Truth ; and — shall I tell you ?— for
myself too, for I have so intimately associated myself with
your work that I should have felt your failure absolutely
as if it had been personal to me. All my teaching at the
Museum consists in relating your labours and predicting
their fruitfulness."

Those experiments at Pouilly le Fort caused a tremendous
sensation ; the whole of France burst out in an explosion
of enthusiasm. Pasteur now knew fame under its rarest
and purest form ; the loving veneration, the almost worship
with which he inspired those who lived near him or worked
with him, had become the feeling of a whole nation.

On June 13, at the Académie des Sciences, he was able
to state as follows his results and their practical conse-
quences. "We now possess virus vaccines of charbon,
capable of preserving from the deadly disease, without ever
being themselves deadly — ^living vaccines, to be cultivated
at will, transportable anywhere without alteration, and
prepared by a method which we may believe susceptible ot
being generalized, ^nce it has been the means of discover-

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ing the vaccine of chicken-cholera. By the character of
the conditions I am now enumerating, and from a purely
scientific point of view, the discovery of the vaccine of
anthrax constitutes a marked step in advance of that of
Jenner's vaccine, since the latter has never been experi-
mentally obtained."

On all sides, it was felt that something very great, very
unexpected, justifying every sort of hope, had been brought
forth. Ideas of research were coming up. On the very
morrow of the results obtained at Pouilly le Fort, Pasteur
was asked to go to the Cape to study a contagious disease
raging among goats.

**Your father would like to take that long journey,*'
wrote Mme. Pasteur to her daughter, " passing on his way
through Senegal to gather some good germs of pernicious
fever ; but I am trying to moderate his ardour. I consider
that the study of hydrophobia should suffice him for the
present."

He was at that time "at boiling point," as he put it —
going from his laboratory work to the Academies of Sciences
and Medicine to read some notes ; then to read reports at the
Agricultural Society; to Versailles, to give a lecture to
an Agronomic Congress, and to Alfort to lecture to the
professors and students. His clear and well arranged
words, the connection between ideas and the facts sup-
porting them, the methodical recital of experiments, allied
to an enthusiastic view of the future and its prospects —
especially when addressing a youthful audience — deeply
impressed his hearers. Those who saw and heard him
for the first time were the more surprised that, in certain
circles, a legend had formed round Pasteur's name. He
had been described as of an irritable, intolerant temper,
domineering and authoritative, almost despotic ; and people
now saw a man of perfect simplicity, so modest that he did

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not seem to realize his own glory, pleased to answer— even
to provoke — every objection, only raising his voice to defend
Truth, to exalt Work, and to inspire love for France, which
he wished to see again in the first rank of nations. He did
not cease to repeat that the country must regain her place
through scientific progress. Boys and youths— ever quick
to penetrate the clever calculations of those who seek their
own interest instead of accomplishing a duty — listened to
him eagerly and, very soon conquered, enrolled themselves
among his followers. In him they recognized the three
rarely united qualities which go to form true benefactors of
humanity : a mighty genius, great force of character, and
genuine goodness.

The Republican Government, desirous of recc^^nizing this
great discovery of splenic fever vaccination, offered him
the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour. Pasteur put
forward one condition ; he wanted, at the same time, the red
ribbon for his two collaborators. " What I have most set
my heart upon is to obtain the Cross for Chamberland and
Roux," he wrote to his son in law on June 26 ; " only at
that price will I accept the Grand Cross. They are taking
sucu trouble I Yesterday they went to a place fifteen
kilometres from Senlis, to vaccinate ten cows and 250
sheep. On Thursday we vaccinated 300 sheep at Vin-
cennes. On Sunday they were near Coulonuniers. On
Friday we are going to Pithiviers. What I chiefly wish is
that the discovery should be consecrated by an exceptional
distinction to two devoted young men, full of merit and
courage. I wrote yesterday to Paul Bert, asking him to
intervene most warmly in their favour."

One of Pasteur^s earliest friends, who, in 1862, had greeted
with joy his election to the Académie des Sciences, [and
who had never ceased to show the greatest interest in the
progress due to the experimental method, entered the

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Ecole Normale laboratory with a beaming face. Happy to
bring good tidings, he took his share of them like the
devoted, hardworking, kindly man that he was. '' M.
Grandeau," wrote Mme. Pasteur to her children, "has
just brought to the laboratory the news that Roux and
Chamberland have the Cross and M. Pasteur the Grand
Cross of the Legion of Honour. Hearty congratulations
were exchanged in the midst of the rabbits and guinea-
pigs."

Those days were darkened by a great sorrow. Henri
Sainte Claire Deville died. Pasteur was then reminded of
the words of his friend in 1868 : " You will survive me,
I am your senior; promise that you will pronounce my
funeral oration.'' When formulating this desire. Sainte
Claire Deville had no doubt been desirous of giving
another direction to the presentiments of Pasteur, who
believed himself death-stricken. But, whether it was from
a secret desire, or from an afifectionate impulse, he felt that
none understood him better than Pasteur. Both loved
Science after the same manner ; they gave to patriotism its
real place ; they had hopes for the future of the human
mind; they were moved by the same religious feelings
before the mysteries of the Infinite.

Pasteur b^;an by recalling his friend's wish: "And
here am I, before thy cold remains, obliged to ask my
memory what thou wert in order to repeat it to the
multitude crowding around thy coffin. But how super-
fluous I Thy sympathetic countenance, thy witty merriment
and frank smile, the sound of thy voice remain with us
and live within us. The earth which bears us, the air we
breathe, the elements, often interrelated and ever docile to
answer thee, could speak to us of thee. Thy services to
Science are known to the whole world, and every one who

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has appreciated the progress of the human mind is now
mourning for thee."

He then enumerated the scientist's qualities, the inventive
precision of that eager mind, full of imagination, and at
the same time the strictness of analysis and the fruitful
teaching so delightedly recognized by those who had
worked with him, Debray, Troost, Fouqué, Grandeau,
Hautefeuille, Gernez, Lechartier. Then, showing that, in
Sainte Claire Deville, the man equalled the scientist :

" Shall I now say what thou wert in private life ? Again,
how superfluous 1 Thy friends do not want to be reminded
of thy warm heart. Thy pupils want no proofs of thy
affection for them and thy devotion in being of service to
them I See their sorrow.

" Should I tell thy sons, thy five sons, thy joy and pride,
of the preoccupations of thy paternal and prudent tender-
ness ? And can I speak of thy smiling goodness to her, the
companion of thy life, the mere thought of whom filled thy
eyes with a sweet emotion ?

'' Oh I I implore thee, do not now look down upon thy
weeping wife and aflSicted sons : thou wouldst r^ret this
life too much I Wait for them rather in those divine regions
of knowledge and full light, where thou knowest all now,
where thou canst understand the Infinite itself, that terrible
and bewildering notion, closed for ever to man in this
world, and yet the eternal source of all Grandeur, of all
Justice and all Liberty."

Pasteur's voice was almost stifled by his tears, as had
been that of J. B. Dumas speaking at Péclet's tomb. The
emotions of savants are all the deeper that they are not
enfeebled, as in so many writers or speakers, by the con-
stant use of words which end by wearing out the feel-
ings.

Little groups slowly walking away from a country

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chtirchsrard seem to take with them some of the sadness
they have been feeling, but the departure from a Paris
cemetery gives a very diflFerent impression. Life imme-
diately grasps again and carries away in its movement
the mourners, who now look as if they had been witnessing
an incident in which they were not concerned. Pasteur
felt such bitter contrasts with all his tender soul, he had a
cult for dear memories; Sainte Claire Deville's portrait
ever remained in his study.

The adversaries of the new discovery now had recourse
to a new mode of attack. The virus which had been used
at Pouilly le Fort to show how efficacious were the preven-
tive vaccinations, was, they said, a culture virus — ^some
even said a Machiavellian preparation of Pasteur's. Would
vaccinated animals resist equally well the action of the
charbon blood itself, the really malignant and infallibly
deadly blood? Those sceptics were therefore impatiently
awaiting the result of some experiments which were being
carried out near Chartres in the farm of Lambert. Sixteen
Beauceron sheep were joined to a lot of nineteen sheep
brought from Alfort and taken from the herd of 300 sheep
vaccinated against charbon three weeks before, on the very
day of the lecture at Alfort. On July 16, at 10 o'clock in
the morning, the thirty-five sheep, vaccinated and non-
vaccinated, were gathered together. The corpse of a
sheep who had died of charbon four hours before, in a
neighbouring farm, was brought into the field selected for
the experiments. After making a post-mortem examina-
tion and noting the characteristic injuries of splenic fever,
ten drops of the dead sheep's blood were injected into each
of the thirty-five sheep, taking one vaccinated at
Alfort and one non-vaccinated Beauceron alternately.
Two days later, on July 18, ten of the latter were already

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dead, most of the others were prostrated. The vaccinated
sheep were perfectly well.

While the ten dead sheep were being examined, two
more died, and three more on the 19th. Bouley, informed
by the veterinary surgeon, Boutet, of those successive
incidents, wrote on the 20th to Pasteur: "My dear
Master, Boutet has just informed me of the Chartres event
All has been accomplished according to the master's words ;
your vaccinated sheep have triumphantly come through the
trial, and all the others save one are dead. That result is
of special importance in a country-side where incredulity
was being maintained in spite of all the demonstrations
made. It seems that the doctors especially were refractory.
They said it was too good to be true, and they counted on
the strength of the natural charbon to find your method in
default. Now they are converted, Boutet writes, and the
veterinary surgeon too— one amongst others, whose brain
it seems, was absolutely iron-clad — ^also the agricultors.
There is a general Hosannah in your honour."

After congratulating Pasteur on the Grand Cross, he
added, " I was also very glad of the reward you have
obtained for your two young collaborators, so full of your
spirit, so devoted to your work and your person, and
whose assistance is so self-sacrificing and disinterested.
The Government has honoured itself by so happily crown-
ing with that distinction the greatness of the discovery in
which they took part."

Henceforth, and for a time, systematic opposition ceased.
Thousands and thousands of doses were used of the new
vaccine, which afterwards saved millions to agricultiire.

A few days later, came a change in Pasteur's surround-
ings. He was invited by the Organizing Committee to attend
the International Medical Congress in London, and desired
by the Government of the Republic to represent France.

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On August 3, when he arrived in St. James' Hall, filled to
overflowing, from the stalls to the topmost galleries, he
was recognized by one of the stewards, who invited him to
come to the platform reserved for the most illustrious
members of the Congress. As he was going towards the
platform, there was an outburst of applause, hurrahs and
acclamations. Pasteur turned to his two companions, his
son and his son-in-law, and said, with a little uneasiness :
" It is no doubt the Prince of Wales arriving ; I ought to
have come sooner."

"But it is you that they are all cheering," said the
President of the Congress, Sir James Paget, with his
grave, kindly smile.

A few moments later, the Prince of Wales entered, ac-
companjring his brother-in-law, the German Crown Prince.

In his speech, Sir James Paget said that medical science
should aim at three objects : novelty, utility and charity.
The only scientist named was Pasteur ; the applause was
such that Pasteur, who was sitting behind Sir James Paget,
had to rise and bow to the huge assembly.

" I felt very proud," wrote Pasteur to Mme. Pasteur in a
letter dated that same day, " I felt inwardly very proud,
not for myself— you know how little I care for triumph ! —
but for my country, in seeing that I was specially distin-
guished among that immense concourse of foreigners,
especially of Germans, who are here in much greater
numbers than the French, whose total however reaches
two hundred and fifty. Jean Baptiste and René were in
the Hall ; you can imagine their emotion.

" After the meeting, we lunched at Sir James Paget*s
house ; he had the Prussian Crown Prince on his right and
the Prince of Wales on his left. Then there was a gather-
ing of about twenty-five or thirty guests in the drawing-
room. Sir James presented me to the Prince of Wales, to

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whom I bowed, saying that I was happy to salute a friend
to France. *Yes/ he answered, *a great friend,* Sir
James Paget had the good taste not to ask me to be
presented to the Prince of Prussia; though there is ot
course room for nothing but courtesy under such circum-
stances, I could not have brought myself to appear to
wish to be presented to him. But he himself came up to
me and said, ' M. Pasteur, allow me to introduce myself to
you, and to tell you that I had great pleasure in applauding
you just now,' adding some more pleasant things."

In the midst of the unexpected meetings brought about
by that Congress, it was an interesting thing to see this
son of a King and Emperor, the heir to the German
crown, thus going towards that Frenchman whose con-
quests were made over disease and death. Of what
glory might one day dream this Prince, who became
Frederic HI !

His tall and commanding stature, the highest position
in the Prussian army conferred on him by his father, King
William, in a solenm letter dated from Versailles, October
1870, — everything seemed to combine in making a warlike
man of this powerful-looking prince. And yet was it not
said in France that he had protested against certain
barbarities, coldly executed by some Prussian generals
during that campaign of 1870 ? Had he not considered the
clauses of the Treaty of Frankfort as Draconian and
dangerous ? If he had been sole master, would he have
torn Alsace away from France? What share would his
coming reign bear in the history of civilization? . . .
Fate had already marked this Prince, only fifty years old,
for an approaching death. In his great suflFerings, before
the inexorable death which was suffocating him, he was
heroically patient. His long agony b^an at San Remo,
amongst the roses and sunshine ; he was an Emperor for

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less than one hundred days, and, on his death-bed, words of
peace, peace for his people, were on his lips.

As Pasteur, coming to this Congress, was not only curious
to see what was the place held in medicine and surgery by
the germ-theory, but also desirous to learn as much as
possible, he never missed a discussion and attended every
meeting. It was in a simple sectional meeting that Bastian
attempted to refute Lister. After his speech, the President
suddenly said, " I call on M. Pasteur," though Pasteur had
not risen. There was great applause; Pasteur did not
know English ; he turned to Lister and asked him what
Bastian had said.

** He said," whispered Lister, " that microscopic organiza-
tions in disease were formed by the tissues themselves."

"That is enough for me,** said Pasteur. And he then
invited Bastian to try the following experiment :

" Take an animal's limb, crush it, allow blood and other
normal or abnormal liquids to spread around the bones,
only taking care that the skin should neither be torn nor
opened in any way, and I defy you to see any micro-
organism formed within that limb as long as the illness
will last."

Pasteur, desired to do so by Sir James Paget at one of the
great General Meetings of the Congress, gave a lecture on
the principles which had led him to the attenuation of
virus, on the methods which had enabled him to obtain the
vaccines of chicken-cholera and of charbon, and, finally, on
the results obtained. "In a fortnight," he said, "we
vaccinated, in the Departments surrounding Paris, nearly
20,000 sheep, and a great many oxen, cows and horses. . . .

" Allow me," he continued, " not toconclude without telling
you of the great joy that I feel in thinking that it is as a
member of the International Medical Congress sitting in
London that I have made known to you the vaccination of

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a disease more terrible perhaps for domestic animals than
is small-pox for man. I have given to the word vaccination
an extension which I hope Science will consecrate as an
homage to the merit and immense services rendered by your
Jenner, one of England's greatest men. It is a great
happiness to me to glorify that immortal name on the very
soil of the noble and hospitable city of London I "

" Pasteur was the greatest success of the Congress,"
wrote the correspondent of the Journal des Débats^ Dr.
Daremberg, glad as a Frenchman and as a physician to
hear the unanimous hurrahs which greeted the del^ate of
France. " When M. Pasteur spoke, when his name was
mentioned, a thunder of applause rose from all benches,
from all nations. An indefatigable worker, a sagacious
seeker, a precise and brilliant experimentalist, an implacable
logician, and an enthusiastic apostle, he has produced an
invincible effect on every mind."

The English people, who chiefly look in a great man for
power of initiative and strength of character, shared this
admiration. One group only, alone in darkness, away
from the Congress, was hostile to the general movement
and was looking for an opportunity for direct or indirect
revenge ; it was the group of antivaccinators and anti-
vivisectionists. The influence of the latter was great
enough in England to prevent experimentation on animals.
At a general meeting of the Congress, Virchow, the
German scientist, spoke on the use of experimenting in
pathology.

Already at a preceding Congress held in Amsterdam,
Virchow had said amid the applause of the Assembly:
" Those who attack vivisection have not the faintest idea of
Science, and even less of the importanqe and utility of
vivisection for the prioress of medicine." But to this just
argument, the international leagues for the protection of

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animals — ^very powerful, like everything that is founded on
a sentiment which may be exalted — ^had answered by com-
bative phrases. Thephysiologicallaboratorieswerecompared
to chambers of torture. It seemed as if, through caprice or
cruelty, quite uselessly at any rate, this and that man ot
science had the unique desire of inflicting on bound
animals, secured on a board, sufferings of which death was
the only limit It is easy to excite pity towards animals ;
an audience is conquered as soon as dogs are mentioned.
Which of us, whether a cherished child, a neglected old
maid, a man in the prime of his youth or a misanthrope
weary of everything, has not, holding the best place in his
recollections, the memory of some example of fidelity,
courage or devotion given by a dog ? In order to raise the
revolt, it was suflScient for anti-vivisectionists to evoke
amongst the ghosts of dog martyrs, the oft-quoted dog who,
whilst undergoing an experiment, licked the hand of the
operator. As there had been some cruel abuses on the
part of certain students, those abuses alone were quoted.
Scientists did not pay much heed to this agitation, partly a
feminine one : they relied on the good sense of the public to
put an end to those doleful declamations. But the English
Parliament voted a Bill prohibiting vivisection ; and, after
1876, English experimentalists had to cross the Channel to
inoculate a guinea-pig.

Virchow did not go into details ; but, in a wide exposé of
Experimental Physiological Medicine, he recalled how, at
each new progress of Science — at one time against the
dissection of dead bodies and now against experiments
on living animals, — the same passionate criticisms had been
renewed. The Interdiction Bill voted in England had filled a
new Leipzig Society with ardour ; it had asked the Reichstag
in that same year, 1881, to pass a law punishing cruelty to
animals under pretext of scientific research, by imprison-

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ment, varying between five weeks and two years, and
deprivation of civil rights. Other societies did not go
quite so far, but asked that some of their members should
have a right of entrance and inspection into the labora-
tories of the Faculties.

*' He who takes more interest in animals than in Science
and in the knowledge of truth is not qualified to inspect
officially things pertaining to Science,*' said Virchow.
With an ironical gravity on his quizzical wrinkled face, he
added, " Where shall we be if a scientist who has just begun
a bona fide experiment finds himself, in the midst of his
researches, obliged to answer questions from a new-comer
and afterwards to defend himself before some magistrate
for the crime of not having chosen another method, other
instruments, perhaps another experiment ? . . .

" We must prove to the whole world the soundness of our
cause," concluded Virchow, uneasy at those "leagues"
which grew and multiplied, and scattered through in-
numerable lectiire halls the most fallacious judgments on
the work of scientists.

Pasteur might have brought him, to support his state-
ments relative to certain deviations of ideas and sentiments,
numberless letters which reached him regularly from
England — letters full of threats, insults and maledictions,
devoting him to eternal torments for having multiplied his
crimes on the hens, guinea-pigs, dogs and sheep of the
laboratory. Love of animals carries some women to such
lengths!

It would have been interesting, if, after Virchow's speech,
some French physician had in his turn related a series
of facts, showing how prejudices equally tenacious had had
to be struggled against in France, and how savants had
succeeded in enforcing the certainty that there can be no
pathol(%ical science if Physiology is not progressing, and

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

that it can only progress by means of the experimental
method. Claude Bernard had expressed this idea under
so many forms that it would almost have been enough to
give a few extracts from his works.

In 1841, when he was Magendie's curator, he was one
day attending a lesson on experimental physiology, when
he saw an old man come in, whose costume — 3, long coat
with a straight collar and a hat with a very wide brim —
indicated a Quaker.

" Thou hast no right,*' he said, addressing Magendie, " to
kill animals or to make them suffer. Thou givest a wicked
example and thou accustomest thy fellow creatures to
cruelty."

Magendie replied that it was a pity to look at it from that
point of view, and that a physiolc^ist, when moved by the
thought of making a discovery useful to Medicine, and
consequently useful to his fellow-creatures, did not deserve
that reproach.

" Your countryman Harvey," said he, hoping to convince
him, "would not have discovered the circulation of the
blood if he had not made some experiments in vivisection.
That discovery was surely worth the sacrifice of a few
deer in Charles the First's Park?"

But the Quaker stuck to his idea ; his mission, he said,
was to drive three things from this world : war, hunting
and shooting, and experiments on live animals. Magendie
had to show him out.

Three years later, Claude Bernard, in his turn, was taxed
with barbarity by a Police Magistrate. In order to study
the digestive properties of gastric juice, it had occurred to
him to collect it by means of a cannula, a sort of silver tap
which he adapted to the stomach of live dogs. A Berlin
surgeon, M. Dieffenbach, who was staying in Paris,
expressed a wish to see this application of a cannula

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to the stomach. M. Pelouze, the chemist, had a laboratory
in the Rue Dauphine; he offered it to Claude Bernard.
A stray d(^ was used as a subject for the experiment and
shut up in the yard of the house, where Claude Bernard
wished to keep a watch on him. But, as the treatment in
no wise hindered the dog from running about, the door of
the yard was hardly opened when he escaped, cannula
and all.

" A few days later," writes Claude Bernard in the course
of an otherwise grave report concerning the progress of
general physiology in France (1867), " I was still in bed,
early one morning, when I received a visit from a man who
came to tell me that the Police Commissary of the Medicine
School District wished to speak to me, and that I must go
round to see him. I went in the course of the day to the
Police Commissariat of the Rue du Jardinet; I found a very
respectable-looking little old man, who received me very
coldly at first and without saying anything. He took me
into another room and showed me, to my great astonish-
ment, the dog on whom I had operated in M. Pelouze's
laboratory, asking me if I confessed to having fixed that
instrument in his stomach. I answered a£Brmatively,
adding that I was delighted to see my cannula, which I
thought I had lost. This confession, far from satisfying the
Commissary, apparently provoked his wrath, for he gave
me an admonition of most exaggerated severity, accom-
panied with threats for having had the audacity to steal
his â(^ to experiment on it.

" I explained that I had not stolen his dog, but that I
had bought it of some individuals who sold dc^s to
physiologists, and who claimed to be employed by the
police in picking up stray dogs. I added that I was sorry to
have been the involuntary cause of the grief occasioned in
his household by the misadventure to the dog, but that the

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animal would not die of it ; that the only thing to do was
to let me take away my silver cannula and let him keep
his dog. Those last words altered the Commissary's
language and completely calmed his wife and daughter.
I removed my instrument and left, promisii^ to return,
which I did the next and following days. The dog was
perfectly cured in a day or two, and I became a friend of
the family, completely securing the Commissary's futiire
protection. It was on that account that I soon after set up
my laboratory in his District, and for many years
continued my private classes of experimental physiology,
enjoying the protection and warnings of the Commissary
and thus avoiding much unpleasantness, until the time
when I was at last made an assistant to Magendie at the
Collège de France."

The London Society for the Protection of Animals had
the singular idea of sending to Napoleon III complaints,
almost remonstrances, on the vivisection practised within
the French Empire. The Emperor simply sent on those
English lamentations to the Academy of Medicine. The
matter was prolonged by academical speeches. In a letter
addressed to M. Grandeau, undated, but evidently written
in August, 1863, Claude Bernard showed some irritation, a
rare thing with him. Declaring that he would not go to
the Academy and listen to the " nonsense " of " those who
protect animals in hatred of mankind" he gave his
concluding epitome : " You ask me what are the principal
discoveries due to vivisection, so that you can mention them
as arguments for that kind of study. All the knowledge
possessed by experimental physiology can be quoted in
that connection ; there is not a single fact which is not the
direct and necessary consequence of vivisection. From
Galen, who, by cutting the laryngeal nerves, learnt their
use for respiration and the voice, to Harvey, who discovered

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circulation; Pecquet and Aselli, the lymphatic vessels;
Haller, muscular irritability ; Bell and Magendie, the nervous
functions, and all that has been learnt since the extension
of that method of vivisectiop, which is the only experimental
method ; in biology, all that is known on digestion, circula-
tion, the liver, the sympathetic system, the bones. Develop-
ment — ^all, absolutely all, is the result of vivisection, alone
or combined with other means of study."

In 1875, he again returned to this idea in his experimental
medicine classes at the Collège de France: "It is to
experimentation that we owe all our precise notions on the
functions of the viscera and a fortiori on the properties of
such organs as muscles, nerves, etc."

One more interesting quotation might have been offered
to the members of the Congress. A Swede had questioned
Darwin on vivisection, for the anti-vivisectionist propa-
ganda was spreading on every side. Darwin, who, like
P^teur, did not admit that useless suffering should be
inflicted on animals, (Pasteur carried this so far that he
would never, he said, have had the courage to shoot a
bird for sport) — Darwin, in a letter dated April 14th, 1881,
approved any measures that could be taken to prevent
cruelty, but he added : " Od the other hand, I know that
physiology can make no progress if experiments on living
animals are suppressed, and I have an intimate conviction
that to retard the progress of physiology is to commit a crime
against humanity. . . . Unless one is absolutely ignorant
of all that Science has done for humanity, one must be
convinced that physiology is destined to render incalculable
benefits in the future to man and even to animals. See the
results obtained by M. Pasteur's work on the germs of
contagious diseases : will not animals be the first to profit
thereby? How many lives have been saved, how much
suffering spared by the discovery of parasitic worms follow-

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ing on experiments made by Virchow and others on living
animals I *'

The London Congress marked a step on the road of
progress. Besides the questions which were discussed and
which were capable of precise solution, the scientific spirit
showed itself susceptible of permeating other general
subjects. Instead of remaining the impassive Sovereign
we are wont to fancy her, Science — and this was proved by
Pasteur's discoveries and their consequences, as Paget,
Tyndall, Lister, and Priestley loudly proclaimed— Science
showed herself capable of associating with pure research
and perpetual care for Truth, a deep feeling of com-
passion for all sufiering and an ever-growing thirst
for self-sacrifice.

Pasteur's speech at the London Medical Congress was
printed at the request of an English M.P. and distributed to
all the members of the House of Commons. Dr. H. Gueneau
de Mussy, who had spent part of his life in England, having
followed the Orleans family into exile, wrote to Pasteur on
August 15, " I have been very happy in witnessing your
triumph; you are raising us up again in the eyes of
foreign nations."

Applause was to Pasteur but a stimulus to further eflForts.
He was proud of his discoveries, but not vain of the effect
they produced ; he said in a private letter : " The Temps
again refers, in a London letter, to my speech at the
Congress. What an unexpected success I "

Having heard that yellow fever had just been brought
into the Gironde, at the Pauillac loBaretto by the vessel
Condé from Sen^;al, Pasteur immediately started for
Bordeaux. He hoped to find the microbe in the blood of the
sick or the dead, and to succeed in cultivating it. M. Roux
hastened to join his master.

If people spoke to Pasteur of the danger of infection,

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"What does it matter?" he said. "Life in the midst of
danger is the life, the real life, the life of sacrifice, of
example, of fruitfulness."

He was vexed to find his arrival notified in the news-
papers ; it worried him not to be able to work and to travel
incognito.

On September 17, he wrote to Mme. Pasteur : ". . . We
rowed out to a great transport ship which is lying in the
Pauillac roads, having just arrived. From our boat, we
were able to speak to the men of the crew. Their health
is good, but they lost seven persons at St. Louis, two
passengers and five men of the crew. Save the captain
and one engineer, they are all Sen^^alese negroes on that
ship. We have been near another large steamboat, and yet
another ; their health is equally good. . . .

" The most afiUcted ship is the Condéy which is in quaran-
tine in the Pauillac roads, and near which we have not been
able to go. She has lost eighteen persons, either at sea or
at the laMaretto. • . ."

No experiment could be attempted — the patients were
convalescent. "But," he wrote the next day, "the
Richelieu will arrive between the 25th and 28th, I think
with some passengers. ... It is more than likely that
there will have been deaths during the passage, and
patients for the loMuretto. I am therefore awaiting the
arrival of that ship with the hope — God forgive a scientist's
passion!! — that I may attempt some researches at the
Pauillac laxaretto^ where I will arrange things in conse-
quence. You may be sure I shall take every precaution.
In the meanwhile, what shall I do in Bordeaux?

" I have made the acquaintance of the young librarian of
the town library, which is a few doors from the Hôtel
Richelieu, in the Avenues of Toumy. The library is opened
to me at all hours: I am there even now, alone and very

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comfortably seated, surrounded with more Littré than I
can possibly get through."

For some months, several members of the Académie
Française — according to the traditions of the Society
which has ever thought it an honour to number among its
members scientists such as Cuvier, Flourens, Biot, Claude
Bernard, J. B. Dumas— had been urging Pasteur to become
a candidate to the place left vacant by Littré. Pasteur
was anxious to know not only the works, but the life of
him whose place he might be called upon to fill. It was
with some emotion that he first came upon the following
lines printed on the title page of the translation of the
works of Hippocrates ; they are a dedication by Littré to
the memory of his father, a sergeant-major in the Marines
under the Revolution.

"... Prepared by his lessons and by his example, I have
been sustained through this long work by his ever present
memory. I wish to inscribe his name on the first page of
this book, in the writing of which he has had so much share
from his grave, so that the work of the father should not be
forgotten in the work of the son, and that a pious and just
gratitude should connect the work of the living with the
heritage of the dead. . • ."

Pasteur in 1876 had obeyed a similar filial feeling when
he wrote on the first page of his Indies an Beer —

" To the memory of my father, a soldier under the first
Empire, and a knight of the Legion of Honour. The more
I have advanced in age, the better I have understood thy
love and the superiority of thy reason. The efforts I have
given to these Studies and those which have preceded them
are the fruit of thy example and advice. Wishing to
honour these pious recollections, I dedicate this work to thy
memory."

The two dedications are very similar. Those two

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soldiers' sons had kept the virile imprint of the paternal
virtues. A great tenderness was also in them both ; Littré,
when he lost his mother, had felt a terrible grief, compar-
able to Pasteur's under the same circumstances.

In spite of Pasteur's interest in studying Littré in the
Bordeaux library, he did not cease thinking of yellow fever.
He often saw M. Berchon, the sanitary director, and
inquired of him whether there were any news of the
Richelieu. A young physician, Dr. Talmy, had expressed a
desire to join Pasteur at Bordeaux and to obtain permission,
when the time came, to be shut up with the patients in
the lazaretto. Pasteur wrote on December 25 to Mme.
Pasteur: "There is nothing new save the Minister's
authorization to Dr. Talmy to enter the lazaretto ; I have
just telegraphed to him that he might start. The owners
of the Richelieu still suppose that she will reach Pauillac on
Tuesday. M. Berchon, who is the first to be informed of
what takes place in the roads, will send me a telegram as
soon as the Richelieu is signalled, and we shall then
go— M. Talmy, Roux and I — to ascertain the state of
the ship, of course without going on board, which we
should not be allowed to do if it has a suspicious bill
of health."

And, as Mme. Pasteur had asked what happened when a
ship arrived, he continued in the same letter : " From his
boat to windward, M. Berchon receives the ship's papers,
giving the sanitary state of the ship day by day. Before
passing from the hands of the captain of the vessel to those
of the sanitary director, the papers are sprinkled over with
chloride of lime.

" If there are cases of illness, all the passengers are taken
to the lazaretto ; only a few men are left on board the ship,
which is henceforth in quarantine, no one being allowed to
leave or enter it.

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''God permit that, in the body of one of those unfortunate
victims of medical ignorance, I may discover some specific
microscopic being. And after that? Afterwards, it would
be really beautiful to make that agent of disease and death
become its own vaccine. Yellow fever is one of the three
great scourges of the East — bubonic plague, cholera, and
yellow fever. Do you know that it is already a fine thing
to be able to put the problem in those words I ''

The Richelieu arrived, but she was free from fever. The
last passenger had died during the crossing and his body
had been thrown into the sea.

Pasteur left Bordeaux and returned to his laboratory.

154

CHAPTER IV
1882-1884

PASTEUR was in the midst of some new experiments
when he heard that the date of the election to the
Académie Française was fixed for December 8. Certain
candidates spent half their time in fiacres^ pajring the
traditional calls, counting the voters, calculating their
chances, and taking every polite phrase for a promise.
Pasteur, with perfect simplicity, contented himself with
saying to the Academicians whom he went to see, '*I
had never in my life contemplated the great honour of
entering the Académie Française. People have been kind
enough to say to me, ' Stand and you will be elected.' It is
impossible to resist an invitation so glorious for Science
and so flattering to myself."

One member of the Académie, Alexandre Dumas, refused
to let Pasteur call on him. " I will not allow him to come
and see me, he said; I will myself go and thank him
for consenting to become one of us." He agreed with
M. Grandeau, who wrote to Pasteur that '' when Claude
Bernard and Pasteur consent to enter the ranks of a
Society, all the honour is for the latter."

When Pasteur was elected, his youthfulness of sentiment
was made apparent ; it seemed to him an immense honour
to be. one of the Forty. He therefore prepared his reception
speech with the greatest care, without however allowing
his scientific work to suffer. The life of his predecessor

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

interested him more and more ; to work in the midst of
family intimacy had evidently been Littré's ideal of
happiness.

Few people, beyond Littré's colleagues, know that his
wife and daughter collaborated in his great work ; they
looked out the quotations necessary to that Dictionary, of
which, if laid end to end, the columns would reach a length
of thirty-seven kilometres. The Dictionary, commenced in
1857, when Littré was almost sixty years old, was only
interrupted twice : in 186 1, when Auguste Comte's widow
asked Littré for a biography of the founder of positive
philosophy ; and in 1870, when the life of France was com-
promised and arrested during long months.

Littré, poor and disinterested as he was, had been able to
realize his only dream, which was to possess a house in the
country. Pasteur, bringing to bear in this, as in all things,
his habits of scrupulous accuracy, left his laboratory for
one day, and visited that villa, situated near Maisons-
Laffitte.

The gardener who opened the door to him might have
been the owner of that humble dwelling; the house was in
a bad state of repair, but the small garden gave a look of
comfort to the little property. It had been the only luxury
of the philosopher, who enjoyed cultivating vegetables
while quoting Virgil, Horace or La Fontaine, and listened
to the nightingale when early dawn found him still sitting
at his work.

After visiting this house and garden, reflecting as they
did the life of a sage, Pasteur said sadly, '* Is it possible
that such a man should have been so misjudged I ''

A crucifix, hanging in the room where Littré's family
were wont to work, testified to his respect for the beliefs of
his wife and daughter. " I know too well," he said one
day, *' what are the sufierings and difficulties of human life,

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i88a-i884

to wish to take from any one convictions which may
comfort them."

Pasteur also studied the Positivist doctrine of which
Auguste Comte had been the pontiflf and Littré the prophet.
This scientific conception of the world affirms nothing,
denies nothing, beyond what is visible and easily demon-
strated. It suggests altruism, a " subordination of per-
sonality to sociability," it inspires patriotism and the love
of humanity. Pasteur, in his scrupulously positive and
accurate work, his constant thought for others, his self-
sacrificing devotion to humanity, might have been supposed
to be an adept of this doctrine. But he found it lacking in
one great point " Positivism," he said, " does not take into
account the most important of positive notions, that of the
Infinite." He wondered that Positivism should confine the
mind within limits; with an impulse of deep feeling,
Pasteur, the scientist, the slow and precise observer, wrote
the following passage in his speech : ^* What is beyond ? the
human mind, actuated by an invincible force, will never
cease to ask itself: What is beyond? ... It is of no use to
answer : Beyond is limitless space, limitless time or limitless
grandeur; no one understands those words. He who
proclaims the existence of the Infinite — and none can
avoid it — accumulates in that affirmation more of the
supernatural than is to be found in all the miracles of all
the religions ; for the notion of the Infinite presents that
double character that it force^ itself upon us and yet is
incomprehensible. When this notion seizes upon our
understanding, we can but kneel. ... I see everywhere the
inevitable expression of the Infinite in the world ; through
it, the supernatural is at the bottom of every heart. The
idea of God is a form of the idea of the Infinite. As long as
the mystery of the Infinite weighs on human thought,
temples will be erected for the worship of the Infinite,

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

whether God is called Brahma, Allah, Jehovah, or Jesus ;
and on the pavement of those temples, men will be seen
kneeling, prostrated, annihilated in the thought of the
Infinite."

At that time, when triumphant Positivism was inspiring
many leaders of men, the very man who might have given
himself up to what he called " the enchantment of Science "
proclaimed the Mystery of the universe; with his in-
tellectual humility, Pasteur bowed before a Power greater
than human power. He continued with the following
words, worthy of being preserved for ever, for they are of
those which pass over humanity like a Divine breath:
'^ Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal,
and who obeys it : ideal of art, ideal of science, ideal of the
gospel virtues, therein lie the springs of great thoughts
and great actions ; they all reflect light from the Infinite."

Pasteur concluded by a supreme homage to Littré.
"Often have I fancied him seated by his wife, as in a
picture of early Christian times : he, looking down upon
earth, full of compassion for human suffering; she, a fervent
Catholic, her eyes raised to heaven : he, inspired by all
earthly virtues ; she, by every Divine grandeur ; uniting in
one impulse and in one heart the twofold holiness which
forms the aureole of the Man-God, the one proceeding from
devotion to humanity, the other emanating from ardent
love for the Divinity : she a saint in the canonic sense of the
word, he a lay-saint This last word is not mine ; I have
gathered it on the lips of all those that knew him."

The two colleagues whom Pasteur had chosen for his
Academic sponsors were J. B. Dumas and Nisard. Dumas,
who appreciated more than any one the scientific progress
due to Pasteur, and who applauded his brilliant success,
was touched by the simplicity and modesty which his
former pupil showed, now as in the distant past, when the

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I882-I884

then obscure young man sat taking notes on the Sorbonne
benches.

Their mutual relationship had remained unchanged when
Pasteur, accompanied by one of his family, rang at Dumas'
door in March, 1882, with the manuscript of his noble
speech in his pocket ; he seemed more like a student, respect-
fully calling on his master, than like a savant affectionately
visiting a colleague.

Dumas received Pasteur in a little private study adjoin-
ing the fine drawing-room where he was accustomed to
dispense an el^ant hospitality. Pasteur drew a stool up
to a table and b^;an to read, but in a shy and hurried
manner, without even raising his eyes towards Dumas, who
listened, enthroned in his armchair, with an occasional
murmur of approbation. Whilst Pasteur's careworn face
revealed some of his ardent struggles and persevering
work, nothing perturbed Dumas' grave and gentle counten-
ance. His smile, at most times prudently affable and
benevolent in varying degree, now frankly illumined his
face as he congratulated Pasteur. He called to mind his own
reception speech at the Academy when he had succeeded
Guizot, and the fact that he too had concluded by a con-
fession of faith in his Creator.

Pasteur's other sponsor, Nisard, almost an octogenarian,
was not so happy as Dumas ; death had deprived him of
almost all his old friends. It was a great joy to him when
Pasteur came to see him on the wintry Sunday afternoons ;
he fancied himself back again at the Ecole Normale and
the happy days when he reigned supreme in that establish-
ment Pasteur's deference, greater even perhaps than it
had been in former times, aided the delightful delusion.
Though Nisard was ever inclined to bring a shade of
patronage into every intimacy, he was a conversationalist
of the old and rare stamp. Pasteur enjoyed hearing

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Nisard's recollections and watching for a smile lighting up
the almost blind face. Those Sunday talks reminded him
of the old delightful conversations with Chappuis at the
Besançon Collie when, in their youthful fervour, they
read together André Chénier's and Lamartine's verses.
Eighteen years later, Pasteur had not missed one of Sainte
Beuve's lectures to the Ecole Normale students ; he liked that
varied and penetrating criticism, opening sidelights on
every point of the literary horizon. Nisard understood
criticism rather as a solemn treaty, with clauses and
conditions; with his taste for hierarchy, he even gave
different ranks to authors as if they had been students
before his chair. But, when he spoke, the rigidity of his
system was enveloped in the grace of his conversation.
Pasteur had but a restricted comer of his mind to give
to literature, but that comer was a privileged one ; he only
read what was really worth reading, and every writer
worthy of the name inspired him with more than esteem,
with absolute respect. He had a n^st exalted idea of
Literature and its influence on society ; he was saying one
day to Nisard that Literature was a great educator : " The
mind alone can if necessary suffice to Science ; both the mind
and the heart intervene in Literature, and that explains
the secret of its superiority in leading the general train
of thought*' This was preaching to an apostle : no homage
to literature ever seemed too great in the eyes of Nisard.

He approved of the modest exordium in Pasteur's
speech —

'' At this moment when presenting myself before this
illustrious assembly, I feel once more the emotion with
which I first solicited your suffrages. The sense of my
own inadequacy is borne in upon me afresh, and I should
feel some confusion in finding myself in this place, were it
not my duty to attribute to Science itself the bonour^-so

i6o

I882-I884

to speak, an impersonal one — ^which you have bestowed
upon me."

The Pennanent Secretary, Camille Doucet, well versed
in the usages of the Institute, and preoccupied with the
effect produced, thought that the public would not believe
in such self-eflB^cement, sincere as it was, and sent the
following letter to Pasteur with the proof-sheet of his
speech —

" Dear and honoured colleague, allow me to suggest to
you a modification of your first sentence ; your modesty
is excessive."

Camille Doucet had struck out the sense of my own in-
adequacy is borne in upon me afresh^ and further so to speak^
an impersonal one. Pasteur consulted Nisard, and the
sense of my own inadequacy was replaced by the sense
of my deficiencies^ while Pasteur adhered energetically to
so to speafcf an impersonal one ; he saw in his election less
a particular distinction than a homage rendered to Science
in general.

A reception at the Académie Française is like a sensa-
tional first night at a theatre ; a special public is interested
days beforehand in every coming detail. Wives, daughters,
sisters of Academicians, great ladies interested in coming
candidates, widows of deceased Academicians, laureates
of various Academy prizes — the whole literary world
agitates to obtain tickets. Pasteur's reception promised
to be full of interest, some even said piquancy, for it fell
to Renan to welcome him.

In order to have a foretaste of the contrast between
the two men it was sufficient to recall Kenan's opening
speech three years before, when he succeeded Claude
Bernard. His thanks to his colleagues b^^an thus —

''Your cenaculum is only reached at the age of
Ecclesiastes, a delightful age of serene cheerfulness, when

VOL. II. 161 H

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

after a laborious prime, it begins to be seen that all is
but vanity, but also that some vain things are worthy of
being lingeringly enjoyed."

The two minds were as different as the two speeches ;
Pasteur took everything seriously, giving to words their
absolute sense ; Renan, an incomparable writer, with his
supple, undulating style, slipped away and hid himself within
the sinuosities of his own philosophy. He disliked plain
statements, and was ever ready to deny when others
afiSrmed, even if he afterwards blamed excessive negation
in his own followers. He religiously consoled those whose
faith he destroyed, and, whilst invoking the Eternal, claimed
the right of finding fault even there. When applauded by
a crowd, he would willingly have murmured Noli me
tangere^ and even added with his joyful mixture of disdain
and good-fellowship, ''Let infinitely witty men come
unto me."

On that Thursday, April 27, 1882, the Institute was
crowded. When the noise had subsided, Renan, seated at
the desk as Director of the Academy between Camille
Doucet, the Permanent Secretary, and Maxime du Camp,
the Chancellor, declared the meeting opened. Pasteur,
looking paler than usual, rose from his seat, dressed in
the customary green - embroidered coat of an Academi-
cian, wearing across his breast the Grand Cordon of the
Legion of Honour. In a clear, grave voice, he b^^n by
expressing his deep gratification, and, with the absolute
knowledge and sincerity which always compelled the
attention of his audience, of whatever kind, he proceeded
to praise his predecessor. There was no artifice of com-
position, no struggle after effect, only a homage to the
man, followed almost immediately by a confession of dissent
on philosophic questions. He was listened to with attentive
emotion, and when he showed the error of Positivism in

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attempting to do away with the idea of the Infinite, and
proclaimed the instinctive and necessary worship by
Man of the great Mystery, he seemed to bring out all the
weakness and the dignity of Man — ^passing through this
world bowed under the law of Toil and with the prescience
of the Ideal — ^into a startlii^ and consolatory light

One of the privileges of the Academician who receives a
new member, is to remain seated in his armchair before a
table, and to comfortably prepare to read his own speech,
in answer, often in contradiction, to the first Renan, visibly
enjoying the presidential chair, smiled at the audience with
complex feelings, understood by some who were his assidu-
ous readers. Respect for so much work achieved by a
scientist of the first rank in the world ; a gratified feeling
of the honour which reverted to France; some personal
pleasure in welcoming such a man in the name of the
Académie, and, at the same time in the opportunity for a
light and ironical answer to Pasteur*s beliefs — all these
sensations were perceptible in Renan*s powerful face, the
benevolence of whose soft blue eyes was corrected by the
redoubtable keenness of the smile.

He began in a caressing voice by acknowledging that the
Academy was somewhat incompetent to judge of the work
and glory of Pasteur. "But," he added, with graceful
eloquence, " apart from the ground of the doctrine, which
is not within our attributions, there is. Sir, a greatness on
which our experience of the human mind gives us a right
to pronounce an opinion ; something which we recognize
in the most varied applications, which belongs in the same
degree to Galileo, Pascal, Michael- Angelo, or Molière;
something which gives sublimity to the poet, depth to the
philosopher, fascination to the orator, divination to the
scientist.

" That common basis of all beautiful and true work, that

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divine fire, that indefinable breath which inspires Science,
Literature, and Art — we have found it in you, Sir — it is
Genius. No one has walked so surely through the circles
of elemental nature ; your scientific life is like unto a
luminous tract in the great night of the Infinitesimally
Small, in that last abyss where life is born."

After a brilliant and rapid enumeration of the Pastorian
discoveries, congratulating Pasteur on having touched
through his art the very confines of the springs of life,
Renan went on to speak of truth as he would have spoken
of a woman : ** Truth, sir, is a great coquette ; she will not
be sought with too much passion, but often is most amenable
to indiflference. She escapes when apparently caught, but
gives herself up if patiently waited for ; revealing herself
after farewells have been said, but inexorable when loved
with too much fervour.'* And further : ** Nature is plebeian,
and insists upon work, preferring homy hands and careworn
brows.''

He then commenced a courteous controversy. Whilst
Pasteur, with his vision of the Infinite, showed himself as
religious as Newton, Renan, who enjoyed moral problems,
spoke of Doubt with delectation. "The answer to the
enigma which torments and charms us will never be given
to us. • . . What matters it, since the imperceptible
corner of reality which we see is full of delicious harmonies,
and since life, as bestowed upon us, is an excellent gift, and
for each of us a revelation of infinite goodness ? "

Legend will probably hand to posterity a picture of
Renan as he was in those latter days, ironically cheerful
and unctuously indulgent. But, before attaining the
quizzical tranquillity he now exhibited to the Academy, he
had gone through a complete evolution. When about the
age of forty-eight, he might bitterly have owned that there
was not one basis of thought which in him had not crumbled

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to dust. Beliefs, political ideas, his ideal of European
civilization, all had fallen to the ground. After his separa-
tion from the Church, he had turned to historical science ;
Germany had appeared to him, as once to Madame de Staël
and so many others, as a refuge for thinkers. It had
seemed to him that a collaboration between France, England,
and Germany would create " An invincible trinity, carry-
ing the world along the road of prepress through reason.'*
But that German façade which he took for that of a temple
hid behind it the most formidable barracks which Europe
had ever known, and beside it were cannon foundries,
death-manufactories, all the preparations of the German
people for the invasion of France. His awakening was
bitter ; war as practised by the Prussians, with a method
in their cruelty, filled him with grief.

Time passed and his art, like a lily of the desert growing
amongst ruins, gave flowers and perfumes to surrounding
moral devastation. A mixture of disdain and nobility
now made him regard as almost imperceptible the number
of men capable of understanding his philosophical eleva-
tion. Pasteur had bared his soul ; Renan took pleasure in
throwing light on the intellectual antithesis of certain
minds, and on their points of contact.

** Allow me. Sir, to recall to you your fine discovery of
right and left tartaric acids. . . . There are some minds
which it is as impossible to bring together as it is impossible,
according to your own comparison, to fit two gloves one
into the other. And yet both gloves are equally necessary ;
they complete each other. One's two hands cannot be
superposed, they may be joined. In the vast bosom of
nature, the most diverse efforts, added to each other,
combine with each other, and result in a most majestic
unity."

Renan handled the French language, ''this old and

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admirable language, poor but to those who do not know it,"
with a dexterity, a choice of delicate shades, of tasteful
harmonies which have never been surpassed. Able as he
was to define every human feeling, he went on from the
above comparison, painting divergent intellectual capabili-
ties, to the following imprecation against death : " Death,
according to a thought admired by M. Littré, is but a
function, the last and quietest of all. To me it seems
odious, hateful, insane, when it lays its cold blind hand on
virtue and on genius. A voice is in us, which only great
and good souls can hear, and that voice cries unceasingly
* Truth and Good are the ends of thy life ; sacrifice all to
that goal ' ; and when, following the call of that siren
within us, claiming to bear the promises of life, we reach
the place where the reward should await us, the deceitful
consoler fails us. Philosophy, which had promised us the
secret of death, makes a lame apology, and the ideal which
had brought us to the limits of the air we breathe, dis-
appears from view at the supreme hour when we look for
it Nature's object has been attained ; a powerful e£fort has
been realized, and then, with characteristic carelessness, the
enchantress abandons us and leaves us to the hooting birds
of the night."

Renan, save in one little sentence in his answer to
Pasteur — "The divine work accomplishes itself by the
intimate tendency to what is Good and what is True in the
universe" — did not go further into the statement of his
doctrines. Perhaps he thought them too austere for his
audience; he was wont to eschew critical and religious
considerations when in a world which he looked upon as
frivolous. Moreover he thought his own century amusing,
and was willing to amuse it further. If he raised his eyes
to Heaven, he said that we owe virtue to the Eternal, but
that we have the right to add to it irony. Pasteur thought

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I882-I884

it strange that irony should be applied to subjects which
have beset so many great minds and which so many
simple hearts solve in their own way.

The week which followed Pasteur's reception at the
Académie Française brought him a manifestation of
applause in the provinces. The town of Aubenas in the
Ardèche was erecting a statue to Olivier de Serres, and
desired to associate with the name of the founder of the
silk industry in France in the sixteenth century, that of
its preserver in the nineteenth.

This was the second time that a French town proclaimed
its gratitude towards Pasteur. A few months before, the
Melun Agricultural Society had held a special meeting in
his honour, and had decided ''to strike a medal with
Pasteur's efi&gy on it, in commemoration of one of the
greatest services ever rendered by Science to Agriculture."

But amidst this peean of praise, Pasteur, instead of
dwelling complacently on the recollection of his experiments
at Pouilly le Fort, was absorbed in one idea, characteristic
of the man ; he wanted to at once begin some experiments
on the peripneumonia of homed cattle. The veterinary
surgeon. Rossignol, had just been speaking on this subject
to the meeting. Pasteur, who had recently been asked by
the Committee of Epizootic Diseases to inquire into the
mortality often caused by the inoculation of the peri-
pneumonia virus, reminded his hearers in a few words
of the variable qualities of virus and how the slightest
impurity in a virus may exercise an influence on the effects
of that virus.

He and his collaborators had vainly tried to cultivate the
virus of peripneumonia in chicken-broth, veal-broth, yeast-
water, etc. They had to gather the virus from the lung of
a cow which had died of peripneumonia, by means of tubes

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previously sterilized ; it was injected, with every precaution
against alteration, under the skin of the tail of the animal,
this part being chosen on account of the thickness of the
skin and of the cellular tissue. By operating on other parts,
serious accidents were apt to occur, the vhrus being ex-
tremely violent, so much so in fact that the local irritation
sometimes went so far as to cause the loss of part of the
tail. At the end of the same year (1882), Pasteur published
in the Recueil de la Médecine Vétérinaire a paper indicating
the following means of preserving the virus in a state ot
purity —

"Pure virus remains virulent for weeks and months.
One lung is sufficient to provide large quantities of it, and
its purity can easily be tested in a stove and even in
ordinary temperature. From one lung only, enough can be
procured to be used for many animals. Moreover, without
having recourse to additional lungs, the provision of virus
could be maintained in the following manner: it would
suffice, before exhausting the first stock of virus, to inocu-
late a young calf behind the shoulder. Death speedily
supervenes, and all the tissues are infiltrated with a
serosity, which in its turn becomes virulent. This also can
be collected and preserved in a state of purity." It re-
mained to be seen whether virus thus preserved would
become so attenuated as to lose all degree of virulence.

Aubenas, then, wished to follow the example of Melun.
In deference to the unanimous wish of the inhabitants of
the little town, Pasteur went there on the 4th <rf May. His
arrival was a veritable triumph ; there were decorations at
the station, floral arches in the streets, brass and other
bands, speeches from the Mayor, presentation of the
Municipal Council, of the Chamber of Commerce, etc., etc.
Excitement reigned everywhere, and the music of the
bands was almost drowned by the acclamations of the

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people. At the meeting of the Agricultural Society, Pas-
teur was ofifered a medal with his own efiKgy, and a work
of art representing genii around a cup, their hands full of
cococMis. A little microscope — ^that microscope which had
been called an impracticable instrument, fit for scientists
only — ^figured as an attribute.

'' For us all," said the President of the Aubenas Spinning
Syndicate, ''you have been the kindly magician whose
intervention conjured away the scourge which threatened
us ; in you we hail our benefactor."

Pasteur, effacing his own personality as he had done at
the Académie, laid all this enthusiasm and gratitude as an
offering to Science.

'' I am not its object, but rather a pretext for it," he said,
and continued : '' Science has been the ruling passion of my
life. I have lived but for Science, and in the hours of
difficulty which are inherent to protracted efforts, the
thought of Prance upheld my courage. I associated her
greatness with the greatness of Science.

*' By erecting a statue to Olivier de Serres, the illustrious
son of the Vivarais, you give to France a noble example ;
you show to all that you venerate great men and the great
things they have accomplished. Therein lies fruitful seed ;
you have gathered it, may your sons see it grow and
fructify. I look back upon the time, already distant, when,
desirous of responding to the suggestions of a kind and
illustrious friend, I left Paris to study in a neighbouring
Department the scourge which was decimating your mag-
naneries. For five years I struggled to obtain some
knowledge of the evil and the means of preventing it ;
and, after having found it, I still had to struggle to implant
in other minds the convictions I had acquired.

'' All that is past and gone now, and I can speak of it
with moderation. I am not often credited with that

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characteristic^ and yet I am the most hesitating of men, the
most fearful of responsibility» so long as I am not in
possession of a proof. But when solid scientific proofs
confirm my convictions, no consideration can prevent me
from defending what I hold to be true.

'^ A man whose kindness to me was truly paternal (Biot),
had for his motto : Figr vias rectos. I congratulate myself
that I borrowed it from him. If I had been more timid or
more doubtful in view of the principles I had established,
many points of science and of application might have
remained obscure and subject to endless discussion. The
hypothesis of spontaneous generation would still throw its
veil over many questions. Your nurseries of silkworms
would be under the sway of charlatanism, with no guide to
the production of good seed. The vaccination of charbon,
destined to preserve agriculture from immense losses, would
be misunderstood and rejected as a dangerous practice.

" Where are now all the contradictions ? They pass
away, and Truth remains. After an interval of fifteen
years, you now render it a noble testimony. I therefore
feel a deep joy in seeing my efiforts understood and cele-
brated in an impulse of sympathy which will remain in my
memory and in that of my family as a glorious recol-
lection."

Pasteur was not allowed to return at once to his
laboratory. The i^ricultors and veterinary surgeons of
Nîmes, who had taken an interest in all the tests on the
vaccination of charbon, had, in their turn, drawn up a
programme of experiments.

Pasteur arrived at a meeting of the Agricultural Society
of the Gard in time to hear the report of the veterinary
surgeons and to receive the congratulations of the Society.
The President expressed to him the gratitude of all the
cattle-ownerâ and breeders hitherto powerless to arrest the

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progress of the disease which he had now vanquished.
Whilst a commemoration medal was being offered to him
and a banquet being prepared — for Southern enthusiasm
always implies a series of toasts — ^Pasteur thanked these
enterprising men who were contemplating new experiments
in order to dispel the doubts of a few veterinary surgeons,
and especially the characteristic distrust, felt by some of
the shepherds, of everything that did not come from the
South. Sheep, oxen, and horses, some of them vaccinated,
others intact, were put at Pasteur's disposal ; he, with his
usual energy, fixed the experiments for the next morning
at eight o'clock. After inoculating all the animals with the
charbon virus, Pastettr aaaounced ttM, those which had
been vaccinate^ would remain unharmed, but that the
twelve unvaccinated sheep would be dead or dying within
forty-eight hours. An appointment was made for next
day but one, on May 11, at the town knacker's, near
the Bridge of Justice, where post-mortem examinations
were made. Pasteur then went on to Montpellier, where
he was expected by the Hérault Central Society of Agri-
culture, who had also made some experiments and had
asked him to give a lecture at the Agricultural School. He
entered the large hall, feeling very tired, almost ill, but
his face lighted up at the sight of that assembly of pro-
fessors and students who had hurried from all the neigh-
bouring Faculties, and those agricultors crowding from
every part of the Department, all of them either full of
scientific curiosity or moved by their agricultural interests.
His voice, at first weak and showing marks of weariness,
soon became strengthened, and, forgetting his fatigue, he
threw himself into the subject of virulent and contagious
diseases. He gave himself up, heart and soul, to this
audience for two whole hours, inspiring every one with his
own enthusiasm. He stopped now and then to invite

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questions, and his answers to the objectors swept away the
last shred of resistance.

" We must not," said the Vice-President of the Agri-
cultural Society, M. Vialla, "encroach further on the time of
M. Pasteur, which belongs to France itself. Perhaps,
however, he will allow me to prefer a last request : he has
delivered us from the terrible scourge of splenic fever ; will
he now turn to a no less redoubtable infection, viz. rot,
which is, so to speak, endemic in our regions ? He will
surely find the remedy for it."

«I have hardly finished my experiments on splenic
fever," answered Pasteur gently, *' and you want me to
find a remedy for rot I Why not for phylloxera as well ? "
And, while r^^etting that the days were not longer, he
added, with the energy of which he had just given a new
proof: "As to efforts, I am yours usque ad mortem.^'

He afterwards was the honoured guest at the banquet pre-
pared for him. It was now not only Sériciculture, but also
Agriculture, which proclaimed its infinite gratitude to him ;
he was given an enthusiastic ovation, in which, as usual,
he saw no fame for himself, but for work and science only.

On May ii, at nine o'clock in the morning, he was
again at Ntmes, to meet the physicians, veterinary sur-
geons, cattle-breeders, and shepherds at the Bridge of
Justice. Of the twelve sheep, six were already dead,
the others dying ; it was easy to see that their symptoms
were the same as are characteristic of the ordinary splenic
fever. " M. Pasteur gave all necessary explanations with
his usual modesty and clearness," said the local papers.

"And now let us go back to work 1 " exclaimed Pasteur,
as he stepped into the Paris express ; he was impatient to
return to his laboratory.

In order to give him a mark of public gratitude greater

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still than that which came from this or that district, the
Académie des Sciences resolved to organize a general
movement of Scientific Societies. It was decided to present
him with a medal, engraved by Alphée Dubois, and bearing
on one side Pasteur's profile and on the other the inscrip-
tion : '^ To Louis Pasteur, his colleagues, his friends, and
his admirers."

On June 25, a Sunday, a delegation, headed by Dumas,
and composed of Boussingault, Bouley, Jamin, Daubrée,
Bertin, Tisserand, and Davaine, arrived at the Ecole
Normale and found Pasteur in the midst of his family.

** My dear Pasteur," said Dumas, in his deep voice, " forty
years ago, you entered this building as a student. From the
very first, yomr masters foresaw that you would be an
honour to it, but no one would have dared to predict the
startling services which you were destined to render to
science, France, and the world."

And after summing up in a few words Pasteur's great
career, the sources of wealth which he had discovered or
revived, the benefits he had acquired to medicine and
surgery : " My dear Pasteur," continued Dumas, with an
affectionate emotion, ''your life has known but success.
The scientific method which you use in such a masterly
manner owes you its greatest triumphs. The Ecole Normale
is proud to number you amongst its pupils ; the Académie
des Sciences is proud of your work ; France ranks you
amongst its glories.

''At this time, when marks of public gratitude are
flowing towards jo\x from every quarter, the homage
which we have come to oflFer you, in the name of your
admirers and friends, may seem worthy of your particular
attention. It emanates from a spontaneous and universal
feeling, and it will preserve for posterity the faithful like-
ness of your features.

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" May you, my dear Pasteur, long live to enjoy your fame,
and to contemplate the rich and atnindant fruit of your
work. Science, agfriculture, industry, and humanity, will
preserve eternal gratitude towards you, and your name will
live in their annals amongst the most illustrious and the
most revered."

Pasteur, standing with bowed head, his eyes full of tears,
was for a few moments unable to reply, and then, making
a violent effort, he said in a low voice —

" My dear master — it is indeed forty years since I first
had the happiness of knowing you, and since you first
tai^ht me to love science.

** I was fresh from the country ; after each of your classes,
I used to leave the Sorbonne transported, often moved to
tears. From that moment, your talent as a professor, your
immortal labours and your noble character have inspired
me with an admiration which has but grown with the
maturity of my mind.

" You have surely guessed my feelings, my dear master.
There has not been one important circumstance in my life
or in that of my family, either happy or painful, which you
have not, as it were, blessed by your presence and
sympathy.

"Again to-day, you take the foremost rank in the
expression of that testimony, very excessive, I think, of the
esteem of my masters, who have become my friends. And
what you have done for me, you have done for all your
pupils; it is one of the distinctive traits of your nature.
Behind the individual, you have always considered France
and her greatness.

"What shall I do henceforth? Until now, great praise
had inflamed my ardour, and only inspired me with the
idea of making myself worthy of it by renewed efforts ;
but that which you have just given me in the names of the

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I882-I884

Académie and of the Scientific Societies is in truth beyond
my courage.*'

Pasteur, who for a year had been applauded by the
crowd, received on that June 25» 1882, the testimony
which he rated above every other: praise from his
master.

Whilst he recalled the beneficent infiuence which Dumas
had had over him, those who were sitting in his drawing-
room at the Ecole Normale were thinking that Dumas
might have evoked similar recollections with similar charm.
He too had known enthusiasms which had illumined his
youth. In 1822, the very year when Pasteur was bom,
Dumas, who was then living in a student's attic at Geneva,
received the visit of a man about fifty, dressed Directoire
fashion, in a light blue coat with steel buttons, a white
waistcoat and yellow breeches. It was Alexander von
Humboldt, who had wished, on his way through Geneva, to
see the young man who, though only twenty-two years old,
had just published, in collaboration with Prévost, treatises
on blood and on urea. That visit, the long conversations,
or rather the monologues, of Humboldt had inspired Dumas
with the feelings of surprise, pride, gratitude and devotion
with which the first meeting with a great man is wont to
fill the heart of an enthusiastic youth. When Dumas
heard Humboldt speak of Laplace, BerthoUet, Gay-Lussac,
Arago, Thenard, Cuvier, etc, and describe them as familiarly
accessible, instead of as the awe-inspiring personages he had
imagined, Dumas became possessed with the idea of going
to Paris, knowing those men, living near them and imbib-
ing their methods. **0n the day when Humboldt left
Geneva,'' Dumas used to say, *^ the town for me became
empty." It was thus that Dumas' journey to Paris was
decided on, and his dazzjing career of sixty years begun.

He was now near the end of his scientific career, closing

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

peacefully like a beautiful summer evening, and he was
happy in the fame of his former pupiL As he left the
Ecole Normale, on that June afternoon, he passed under
the windows of the laboratory, where a few young men,
imbued with Pasteur's doctrines, represented a future
reserve for the progress of science.

That year 1882 was the more interesting in Pasteur's
life, in that though victory on many points was quite indis-
putable, partial struggles still burst out here and there, and
an adversary often arose suddenly when he had thought the
engagement over.

The sharpest attacks came from Germany. The Record
of the Works of the German Sanitary Office had led,
under the direction of Dr. Koch and his pupils, a veritable
campaign against Pasteur, whom they declared incapable
of cultivating microbes in a state of purity. He did not
even, they said, know how to recognize the septic vibrio,
though he had discovered it. The experiments by which
hens contracted splenic fever under a lowered temperature
after inoculation signified nothing. The share of the earth-
worms in the propagation of charbon, the inoculation into
guinea-pigs of the germs found in the little cylinders pro-
duced by those worms followed by the death of the guinea-
pigs, all this they said was pointless and lai^hable. They
even contested the preserving influence of vaccination.

Whilst these things were being said and written, the
Veterinary School of Berlin asked the laboratory of the
Ecole Normale for some charbon vaccine. Pasteur
answered that he wished that experiments should be
made before a commission nominated by the German
Government. It was constituted by the Minister of
Agriculture and Forests, and Virchow was one ùl the
members of it. A former student of the Ecole Normale —

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I882-I884

who, after leaving the school first on the list of competitors
for the agrégation of physical science, had entered the
laboratory — one in whom Pasteur founded many hopes,
Thuillier, left for Germany with his little tubes of
attenuated virus. Pasteur was not satisfied; he would
have liked to meet his adversaries face to face and oblige
them publicly to own their defeat. An opportunity was
soon to arise. He had come to Arbois, as usual, for the
months of August and September, and was having some
alterations made in his little house. The tannery pits
were being filled up. "It will not improve the house
itself," he wrote to his son, " but it will be made brighter
and more comfortable by having a tidy yard and a garden
along the riverside."

The Committee of the International Congress of Hygiene,
which was to meet at Geneva, interrupted these peaceful
holidays, by inviting Pasteur to read a paper on attenuated
virus. As a special compliment, the whole of one meeting,
that of the Tuesday, September 5, was to be reserved for
his paper only. Pasteur immediately returned to work;
he only consented under the greatest pressure, to go for a
short walk on the Besançon road at five o'clock every
afternoon. After spending the whole morning and the
whole afternoon sitting at his writing table over laboratory
registers, he came away grumbling at being disturbed in
his work. If any member of his family ventured a ques-
tion on the proposed paper, he hastily cut them short,
declaring that he must be let alone. It was only when
Mme. Pasteur had copied out in her clear handwriting
all the little sheets covered with footnotes, that the con-
tents of the paper became known.

When Pasteur entered the Congress Hall, great applause
greeted him on every side. The seats were occupied, not
only by the physicians and professors who form the usual

VOL. II. 177 N

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

audience of a congress^ but also by tourists, who take an in-
terest in scientific things when they happen to be the fashion.

Pasteur spoke of the invitation he had received. "I
hastened to accept it/' he said, ''and I am pleased to
find myself the guest of a country which has been
a friend to France in good as in evil days. Moreover, I
hoped to meet here some of the contradictors of my work
of the last few years. If a congress is a ground for con-
ciliation, it is in the same degree a ground for courteous
discussion. We all are actuated by a supreme passion, that
of progress and of truth."

Almost always, at the opening of a congress, great
politeness reigns in a confusion of languages. Men are
seen ofifering each other pamphlets, exchanging visiting
cards, and only lending an inattentive ear to the solemn
speeches going on. This time, the first scene of the first
act suspended all private conversation. Pasteur stood
above the assembly in his full strength and glory.
Though he was almost sixty, his hair had remained
black, his beard alone was turning grey. His face re-
flected indomitable energy; if he had not been slightly
lame, and if his left hand had not been a little stifi*, no
one could have supposed that he had been struck with
paralysis fourteen years before. The feeling of the place
France should hold in an International Congress gave him a
proud look and an imposing accent of authority. He was
visibly ready to meet his adversaries and to make of this
assembly a tribunal of judges. Except for a few diplomats
who at the first words exchanged anxious looks at the idea
of possible polemics. Frenchmen felt happy at being better
represented than any other nation. Men eagerly pointed
out to each other Dr. Koch, twenty-one years younger than
Pasteur, who sat on one of the benches, listening, with im-
passive eyes behind his gold spectacles.

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Pasteur analysed all the work he had done with the
collaboration of MM. Chamberland, Roux, and Thuillier.
He made clear to the most ignorant among his hearers
his ingenious experiments either to obtain, preserve or
modify the virulence of certain microbes. " It cannot be
doubted/' he said, "that we possess a general method
of attenuation. . . . The general principles are found,
and it cannot be disbelieved that the future of those
researches is rich with the greatest hopes. But, however
obvious a demonstrated truth may be, it has not always
the privilege of being easily accepted. I have met in
Prance and elsewhere with some obstinate contradictors.
. . . Allow me to choose amongst them the one whose
personal merit gives him the greatest claims to our atten-
tion, I mean Dr. Koch, of Berlin.

Pasteur then sununed up the various criticisms which
had appeared in the Record of the Works of the German
Sanitary Office. " Perhaps there may be some persons in
this assembly," he went on, " who share the opinions of my
contradictors. They will allow me to invite them to speak ;
I should be happy to answer them."

Koch, mounting the platform, declined to discuss the
subject, preferring, he said, to make answer in writing
later on. Pasteur was disappointed ; he would have wished
the congress, or at least a Commission designated by
Koch, to decide on the experiments. He resigned himself
to wait. On the following days, as the members of the
Congress saw him attending meetings on general hygiene,
school hygiene, and veterinary hygiene, they hardly recog-
nized in the simple, attentive man, anxious for instruction,
the man who had defied his adversary. Outside the arena,
Pasteur became again the most modest of men, never
allowing himself to criticize what he had not thoroughly
studied. But, when sure of his facts, he showed himself

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full of a violent passion, the passion of truth ; when truth
had triumphed, he preserved not the least bitterness of
former struggles.

That day of the 5th September was remembered in
Geneva. " All the honour was for France," wrote Pasteur
to his son ; " that was what I had wished."

He was already keen in the pursuit of another malady
which caused great damage, the " rouget " disease or swine
fever. Thuillier, ever ready to start when a demonstration
had to be made or an experiment to be attempted, had
ascertained, in March, 1882, in a part of the Department of
the Vienne, the existence of a microbe in the swine
attacked with that disease.

In order to know whether this microbe was the cause
of the evil, the usual operations of the sovereign method
had to be resorted to. First of all, a culture medium had to
be found which was suitable to the micro-organism (veal
broth was found to be very successful) ; then a drop of the
culture had to be abstracted from the little phials where
the microbe was developing and sown into other flasks ;
lastly the culture liquid had to be inoculated into swine.
Death supervened witji all the symptoms of swine fever ;
the microbe was therefore the cause of the evil. Could it
be attenuated and a vaccine obtained ? Being pressed to
study that disease, and to find the remedy for it, by
M. Maucuer, a veterinary surgeon of the Department of
Vaucluse, living at BoUène, Pasteur started, accompanied
by his nephew, Adrien Loir, and M. Thuillier. The three
arrived at Bollène on September 13.

*' It is impossible to imagine more obliging kindness than
that of those excellent Maucuers," wrote Pasteur to his
wife the next day. "Where, in what dark comer they
sleep, in order to give us two bedrooms, mine and another

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with two beds, I do not like to think. They are young,
and have an eight-year-old son at the Avignon College,
for whom they have obtained a half-holiday to-day in order
that he may be presented to * M. Pasteur.' The two men
and I are taken care of in a manner you might envy. It is
colder here and more rainy than in Paris. I have a fire in
my room, that green oak-wood fire that you will remember
we had at the Pont Gisquet.

" I was much pleased to hear that the swine fever is far
from being extinguished. There are sick swine every-
where, some dying, some dead, at BoUène and in the
country around ; the evil is disastrous this year. We saw
some dead and dying yesterday afternoon. We have
brought here a young hog who is very ill, and this morn-
ing we shall attempt vaccination at a M. de Ballincourt's,
who has lost all his pigs, and who hast just bought some
more in the hope that the vaccine will be preservative.
From morning till night we shall be able to watch the
disease and to try to prevent it. This reminds me of the
pébrine, with pigsties and sick pigs instead of nurseries
full of dying silkworms. Not ten thousand, but at least
twenty thousand swine have perished, and I am told it is
worse still in the Ardèche."

On the 17th, the day was taken up by the inoculation of
some pigs on the estate of a M. de la Gardette, a few kilo-
mètres from BoUène. In the evening, a former State Coun-
cillor, M. de Gaillard, came at the head of a delegation to
compliment Pasteur and invite him to a banquet. Pasteur
declined this honour, saying he would accept it when the
swine fever was conquered. They spoke to him of his past
services, but he had no thought for them ; like all progress-
seeking men, he saw but what was before him. Experi-
ments were being carried out — ^he had hastened to have an
experimental pigsty erected near M. Maucuer's house —

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and already, on the 21st, he wrote to Mme. Pasteur, in one
of those letters which resembled the loose pages of a
laboratory notebook —

" Swine fever is not nearly so obscure to me now, and I
am persuaded that with the help of time the scientific and
practical problem will be solved.

" Three post-mortem examinations to-day. They take a
long time, but that seems of no account to Thuillier, with
his cool and patient eagerness."

Three days later : " I much regret not being able to tell
you yet that I am starting back for Paris. It is quite
impossible to abandon all these experiments which we
have commenced; I should have to return here at least
once or twice. The chief thing is that things are getting
clearer with every experiment You know that nowadays
a medical knowledge of disease is nothing; it must be
prevented beforehand. We are attempting this, and I
think I can foresee success ; but keep this for yourself and
our children. I embrace you all most aflfectionately.

"P.S. — I have never felt better. Send me 1,000 fr. ; I
have but 300 fr. left of the 1,600 fr. I brought. Pigs are
expensive, and we are killing a great many."

At last on December 3 : "I am sending M. Dumas a
note for to-morrow*s meeting at the Academy. If I had
time I wouki transcribe it for the laboratory and for
René."

" Our researches " — thus ran the report to the Academy
— " may be summed up in the following propositions —

" I. The swine fever, or rouget disease, is produced by a
special microbe, easy to cultivate outside the animars body.
It is so tiny that it often escapes the most attentive search.
It resembles the microbe of chicken cholera more than any
other ; its shape is also that of a figure 8, but finer and
less visible than that of the cholera. It differs essentially

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from the latter by its physiol(^cal properties; it kills
rabbits and sheep, bat has no effect on hens.

'^ II. If inoculated in a state of purity into pigs, in almost
inappreciable doses, it speedily brings the fever and death,
with all the characteristics usual in spontaneot4s cases. It
is most deadly to the white, so-called improved, race, that
which is most sought after by pork-breeders.

" in. Dr. Klein published in London (1878) an extensive
work on swine fever, which he calls Pneumo-enteritis of
Swine \ but that author is entirely mistaken as to the
nature of the parasite. He has described as the microbe
of the rouget a bacillus with spores, more voluminous even
than the bacteridium of splenic fever. Dr. Klein's microbe
is very dififerent from the true microbe of swine fever, and
has, besides, no relation to the etiology of that disease.

" IV. After having satisfied ourselves by direct tests that
the malady does not recur, we have succeeded in inoculat-
ing it in a benignant form, after which the animal has
proved refractory to the mortal disease.

"V. Though we consider that further control experi-
ments are necessary, we have already great confidence in
this, that, dating from next spring, vaccination by the
virulent microbe of swine fever, attenuated, will become
the salvation of pigsties.''

Pasteur ended thus his letter of December 3 : " We shall
start to-morrow, Monday. Adrien Loir and I shall sleep
at Lyons. Thuillier will go straight to Paris, to take care
of ten little pigs which we have bought, and which he will
take with him. In this way they will not be kept waiting
at stations. Pigs, young and old, are very sensitive to
cold ; they will be wrapped up in straw. They are very
young and quite charming ; one cannot help getting fond
of them."

The next day Pasteur wrote to his son: "Everything

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has gone oflF well, and we much hope, Thuillier and I, that
preventive vaccination of this evil can be established in a
practical fashion. It would be a great boon in pork-breed-
ing countries, where terrible ravages are made by the
rouget (so called because the animals die covered with red
or purple blotches, already developed during the fever
which precedes death). In the United States, over a million
swine died of this disease in 1879 ! i^ rages in England and
in Germany. This year, it has desolated the COtes-du-Nord,
the Poitou, and the departments of the Rhone Valley. I
sent to M. Dumas yesterday a résumé in a few lines of our
results, to be read at to-day's meeting."

Pasteur, once more in Paris, returned eagerly to his
studies on divers virus and on hydrophobia. If he was
told that he over-worked himself, he replied: "It would
seem to me that I was committing a theft if I were to let
one day go by without doing some work." But he was
again disturbed in the work he enjoyed by the contradic-
tions of his opponents.

Koch's reply arrived soon after the BoUène episode. The
German scientist had modified his views to a certain extent ;
instead of denying the attenuation of virus as in 1 881, he
now proclaimed it as a discovery of the first order. But he
did not believe much, he said, in the practical results of
the vaccination of charbon.

Pasteur put forward in response, a report from the
veterinary surgeon Boutet to the Chartres Veterinary and
Agricultural School, made in the preceding October. The
sheep vaccinated in Eure et Loir during the last year
formed a total of 79,392. Instead of a mortality which had
been more than nine per cent, on the average in the last ten
years, the mortality had only been 518 sheep, much less
than one per cent ; 5,700 sheep had therefore been preserved
by vaccination. Amongst cattle 4,562 animals had been

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vaccinated ; out of a similar number 300 usually died every
year. Since vaccination, only eleven cows had died.

" Such results appear to us convincing," wrote M. Boutet.
" If our cultivators of the Beauce understand their own
interest, splenic fever and malignant pustules will soon
remain a mere memory, for charbon diseases never are
spontaneous, and, by preventing the death of their cattle by
vaccination, they will destroy all possibility of propagation
of that terrible disease, which will in consequence entirely
disappear."

Koch continued to smile at the discovery on the earth-
worms' action in the etiology of anthrax. "You are
mistaken, Sir," replied Pasteur. " You are again preparing
for yourself a vexing change of opinion." And he con-
cluded as follows : " However violent your attacks, Sir,
they will not hinder the success of the method of attenuated
virus. I am confidently awaiting the consequences which
it holds in reserve to help humanity in its struggle against
the diseases which assault it."

This debate was hardly concluded when new polemics
arose at the Académie de Médecine. A new treatment of
typhoid fever was under discussion.

In 1870, M. Glénard, a Lyons medical student, who had
enlisted, was, with many others, taken to Stettin as prisoner
of war. A German physician, Dr. Brand, moved with com-
passion by the sufferings of the vanquished French soldiers,
showed them great kindness and devotion. The French
student attached himself to him, helped him with his work,
and saw him treat typhoid fever with success by baths at
20^ C. Brand prided himself on this cold bath treatment,
which produced numerous cures. M. Glénard, on his return,
to Lyons, remembering with confidence this method of
which he had seen the excellent results, persuaded the
physician of the Croix Rousse hospital, where he resided, to

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attempt the same treatment. This was done for ten years,
and nearly all the Lyons practitioners became convinced
that Brand's method was efficacious. M. Glénard came to
Paris and read to the Academy of Medicine a paper on the
cold-bath treatment of typhoid fever. The Academy
appointed a commission, composed of civil and military
physicians, and the discussion was opened.

The oratorical display which had struck Pasteur when
he first came to the Académie de Médecine was much to
the fore on that occasion; the merely curious hearers of
that discussion had an opportunity of enjoying medical
eloquânce, besides acquiring information on the new treat-
ment of typhoid fever. There were some vehement
denunciations of the microbe which was suspected in
typhoid fever. "You aim at the microbe and you bring
down the patient!*' exclaimed one of the orators, who
^dded, amidst great applause, that it was time " to oflFer an
impassable barrier to such adventurous boldness, and thus
to preserve patients from the unforeseen dangers of that
therapeutic whirlwind ! "

Another orator took up a lighter tone : ** I do not much
believe in that invasion of parasites which threatens us like
an eleventh plague of Egypt," said M. Peter. And attack-
ing the scientists who meddled with medicine, chymiasters
as he called them, "They have come to this," he said,
" that in typhoid fevers they only see the typhoid fever,
in typhoid fever, fever only, and in fever, increased heat.
They have thus reached that luminous idea that heat must
be fought by cold. This organism is on fire, let us pour
water over it; it is a fireman's doctrine."

Vulpian, whose grave mind was not unlike Pasteur's,
intervened, and said that new attempts should not be dis-
couraged by sneers. Without pronouncing on the merits
of the cold-bath method, which he had not tried, he looked

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I882-I884

beyond this discussion, indicating the road which theoreti-
cally seemed to him to lead to a curative treatment. The
first thing was to discover the agent which causes typhoid
fever, and then, when that was known, attempt to destroy
or paralyse it in the tissues of typhoid patients, or else to
find drugs capable either of preventing the aggressions of
that agent or of annihilating the effects of that aggression,
"to produce, relatively to typhoid fever, the eff*ect deter-
mined by salicylate of soda in acute rheumatism of the
articulations."

Beyond the restricted audience, allowed a few seats in
the Académie de Médecine, the general public itself was
taking an interest in this prolonged debate. The very
high death rate in the army due to typhoid fever was the
cause of this eager attention. Whilst the German army,
where Brand's method was employed, hardly lost five men
out of a thousand, the French army lost more than ten per
thousand.

Whilst military service was not compulsory, epidemics
in barracks were looked upon with more or less compas-
sionate attention. But the thought that typhoid fever had
been more destructive within the last ten years than the
most sanguinary battle, now awakened all minds and
hearts. Is then personal fear necessary to awaken human
compassion ?

Bouley, who was more given to propagating new
doctrines than to lingering on such philosophical problems,
thought it was time to introduce into the debate certain
ideas on the great problems tackled by medicine since the
discovery of what migltt be called a fourth kingdom in
nature, that of microbia. In a statement read at the
Académie de Médecine, he formulated in broad lines the
rôle of the infinitesimally small and their activity in pro-
ducing the phenomena of fermentations and diseases. He

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

showed by the parallel works of Pasteur on the one hand,
and M. Chauveau on the other, that contagion is the
function of a living element. "It is especially," said
Bouley, "on the question of the prophylaxis of virulent
diseases that the microbian doctrine has given the most
marvellous results. To seize upon the most deadly virus,
to submit them to a methodical culture, to cause modifying
agents to act upon them in a measured proportion, and
thus to succeed in attenuating them in divers degrees, so as
to utilize their strength, reduced but still efficacious, in
transmitting a benignant malady by means of which
immunity is acquired against the deadly disease : what a
beautiful dream 1 1 And M. Pasteur has made that dream
into a reality !!!..."

The debate widened, typhoid fever became a mere inci-
dent. The pathogenic action of the infinitesimally small
entered into the discussion; traditional medicine faced
microbian medicine. M. Peter rushed once more to the
front rank for the fight. He declared that he did not apply
the term chymiaster to Pasteur ; he recognized that it was
but " fair to proclaim that we owe to M. Pasteur's researches
the most useful practical applications in surgery and in
obstetrics.'' But considering that medicine might claim
more independence, he repeated that the discovery of the
material elements of virulent diseases did not throw so
much light as had been said, either on patholc^cat
anatomy, on the evolution, on the treatment or especially
on the prophylaxis of virulent diseases. " Those are but
natural history curiosities," he added, " interesting no doubt,
but of very little profit to medicine, and not worth either
the time given to them or the noise made about them.
After so many laborious researches, nothing will be
changed in medicine, there will only be a few more
microbes."

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I882-I884

A newspaper having repeated this last sentence, a pro-
fessor of the Faculty of Medicine, M. Comil, simply
recalled how, at the time when the acarus of itch had been
discovered, many partisans of old doctrines had probably
exclaimed, " What is your acarus to me ? Will it teach me
more than I know already ? " " But," added M. Comil, " the
physician who had understood the value of that discovery
no longer inflicted internal medication upon his patients to
cure them of what seemed an inveterate disease, but merely
cured them by means of a brush and a little ointment."

M. Peter, continuing his violent speech, quoted certain
vaccination failures, and incompletely reported experiments,
saying, grandly: **M. Pasteur's excuse is that he is a
chemist, who has tried, out of a wish to be useful, to reform
medicine, to which he is a complete stranger. . . .

" In the struggle I have undertaken the present discussion
is but a skirmish ; but, to judge from the reinforcements
which are coming to me, the mêlée may become general,
and victory will remain, I hope, to the larger battalions,
that is to say, to the * old medicine.' "

Bouley , amazed that M. Peter should thus scout the notion
of microbia introduced into pathology, valiantly fought this
" skirmish " alone. He recalled the discussions à propos of
tuberculosis, so obscure until a new and vivifying notion
came to simplify the solution of the problem. " And you
reject that solution ! You say, * What does it matter to me ? '
. . . What! M. Koch, of Berlin — who with such dis-
coveries as he has made might well abstain from envy —
M. Koch points out to you the presence of bacteria in
tubercles, and that seems to you of no importance ? But
that microbe gives you the explanation of those contagious
properties of tuberculosis so well demonstrated by M.
Villemin, for it is the instrument of virulence itself which
is put under your eyes."

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Bouley then went on to refute the arguments of M. Peter,
epitomized the history of the discovery of the attenuation of
virus, and all that this method of cultures possible in an
extra-organic medium might suggest that was hopeful for
a vaccine of cholera and of yellow fever, which might be
discovered one day and protect humanity against those
terrible scourges. He concluded thus — " Let M. Peter do
what I have done ; let him study M. Pasteur, and penetrate
thoroughly into all that is admirable, through the absolute
certainty of the results, in the long series of researches
which have led him from the discovery of ferments to that
of the nature of virus; and then I can assure him that
instead of decrying this great glory of France, of whom
we must all be proud, he too will feel himself carried away
by enthusiasm and will bow with admiration and respect
before the chemist, who, though not a {diysician, illumines
medicine and dispels, in the light of his experiments, a
darkness which had hitherto remained impenetrable."

A year before this (Peter had not failed to report the
fact) an experiment of anthrax vaccination had completely
failed at the Turin Veterinary School. All the sheep,
vaccinated and non- vaccinated, had succumbed subsequently
to the inoculation of the blood of a sheep which had died of
charbon.

This took place in March, 1882. As soon as Pasteur
heard of this extraordinary fiasco, which seemed the
counterpart of the Pouilly-le-Fort experiment, he wrote on
April 16 to the director of the Turin Veterinary School,
asking on what day the sheep had died the blood of which
had been used for the virulent inoculation.

The director answered simply that the sheep had died on
the morning of March 22, and that its blood had been
inoculated during the course of the following day. " There
has been," said Pasteur, "a grave scientific mistake;

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I882-I884

the blood inoculated was septic as well as full of char-
bon."

Though the director of the Turin Veterinary School
affirmed that the blood had been carefully examined and
that it was in no wise septic, Pasteur looked back on his
1877 experiments on anthrax and septicaemia, and main-
tained before the Paris Central Veterinary Society on
June 8, 1882, that the Turin School had done wrong in
using the blood of an animal at least twenty-four hours
after its death, for the blood must have been septic besides
containing anthrax. The six professors of the Turin School
protested unanimously against such an interpretation. " We
hold it marvellous," they wrote ironically, "that your
Illustrious Lordship should have recognized so surely, from
Paris, the disease which made such havoc amongst the
animals vaccinated and non-vaccinated and inoculated
with blood containing anthrax in our school on March 23,
1882.

" It does not seem to us possible that a scientist should
affirm the existence of septicaemia in an animal he has not

even seen. . . ."

The quarrel with the Turin School had now lasted a
year. On April 9, 1883, Pasteur appealed to the Academy
of Science to judge of the Turin incident and to put an end
to this agitation, which threatened to cover truth with a
veil. He read out the letter he had just addressed to the
Turin professors.

" Gentlemen, a dispute having arisen between you and
myself respecting the interpretation to be given to the
absolute failure of your control experiment of March 23,
1882, I have the honour to inform you that, if you will
accept the suggestion, I will go to Turin any day you may
choose ; you shall inoculate in my presence some virulent
charbon into any number of sheep you like. The exact

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

moment of death in each case shall be determined, and I
will demonstrate to you that in every case the blood of the
corpse containing only charbon at the first will also be
septic on the next day. It will thus be established with
absolute certainty that the assertion formulated by me on
June 8, 1882, against which you have protested on two
occasions, arises, not as you say, rom an arbitrary opinion,
but from an immovable scientific principle ; and that I have
legitimately affirmed from Paris, the presence of septicaemia
without it being in the least necessary that I should have
seen the corpse of the sheep you utilized for your experi-
ments.

"Minutes of the facts as they are produced shall be
drawn up day by day, and signed by the professors of the
Turin Veterinary School and by the other persons, physi-
cians or veterinary surgeons who may have been present
at the experiments ; these minutes will then be published
both at the Academies of Turin and of Paris."

Pasteur contented himself with reading this letter to the
Academy of Sciences. For months he had not attended the
Academy of Medicine ; he was tired of incessant and barren
struggles ; he often used to come away from the discussions
worn out and excited. He would say to Messrs. Chamber-
land and Roux, who waited for him after the\neeting;s,
*'How is it that certain doctors do not understand the
range, the value, of our experiments ? How is it that they
do not foresee the great future of all these studies ? "

The day after the Académie des Sciences meeting,
judging that his letter to Turin sufficiently closed the
incident, Pasteur started for Arbois. He wanted to set
up a laboratory adjoining his house. Where the father
had worked with his hands, the son would work at his
great light-emitting studies.

On April 3 a letter from M. Peter had been read at the

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I882-I884

Academy of Medicine, declaring that he did not give up the
struggle and that nothing would be lost by waiting.

At the following sitting, another physician, M. Pauvel,
while declaring himself an admirer of Pasteur's work and
full of respect for his person, thought it well not to accept
blindly all the inductions into which Pasteur might find him-
self drawn, and to oppose those which were contradictory to
acquired facts. After M. Fauvel, M. Peter violently
attacked what he called " microbicidal drugs which may
become homicidal," he said. When reading the account of
this meeting, Pasteur had an impulse of anger. His
resolutions not to return to the Academy of Medicine gave
way before the desire not to leave Bouley alone to lead the
defensive campaign ; he started for Paris.

As his family was then at Arbois, and the doors of his
flat at the Ecole Normale closed, the simplest thing for
Pasteur was to go to the Hôtel du Louvre, accompanied by a
member of his family. The next morning he carefully
prepared his speech, and, at three o'clock in the afternoon,
he entered the Academy of Medicine. The President, M.
Hardy, welcomed him in these words — " Allow me, before
you begin to speak, to tell you that it is with great pleasure
that we see you once again among us, and that the
Academy hopes that, now that you have once more found
your way to its precincts, you will not forget it again."

After isolating and rectifying the points of discussion,
Pasteur advised M. Peter to make a more searching inquiry
into the subject of anthrax vaccination, and to trust to Time,
the only sovereign judge. Should not the recollection of
the violent hostility encountered at first by Jenner put
people on their guard against hasty judgments? There
was not one of the doctors present who could not remember
what had been written at one time against vaccination ! 1 1

He went on to oppose the false idea that each science

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

should restrict itself within its own limitations. ''What do
I, a physician, says M. Peter, want with the minds of the
chemist, the physicist and the physiologist ?

'' On hearing him speak with so much disdain of the
chemists and physiologists who touch upon questions of
disease, you might verily think that he is speaking in the
name of a science whose principles are founded on a rock I
Does he want proofs of the slow progress of therapeutics ?
It is now six months since, in this assembly of the greatest
medical men, the question was discussed whether it is
better to treat typhoid fever with cold lotions or with
quinine, with alcohol or salicylic acid, or even not to treat
it at all.

" And, when we are perhaps on the eve of solving the
question of the etiol<%7 of that disease by a microbe, M.
Peter commits the medical blasphemy of saying, ' What do
your microbes matter to me ? It will only be one microbe
the more I ' "

Amazed that sarcasm should be levelled against new
Studies which opened such wide horizons, he denounced the
flippancy with which a professor of the Faculty of Medicine
allowed himself to speak of vaccinations by attenuated
virus.

He ended by rejoicing once more that this great dis-
covery should have been a French one.

Pasteur went back to Arbois for a few days. On his
return to Paris, he was b^inning some new experiments,
when he received a long letter from the Turin professors.
Instead of accepting his ofier, they enumerated their experi-
ments, asked some questions in an offended and ironical
manner, and concluded by praising an Italian national
vaccine, which produced absolute immunity in the future—
when it did not kill.

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'' They cannot get out of this dilemma/' said Pasteur ;
"either they knew my 1877 notes, unravelling the con-
tradictory statements of Davaine, Jaillard and Leplat, and
Paul Bert, or they did not know them. If they did not
know them on March 22, 1882, there is nothing more to
say ; they were not guilty in acting as they did, but they
should have owned it freely. If they did know them, why
ever did they inoculate blood taken from a sheep twenty-
four hours after its death ? They say that this blood was not
septic ; but how do they know ? They have done nothing
to find out. They should have inoculated some guinea-
pigs, by choice, and then tried scnne cultures in a vacuum
to compare them with cultures in contact with air. Why
will they not receive me ? A meeting between truth-seek-
ing men would be the most natural thing in the world I "

Still hoping to persuade his adversaries to meet him at
Turin and be convinced, Pasteur wrote to them. " FUris^
May 9, 1883. Gentlemen — ^Your letter of April 30 surprises
me very much. What is in question between you and me ?
That I should go to Turin, if you will allow me, to de-
monstrate that sheep, dead of charbon, as numerous as you
like, will, for a few hours after their death, be exclusively
infected with anthrax, and that the day after their death
they will present both anthrax and septic infection ; and
that therefore, when, on March 23, 1882, wishing to
inoculate blood infected with anthrax only into sheep
vaccinated and non-vaccinated, you took blood from a
carcase twenty-four hoturs after death, you committed a
grave scientific mistake.

" Instead of answering yes or no, instead of saying to me
^ Come to Turin,' or ' Do not come,' you ask me in a
manuscript letter of seventeen pages, to send you from
Paris, in writing, preliminary explanations of all that I
should have to demonstrate in Turin.

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^'Really, what is the good? Would not that lead to
endless discussions ? It is because of the uselessness of a
written controversy that I have placed myself at your
disposal.

" I have once more the honour of asking you to inform
me whether you accept the proposal made to you on April 9,
that I should go to Turin to place before your eyes the
proofs of the facts I have just mentioned.

'' PS. — ^In order not to complicate the debate, I do not
dwell upon the many erroneous quotations and statements
contained in your letter."

M. Roux b^an to prepare an interesting curriculum of
experiments to be carried out at Turin. But the Turin
professors wrote a disagreeable letter, published a little
pamphlet entitled, Of the Scientific Dogmatism of the
Illustrious Professor Pasteur^ and things remained as they
were.

All these discussions, renewed on so many divers points,
were not altogether a waste of time ; some of them bore
fruitful results by causing most decisive proofs to be sought
for. It has also made the path of Pasteur's followers wider
and smoother that he himself should have borne the brunt
of the first opposition.

In the meanwhile, testimonials of gratitude continued to
pour in from the agricultors and veterinary surgeons who
had seen the results of two years' practice of the vaccination
against anthrax.

In the year 1882, 613,740 sheep and 83,946 oxen had
been vaccinated. The Department of the Cantal which had
before lost about 3,000,000 fr. every year, desired in June,
1883, on the occasion of an agricultural show, to give
M. Pasteur a special acknowledgement of their gratitude.
It consisted of a cup of silver-plated bronze, ornamented
with a group of cattle. Behind the group — imitating in

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I882-I884

this the town of Aubenas, who had made a microscope
figure as an attribute of honour — ^was represented, in small
proportions, an instrument which found itself for the first
time raised to such an exalted position, the little syringe
used for inoculations.

Pasteur was much pressed to come himself and receive
this offering from a land which would henceforth owe its
fortune to him. He allowed himself to be persuaded, and
arrived, accompanied as usual by his family.

The Mayor, surrounded by the municipal councillors,
greeted him in these words: "Our town of Aurillac
is very small, and you will not find here the brilliant
population which inhabits great cities ; but you will find
minds capable of understanding the scientific and humani-
tarian mission which you have so generously undertaken.
You will also find hearts capable of appreciating your
benefits and of preserving the memory of them ; your name
h£ts been on all our lips for a long time.'*

Pasteur, visiting that local exhibition, did not resemble
the official personages who listen wearily to the details
given them by a staff of functionaries. He thought but
of acquiring knowledge, going straight to this or that
exhibitor and questioning him, not with perfunctory
politeness, but with a real desire for practical information ;
no detail seemed to him insignificant. " Nothing should be
n^lected," he said ; " and a remark from a rough labourer
who does well what he has to do is infinitely precious."

After visiting the products and agricultural implements,
Pasteur was met in the street by a peasant who stopped and
waved his large hat, shouting, " Long live Pasteur !'*...
" You have saved my cattle," continued the man, coming
up to shake hands with him.

Physicians in their turn desired to celebrate and to honour
him who, though not a physician, had rendered such

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

service to medicine. Thirty-two of them assembled to
drink his health. The head {diysician of the Aurillac
Hospital, Dr. Fleys, said in proposing the toast : " What
the mechanism of the heavens owes to Newton, chemistry
to Lavoisier, geology to Cuvier, general anatomy to Bichat,
physiol<%7 to Claude Bernard, pathology and hygiene will
owe to Pasteur. Unite with me, dear colleagues, and let
us drink to the fame of the illustrious Pasteur, the pre-
cursor of the medicine of the future, a benefactor to
humanity."

This glorious title was now associated with his name.
In the first rank of his enthusiastic admirers came the
scientists, who, from the point of view of pure science,
admired the achievements, within those thirty-five years,
of that great man whose perseverance equalled his pene-
tration. Then came the manufacturers, the sericicultors,
and the agricultors, who owed their fortune to him who
had placed every process he discovered into the public
domain. Finally, France could quote the words of the
English physiologist, Huxley, in a public lecture at the
London Royal Society : " Pasteur's discoveries alone would
suffice to cover the war indemnity of five milliards paid by
France to Germany in 1870."

To that capital was added the inestimable price of human
lives saved. Since the antiseptic method had been adopted
in surgical operations, the mortality had fallen from
50 per 100 to 5 per 100.

In the lying-in hospitals, more than decimated formerly,
(for the statistics had shown a death-rate of not only 100
but 200 per 1,000), the number of fatalities was now
reduced to 3 per 1,000 and soon afterwards fell to i per
1,000. And, in consequence of the principles estaUished
by Pasteur, hygiene was growing, developing, and at last

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taking its proper place in the pablic view. So much
prc^^ress accomplished had brought Pasteur a daily growing
acknowledgement of gratitude, his country was more than
proud of him. His powerful mind, allied with his very
tender heart, had brought to French glory an aureole û[
charity.

The Government of the Republic remembered that
England had voted two national rewards to Jenner, one
in 1802 and one in iSoy, the first of £10,000, and the
second of £20,000. It was at the time of that deliberation
that Pitt, the great orator, exclaimed, ^* Vote, gentlemen,
your gratitude will never reach the amount of the service
rendered."

The French ministry proposed to augment the 12,000 fr.
pension accorded to Pasteur in 1874 as a national recom-
pense, and to make it 25,000 fr., to revert first to Pasteur's
widow, and then to his children. A Commission was
formed and Paul Bert again chosen to draw up the
report

On several occasions at the meetings of the commission
one of its members, Benjamin Raspail, exalted the parasitic
theory propounded in 1843 by his own father. His filial
pleading went so far as to accuse Pasteur of plagiarism.
Paul Bert, whilst reo^^nizing the share attributed by F. V.
Raspail to microscopic beings, recalled the fact that his
attempt in favour of epidemic and contagious diseases
had not been adopted by scientists. " No doubt,'* he said,
''the parasitic origin of the itch was now definitely
accepted, thanks in a great measure to the efforts of Raspail ;
but gaieralizations were considered as out of propor-
tion to the fact they were supposed to rest on. It
seemed excessive to conclude from the existence of the
acarus of itch, visible to the naked eye or with the
weakest magnifying glass, the presence of microscopic

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

parasites in the humours o[ virulent diseases. . . . Such
hjrpotheses can be considered but as a sort of intuition."

" Hjrpotheses," said Pasteur, '* come into our laboratories
in armfuls; they fill our rasters with projected ex-
perimentS) they stimulate us to research — and that is
all.** One thing only counted for him : experimental veri-
fication.

Paul Bert, in his very complete report, quoted Huxley's
words to the Royal Society and Pitt's words to the House
of Commons. He stated that since the first Bill had been
voted, a new series of discoveries, no less marvellous from
a theoretical point oi view and yet more important from a
practical point of view, had come to strike the world of
Science with astonishment and admiration." Recapitu-
lating Pasteur's works, he said —

" They may be classed in three series, constituting three
great discoveries.

" The first one may be formulated thus : Each fèrmentatiùn
is produced by the development of a special microbe.

" The second one may be given this formula : Each in-
fectims disease (those at least that M. Pasteur and his
immediate followers have studied) is produced by the
development within the organism of a special microbe.

" The third one may be expressed in this way : The
microbe of an infectious disease^ cultivated under certain
detrimental conditions^ is attenuated in its pathogenic
activity; from a virus it has become a v€u:cine.^^

''As a practical consequence of the first discovery,
M. Pasteur has given rules for the manufacture of beer
and of vinegar, and shown how beer and wine may
be preserved against secondary fermentations which
would turn them sour, bitter, or slimy, and which render
difficult their transport and even their preservation on
the spot.

200

I 882-1 884

" As a practical consequence of the second discovery,
M. Pasteur has given rules to be followed to preserve cattle
from splenic fever contamination, and silkworms from the
diseases which decimated them. Surgeons, on the other
hand, have succeeded, by means of the guidance it afforded,
in effecting almost completely the disappearance of
erysipelas and of the purulent infections which formerly
brought about the death of so many patients after
operations.

^'As a practical consequence of the third discovery,
M. Pasteur has given rules for, and indeed has effected, the
preservation of horses, oxen, and sheep from the anthrax
disease which every year kills in France about 20,000,000
francs' worth. Swine will also be preserved from the
rouget disease which decimates them, and poultry from
the cholera which makes such terrible havoc among them.
Ever3rthing leads us to hope that rabies will also soon be
conquered." When Paul Bert was congratulated on his
report, he said, "Admiration is such a good, wholesome
thingll"

The Bill was voted by the Chamber, and a fortnight later
by the Senate, unanimously. Pasteur heard the first news
through the newspapers, for he had just gone to the Jura.
On July 14, he left Arbois for DOle, where he had pro-
mised to be present at a double ceremony.

On that national holiday, a statue of Peace was to be in-
augurated, and a memorial plate placed on the house where
Pasteur was bom ; truly a harmonious association of ideas.
The prefect (rf the Jura evidently felt it when, while un-
veiling the statue in the presence of Pasteur, he said:
'* This is Peace, who has inquired Genius and the great
services it has rendered." The official procession, followed
by popular acclamation, went on to the narrow Rue des

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Tanneurs* When Pteteur, who had not seen his native
place since his childhood, found himself before that tannery,
in the low humble rooms of which his father and mother
had lived, he felt himself the prey to a strong emotion.

The mayor quoted these words from the resolutions of
the Municipal Council: '^M. Pasteur is a benefactor of
Humanity, one of the great men of France ; he will remain
{or all Dôlois and in particular those who, like him, have
risen from the ranks of the people, an object of respect as
well as an example to follow ; we consider that it is our
duty to perpetuate his name in our town."

The Director of Fine Arts, M. Kaempfen, representing
the Government at the ceremony, pronounced these simple
words : '* In the name of the Government of the Republic,
I salute the inscription which conmiemorates the fact that
in this little house, in this little street, was bom, on
December 27, 1822, he who was to become one of the
greatest scientists of this century so great in science, and
who has, by his admirable labours, increased the glory of
France and deserved well of the whole of humanity."

The feelings in Pasteur's heart burst forth in these
terms: '^Gentlemen, I am profoundly moved by the honour
done to me by the town of Dole; but allow me, while
expressing my gratitude, to protest against this excess of
praise. By according to me an homage rendered usually
but to the illustrious dead, you anticipate too much the
judgment of posterity. Will it ratify your decision? and
should not you, Mr. Mayor, have prudently warned the Muni-
cipal Council against such a hasty resolution ?

"But after protesting, gentlemen, against the brilliant
testimony o[ an admiration which is more than I deserve,
let me tell you that I am touched, moved to the bottom of
my soul. Your sympathy has joined on that memorial
plate the two great things which have been the passion and

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I882-I884

the delight of my life : the love of Science and the cult of
the home.

"Oh! my father, my mother, dear departed ones, who
lived so humbly in this little house, it is to you that I owe
everything. Thy enthusiasm, my brave-hearted mother,
thou hast instilled it into me. If I have always associated
the greatness of Science with the greatness of France, it
is because I was impregnated with the feelings that thou
hadst inspired. And thou, dearest father, whose life was
as hard as thy hard trade, thou hast shown to me what
patience and protracted effort can accomplish. It is to thee
that I owe perseverance in daily work. Not only hadst
thou the qualities which go to make a useful life, but also
admiration for great men and great things. To look
upwards, learn to the utmost, to seek to rise ever higher,
such was thy teaching. I can see thee now, after a hard
day's work, reading in the evening some story of the battles
in the glorious epoch of which thou wast a witness. Whilst
teaching me to read, thy care was that I should learn the
greatness of France.

" Be ye blessed, my dear parents, for what ye have been,
and may the homage done to-day to your little house be
yours I

" I thank you, gentlemen, for the opportunity of saying
aloud what I have thought for sixty years. I thank you
for this fête and for your welcome, and I thank the town of
Dole, which loses sight of none of her children, and which
has kept such a remembrance of me."

" Nothing is more exquisite," wrote Bouley to Pasteur,
" than those feelings of a noble heart, giving credit to the
parents' influence for all the glory with which their son
has covered their name. All your friends reo^^zed you,
and you appeared under quite a new light to those who
may have misjudged your heart by knowing of you only

ao3

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

the somewhat bitter words of some of your Academy
speeches, when the love of truth has sometimes made you
forgetful of gentleness."

It might have seemed that after so much homage,
especially when offered in such a delicate way as on
this last occasion, Pasteur had indeed reached a pinnacle of
fame. His ambition however was not satisfied. Was it
then boundless, in spite of the modesty which drew all
hearts towards him ? What more did he wish ? Two great
things: to complete his studies on hydrophobia and to
establish the position of his collaborators — ^whose name he
ever associated with his work — as his acknowledged
successors.

A few cases of cholera had occurred at Damietta in the
month of June. The English declared that it was but
endemic cholera, and opposed the quarantines. They had
with them the majority of the Alexandria Sanitary Council,
and could easily prevent sanitary measures from being
taken. If the English, voluntarily closing their eyes to the
dangers of the epidemic, had wished to furnish a new proof
of the importation of cholera, they could not have succeeded
better. The cholera spread, and by July 14 it had reached
Cairo. Between the 14th and the 22nd there were five
hundred ^aths per day.

Alexandria was threatened. Pasteur, before leaving
Paris for Arbois, submitted to the Consulting Committee
of Public Hygiene the idea of a French Scientific Mission
to Alexandria. '' Since the last epidemic in 1865," he said,
« science has made great progress on the subject of trans-
missible diseases. Every one of those diseases which has
been subjected to a thorough study has been found by
biologists to be produced by a microscopic being developing
within the body of man or of animals, and causing therein

204

I882-I884

ravages which are generally mortal. All the s]rmptoms of
the disease, all the causes of death depend directly upon
the physiological properties of the microbe. . . . What
is wanted at this moment to satisfy the preoccupations of
science is to inquire into the primary cause of the scourge.
Now the present state of knowledge demands that atten-
tion ^ould be drawn to the possible existence within the
blood) or within some organ, of a micro-oi^anism whose
nature and properties would account in all probability for
all the peculiarities of cholera, both as to the morbid
symptoms and the mode of its propagation. The proved
existence of such a microbe would soon take precedence
over the whole question of the measures to be taken to
arrest the evil in its course, and might perhaps suggest
new methods of treatment."

Not only did the Conunittee of Hygiene approve of
Pasteur's project, but they asked him to choose some young
men whose knowledge would be equalled by their devotion.
Pasteur only had to look around him. When, on his return
to the laboratory, he mentioned what had taken {dace at
the Conunittee of Hygiene, M. Roux immediately o£fered to
start. A professor at the Faculty of Medicine who had
some hospital practice, M. Straus, and a professor at the
Alfort Veterinary School, M. Npcard, both of whom had
been authorised to work in the laboratory, asked permission
to accompany M. Roux. Thuillier had the same desire,
but asked for twenty-four hours to think over it.

The thought of his father and mother, who had made a
great many sacrifices for his education, and whose only joy
was to receive him at Amiens, where they lived, during his
^ort holidays, made him hesitate. But the thought of duty
overcame his regrets ; he put his papers and notes in order
and went to see his dear ones again. He told his father of
his intention, but his mother did not know of it At the

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

time when the papers spoke of a French commis^on to
study chcdera, his elder sister, who loved him with an
almost motherly tenderness, said to him suddenly, '*You
are not going to Egypt, Louis? swear that you are not! "
^'I am not going to swear anything," he answered,
with absolute calm; adding that he might some time
go to Russia to proceed to some vaccination of anthrax,
as he had done at Buda-Pesth in 1881. When he left
Amiens, nothing in his farewells revealed his deep
emotion ; it was only from Marseilles that he wrote the
truth.

Administrative difficulties retarded the departure of the
Commission, which only reached Egypt on August 15.
Dr. Koch had also come to study cholera. The head
physician of the European hospital. Dr. Ardouin, placed
his wards at the entire disposal of the French savants. In
a certain number of cases, it was possible to proceed to
post-mortem examinations immediately after death, before
putrefaction had b^^un. It was a great thing from the
point of view of the search after a pathogenic micro-
organism as well as from the anatomo-pathological point of
view.

The contents of the intestines and the characteristic
stools of the cholera patients offered a great variety of
micro-organisms. But which was really the cause oi
cholera ? The most varied modes of culture were attempted
in vain. The same n^^tive results followed inoculations
into divers animal species, cats, dogs, swine, monkeys,
pigeons, rabbits, guinea-pigs, etc., made with the blood of
cholerics or with the contents of their bowels. Experiments
were made with twenty-four corpses. The epidemic ceased
unexpectedly. Not to waste time, while waiting for a
reappearance of the disease, the French Commission Uxk
up some researches on cattle plague. Suddenly a telegram

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I883-I884

from M. Roux informed Pasteur that Thuillier had suc-
cumbed to an attack of cholera*

« I have just heard the news of a great misfortune,"
wrote Pasteur to J. R Dumas on September 19; ''M.
Thuillier died yesterday at Alexandria of cholera. I have
tel^raphed to the Mayor of Amiens asking him to break
the news to the family.

*' Science loses in Thuillier a courageous representative
with a great future before him. I lose a much-loved and
devoted pupil ; my laboratory one of its principal supports.

*' I can only console myself for this death by thinking of
our beloved country and all he has done for it."

Thuillier was only twenty-six. How had this bappened ?
Had he n^lected any of the precautions which Pasteur had
written down before the departure of the Commission, and
which were so minute as to be thought exaggerated?

Pasteur remained [silent all day, absolutely overcome.
The head of the laboratory, M. Chamberland, divining his
master's grief, came to Arbois. They exchanged their
sorrowful thoughts, and Pasteur fell back into his sad
broodings.

A few days later, a letter from M. Roux related the sad
story : '' Alexandria^ September 21. Sir and dear master —
Having just heard that an Italian ship is going to start, I
am writing a few lines without waiting for the French
mail. The telegrafdi has told you of the terrible misfortune
which has befallen us."

M. Roux then proceeded to relate in detail the symptoms
presented by the unforttmate young man, who, after going
to bed at ten o'clock, apparently in perfect health, had sud-
denly been taken ill about three o'clock in the morning of
Saturday, September 15. At eight o'clock, all the horrible
sgrmptoms of the most violent form of cholera were apparent,
and his friends gave him up for lost. They continued their

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

desperate endeavours however, assisted by the whole stafl
of French and Italian doctors.

" By dint of all our strength, all our energy, we pro-
tracted the struggle until seven o'clock on Wednesday
morning, the 19th. The asphyxia, which had then lasted
twenty-four hours, was stronger than our e£forts.

** Your own feelings will help you to imagine our grief.

'' The French colony and the medical staff are thunder-
struck. Splendid funeral honours have been rendered to our
poor Thuillier.

'' He was buried at four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon,
with the finest and most imposing manifestation Alexandria
had seen for a long time.

*' One very precious and affecting homage was rendered
by the German Commission with a noble simplicity which
touched us all very much.

'' M. Koch and his collaborators arrived when the news
spread in die town. They gave utterance to beautiful and
touching words to the memory of our dead friend.
When the funeral took place, those gentlemen brought two
wreaths which they themselves nailed on the coffin. ' They
are simple,' said M. Koch, * but they are of laurel, such as
are given to the brave.'

'' M. Koch held one comer of the pall. We embalmed our
comrade's body ; he lies in a sealed zinc coffin. All formal-
ities have been complied with, so that his remains may be
brought back to France when the necessary time has
expired. In Egypt the period of delay is a whole year.

'^ The French colony desires to erect a monument to the
memory of Louis Thuillier.

*' Dear master, how much more I should like to tell you I
The recital of the sad event which happened so quickly
would take pages. This blow is altogether incomprehen-
sible. It was more than a fortnight since we had seen a

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I882-I884

single case of cholera ; we were beginning to study cattle-
plague.

" Of us all, Thuillier was the one who took most pre-
cautions ; he was irreproachably carefuL

'* We are writing by this post a few lines to his family, in
the names of all of us.

'* Such are the blows cholera can strike at the end of an
epidemic I Want of time forces me to close this letter.
Pray believe in our respectful aflTection."

The whole of the French colony, who received great
marks of sympathy from the Italians and other foreigners,
wished to perpetuate the memory of Thuillier. Pasteur
wrote, on October 16, to a French physician at Alexandria,
who had informed him of this project:

«<I am touched with the generous resolution of the
French colony at Alexandria to erect a monument to the
memory of Louis Thuillier. That valiant and beloved
young man was deserving of every honour. I know,
perhaps better than any one, the loss inflicted on science
by his cruel death. I cannot console myself, and I am
already dreading the sight of the dear fellow's empty place
in my laboratory."

On his return to Paris, Pasteur read a paper to the
Academy of Sciences, in his own name and in that of
Thuillier, on the now well-ascertained mode of vaccina-
tion for swine-fever. He b^;an by recalling Thuillier's
worth :

^'Thuillier entered my laboratory after taking the first
rank at the Physical Science Agrégation competition at the
Ecole Normale. His was a deeply meditative, silent nature ;
his whole person breathed a virile energy which struck all
those who knew him. An indefatigable worker, he was
ever ready for self-sacrifice."

A few days before, M. Straus had given to the

VOL. II. 209 p

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Society a summary statement of the studies of the Cholera
Commission, concluding thus: "The documents collected
during those two months are far from solving the etiological
problem of cholera, but will perhaps not be useless for the
orientation oi future research."

The cholera bacillus was put in evidence, later on, by
Dr. Koch, who had already suspected it during his researches
inEgjrpt

Glory, which had been seen in the battlefield at the
b^inning of the nineteenth century, now seemed to elect
to dwell in the laboratory, that "temple of the future*'
as Pasteur called it From every part of the world, letters
reached Pasteur, appeals, requests for consultations. Many
took him for a phsrsician. " He does not cure individuals,"
answered Edmund About one day to a foreigner who was
under that misapprehension; "he only tries to cure
humanity." Some sceptical minds were predicting failure
to his studies on hydrophobia. This problem was com-
plicated by the fact that Pasteur was tr]ring in vain to
discover and isolate the specific microbe.

He was endeavouring to evade that difficulty ; the idea
pursued him that human medicine might avail itself of
"the long period of incubation of hydrophobia, by
attempting to establish, during that interval before the
appearance of the first rabic symptoms, a refractory con-
dition in the subjects bitten."

At the beginning of the year 1884, J. B. Dumas enjoyed
following from a distance Pasteur's readings at the Académie
des Sciences. His failing health and advancing age (he
was more than eighty years old) had forced him to spend
the vrinter in the South of France. On January 26, 1884
he wrote to Pasteur for the last time, à propos of a book^

^ La Vie d^un Sawamt^ by the author of the present work. [ThMx.]

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which was a short summary of Pasteur's discoveries and
their concatenation :

" Dear colleague and friend, — ^I have read with a great
and sincere emotion the picture of your scientific life
drawn by a faithful and loving hand.

*^ Myself a witness and à sincere admirer of your happy
efifortSy your fruitful genius and your imperturbable method,
I consider it a great service rendered to Science, that the
accurate and complete whole should be put before the eyes
of young people.

'' It will make a wholesome impression on the public in
general ; to young scientists, it will be an initiation, and to
those who, like me, have passed the age of labour it will
bring happy memories of youthful enthusiasm.

'* May Providence long spare you to France, and maintain
in you that admirable equilibrium between the mind that
observes, the genius that conceives, and the hand that
executes with a perfection unknown until now.*'

This was a last proof of Dumas' affection for Pasteur.
Although his life was now fast drawing to its close, his
mental faculties were in no wise impaired, for we find him
three weeks later, on February 20, using his influence as
Permanent Secretary of the Academy to obtain the Lacaze
prize for M. Cailletet, the inventor of the well-known
apparatus for the liquefaction of gases.

J. B. Dumas died on April 11, 1884. Pasteur was then
about to start for Edinburgh on the occasion of the ter-
centenary of the celebrated Scotch University. The
*^ Institut de France," invited to take part in these celebra-
tions, had selected representatives from each of the five
Academies : the Académie Française was sending M. Caro ;
the Academy of Science, Pasteur and de Lesseps; the
Academy of Moral Sciences, M. Gréard ; the Academy of
Inscriptions and Letters, M. Perrot ; and the Academy of

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Fine Arts, M. Eugène Guillaume. The Collège de Prance
sent M. Guillaume Guizot, and the Academy of Medicine
Dr. Henry Gueneau de Mussy.

Pasteur much wished to relinquish this official journey ;
the idea that he would not be able t6 follow to the grave
the incomparable teacher of his youth, the counsellor and
confidant of his life, was infinitely painful to him.

He was however reconciled to it by one of his ccdleagues,
M. Mézières, who was going to Edinburgh on behalf of the
Minister of Public Instruction, and who pointed out to him
that the best way of honouring Dumas' memory lay in
remembering Dumas' chief object in life — ^the interests ot
France. Pasteur went, hoping that he would have an op-
portunity of speaking of Dumas to the Edinbui^h students.

In London, the French delegates had the pleasant surprise
of finding that a private saloon had been reserved to take
Pasteur and his friends to Edinburgh. This hospitality
was offered to Pasteur by one of his numerous ad-
mirers, Mr. Younger, an Edinburgh brewer, as a token
of gratitude (or his discoveries in the manufacture of beer.
He and his wife and children welcomed Pasteur with
the warmest cordiality, when the train reached Edinburgh ;
the principal inhabitants of the great Scotch city vied with
each other in entertaining the French delegates, who were
delighted with their reception.

The next morning, they, and the various representatives
from all parts of the world, assembled in the Cathedral of
St. Giles, where, with the exalted feeling which, in the
Scotch people, mingles religious with political life, the Town
Council had decided that a service should inaugurate the
rejoicings. The Rev. Robert Flint, mounting that pulpit
from which the impetuous John Knox, Calvin's friend and
disciple, had breathed forth his violent fanaticism, preached
to the inmiense assembly with a fall consciousness of the

ai2

I882-I884

importance ot his discourse. He spoke of the relations
between Science and Faith, of the absolute liberty of science
in the realm of facts, of the thought of God considered as a
stimulant to research, progress being but a Divine impulse.

In the afternoon, the students imparted life and
merriment into the proceedings; they had oi^nized a
dramatic performance, the members of the orchestra, even,
being undergraduates.

The French delegates todc great interest in the system
of this University. Accustomed as they were to look upon
the State as sole master and dispenser, they now saw an
independent institution, owing its fortime to voluntary
contributions, revealing in every point the power of private
enterprise. Unlike what takes place in France, where
administrative unity makes itself felt in the smallest
village, the British Government effaces itself, and merely
endeavours to inspire faith in political unity. Absolutely
her own mistress, the University of Edinburgh is Aree to
confer high honorary degrees on her distinguished visitors.
However, these honorary diplomas are but of two kinds,
viz.: Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) and Doctor of Laws
(LL.D.). In 1884, seventeen degrees of D.D. and 122
deg^rees of LL.D. were reserved for the various delegates.
"The only laws I know," smilingly said the learned
Helmholtz, " are the laws of Physics.'*

The solenm proclamation of the University d^^ees took
place on Thursday, April 1 7. The streets and monuments
of the beautiful city were decorated with flags, and an air
of rejoicing pervaded the whole atmosphere.

The ceremony began by a special prayer, alluding to the
past, looking forward to the future, and asking for God's
blessing on the delegates and their countries. The large
assembly filled the immense hall where the Synod of the
Presbyterian Church holds its meetings. The Chancellor

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

and the Rector of the University were seated on a plat-
form with a large number of professors ; those who were
about to receive honorary d^jees occupied seats in the
centre of the hall ; about three thousand students found
seats in various parts of the hall.

The Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh had
arranged that the new graduates should be called in
alphabetical order. As each of them heard his name, he
rose and mounted the platform. The students took great
pleasure in heartily cheering those savaftts who had
had most influence on their studies. When Pasteur's name
was pronounced, a great silence ensued j every one was
trying to obtain a sight of him as he walked towards the
platform. His appearance was the signal for a perfect
outburst of applause ; five thousand men rose and cheered
him. It was indeed a splendid ovation.

In the evening, a banquet was set out in the hall, which
was hung with the blue and white colours of the University ;
there were a thousand guests, seated round twenty-eight
tables, one of which, the high table, was reserved for the
speakers who were to propose the toasts, which were to
last four hours. Pasteur was seated next to Vixchow ; they
talked together of the question of rabies, and Virchow
owned that, when he saw Pasteur in 1881 about to tackle
this question, he much doubted the possibility of a solution.
This friendly chat between two such men proves the
desirability of such gatherings; intercourse between the
greatest scientists can but lead to general peace and
fraternity between nations. After having read a telegram
from the Queen, congratulating the University and wel-
coming the guests, a toast was drunk to the Queen and to
the Royal Family, and a few words spoken by the represen-
tative of the Emperor of Brazil. Pasteur then rose to
speak:

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I882-I884

" My Lord Chanœllor, Gentlemen, the city of Edinburgh
is now offering a sight of which she may be proud. All
the great scientific institutions, meeting here, appear as an
immense Congress of hopes and congratulations. The
honour and glory of this international rendezvous deservedly
belong to you, for it is centuries since Scotland united her
destinies with those of the human mind. She was one of
the first among the nations to understand that intellect
leads the world. And the world of intellect, gladly
answering your call, lays a well-merited homage at your
feet. When, yesterday, the eminent Professor Robert Flint,
addressing the Edinburgh University from the pulpit of St
Giles, exclaimed, 'Remember the past and look to the
future,' all the déliâtes, seated like judges at a great
tribunal, evoked a vision of past centuries and joined in a
unanimous wish for a yet more glorious future.

'' AnK)ngst the illustrious déliâtes of all nations who
bring you an assurance of cordial good wishes, France has
sent to represent her those of her institutions which are
most representative of the French spirit and the best part
of French glory. France is ready to applaud whenever a
source of light appears in the world; and when death
strikes down a man of genius, France is ready to weep as
for one of her own children. This noble spirit of solidarity
was brought home to me when I heard some of you speak
feelingly of the death of the illustrious chemist, J. R
Dumas, a celebrated member of all your Academies, and
only a few years ago an eloquent panegyrist <tf your great
Faraday. It was a bitter grief to me that I had to leave
Paris before his funeral ceremony ; but the hope of render-
ing here a last and solemn homage to that revered master
helped me to conquer my affliction. Moreover, gentlemen,
men may pass, but their works remain ; we all are but
passing guests of these great homes of intellect, which, like

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

all the Universities who have come to greet you in this
solemn day, are assured of immortality."

Pasteur, having thus rendered homage to J. B. Dumas,
and having glorified his country by his presence, his
speech and the great honours conferred on him, would have
returned home at once; but the undergraduates begged
to be allowed to entertain, the next day, some of those men
whom they looked upon as examples and whom they might
never see again.

Pasteur thanked the students for this invitation, which
filled him with pride and pleasure, for he had always loved
young people, he said, and continued, in his deep, stirring
voice :

'^ Ever since I can remember my life as a man, I do not
think I have ever spoken for the first time with a student
without saying to him, * Work perseveringly ; work can be
made into a pleasure, and alone is profitable to man, to his
city, to his country.' It is even more natural that I shoukl
thus speak to you. The common soul, (if I may so speak),
of an assembly of young men is wholly formed of the most
generous feelings, being yet illumined with the divine
spark which is in every man as he enters this world. You
have just given a proof of this assurance, and I have felt
moved to the heart in hearing you applaud, as you have
just been doing, such men as de Lesseps, Helmholtz and
Virchow. Your language has borrowed from ours the
beautiful word enthusiasm^ bequeathed to us by the
Greeks: ey ^coç, an inward God. It was almost with
a divine feeling that you just now cheered those great
men.

'' One of those of our writers who have best made known
to France and to Europe the philosophy of Robert Reid and
Dugald Stewart said, addressing young men in the preface
of one of his works :^-

216

I882-I884

'^ ' Whatever career you may embrace, look up to an
exalted goal; worship great men and great things.'

^' Great things! You ha ve indeed seen them. Will not this
centenary remain one of Scotland's glorious memories ? As
to great men, in no country is their memory better honoured
than in yours. But, if work should be the very life of your
life, if the cult for great men and great things should be
associated with your every thought, that is still not enough.
Try to bring into everjrthing you undertake the spirit of
scientific method, founded on the immortal works of Galileo,
Descartes and Newton.

^'You especially, medical students of this celebrated
University of Edinburgh— who, trained as you are by
eminent masters, may aspire to the highest scientific
ambition — ^be you inspired by the experimental method.
To its princiides, Scotland owes such men as Brewster,
Thomson and Lister."

The speaker who had to respond on behalf of the students
to the foreign del^^tes expressed himself thus, directly
addressing Pasteur:

''Monsieur Pasteur, you have snatched from nature
secrets too carefully, almost maliciously hidden. We greet
in you a benefactor of humanity, all the more so because
we know that you admit the existence of spiritual secrets,
revealed to us by what you have just called the work of
God in us.

"Representatives of France, we b^ you to tell your
great country that we are following with admiration the
great reforms now being introduced into every branch ot
your education, reforms which we look upon as tokens of
a beneficent rivalry and of a more and more cordial inter-
course — ^for misunderstandings result from ignorance, a
darkness lightened by the work of scientists."

The next morning, at ten o'clock, crowds gathered on the

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

station platform with waving handkerchiefs. People were
showing each other a great Edinburgh daily paper , in which
Pasteur's ^)eech to the undergraduates was reproduced,
and which also contained the following announcement in
large print:

''In memory of M. Pasteur's visit to Edinburgh,
Mr. Younger oSers to the Edinburgh University a donation
of £500."

Livingstone's daughter, Mrs. Bruce, on whom Pasteur
had catled the preceding day, came to the station a few
moments before the departure of the train, bringing him a
book entitled The Life of Livingstone.

The saloon carriage awaited Pasteur and his friends.
They departed, delighted with the hospitality they had
received, and much struck with the prominent place given
to science and the welcome accorded to Pasteur. '' This is
indeed glory," said one of them. ''Believe me," said
Pasteur, " I only look upon it as a reason for continuing to
go forward as long as my strength does not fail me."

218

CHAPTER V

I 8 8 4-^1^8 8 5

AMIDST the various researches undertaken in his
laboratory, one study was placed by Pasteur above
every other, one mystery constantly haunted his mind — that
<tf hydrophobia. When he was received at the Académie
Française, Renan, hoping to prove himself a prophet for
once, said to him : ** Humanity will owe to you deliverance
from a horrible disease and also from a sad anomaly: I
mean the distrust which we cannot help mingling with the
caresses <tf the animal in whom we see most of nature's
smiling benevolence."

The two first mad dogs brought into the laboratory were
given to Pasteur, in i88o, by M. Bourrel, an old army veter-
inary surgeon who had long been trying to find a remedy
for hydrophobia. He had invented a preventive measure
which consisted in filing down the teeth of dogs, so that they
should not bite into the skin ; in 1874, ^'^ ^^ written that
vivisection threw no light on that disease, the laws of
which were '^ impenetrable to science until now." It now
occturred to him that, perhaps, the investigators in the
laboratory of the Ecole Normale might be more successful
than he had been in his kennels in the Rue Pontaine-au-Roi.

One of the two dogs he sent was sufifering from what
is called dumb madness : his jaw hung, half opened and
paralyzed, his tongue was covered with foam, and his eyes
full of wistful anguish ; the other made ferocious darts at

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

anjTthing held out to him, with a rabid fury in his bloodshot
eyes, and, in the hallucinations of his delirium, gave vent to
haunting, despairing howls.

Much confusion prevailed at that time r^;arding this
disease, its seat, its causes, and its remedy. Three things
seemed positive: firstly, that the rabic virus was contained
in the saliva of the mad animals ; secondly, that it was
communicated through bites ; and thirdly, that the period of
incubation might vary from a few days to several months.
Clinical observation was reduced to complete impotence ;
perhaps experiments might throw some light on the subject.

Bouley had affirmed In April, 1870, that the germ of the
evil was localized in the saliva, and a new fact had seemed
to support this theory. On December 10, 1880, Pasteui
was advised by Professor Lannelongue that a five-year-old
child, bitten on the face a month before, had just been
admitted into the Hôpital Trousseau. The unfortunate
little patient presented all the characteristics of hydrophobia :
spasms, restlessness, shudders at the least breath of air, an
ardent thirst, accompanied with an absolute impossibility of
swallowing, convulsive movements, fits of furious rage —
not one symptom was absent The child died after twenty-
four hours of horrible suffering — suffocated by the mucus
which filled the mouth. Pasteur gathered some of that
mucus four hours after the child's death, and mixed it with
water; he then inoculated this into some rabbits, which
died in less than thirty-six hours, and whose saliva, in-
jected into other rabbits, provoked an almost equally rapid
death. Dr. Maurice Raynaud, who had already declared
that hydrophobia could be transmitted to rabbits through
the human saliva, and who had also caused the death of
some rabbits, with the saliva of that same child, thought
himself justified in saying that those rabbits had died of
hydrophobia.

220

1884-1885

Pftsteur was slower in drawing conclusions. He had
examined with a microscope the blood of those rabbits
which had died in the laboratory, and had found in it a
micro-ox^anism ; he had cultivated this oi^anism in veal
broth, inoculated it into rabbits and dogs, and, its virulence
having manifested itself in these animals, their blood had
been found to* contain that same microbe. '^ But,*' added
Pasteur at the meeting of the Academy of Medicine
(January 18, 1881), '* I am absolutely ignorant of the con-
nection there may be between this new disease and hydro-
phobia.*' It was indeed a singular thing that the deadly
issue of this disease should occur so early, when the incuba-
tion period of hydrophobia is usually so long. Was there
not some unknown microbe associated with the rabic
saliva? This query was followed by experiments made
with the saliva of children who had died of ordinary
diseases, and even with that of healthy adults. Thuillier,
following up and studjring this saliva microbe and its
special virulence with his usual patience, soon applied to it
with success the method of attenuation by the oxygen in
air. ** What did we want with a new disease?" said a good
many people, and yet it was making a step forward to clear
up this preliminary confusion. Pasteur, in the course of
a long and minute study of the saliva of mad dogs — ^in
which it was so generally admitted that the virulent prin-
ciple <tf rabies had its seat, that precautions against saliva
were the only ones taken at post-mortem examinations —
discovered many other mistakes. If a healthy dog's saliva
contains many microbes, licked up by the dog in various
kinds of dirt, what must be the condition of the mouth of a
rabid dog, springing upon everything he meets, to tear it and
bite it ? The rabic virus is therefore associated with many
other micro-organisms, ready to play their part and puzzle
experimentalists; abscesses, morbid coaq>lications of all

221

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

sorts, may intervene before the development of the rabic
virus. Hydrophobia might evidently be developed by the
inoculation of saliva, but it could not be confidently asserted
that it would. Pasteur had made endless efforts to inocu-
late rabies to rabbits solely through the saliva of a mad
dc^ ; as soon as a case of hydrophobia occurred in Bourrel's
kennels, a telegram informed the laboratory, and a few
rabbits were immediately taken round in a cab.

One day, Pasteur having wished to collect a little saliva
from the jaws of a rabid dc^, so as to obtain it directly, two
of BourreVs assistants undertook to drag a mad bulldog,
foaming at the mouth, from its cage ; they seized it by
means of a lasso, and stretched it on a table. These two
men, thus associated with Pasteur in the same danger, with
the same calm heroism, held the struggling, ferocious
animal down with their powerful hands, whilst the
scientist drew, by means of a glass tube held between his
lips, a few drops of the deadly saliva.

But the same uncertainty followed the inoculation of the
saliva ; the incubation was so slow that weeks and months
often elapsed whilst the result of an experiment was being
anxiously awaited. Evidently the saliva was not a sure
agent for experiments, and if more knowledge was to be
obtained, some other means had to be found of obtain-
ing it.

Magendie and Renault had both tried experimenting
with rabic blood, but with no results, and Paul Bert had
been equally unsuccessful. Pasteur tried in his turn, but
also in vain. <* We must try other experiments," he said,
with his usual indefatigable perseverance.

As the number of cases observed became larger, he felt a
growing conviction that hydrophobia has its seat in the
nervous system, and particularly in the medulla oblongata.
*<The propagation of the virus in a rabid dog's nervous

222

I884-I885

system can almost be observed in its every stage," writes
M. Roux, Pasteur's daily associate in these researches,
which he afterwards made the subject of his thesis. " The
anguish and fury due to the excitation of the grey cortex
of the brain are followed by an alteration of the voice and a
difficulty in deglutition. The medulla oblongata and the
nerves starting from it are attacked in their turn ; finally^
the spinal cord itself becomes invaded and paralysis closes
the scene."

As long as the virus has not reached the nervous centres,
it may sojourn for weeks or months in some point of the
body ; this explains the slowness of certain incubations, and
the fortunate escapes after some bites from rabid dogs. The
a priori supposition that the virus attacks the nervous
centres went very far back ; it had served as a basis to a
theory enunciated by Dr. Ehiboué (of Pau), who had, how-
ever, not supported it by any experiments. On the contrary,
when M. Galtier, a professor at the Lyons Veterinary
School, had attempted experiments in that direction, he
had to inform the Academy of Medicine, in January, 1881,
that he had only ascertained the existence of virus in rabid
dogs in the lingual glands and in the bucco-pharyngeal
mucous membrane. ''More than ten times, and always
unsuccessfully, have I inoculated the product obtained by
pressure of the cerebral substances of the cerebellum or of
the medulla oblongata of rabid d<%^"

Pasteur was about to prove that it was possible to succeed
by operating in a special manner, according to a rigorous
technique, unknown in other laboratories. When the post-
mortem examination of a mad dog had revealed no charac-
teristic lesion, the brain was uncovered, and the surface of
tl^ medulla oblongata scalded with a glass stick, so as to
destroy any external dust or dirt Then, with a long tube,
previously put through a flame, a particle of the substance

223

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

was drawn and deposited in a glass just taken from a stove
heated up to 200^ C, and mixed with a little water or
sterilized broth by means of a glass agitator, also previously
put through a flame. The syringe used for inoculation on
the rabbit or dog (Ijring ready on tl^ operating board) had
been purified in boiling water.

Most of the animals who received this Inoculation under
the skin succumbed to hydrophobia ; that virulent matter
was therefore more successful than the saliva, which was
a great result obtained.

'^ The seat of the rabic virus/' wrote Pasteur, '' is there-
fore not in the saliva only : the brain contains it in a degree
of virulence at least equal to that ol the saliva of rabid
animala' * But, to Pasteur's eyes, this was but a preliminary
step on the long road which stretched before him ; it was
necessary that all the inoculated animals should contract
hydrophobia, and tl^ period of incubation had to be
shortened.

It was then that it occurred to Pasteur to inoculate the
rabic virus directly on the surface of a dog's brain. He
thought that, by placing the virus from the beginning
in its true medium, hydrophobia would more surely
supervene and the incubation might be shorter. The
experiment was attempted : a dog under chloroform was
fixed to the operating board, and a small, round portion of
the cranium removed by means of a trephine (a surgical
instrument somewhat similar to a fret-saw) ; the tough
fibrous membrane called the dura-mater, being thus
exposed, was then injected with a small quantity of the
prepared virus, which lay in readiness in a Pravaz syringe.
The wound was washed with carbolic and the skin stitched
together, the whole thing lasting but a few minutes. The
dog, on returning to consciousness, seemed quite the same

234

I884-I885

as usual. But, after fourteen days, hydrophobia appeared :
rabid fury, characteristic howls, the tearing up and devour-
ing of his bed, delirious hallucination, and finally, paralysis
and death.

A method was therefore found by which rabies was
contracted surely and swiftly. Trephinings were again
performed on chloroformed animals — ^Pasteur had a great
horror of useless sufierings, and always insisted on
anaesthesia. — In every case, characteristic hydrophobia
occurred after inoculation on the brain. The main lines of
this complicated question were banning to be traceable ;
but other obstacles were in the way. Pasteur could not
apply the method he had hitherto used. Le. : to isolate, and
then to cultivate in an artificial medium, the microbe of
hydrophobia, for he failed in detecting this microbe. Yet its
existence admitted of no doubt ; perhaps it was beyond the
limits of human sight "Since this unknown being is
living," thought Pasteur, " we must cultivate it ; failing an
artificial medium, let us try the brain of living rabbits ; it
would indeed be an experimental feat 1 ''

As soon as a trephined and inoculated rabbit died
paralysed, a little of his rabic medulla was inoculated to
another ; each inoculation succeeded another, and the time
of incubation became shorter and shorter, until, after a
hundred uninterrupted inoculations, it came to be reduced
to seven days. But the virus, having reached this degree^
the virulence of which was found to be greater than that
of the virus of dogs made rabid by an accidental bite, now
became fixed; Pasteur had mastered it. He could now
predict the exact time when death should occur in each of
the inoculated animals ; his predictions were verified with
surprising accuracy.

Pasteur was not yet satisfied with the immense progress
marked by infallible inoculation and the shortened incuba-

voL. II. 225 Q

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

tion ; he now wished to decrease the d^jees of virulence
— when the attenuation of the virus was once conquered, it
might be hoped that dogs could be made refractory to
rabies. Pasteur abstracted a fragment of the medulla from
a rabbit which had just died of rabies after an inoculation of
the fixed virus ; this fragment was suspended by a thread
in a sterilized phial, the air in which was kept dry by
some pieces of caustic potash lying at the bottom of the
vessel and which was closed by a cotton-wool plug to pre-
vent the entrance of atmospheric dusts. The temperature of
the room where this dessication took place was maintained
at 23® C. As the medulla gradually became dry, its virulence
decreased, until, at the end of fourteen days, it had become
absolutely extinguished. This now inactive medulla was
crushed and mixed with pure water, and injected under the
skin of some dc^s. The next day they were inoculated
with medulla which had been dessicating for thirteen days,
and so on, using increased virulence until the medulla was
used of a rabbit dead the same day. These dogs might now
be bitten by rabid dogs given- them as companions for a few
minutes, or submitted to the intracranial inoculations of
the deadly virus: they resisted both.

Having at last obtained this refractory condition, Pasteur
was anxious that his results should be verified by a Com-
mission. The Minister of Public Instruction acceded to
this desire, and a Commission was constituted in May, 1884,
composed of Messrs. Béclard, Dean of the Faculty of
Medicine, Paul Bert, Bouley, Villemin, Vulpian, and
Tisserand, Director of the Agriculture Office. The Com-
mission immediately set to work; a rabid dog having
succumbed at Alfort on June i, its carcase was brought to
the laboratory of the Ecole Normale, and a fragment of the
medulla oblongata was mixed with some sterilized broth.
Two dogs, declared by Pasteur to be refractory to rabies,

226

I884-I885

were trephined, and a few drops of the liquid injected into
their brains; two other dogs and two rabbits received
inoculations at the same time, with the same liquid and in
precisely the same manner.

Bouley was taking notes for a report to be presented to
the Minister :

" M. Pasteur tells us that, considering the nature of the
rabic virus used, the rabbits and the two new dogs will
develop rabies within twelve or fifteen days, and that the
two refractory dc^s will not develop it at all, however long
they may be detained under observation."

On May 29, Mme. Pasteur wrote to her children :

'' The Commission on rabies met to-day and elected M.
Bouley as chairman. Nothing is settled as to commencing
experiments. Your father is absorbed in his thoughts, talks
little, sleeps little, rises at dawn, and, in one word, continues
the life I began with him this day thirty-five years ago."

On June 3, Bourrel sent word that he had a rabid dog in
the kennels of the Rue Fontaine au Roi ; a refractory dog
and a new dog were immediately submitted to numerous
bices ; the latter was violently bitten on the head in several
places. The rabid dog, still living the next day and still
able to bite, was given two more dogs, one ci which wais
refractory ; this dog, and the refractory dog bitten on the
3rd, were allowed to receive the first bites, the commission
having thought that perhaps the saliva might then be more
abundant and more dangerous.

On June 6, the rabid dog having died, the Conmiission
proceeded to inoculate the medulla of the animal into six
more dogs^ by means of trephining. Three of those dogs
were refractory, the three others were fresh from the
kennels; there were also two rabbits.

On the loth, Bourrel tel^raphed the arrival o[ another
rabid dog, and the same operations were gone through.

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

" This rabid, furious dog," wrote Pasteur to his son-in-
law, *' had spent the night lying on his master *s bed ; his
appearance had been suspicious for a day or two. On the
morning of the loth, his voice became rabietic, and his
master, who had heard the bark of a rabid dog twenty
years ago, was seized with terror, and brought the dog to
M. Bourrel, who found that he was indeed in the biting
stage of rabies. Fortunately a lingering fidelity had pre-
vented him from attacking his master . . .

''This morning the rabic condition is banning to
appear on one of the new dogs trephined on June i, at the
same time as two refractory dogs. Let us hope that the
other new dog will also develop it and that the two
refractory ones will resist"

At the same time that the Commission examined this
d(% which developed rabies within the exact time indicated
by Pasteur, the two rabbits on whom inoculation had been
performed at the same time were found to present the first
symptoms of rabic paralysis. ''This paralysis,'' noted
Bouley, is revealed by great weakness of the limbs, par-
ticularly of the hind quarters ; the least shock knocks them
over and they experience great difficulty in getting up
again." The second new dog on whom inoculation had
been performed on June i was now also rabid; the
refractory dogs were in perfect health.

During the whole of June, Pasteur found time to keep
his daughter and son-in-law informed of the progress of
events. " Keep my letters," he wrote, " they are almost
like copies of the notes taken on the experiments."

Towards the end of the month, dozens of dogs were
submitted to control-experiments which were continued
until August The dogs which Pasteur declared to be
refractory underwent all the vtuious tests made with rabic
virus ; bites, injections into the veins, trephining, every-

aj6

I884-I885

thing was tried before Pasteur would decide to call them
vaccinated. On June 17, Bourrel sent word that the new
dog bitten on June 3 was becoming rabic ; the members of
the Commission went to the Rue Fontaine au RoL The
period of incubation had only lasted fourteen days, a fact
attributed by Bouley to the bites having been chiefly about
the head. The dog was destroying his kennel and biting
his chain ferociously. More new dogs developed rabies the
following days. Nineteen new dogs had been experimented
upon : three died out of six bitten by a rabid dog, six out of
eight after intravenous inoculation, and five out of five
after subdural inoculation. Bouley thought that a few
more cases might occur, the period of incubation after bites
being so extremely irregular.

Bouley's report was sent to the Minister of Public
Instruction at the beginning of August. *' We submit to
you to-day," he wrote, ** this report on the first series of
experiments that we have just witnessed, in order that
M. Pasteur may refer to it in the paper which he proposes
to read at the Copenhagen International Scientific Congress
on these magnificent results, which devolve so much credit
on French Science and which give it a fresh claim to the
world's gratitude."

The Commission wished that a large kennel yard might
be built, in order that the duration of immunity in protected
dogs might be timed, and that other great problem solved,
viz., whether it would be possible, through the inoculation
of attenuated virus, to defy the virus from bites.

By the Minister's request, the Commission investigated
the Meudon woods in search of a favourable site; an
excellent place was found in the lower part of the Park,
away from dwelling houses, easy to enclose and presumably
in no one's way. But, when the inhabitants of Meudon
heard of this project, they protested vehemently, evidently

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

terrified at the thought of rabid dogs, however securely
bound, in their peaceful neighbourhood.

Another piece of ground was then suggested to Pasteur,
near St. Cloud, in the Park of Villeneuve TEtang. Origin-
ally a State domain, this property had been put up for sale,
but had found no buyer, not being suitable for parcelling
out in small lots ; the Bill was withdrawn which allowed of
its sale and the greater part of the domain was devoted by
the Ministry to Pasteur's and his assistants* experiments
on the prophylaxis of contagious diseases.

Pasteur, his mind full of ideas, started for the Inter-
national Medical Congress, which was now to take place
at Copenhagen. Sixteen hundred members arranged to
attend, and nearly all of them found on arriving that they
were to be entertained in the houses of private individuals.
The Danes carry hospitality to the most generous excess ;
several of them had been learning French for the last
three years, the better to entertain the French déliâtes.
Pasteur's son, then secretary of the French Legation at
Copenhagen, had often spoken to his father with apprecia-
tive admiration of those Northerners, who hide deep
enthusiasm under SLpparent calmness, almost coldness.

The opening meeting took place on August lo in the
large hall of the Palace of Industry ; the King and Queen of
Denmark and the King and Queen of Greece were present
at that impressive gathering. The President, Professor
Panum, welcomed the foreign members in the name of his
country ; he proclaimed the neutrality of Science, adding
that the three official languages to be used during the
Congress would be French, English, and German. His
own speech was entirely in French, " the language which
least divides us," he said, '* and which we are accustomed
to look upon as the most courteous in the world.*'

The former president of the London Congress, Sir James

230

I884-I885

Paget, emphasized the scientific consequences of those
triennial meetings, showing that, thanks to them, nations
may calculate the march of progress.

Virchow, in the name of Gennany, developed the same
idea.

Pasteur, representing France, showed again as he had
done at Milan in 1878, in London in 1881, at Geneva in
1882, and quite recently in Edinburgh, how much the
scientist and the patriot were one in him.

**In the name of France," said he, "I thank M. le
President for his words of welcome ... By our presence
in this Congress, we affirm the neutrality of Science . . .
Science is of no country. . . . But if Science has no
country, the scientist must keep in mind all that may work
towards the glory of his country. In every great scientist
will be found a great patriot. The thought of adding to
the greatness of his country sustains him in his long
efforts, and throws him into the difficult but glorious
scientific enterprises which bring about real and durable
conquests. Humanity then profits by those labours coming
from various directions. ..."

At the end of the meeting Pasteur was presented to the
King. The Queen of Denmark and the Queen of Greece, re-
gardless of etiquette, walked towards him, " a signal proof,"
wrote a French contemporary, "of the esteem in which
our illustrious countryman is held at the Danish Court."
Five general meetings were to give some of the scientists
an opportunity of expounding their views on subjects of
universal interest. Pasteur was asked to read the first
paper ; his audience consisted, besides the members of the
Congress, of many other men interested in scientific things,
who had come to hear him describe the steps by which
he had made such secure progress in the arduous question
of hydrophobia. He began by a declaration of war ageiinst

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

the prejudice by which so many people believe that rabies
can occur spontaneously. Whatever the pathological,
physiological, or other conditions may be under which a
dog or another animal is placed, rabies never appears if
the animal has not been bitten or licked by another rabid
animal ; this is so truly the case that hydrophobia is un-
known in certain countries. In order to preserve a whole
land from the disease, it is sufficient that a law should, as
in Australia, compel every imported dog to be in quarantine
for several months ; he would then, if bitten by a mad dog
before his departure, have ample time to die before infecting
other animals. Norway and Lapland are equally free from
rabies, a few good prophylactic measures being sufficient to
avert the scourge.

It will be objected that there must have been a first rabid
dog originally. *' That," said Pasteur, " is a problem which
cannot be solved in the present state of knowledge, for it
partakes of the great and unknown mystery of the origin
of life.''

The audience followed with an impassioned curiosity the
history of the stages followed by Pasteur on the road to his
great discovery : the preliminary experiments, the demon-
stration of the fact that the rabic virus invades the
nervous centres, the culture of the virus within living
animals, the attenuation of the rabic virus when passed
from dogs to monkeys, and, simultaneously with this
graduated attenuation, a converse process by successive
passages from rabbit to rabbit, the possibility of obtaining
in this way all the degrees of virulence, and finally the
acquired certainty of having obtained a preventive vaccine
against canine hydrophobia.

"Enthusiastic applause," wrote the reporter of the
Journal des Débats^ "greeted the conclusions of the in-
defatigable worker.*'

233

I884-I885

In the course of one of the excursions arranged for the
members of the Congress, Pasteur had the pleasure of
seeing his methods applied on a large scale, not as in Italy
to the progress of sériciculture, but to that of the manu-
facture of beer. J. C. Jacobsen, a Danish citizen, whose
name was celebrated in the whole of Europe by his
munificent donations to science, had founded in 1847 the
Carlsberg Brewery, now one of the most important in the
world ; at least 200,000 hectolitres were now produced every
year by the Carlsberg Brewery and the Ny Carlsberg branch
of it, which was under the direction of Jacobsen's son.

In 1879, Jacobsen, who was unknown to Pasteur, wrote
to him, " I should be very much obliged if you would allow
me to order from M. Paul Dubois, one of the great artists
who do France so much credit, a marble bust of yourself,
which I desire to place in the Carlsberg laboratory in
token of the services rendered to chemistry, physiolc^,
and beer-manufacture, by your studies on fermentation, a
foundation to all future progress in the brewer's trade."
Paul Dubois' bust is a masterpiece : it is most characteristic
oi Pasteur — ^the deep thoughtful far-away look in his eyes,
a somewhat stem expression on his powerful features.

Actuated, like his father, by a feeling of gratitude, the
younger Jacobsen had placed a bronze reproduction of this
bust in a niche in the wall of the brewery, at the entrance
of the Pasteur Street, leading to Ny Carlsberg.

This visit to the brewery was an object lesson to the
members of the Congress, who were magnificently enter-
tained by Jacobsen and his son ; no better demonstration
was ever made of the services which industry may receive
from science. In the great laboratory, the physiologist
Hansen had succeeded in finding differences in yeast ; he
had just separated from each other three kinds of yeast,
each producing beer with a different flavour.

^33

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

The French scientists were delighted with the practical
sense and delicate feelings of the Danish people. Though
they had gone through bitter trials in 1864, though France,
England, and Russia had countenanced the unrighteous
invasion, in the face of the old treaties which guaranteed
to Denmark the possession of Schleswig, the diminished
and impoverished nation had not given vent to barren
recriminations or declamatory protests. Proudly and
silently sorrowing, the Danes had preserved their respect
for the past, faith in justice and the cult of their great
men. It is a strange thing that Shakespeare should have
chosen that land of good sense and well-balanced reason,
for the surroundings of his mysterious hero, of all men
the most haunted by the maddening enigma of destiny.

Elsinore is but a short distance from Copenhagen, and
no member of the Congress, especially among the English
section, could have made up his mind to leave Denmark
without visiting Hamlet's home.

A Transport Company organized the visit to Elsinore
for a day when the Congress had arranged to have a
complete holiday. Five steamers, gay with flags, were
provided for the thousand medical men and their families,
and accomplished the two hours* crossing to Elsinore on
a lovely, clear day, with an absolutely calm sea. The
scientific tourists landed at the foot of the old Kronborg
Castle, ready for the lunch which was served out to them
and which proved barely sufficient for their appetites;
there was not quite enough bread for the Frenchmen,
proverbially bread-eaters, and the water, nmning a little
short, had to be supplemented with champagne.

Some of the visitors returned from a neighbouring wood,
where they had been to see the stones of the supposed
tomb of Hamlet, disappointed at having looked in vain for
Ophelia's stream and for the willow tree which heard her

234

I884-I885

sing her last song, her hands full of flowers. Evidently
this place was but an imaginary scenery given by Shake-
speare to the drama which stands like a point of interroga-
tion before the mystery of human life ; but his life-giving
art has for ever made of Elsinore the place where Hamlet
lived and suffered.

Pasteur, to whom the Danish character, in its strength
and simplicity, proved singularly attractive, remained in
Copenhagen for some time after the Congress was over.
He had much pleasure in visiting the Thorwaldsen
Museum. Copenhagen, after showering honours on the
great artist during his lifetime, has continued to worship
him after his death. Every statue, every plaster cast,
is preserved in that Museum with extraordinary care.
Thorwaldsen himself lies in the midst of his works — his
simple stone grave, covered with graceful ivy, is in one
of the courtyards of the Museum.

Pasteur went on to Arbois from Copenhagen. The
laboratory he had built there not being large enough to
take in rabid dogs, he dictated from his study the ex-
periments to be carried out in Paris; his carefully kept
notebooks enabled him to know exactly how things were
going on. His nephew, Adrien Loir, now a curator in the
laboratory of Rue d'Ulm had gladly given up his holidays
and remained in Paris with the faithful Eugène Viala.
This excellent assistant had come to Paris from Alais in
J871, at the request of Pasteur, who knew his family.
Viala was then only twelve years old and could barely
read and write. Pftsteur sent him to an evening school
and himself helped him with his studies ; the boy was very
intelligent and willing to learn. He became most useful
to Pasteur, who, in 1885, was glad to let him undertake a
great deal of the laboratory work, under the guidance of

«35

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

M. Roux, he was ultimately entrusted with all the tre-
phining operations on dogs, rabbits, and guinea-pigs.

The letters written to him by Pasteur in 1884 show the
exact point reached at that moment by the investigations
on hydrophobia. Many people already thought those
studies advanced enough to allow the method of treatment
to be applied to man.

Pasteur wrote to Viala on September 19, " Tell M. Adrien
(Loir) to send the following tel^^m : ' Surgeon Symonds,
Oxford, England. Operation on man still impossible. No
possibility at present of sending attenuated virus.' See
MM. Bourrel and Béraud, procure a dog which has died
of street-rabies, and use its medulla to inoculate a new
monkey, two guinea-pigs and two rabbits. ... I am
afraid Nocard's dog caimot have been rabid ; even if you
were sure that he was, you had better try those tests
again.

" Since M. Bourrel says he has several mad dogs at present,
you might take two couple of new dogs to his kennels ;
when he has a good biting dog, he can have a pair of our
dogs bitten, after which you will treat one of them so as to
make him refractory (carefully taking note of the time
elapsed between the bites and the beginning of the treat-
ment. Mind you keep notes <rf every new experiment
undertaken, and write to me every other day at least."

Pasteur pondered on the means of extinguishing hydro-
phobia or of merely diminishing its frequency. Could
dogs be vaccinated? There are 100,000 dogs in Paris,
about 2,500,000 more in the provinces : vaccination necessi-
tates several preventive inoculations ; innumerable kennels
would have to be built for the purpose, to say nothing
of the expense of keeping the dogs and of providing a
trained staff capable of performing the difficult and
dangerous operations. And, as M. Nocard truly remarked,

236

I884-I885

where were rabbits to be found in suflScient number for the
vaccine emulsions?

Optional vaccination did not seem more practicable ; it
could only be worked on a very restricted scale and was
therefore of very little use in a general way.

The main question was the possibility of preventing
hydrophobia from occurring in a human being, previously
bitten by a rabid dog.

The Emperor of Brazil, who took the greatest interest in
the doings of the Ecole Normale laboratory, having written
to Pasteur asking when the preventive treatment could be
applied to man, Pasteur answered as follows —

" September 22.

<< SiRB — Baron Itajuba, the Minister for Brazil, has handed
me the letter which Your Majesty has done me the honour
of writing on August 21. The Academy welcomed with
unanimous sympathy your tribute to the memory of our
illustrious colleague, M. Dumas ; it will listen with similar
pleasure to the words of regret which you desire me to
express on the subject of M. Wurtz's premature death.

" Your Majesty is kind enough to mention my studies on
hydrophobia: they are making good and uninterrupted
progress. I consider, however, that it will take me nearly
two years more to bring them to a happy issue . . .

'' What I want to do is to obtain prophylaxis of rabies
after bites.

''Until now I have not dared to attempt anything on
men, in spite of my own confidence in the result and the
numerous opportunities afforded to me since my last read-
ing at the Academy of Sciences. I fear too much that a
failure might compromise the future, and I want first to
accumulate successful cases on animals. Things in that
direction are going very well indeed; I already have
several examples of dogs made refractory after a rabietic

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

bite. I take two dogs, cause them both to be bitten by a
mad dog; I vaccinate the one and leave the other
without any treatment : the latter dies and the first re-
mains perfectly well.

*' But even when I shall have multiplied examples of the
prophylaxis of rabies in dogs, I think my hand will tremble
when I go on to Mankind. It is here that the high and
powerful initiative of the head of a State might intervene
for the good of humanity. If I were a King, an Emperor,
or even the President of a Republic, this is how I should
exercise my right of pardoning criminals condemned to
death. I should invite the counsel of a condemned man, on
the eve of the day fixed for his execution, to choose between
certain death and an experiment which would consist in
several preventive inoculations of rabic virus, in order to
make the subject's constitution refractory to rabies. If he
survived this experiment — and I am convinced that he
would — ^his life would be saved and his punishment com-
muted to a lifelong surveillance, as a guarantee towards
that society which had condemned him.

'* All condemned men would accept these conditions, death
being their only terror.

"This brings me to the question of cholera, of which Your
Majesty also has the kindness to speak to me. Neither
Dr. Koch nor Drs. Straus and Roux have succeeded in
giving cholera to animals, and therefore great uncertainty
prevails r^arding the bacillus to which Dr. Koch attri-
butes the causation of cholera. It ought to be possible
to try and communicate cholera to criminals condemned to
death, by the injection of cultures of that bacillus. When
the disease declared itself, a test could be made of the re-
medies which are counselled as apparently most efficacious.

" I attach so much importance to these measures, that, if
Your Majesty shared my views, I should willingly come to

238

I884-I885

Rio Janeiro, notwithstanding my age and the state of my
health, in order to undertake such studies oa the prophy-
laxis of hydrophobia and the contagion of cholera and
its remedies.

"I am, with profound respect. Your Majesty's humble
and obedient servant."

In other times, the right of pardon could be exercised in
the form of a chance of life offered to a criminal lending
himself to an experiment. Louis XVI, having admired a
fire balloon rising above Versailles, thought of proposing to
two condemned men that they should attempt to go up in
one. But Pilâtre des Roziers,'whose ambition it was to be
the first aeronaut, was indignant at the thought that " vile
criminals should be the first to rise up in the air." He won
his cause, and in November, 1 783, he organized an ascent
at the Muette which lasted twenty minutes.

In England, in the eighteenth centtiry, before Jenner's
discovery, successful attempts had been made at the direct
inoculation of small-pox. In some historical and medical
Researches an Vaccine ^ published in 1803, Husson relates
that the King of England, wishing to have the members of
his family inoculated, began by having the method tried on
six criminals condemned to death; they were all saved,
and the Royal Family submitted to inoculation.

There is undoubtedly a beautiful aspect of that idea of
utilizing the fate of a criminal for the cause of Humanity.
But in our modem laws no such liberty is left to Justice,
which has no power to invent new punishments, or to enter
into a bargain with a condemned criminal.

Before his departure from Arbois, Pasteur encountered
fresh and unforeseen obstacles. The successful opposition
of the inhabitants of Meudon had inspired those of St.
Cloud, Ville d*Avray, Vaucresson, Marnes, and Garches
with the idea of resisting in their turn the installation of

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Pasteur's kennels at VUleneuve TEtang. People spoke of
public danger, of children exposed to meet ferocious rabid
dogs wandering loose about the park, of popular Sundays
spoilt, picnickers disturbed, etc., etc.

A former pupil of Pasteur's at the Strasburg Faculty,
M. Christen, now a Town Councillor at Vaucresson, warned
Pasteur of all this excitement, adding that he personally
was ready to do his best to calm the terrors of his towns-
people.

Pasteur answered, thanking him for his efforts. '* . . . I
shall be back in Paris on October 24, and on the morning
of the twenty-fifth and following days I shall be pleased to
see any one desiring information on the subject. . . . But
you may at once assure your frightened neighbours. Sir,
that there will be no mad dogs at Villeneuve TEtang, but
only dogs made refractory to rabies. Not having enough
room in my laboratory, I am actually obliged to quarter on
various veterinary surgeons those dogs, which I should like
to enclose in covered kennels, quite safely secured, you
may be sure."

Pasteur, writing about this to his son, could not help
saying, ** Months of fine weather have been wasted I This
will keep my plans back almost a year."

Little by little, in spite of the opposition which burst out
now and again, calm was again re-established. French
good sense and appreciation of great things got the better
of the struggle ; in January, 1885, Pasteur was able to go to
Villeneuve l'Etang to superintend the arrangements. The
old stables were turned into an immense kennel, paved with
asphalte. A wide passage went from one end to the other,
on each side of which accommodation for sixty dogs was
arranged behind a double barrier of wire netting.

The subject of hydrophobia goes back to the remotest

240

I884-I885

antiquity { one of Homer's warriors calls Hector a mad dog.
The supposed allusions to it to be found in Hippocrates are
of the vaguest, but Aristotle is quite explicit when speaking
of canine rabies and of its transmission from one animal to
the other through bites. He gives expression, however, to
the singular opinion that man is not subject to it. More
than three hundred years later we come to Celsus, who
describes this disease, unknown or unnoticed until then.
** The patient," said Celsus, " is tortured at the same time by
thirst and by an invincible repulsion towards water.*' He
counselled cauterization of the wound with a red-hot iron
and also with various caustics and corrosives.

Pliny the Elder, a worthy precursor of village quacks,
recommended the livers of mad dogs as a cure ; it was not
a successful one. Galen, who opposed this, had a no less
singular recipe, a compound of cray-fish eyes. Later, the
shrine of St. Hubert in Belgium was credited with miracu-
lous cures ; this superstition is still extant.

Sea bathing, unknown in France until the reign of Louis
XIV, became a fashionable cure for hydrophobia, Dieppe
sands being supposed to offer wonderful curing properties.

In 1780 a prize was offered for the best method of
treating hydrophobia, and won by a pamphlet entitled
Dissertation sur la Rage^ written by a surgeon-major of
the name of Le Roux.

This very sensible treatise concluded by recommending
cauterization, now long forgotten, instead of the various
quack remedies which had so long been in vogue, and the
use of butter of antimony.

Le Roux did not allude in his paper to certain tena-
cious and cruel prejudices, which had caused several
hydrophobic persons, or persons merely suspected of hydro-
phobia, to be killed like wild beasts, shot, poisoned,
strangled, or suffocated.

VOL. II. 241 R

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

It was supposed in some places that hydrophobia could be
transmitted through the mere contact of the saliva or even
by the breath of the victims ; people who had been bitten
were in terror of what might be done to thenL A girl,
bitten by a mad dog and taken to the Hôtel Dieu Hospital
on May 8, 1780, begged that she might not be suffocated 1

Those dreadful occurrences must have been only too
frequent, for, in 1810, a philosopher asked the Gk>vemment
to enact a Bill in the following terms : '' It is forbidden,
under pain of death, to strangle, suffocate, bleed to death,
or in any other way murder individuals suflfering from
rabies, hydrophobia, or any disease causing fits, convul-
sions, furious and dangerous madness ; all necessary pre-
cautions against them being taken by families or public
authorities.'*

In 18 1 9, newspapers related the death of an unfortunate
hydrophobe, smothered between two mattresses; it was
said à propos of this murder that '* it is the doctor's duty
to repeat that this disease cannot be transmitted from man
to man, and that there is therefore no danger in nursing
hydrophobia patients." Though old and fantastic remedies
were still in vogue in remote country places, cauterization
was the most frequently employed; if the wounds were
somewhat deep, it was recommended to use long, sharp and
pointed needles, and to push them well in, even if the
wound was on the face.

One of Pasteur's childish recollections (it happened in
October,i83i) was the impression of terror produced through-
out the Jura by the advent of a rabid wolf who went biting
men and beasts on his way. Pasteur had seen an Arboisian
of the name of Nicole, being cauterized with a red-hot iron
at the smithy near his father's house. The persons who
had been bitten on the hands and head succumbed to hydro-
phobia, some of them amidst horrible sufferings; there

242

I 884-1 885

were eight victinfs in the immediate neighbourhood.
Nicole was saved. For yegirs the whole region remained
in dread of that mad wolf.

The long period of incubation encouraged people to
hope that some preventive means might be found, instead
of the painful operation of cauterization ; some doctors
attempted inoculating another poison, a viper's venom for
instance, to neutralize the rabic virus — ^needless to say with
fatal results.

In 1852 a reward was promised by the Government to
the finder of a remedy against hydrophobia; all the old
quackeries came to light again, even Galen's remedy of
cray-fish eyes I

Bouchardat, who had to report to the Academy on these
remedies, considered them of no value whatever ; his con-
clusion was that cauterization was the only prophylactic
treatment of hydrophobia.

Such was also Bouley's opinion, eighteen years later,
when he wrote that the object to keep in view was the
quickest possible destruction of the tissues touched by
rabietic saliva. Failing an iron heated to a light red heat,
or the sprinkling of gunpowder over the wound and setting
a match to it, he recommended caustics, such as nitric
acid, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, potassa fusa, butter
of antimony, corrosive sublimate, and nitrate of silver.

Thus, after centuries had passed, and numberless
remedies had been tried, ^ no progress had been made,
and nothing better had been found than cauterization, as
indicated by Celsus in the first century.

As to the origin of rabies, it remained unknown and was
erroneously attributed to divers causes. Spontaneity was
still believed in. Bouley himself did not absolutely reject
the idea of it, for he said in 1870 : '* In the immense majority

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

of cases, this disease proceeds from contagion ; out of i,ooo
rabid dogs, 999 at least owe their condition to inoculation
by a bite."

Pasteur was anxious to uproot this fallacy, as also
another very serious error, vigorously opposed by Bouley,
by M. Nocard, and by another veterinary surgeon in a
Manual on Rabies, published in 1882, and still as tenacious
as most prejudices, viz., that the word hydrophobia is
synonymous with rabies. The rabid dog is not hydrophobe,
he does not abhor water. The word is applicable to rabid
human beings, but is false concerning rabid dogs.

Many people in the country, constantly seeing Pasteur's
name associated with the word rabies, fancied that he was
a consulting veterinary surgeon, and pestered him with
letters full of questions. What was to be done to a dog
whose manner seemed strange, though there was no
evidence of a suspicious bite ? Should he be shot ? " No,"
answered Pasteur, " shut him up securely, and he will soon
die if he is really mad." Some dog owners hesitated to
destroy a dog manifestly bitten by a mad dog. ''It is
such a good dog !" " The law is absolute," answered
Pasteur; "every dog bitten by a mad dog must be
destroyed at once." And it irritated him that village
mayors ^ould close their eyes to the non-observance of
the law, and thus contribute to a recrudescence of rabies.

Pasteur wasted his precious time answering all those let-
ters. On March 28, 1885, he wrote to his friend Jules Vercel —

'' Alas ! we shall not be able to go to Arbois for Easter ;
I shall be busy for some time settling down, or rather
settling ray dogs down at Villeneuve TEtang. I also have
some new experiments on rabies on hand which will take
some months. I am demonstrating this year that dogs can
be vaccinated, or made refractory to rabies after they have
teeQ bitten by mad dogs.

344

I884-I885

" I have not yet dared to treat human beings after bites
from rabid dogs ; but the time is not far off, and I am much
inclined to begin by myself — inoculating myself with
rabies, and then arresting the consequences; for I am
beginning to feel very sure of my results."

Pasteur gave more details three days later, in a letter
to his son, then Secretary of the French Embassy at the
Quirinal —

"The experiments before the Rabies Conunission were
resiuned on March 10 ; they are now being carried out,
and the Commission has already held six sittings; the
seventh will take place today.

" As I only submit to it results which I look upon as
acquired, this gives me a surplus of work to do ; for those
control experiments are added to those I am now carrying
out. For I am continuing my researches, trying to discover
new principles, and hardening myself by habit and by
increased conviction in order to attempt preventive inocu-
lations on man after a bite.

** The Commission's experiments have led to no result
so far, for, as you know, weeks have to pass before any
results occur. But no imtoward incident has occurred up
to now; and if all continues equally well, the Commis-
sion's second report will be as favourable as that of last
year, which left nothing to be desired.

" I am equally satisfied with my new experiments in this
difficult study. Perhaps practical application on a large
scale may not be far off . . ."

In May, everything at Villeneuve TEtang was ready for
the reception of sixty dogs. Fifty of them, already made
refractory to bites or rabic inoculation, were successively
accommodated in the immense kennel, where each had his
cell and his experiment number. They had been made
refractory by being inoculated with fragments of medulla,

245

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

which had hung for a fortnight in a phial, and of which
the virulence was extinguished, after which further inocu-
lations had been made, gradually increasing in virulence
until the highest degree of it had again been reached.

All those dogs, which were to be periodically taken
back to Paris for inoculations or bite tests, in order to
see what was the duration of the immunity conferred,
were stray dogs picked up by the police. They were of
various breeds, and showed every variety of character,
some of them gentle and aflFectionate, others vicious and
growling, some confiding, some shrinking, as if the recollec-
tion of chloroform and the laboratory was disagreeable to
them. They showed some natural impatience of their
enforced captivity, only interrupted by a short daily run.
One of them, however, was promoted to the post of house-
dog, and loosened every night; he excited much envy
among his congeners. The dogs were very well cared
for by a retired gendarme^ an excellent man of the name
of Pernin.

A lover of animals might have drawn an interesting
contrast between the fate of those laboratory dogs, living
and dying for the good of humanity, and that of the dogs
buried in the neighbouring ùogs^ cemetery at Bagatelle,
founded by Sir Richard Wallace, the great English
philanthropist. Here lay toy dogs, lap dogs, drawing-
room dogs, cherished and coddled during their useless lives,
and luxuriously buried after their useless deaths, while
the dead bodies of the others went to the knacker's yard.

Rabbit hutches and guinea-pig cages leaned against the
dogs' palace. Pasteur, having seen to the comfort of his
animals, now thought of himself ; it was frequently neces-
sary that he should come to spend two or three days at
Villeneuve l'Etang. The oflScial architect thought of re-
pairing part of the little palace of Villeneuve, which was

246

I884-I885

in a very bad state of decay. But Pasteur preferred to
have some rooms near the stables put into repair, which
had formerly been used for non-commissioned officers of
the Cent Gardes; there was less to do to them, and the
position was convenient. The roof, windows, and doors
were renovated, and some cheap paper hung on the walls
inside. " This is certainly not luxurious ! " exclaimed an
astonished millionaire, who came to see Pasteur one day
on his way to his own splendid villa at Marly.

On May 29 Pasteur wrote to his son —

'* I thought I should have done with rabies by the end of
April ; I must postpone my hopes till the end of July. Yet
I have not remained stationary; but, in these difficult
studies, one is far from the goal as long as the last word,
the last decisive proof is not acquired. What I aspire to
is the possibility of treating a man after a bite with no
fear of accidents.

" I have never had so many subjects of experiment on
hand — sixty dogs at Villeneuve TEtang, forty at Rollin,
ten at Fr^is', fifteen at Bourrel's, and I deplore having no
more kennels at my disposal.

" What do you say of the Rue Pasteur in the large city
of Lille ? The news has given me very great pleasure."

What Pasteur briefly called " Rollin *' in this letter was
the former Lycée Rollin^ the old buildings of which had
been transformed into outhouses for his laboratory. Large
cages had been set up in the old courtyard, and the place
was like a farm, with its population of hens, rabbits, and
guinea-pigs.

Two series of experiments were being carried out on
those 125 dogs. The first consisted in making dogs refrac-
tory to rabies by preventive inoculations; the second in
preventing the onset of rabies in dogs bitten or subjected
to inoctilation.

247

CHAPTER VI

I 8 8 5-1 8 8 8

PASTEUR had the power of concentrating his thoughts
to such a degree that he often, when absorbed in one
idea, became absolutely unconscious of what took place
around him. At one of the meetings of the Académie
Française, whilst the Dictionary was being discussed, he
scribbled the following note on a stray sheet of paper —

'* I do not know how to hide my ideas from those who
work with me ; still, I wish I could have kept those I am
going to express a little longer to myself. The experi-
ments have already begun which will decide them.

" It concerns rabies, but the results might be general.

'*I am inclined to think that the virus which is con-
sidered rabic may be accompanied by a substance which,
by impregnating the nervous system, would make it tmsuit-
able for the culture of the microbe. Thence vaccinal
immunity. If that is so, the theory might be a general
one: it would be a stupendous discovery.

" I have just met Chamberland in the Rue Gay-Lussac,
and explained to him this view and my experiments. He
was much struck, and asked my permission to make at
once on anthrax the experiment I am about to make on
rabies as soon as the dog and the culture rabbits are dead.
Roux, the day before yesterday, was equally struck.

*^ Académie Française^ Thursday, January Tg^ 1885."

248

1885*1888

Could that vaccinal substance associated with the rabic
virus be isolated? In the meanwhile a main fact was
acquired, that of preventive inoculation, since Pasteur was
sure of his series of dogs rendered refractory to rabies after
a bite. Months were going by without bringing an answer
to ^the question " Why ? '* of the antirabic vaccination, as
mysterious as the " Why ? " of Jennerian vaccination.

On the Monday, July 6, Pasteur saw a little Alsatian
boy, Joseph Meister, enter his laboratory, accompanied by
his mother. He was only nine years old, and had been
bitten two days before by a mad dog at Meissengott, near
Schlestadt.

The child, going alone to school by a little by-road, had
been attacked by a furious dog and thrown to the ground.
Too small to defend himself, he had only thought of cover-
ing his face with his hands. A bricklayer, seeing the
scene from a distance, arrived, £md succeeded in beating
the dog oflf with an iron bar ; he picked up the boy, covered
with blood and saliva. The dog went back to his master,
Théodore Vone, a grocer at Meissengott, whom he bit on
the arm. Vone seized a gun and shot the animal, whose
stomach was found to be full of hay, straw, pieces of wood,
etc. When little Meister's parents heard all these details
they went, full of anxiety, to consult Dr. Weber, at Ville,
that same evening. After cauterizing the wounds with
carbolic. Dr. Weber advised Mme. Meister to start for
Paris, where she could relate the facts to one who was
not a physiciEm, but who would be the best judge of what
could be done in such a serious case. Théodore Vone,
anxious on his own and on the child's account, decided to
come also.

Pasteur reassured him; his clothes had wiped ofif the
dog's saliva, and his shirt-sleeve was intact. He might
safely go back to Alsace, and he promptly did so.

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Pasteur^s emotion was great at the sight of the fourteen
wounds of the little boy, who suffered so much that he
could hardly walk. What should he do for this child?
could he risk the preventive treatment which had been
constantly successful on his dogs? Pasteur was divided
between his hopes and his scruples, painful in their acute-
ness. Before deciding on a course of action, he made
arrangements for the comfort of this poor woman and her
child, alone in Paris, and gave them an appointment for
5 o'clock, after the Institute meeting. He did not wish to
attempt anything without having seen Vulpian and talked
it over with him. Since the Rabies Commission had been
constituted, Pasteur had formed a growing esteem for the
great judgment of Vulpian, who, in his lectlires on the
general and comparative physiology of the nervous system,
had already mentioned the profit to human clinics to be
drawn from experimenting on animals.

His was a most prudent mind, always seeing all the
aspects of a problem. The man was worthy of the scien-
tist : he was absolutely straightforward, and of a discreet
and active kindness. He was passionately fond of work,
and had recourse to it when smitten by a deep sorrow.

Vulpian expressed the opinion that Pasteur's experiments
on dogs were sufficiently conclusive to authorize him to
foresee the same success in human pathology. Why not
try this treatment ? added the professor, usually so reserved.
Was there any other efficacious treatment against^hydro-
phobia ? If at least the cauterizations had been made with
a red-hot iron ! but what was the good of carbolic acid
twelve hours after the accident. If the almost certain
danger which threatened the boy were weighed against
the chances of snatching him from death, Pasteur would
see that it was more than a right, that it was a duty to
apply antirabic inoculation to little Meister.

350

I 885-1 888

This was also the opinion of Dr. Grancher, whom Pasteur
consulted. M. Grancher worked at the laboratory ; he £ind
Dr. Straus might claim to be the two first French physicians
who took up the study of bacteriolc^y ; these novel studies
fascinated him, and he was drawn to Pasteur by the deepest
admiration and by a strong afifection, which Pasteur
thoroughly reciprocated.

Vulpian and M. Grancher examined little Meister in
the evening, and, seeing the number of bites, some of which,
on one hand especially, were very deep, they decided on
performing the first inoculation immediately ; the substance
chosen was fourteen days old and had quite lost its viru-
lence : it was to be followed by further inoculations gradu-
ally increasing in strength.

It was a very slight operation, a mere injection into the
side (by means of a Pravaz syringe) of a few drops of a
liquid prepared with some fragments of medulla oblongata.
The child, who cried very much before the operation, soon
dried his tears when he found the slight prick was all
that he had to undergo.

Pasteur had had a bedroom comfortably arranged for the
mother and child in the old Rollin College, and the little
boy was very happy amidst the various animals — chickens,
rabbits, white mice, guinea-pigs, etc. ; he begged and easily
obtained of Pasteur the life of several of the youngest of
them.

" All is going well," Pasteur wrote to his son-in-law on
July 1 1 : " the child sleeps well, has a good appetite, and
the inoculated matter is absorbed into the system from one
day to another without leaving a trace. It is true that I
have not yet come to the test inoculations, which will take
place on Tuesday, Wednesday £md Thursday. If the lad
keeps well during the three following weeks, I think the
experiment will be safe to succeed. I shall send the child

351

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

and his mother back to Meissengott (near Schlestadt) in any
case on August i, giving these good people detailed instruc-
tion as to the observations they are to record for me. I
shall make no statement before the end of the vacation."

But, as the inoculations were becoming more virulent,
Pasteur became a prey to anxiety: "My dear children,*'
wrote Mme. Pasteur, "your father has had another bad
night; he is dreading the last inoculations on the child.
And yet there can be no drawing back now I The boy
continues in perfect health."

Renewed hopes were expressed in the following letter
from Pasteur —

" My dear René, I think great things are coming to pass.
Joseph Meister has just left the laboratory. The three last
inoculations have left some pink marks under the skin,
gradually widening and not at all tender. There is some
action, which is becoming more intense as we approach the
final inoculation, which will take place on Thursday,
July 1 6. The lad is very well this morning, and has
slept well, though slightly restless; he has a good appetite
and no feverishness. He had a slight hysterical attack
yesterday."

The letter ended with an affectionate invitation.
"Perhaps one of the great medical facts of the century
is going to take place; you would regret not having
seen it ! "

Pasteur was going through a succession of hopes, fears,
anguish, and an ardent yearning to snatch little Meister
from death ; he could no longer work. At nights, feverish
visions came to him of this child whom he had seen playing
in the garden, suffocating in the mad struggles of hydro-
phobia, like the dying child he had seen at the Hôpital
Trousseau in 1880. Vainly his experimental genius
assured him that the virus of that most terrible of diseases

252

I 885-1 888

was about to be vanquished, that humanity was about to
be delivered from this dread horror — ^his human tenderness
was stronger than all, his accustomed ready sympathy for
the suflferings and anxieties of others was for the nonce
centred in " the dear lad."

The treatment lasted ten days ; Meister was inoculated
twelve times. The virulence of the medulla used was tested
by trephinings on rabbits, and proved to be gradually
stronger. Pasteur even inoculated on July 16, at 1 1 a.m.,
some medulla only one day old, bound to give hydrophobia
to rabbits after only seven days' incubation; it was the
surest test of the immunity and preservation due to the
treatment.

Cured from his wounds, delighted with all he saw, gaily
running about as if he had been in his own Alsatian farm,
little Meister, whose blue eyes now showed neither fear nor
shyness, merrily received the last inoculation ; in the evening,
after claiming a kiss from " Dear Monsieur Pasteur," as he
called him, he went to bed and slept peacefully. Pasteur
spent a terrible night of insomnia; in those slow dark
hours of night when all vision is distorted, Pasteur, losing
sight of the accumulation of experiments which guaranteed
his success, imagined that the little boy would die.

The treatment being now completed, Pasteur left little
Meister to the care of Dr. Grancher (the lad was not to
return to Alsace until July 27) and consented to take
a few days' rest. He spent them with his daughter in a
quiet, almost deserted coimtry place in Burgundy, but
without however finding much restfulness in the beautiful
peaceful scenery; he lived in constant expectation of
Dr. Grancher's daily telegram or letter containing news of
Joseph Meister.

By the time he went to the Jura, Pasteur's fears had
almost disappeared. He wrote from Arbois to his son

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

August 3, 1885: "Very good news last night of the
bitten lad. I am looking forward with great hopes to the
time when I can draw a conclusion. It will be thirty-one
days tomorrow since he was bitten."

On August 20, six weeks before the new elections of
Deputies, Léon Say, Pasteur's colleague at the Académie
Française, wrote to him that many Beauce agricultors
were anxious to put his name down on the list of
candidates, as a recognition of the services rendered by
science. A few months before, Jules Simon had thought
Pasteur might be elected as a Life Senator, but Pasteur had
refused to be convinced. He now replied to Léon Say —

" Your proposal touches me very much, and it would be
agreeable to me to owe a Deputy's mandate to electors,
several of whom have applied the results of my investiga-
tions. But politics frighten me and I have already refused
a candidature in the Jura and a seat in the Senate in the
course of this year.

" I might be tempted perhaps, if I no longer felt active
enough for my laboratory work. But I still feel equal to
further researches, and on my return to Paris, I shall be
organizing a ' service ' against rabies which will absorb
all my energies. I now possess a very perfect method of
prophylaxis against that terrible disease, a method equally
adapted to human beings and to dogs, and by whidh
your much afflicted Department will be one of the first to
benefit.

" Before my departure for Jura I dared to treat a poor
little nine-year-old lad whose mother brought him to me
from Alsace, where he had been attacked on the 4th ult,
and bitten on the thighs, legs, and hand in such a manner
that hydrophobia would have been inevitable. He remains
in perfect health."

354

I885-I888

Whilst many political speeches were being prepared,
Pasteur was thinking over a literary speech. He had
been requested by the Académie Française to welcome
Joseph Bertrand, elected in place of J. B. Dumas — ^the
eulc^um of a scientist, spoken by one scientist, himself
welcomed ^by Einother scientist. This was an unusual
prc^ammé for the Académie Française, perhaps too
unusual in the eyes of Pasteur, who did not think himself
worthy of speaking in the name of the Académie. Such
was his modesty ; he forgot that amongst the savants who
had been members of the Académie, several, such as
Fontenelle, Cuvier, J^ B. Dumas, etc, had published
inunortal pages, and that some extracts from his own
works would one day become classical.

The vacation gave him time to read over the writings of
his beloved teacher, and also to study the life and works of
Joseph Bertrand, already his colleague at the Académie
des Sciences.

Bertrand's election had been simple and easy, like every-
thing he had undertaken since his birth. It seemed as if a
good fairy had leant over his cradle and whispered to him,
*' Thou Shalt know many things, without having had to
learn them.'' It is a fact that he could read without
having held a book in his hands. He was ill and in bed
whilst his brother Alexander was being taught to read ; he
listened to the lessons and kept the various combinations of
letters in his mind. When he became convalescent, his
parents brought him a book of Natural History so that he
might look at the pictures. He took the volume and
read from it fluently; he was not five years old. He
learnt the elements of geometry very much in the
same way.

Pasteur in his speech thus described Joseph Bertrand*s
childhood : " At ten years old you were already celebrated,

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

and it was prophesied that you would pass at the head
of the list into the Ecole Poljrtechnique and become a
member of the Academy of Science. No one doubted this,
not even yourself. You were indeed a child prodigy.
Sometimes it amused you to hide in a class of higher
mathematics, and when the Professor propounded a difficult
problem that no one could solve, one of the students would
triumphantly lift you in his arms, stand you on a chair so
that you might reach the board, and you would then give
the required solution with a calm assurance, in the midst of
applause from the professors and pupils.''

Pasteur, whose every progress had been painfully
acquired, admired the ease with which Bertrand had passed
through the first stages of his career. At an age when
marbles and indiarubber balls are usually an important
interest, Bertrand walked merrily to the Jardin des Fiantes
to attend a course of lectures by Gay-Lussac. A few hours
later, he might be seen at the Sorbonne, listening with
interest to Saint Marc Girardin, the literary moralist The
next day, he would go to a lecture on Comparative
Legislation; never was so young a child seen in such
serious places. He borrowed as many books from the
Institute library as Biot himself; he learnt whole passages
by heart, merely by glancing at them. He became a
doctor es sciences at sixteen, and a Member of the Institute
at thirty-four.

Besides his personal works — such as those on Analytic
Mechanics, which place him in the very first rank — his
teaching had been brought to bear during forty years on
all branches of mathematics. Bertrand's life, apparently so
happy, had been saddened by the irreparable loss, during
the Commune, of a great many precious notes, letters, and
manuscripts, which had been burnt with the house where
he had left them. Discouraged by this ruin of ten years'

356

I 885-1 888

work, he had given way to a tendency to writing slight
popular articles, of high literary merit, instestd of continuing
his deeper scientific work. His etdc^y of J. B. Dumas
was not quite seriously enthusiastic enough to please
Pasteur, who had a veritable cult for the memory of his
old teacher, and who eagerly grasped this opportunity of
speaking again of J. B. Dumas' influence on himself, of his
admirable scientific discoveries, and of his political duties,
undertaken in the hope of being useful to Science, but often
proving a source of disappointment.

Pasteur enjoyed looking back^on the beloved memory of
J. B. Dumas, as he sat preparing his speech in his study at
Arbois, looking out on the familiar landscape of his child-
hood, where the progress of practical science was evidenced
by the occasional passing, through the distant pine woods,
of the white smoke of the Switzerland express*

When in his laboratory in Paris, Pasteur hated to be
disturbed whilst making experiments or writing out notes
of his work. Any visitor was unwelcome ; one day that
some one was attempting to force his way in, M. Roux
was amused at seeing Pasteur — vexed at being disturbed
and anxious not to pain the visitor— come out to say im-
ploringly, " Oh ! not now, please I I am too busy ! "

" When Chamberland and I," writes Dr. Roux, " were
engaged in an interesting occupation, he mounted guard
before us, and when, through the glazed doors, he saw people
coming, he himself would go and meet them in order to send
them away. He showed so artlessly that his sole thought
was for the work, that no one ever could be oflFended."

But, at Arbois, where he only spent his holidays, he did
not exercise so much severity ; any one could come in who
liked. He received in the morning a constant stream of
visitors, begging for advice, recommendations, interviews,
etc.

VOL. II. 357 s

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

"It is both comical and touching," wrote M. Girard, a
local journalist, " to see the opinion the vineyard labourers
have of him. These good people have heard M. Pasteur's
name in connection with the diseases of wine, and they
look upon him as a sort of wine doctor. If they notice a
barrel of wine getting sour, they knock at the savant's
door, bottle in hand; this door is never closed to them.
Peasants are not precise in their language ; they do not
know how to begin their explanations or how to finish them.
M. Pasteur, ever calm and serious, listens to the very end,
takes the bottle and studies it at his leisure. A week later,
the wine is ' cured.' "

He was consulted also on many other subjects — ^virus,
silkworms, rabies, cholera, swine-fever, etc. ; many took
him for a physician. Whilst telling them of their mistake,
he yet did everjrthing he could for them.

During this summer of 1885, he had the melancholy joy
of seeing a bust erected in the village of Monay to die
memory of a beloved friend of his, J. J. Perraud, a great
and inspired sculptor, who had died in 1876. Perraud,
whose magnificent statue of Despair is now at the Louvre,
had had a sad life, £ind, on his lonely death-bed (he was a
widower, with no children), Pasteur's tender sympathy
had been an unspeakable comfort. Pasteur now took a
leading part in the celebration of his friend's fame, and
was glad to speak to the assembled villagers at Monay of
the great and disinterested artist who had been born in their
midst.

On his return to Paris, Pasteur found himself obliged to
hasten the organization of a " service " for the preventive
treatment of hydrophobia after a bite. The Mayor of
Villers-Farlay, in the Jura, wrote to him that, on October 14,
a shepherd had been cruelly bitten by a rabid d(^.

258

I885-I888

Six little shepherd bays were watching over their sheep
in a meadow ; suddenly they saw a large dog passing along
the road, with hanging, foaming jaws.

" A mad dog ! " they exclaimed. The dog, seeing the
children, left the road and charged them ; they ran away
shrieking, but the eldest of them, J. B. Jupille, fourteen
years of age, bravely turned back in order to protect the
flight of his comrades. Armed with his whip, he con-
fronted the infuriated animal, who flew at him and seized
his left hand. Jupille ¥n:estling with the dog, succeeded in
kneeling on him, and forcing its jaws open in order to
disengage his left hand ; in so doing, his right hand was
seriously bitten in its turn ; finally, having been able to get
hold of the animal by the neck, Jupille called to his little
brother to pick up his whip, which had fallen during the
struggle, and securely fastened the dog's jaws with the lash.
He then took his wooden sabot ^ with which he battered the
dog's head, after which, in order to be sure that it could do no
further harm, he dragged the body down to a little stream
in the meadow, and held the head imder water for several
minutes. Death being now certain, and all danger removed
from his comrades, Jupille returned to Villers-Farlay.

Whilst the boy's wounds were being bandaged, the dog's
carcase was fetched, and a necropsy took place the next
day. The two veterinary surgeons who examined the body
had not the slightest hesitation in declaring that the dog
was rabid.

The Mayor of Villers-Farlay, who had been to see
Pasteur during the summer, wrote to tell him that this lad
would die a victim 01 his own courage unless the new
treatment intervened. The answer came immediately:
Pasteur declared that, after five years' study, he had
succeeded in making dogs refractory to rabies, even six or
eight days after being bitten ; that he had only once yet

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

applied his method to a human being, but that once with
success, in the case of little Meister, and that, if Jupille's
family consented, the boy might be sent to him. " I shall
keep him near me in a room of my laboratory ; he will be
watched and need not go to bed ; he will merely receive a
daily prick, not more painful than a pin-prick.''

The family, on hearing this letter, came to an immediate
decision; but, between the day when he was bitten and
Jupille's arrival in Paris, six whole days had elapsed, whilst
in Meister's case there had only been two and a half !

Yet, however great were Pasteur's fears for the life of
this tall lad, who seemed quite surprised when congratulated
on his courageous conduct, they were not what they had
been in the first instance — ^he felt much greater confidence.

A few days later, on October 26, Pasteur in a statement
at the Academy of Sciences described the treatment followed
for Meister. Three months and three days had passed, and
the child remained perfectly well. Then he spoke of his
new attempt. Vulpian rose —

" The Academy will not be surprised," he said, " if, as a
member of the Medical and Surgical Section, I ask to be
allowed to express the feelings of admiration inspired in
me by M. Pasteur's statement. I feel certain that those
feelings will be shared by the whole of the medical pro-
fession.

" Hydrophobia, that dread disease against which all
therapeutic measures had hitherto failed, has at last found
a remedy. M. Pasteur, who has been preceded by no one
in this path, has been led, by a series of investigations
unceasingly carried on for several years, to create a method
of treatment, by means of which the development of hydro-
phobia can infallibly be prevented in a patient recently
bitten by a rabid dog. I say infallibly, because, after what
I have seen in M. Pasteur's laboratory, I do not doubt the

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I885-I888

constant success of this treatment when it is put into full
practice a few days only after a rabic bite.

" It is now necessary to see about organizing an installation
for the treatment of hydrophobia by M. Pasteur*s method.
Every person bitten by a rabid dog must be given the
opportunity of benefiting by this great discovery, which
ynll seal the fame of our illustrious colleague and bring
glory to our whole country."

Pasteur had ended his reading by a touching description
of Jupille's action, leaving the Assembly tmder the im-
pression of that boy of fourteen, sacrificing himself to save
his companions. An Academician, Baron Larrey, whose
authority was rendered all the greater by his calmness,
dignity, and moderation, rose to speak. After acknowledge
ing the importance of Pasteur's discovery, Larrey continued,
'' The sudden inspiration, agility and courage, with which
the ferocious dog was muzzled, and thus made incapable of
conmiitting further injury to bystanders, . . . such an act
of bravery deserves to be rewarded. I therefore have the
honour of b^ging the Académie des Sciences to recommend
to the Académie Française this young shepherd, who, by
giving such a generous example of courage and devotion,
has well deserved a Montyon prize.

Bouley, then chairman of the Academy, rose to speak in
his turn —

" We are entitled to say that the date of the present
meeting will remain for ever memorable in the history of
medicine, and glorious for French science; for it is that
of one of the greatest steps ever accomplished in the
medical order of things — a progress realized by the dis-
covery of an efficacious means of preventive treatment
for a disease, the incurable nature of which was a legacy
handed down by one century to another. From this day,
humanity is armed with a means of fighting the fatal

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

disease of hydrophobia and of preventing its onset It is
to M. Pasteur that we owe this, and we could not feel too
much admiration or too much gratitude for the efforts on
his part which have led to such a magnificent result. . . ."

Five years previously, Bouley, in the annual combined
puUic meeting of the five Academies, had proclaimed his
enthusiasm for the discovery of the vaccination of anthrax.
But on hearing him again on this October day, in 1885,
his colleagues could not but be painfully struck by the
change in him ; his voice was weak, his face thin and pale.
He was dying of an affection of the heart, and quite aware
of it, but he was sustained by a wonderful energy, and
ready to forget his sufferings in his joy at the thought that
the sum of human sorrows would be diminished by
Pasteur's victory. He went to the Académie de Médecine
the next day to enjoy the echo of the great sitting of the
Académie des Sciences. He died on November 29.

The chairman of the Academy of Medicine, M. Jules
Bergeron, applauded Pasteur's statement all the more that
he too had publicly 'deplored (in 1862) the impotence of
medical science in the presence of this cruel disease.

But while M. Bergeron shared the admiration felt by Vulpian
and Dr. Grancher for the experiments which had trans^
formed the rabic virus into its own vaccine, other medical
men were divided into several categories: some were
full of enthusiasm, others reserved their opinion, many
were sceptical, and a few even positively hostile.

As soon as Pasteur's paper was published, people bitten
by rabid dogs began to arrive from all sides to the
laboratory. The "service" of hydrophobia became the
chief business of the day. Every morning was spent by
Eugène Viala in preparing the fragments of marrow used
for inoculations : in a little room permanently kept at a
temperature of 20^ to 23^ C, stood rows of sterilized flasks,

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their tubular openings closed by plugs of cotton-wool.
Each flask contained a rabic marrow, banging from the
stopper by a thread and gradually drying up by the action
of some fragments of caustic potash lying at the bottom of
the flask. Viala cut those marrows into small pieces by
means of scissors previously put through a flame, and
placed them in small sterilized glasses ; he then added a
few drops of veal broth and pounded the mixture with a
glass rod. The vaccinal liquid was now ready ; each glass
was covered with a paper cover, and bore the date of the
medulla used, the earliest of which was fourteen days old.
For each patient under treatment from a certain date,
there was a whole series of little glasses. Pasteur always
attended these operations personally.

In the large hall of the laboratory, Pasteur's collaborators,
Messrs. Chamberland and Roux, carried on investigations
into contagious diseases imder the master's directions ; the
place was full of flasks, pipets, phials, containing culture
broths. Etienne Wasserzug, another curator, hardly more
than a boy, fresh from the Ecole Normale, where his bright
intelligence and affectionate heart had made him very popu-
lar, translated (for he knew the English, German, Italian,
Hungarian and Spanish languages, and was awaiting a
favourable opportunity of learning Russian) the letters
which arrived from all parts of the world; he also enter-
tained foreign scientists. Pasteur had in him a most
valuable interpreter. Physicians came from all parts of
the world asking to be allowed to study the details of the
method. One morning. Dr. Grancher foimd Ptoteur
listening to a physician who was gravely and solemnly
holding forth his objections to microbian doctrines, and
in particular to the treatment of hydrophobia. Pasteur
having heard this long monologue, rose and said, ''Sir,
your language is not very intelligible to me. I am not a

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

{diysician and do not desire to be one. Never speak to me
of your d<^;nia of morbid spontaneity* I am a chemist ; I
carry out experiments and I try to understand what they
teach me. What do you think, doctor ?" he added, turning
to M. Grancher. The latter smiiingly answered that the
hour for inoculations had struck. They took place at
eleven, in Pasteur's study; he standing by the open
door, called out the names of the patients. The date and
circumstances of the bites and the veterinary surgeon's
certificate were entered in a raster, and the patients were
divided into series according to the degree of virulence
which was to be inoculated on each day of the period of
treatment.

Pasteur took a personal interest in each of his patients,
helping those who were poor and illiterate to find suitable
lodgings in the great capital. Children eq)ecially inspired
him with a loving solicitude. But his pity was mingled
with terror, when, on November 9, a little girl of ten was
brought to him who had been sev^ely bitten on the head by
a mountain dog, on October 3, thirty-seven days before ! !
The wound was still suppurating. He said to himself,
'* This is a hopeless case : hydrophobia is no doubt about to
appear immediately ; it is much too late for the preventive
treatment to have the least chance oi success. Should I
not, in the scientific interest of the method, refuse to treat
this child ? If the issue is fatal, all those who have already
been treated will be frightened, and many bitten persons,
discouraged from coming to the laboratory, may succumb
to the disease ! " These thoughts rapidly crossed Pasteur's
mind. But he found himself unable to resist his compas-
sion for the father and mother, b^ging him to try and
save their child.

After the treatment was over, Louise Pelletier had
returned to school, when fits of breathlessness appeared,

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soon followed by convulsive spasms; she could swallow
nothing. Pasteur hastened to her side when these
symptoms began, and new inoculations were attempted.
On December ^, there was a respite of a few hours,
moments of calm which inspired Pasteur with the vain
hope that she might yet be saved. This delusion was a
short-lived one. After attending Bouley's fimeral, his
heart full of sorrow, Pasteur spent the day by little Louise's
bedside, in her parents' rooms in the Rue Dauphine. He
could not tear himself away ; she herself, full of affection
for him, gasped out a desire that he should not go away,
that he should stay with her ! She felt for his hand be-
tween two spasms. Pasteur shared the grief of the father
and mother. When all hope had to be abandoned : '' I did
so wish I could have saved your little one I " he said. And
as be came down the staircase, he burst into tears.

He was obliged, a few days later, to preside at the recep-
tion of Joseph Bertrand at the Académie Française ; his
sad feelings little in harmony with the occasion. He read
in a mournful and troubled voice the speech he had prepared
during his peaceful and happy holidays at Arbois. Henry
Houssaye, reporting on this ceremony in the Journal de
DébcUSy wrote, ''M. Pasteur ended his speech amidst a
torrent of applause, he received a veritable ovation. He
seemed unaccoimtably moved. How can M. Pasteur, who
has received every mark of admiration, every supreme
honour, whose name is consecrated by universal renown,
still be touched by ,an3rthing save the discoveries of his
powerful genius." People did not realize that Pasteur's
thoughts were far away from himself and from his brilliant
discovery. He was thinking of Dumas, his master, of
Bouley, his faithful friend and colleague, and of the child
he had been unable to snatch from the jaws of death ; his
mind was not with the living, but with the dead.

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

A tel^;ram from New York having announced tbat four
children, bitten by rabid dogs, were starting for Paris, many
adversaries who had heard of Louise Pelletier's death were
saying triumphantly that, if those children's parents had
known of her fate, they would have spared them so long
and useless a journey.

The four little Americans belonged to workmen's
families and were sent to Paris by means of a public sub-
scription opened in the columns of the New York Herald ;
they were accompanied by a doctor and by the mother of
the youngest of them, a boy only five years old. After the
first inoculation, this little boy, astonished at the insigni-
ficant prick, could not help saying, '' Is this all we have
come such a long journey for î " The children were received
with enthusiasm on their return to New York, and were
asked " many questions about the great man who had taken
such care of them."

A letter dated from that time (January 14, 1886} shows
that Pasteur yet foimd time for kindness, in the midst of his
world-famed occupations.

" My dear Jupille, I have received your letters, and I am
much pleased with the news you give me of your health.
Mme. Pasteur thanks you for remembering her. She, and
every one at the laboratory, join with me in wishing that
you may keep well and improve as much as possible in
reading, writing and arithmetic Your writing is already
much better than it was, but you should take some pains
with your spelling. Where do you go to school? Who
teaches you? Do you work at home as much as you
might ? You know that Joseph Meister, who was first to
be vaccinated, often writes to me; well, I think he is
improving more quickly than you are, though he is only
ten years old. So, mind you take pains, do not waste your
time with other boys, and listen to the advice of your

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teadiexs, aad of yoir iather and mother. Remember me
to M. Perrot, the Mayor of Villers-Farlay. Perhaps, with-
out him, yon would have become ill, and to be ill of
hydrophobia means inevitable death; therefore you owe
him much gratitude. Good-bye. Keep well."

Pasteur's solicitude did not confine itself to his two first
patients, Joseph Meister and the fearless Jupille, but was
extended to all those who had come imder his care; his
kindness was like a living flame. The very little ones who
then only saw in him a " kind gentleman " bending over
them, understood later in life, when recalling the sweet
smile lighting up his serious face, that Science, thus imder-
stood, unites moral with intellectual grandeur.

Good, like evil, is infectious; Pasteur's science and
devotion inspired an act of generosity which was to be
followed by many others. He received a visit from one of
his colleagues at the Académie Française, Edouard Hervé,
who looked upon journalism as a great responsibility and
as a school of mutual respect between adversaries. He
was bringing to Pasteur, from the Comte de Laubespin, a
generous {diilanthropist, a sum of 40,000 fr. destined to
meet the expenses necessitated by the organization of the
hydrophobia treatment. Pasteur, when questioned by
Hervé, answered that his intention was to foimd a model
establishment in Paris, supported by donations and inter-
national subscriptions, without having recourse to the State.
But he added that he wanted to wait a little longer until the
success of the treatment was undoubted. Statistics came
to support it ; Bouley, who had been entrusted with an
official inquiry on the subject under the Empire, had found
that the proportion of deaths after bites from rabid dogs
had been 40 per 100, 320 cases having been watched. The
proportion often was greater still: whilst Joseph Meister

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

was under Pasteur's care, five persons were bitten by a
rabid dog on the Pantin Road, near Paris, and every one of
them succumbed to hydrophobia.

Pasteur, instead of referring to Bouley's statistics, pre-
ferred to adopt those of M. Leblanc, a veterinary surgeon
and a member of the Academy of Medicine, who had for a
long time been bead of the sanitary department of the
Préfecture de Police. These statistics only gave a propor-
tion of deaths of i6 per loo, and had been carefully and
accurately kept.

On March i, he was able to afi&rm, before the Academy,
that the new method had given proofs of its merit, for, out
of 350 persons treated, only one death had taken place, that
of the little Pelletier. He concluded thus —

'' It may be seen, by comparison with the most rigorous
statistics, that a very large number of persons have already
been saved from death.

'' The prophylaxis of hydrophobia after a bite is estab-
lished.

*'It is advisable to create a vaccinal institute against
hydrophobia."

The Academy of Science appointed a Commission who
unanimously adopted the suggestion that an establishment
for the preventive treatment of hydrophobia after a bite
should be created in Paris, under the name of Instiiut
Pasteur. A subscription was about to be opened in France
and abroad. The spending of the funds would be directed
by a special Committee.

A great wave of enthusiasm and generosity swept from
one end of France to another and reached foreign countries.
A newspaper of Milan, the Perseveranaa^ which had opened
a subscription, collected 6,000 fr. in its first list The
Journal d'Alsace beaded a propaganda in favour of this
work, *' sprung from Science and Charity.'* It reminded its

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I885-I888

readers that Pasteur had occupied a professor's chair in
the former brilliant Faculty of Science of Strasburg, and
that his first inoculation was made on an Alsatian boy,
Joseph Meister. The newspaper intended to send the sub-
scriptions to Pasteur with these words : " Offerings from
Alsace-Lorraine to the Pasteur Institute.''

The war of 1870 still darkened the memories of nations.
Amongst eager and numerous inventions of instruments of
death and destruction, humanity breathed when fresh
news came from the laboratory, where a continued
struggle was taking place against diseases. The most
mysterious, the most cruel of all was going to be reduced to
impotence.

Yet the method was about to meet with a few more
cases like Louise Pelletier's ; accidents would result, either
from delay or from exceptionally serious wounds. Happy
days were still in store for those who sowed doubt and
hatred.

During the early part of March, Pasteur received nine-
teen Russians, coming from the province of Smolensk.
They had been attacked by a rabid wolf and most of them
had terrible wounds: one of them, a priest, had been
surprised by the infuriated beast as he was going into
church, his upper lip and right cheek had been torn ofT,
his face was one gaping wound. Another, the youngest
of them, had had the skin of his forehead torn ofif by the
wolfs teeth; other bites were like knife cuts. Five of
these unhappy wretches were in such a condition that they
had to be carried to the Hôtel Dieu hospital as soon as they
arrived.

The Russian doctor who had accompanied these mujiks
related how the wolf had wandered for two days and two
nights, tearing to pieces every one he met, and how he had

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

finally been struck down with an axe by one of those he
had bitten most severely.

Because of the gravity of the wounds, and in order to
make up for the time lost by the Russians before they
started, Pasteur decided on making two inoculations every
day, one in the morning and one in the evening ; the patients
at the Hotel Dieu could be inoculated upon at the hospital.

The fourteen others came every morning in their
touhupes and fur caps, with their wounds bandaged, and
joined without a word the motley groups awaiting treat-
ment at the laboratory— an English family, a Basque
peasant, a Hungarian in his national costume, etc., etc.

In the evening, the dumb and resigned band of mujiks
came again to the laboratory door. They seemed led by
Fate, heedless of the struggle between life and death of
which they were the prize. "Pastexir" was the only
French word they knew, and their set and melancholy
faces brightened in his presence as with a ray of hope and
gratitude.

Their condition was the more alarming that a whole
fortnight had elapsed between their being bitten and the
date of the first inoculations. Statistics were terrifying as
to the results of wolf-bites, the average proportion of deaths
being 82 per 100. General anxiety and excitement pre-
vailed concerning the hapless Russians, and the news of
the death of three of them produced an intense emotion.

Pasteur had unceasingly continued his visits to the
Hotel Dieu. He was overwhelmed with grief. His con-
fidence in his method was in no wise shaken, the general
results would not allow it. But questions of statistics
were of little account in his eyes when he was the witness
of a misfortune ; his charity was not of that kind which
is exhausted by collective generalities: each individual
appealed to his heart. As he passed through the wards at

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the Hôtel Dieu, each 'patient in his bed inspired him with
deep compassion. And that is why so many who only saw
him pass, heard his voice, met his pitiful eyes resting on
them, have preserved of him a memory such as the poor
had of St. Vincent de Paul.

" The other Russians are keeping well so far," declared
Pasteur at the Academy sitting of April 12, 1886. Whilst
certain opponents in France continued to discuss the three
deaths and apparently saw nought but those failures, the
return of the sixteen survivors was greeted with an almost
religious emotion. Other Russians had come before them
and were saved, and the Tsar, knowing these things,
desired his brother, the Grand Duke Vladimir, to bring to
Pasteur an imperial gift, the Cross of the Order of St. Anne
of Russia, in diamonds. He did more, he gave 100,000 fr. in
aid of the proposed Pasteur Institute.

In April, 1886, the English Government, seeing the
practical results of the method for the prophylaxis of
hydrophobia, appointed a Commission to study and verify
the facts. Sir James Paget was the president of it, and the
other members were : — ^Dr. Lauder-Brunton, Mr. Fleming,
Sir Joseph Lister, Dr. Quain, Sir Henry Roscoe, Professor
Burdon Sanderson, and Mr. Victor Horsley, secretary.
The résumé of the programme was as follows —

Development of the rabic virus in the medulla oblongata
of animals dying of rabies.

Transmission of this virus by subdural or subcutaneous
inoculation.

Intensification of this virus by successive passages from
rabbit to rabbit.

Possibility either of protecting healthy animals from
ulterior bites from rabid animals, or of preventing the
onset of rabies in animals already bitten, by means of
vaccinal inoculations.

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Applications of this method to man and value of its
results.

Burdon Sanderson and Horsley came to Paris, and two
rabbits, inoculated on by Pasteur, were taken to England ; a
series of experiments was to be b^^im on them, and an
inquiry was to take place afterwards concerning patients
treated both in France and in England. Pasteur, who lost
his temper at prejudices and ill-timed levity, approved and
solicited inquiry and careful examination.

Long lists of subscribers appeared in the Journal Officiel —
millionaires, poor workmen, students, women, etc. A great
festival was organized at the Trocadéro in favour of the
Pasteur Institute ; the greatest artistes offered their services.
Coquelin recited verses written for the occasion which
excited loud applause from the immense audience. Gounod,
who had conducted his Ave Maria^ turned round after the
closing bars, and, in an impulse of heartfelt enthusiasm,
kissed both his hands to the savatU.

In the evening at a banquet, Pasteur thanked his
colleagues and the organizers of this incomparable per-
formance. " Was it not," he said, '' a touching sight, that
of those inmiortal composers, those great charmers of
fortunate humanity coming to the assistance of those who
wish to study and to serve suffering himmnity ? And you
too come, great artistes, great actors, like so many generals
re-entering the ranks to give greater vigour to a common
feeling. I cannot easily describe what I felt. Dare I
confess that I was hearing most of you for the first time ?
I do not think I have spent more than ten evenings of my
whole life at a theatre. But I can have no regrets now
that you have given me, in a few hours' interval, as in
an exquisite synthesis, the feelings that so many others
scatter over several months, or rather several years."

A few days later, the subscription from Alsace-Lorraine

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I885-I888

brought in 43,000 fr. Pasteur received it with grateful
emotion^ and was pleased and touched to find the name
of little Joseph Meister among the list of private sub-
scribers. It was now eleven months since he had been
bitten so cruelly by the dog, whose rabic condition had
immediately been recognized by the German authorities.
Pasteur ever kept a corner of his heart for the boy who had
caused him such anxiety.

Pasteur's name was now familiar to all those who were
dying to benefit humanity; his presence at charitable
gatherings was considered as a happy omen, and he was
asked to preside on many such occasions. He was ever
ready with his help and sympathy, speaking in public, an-
swering letters from private individuals, giving wholesome
advice to young people who came to him for it, and doing
nothing by halves. If he found the time, even during that
period when the study of rabies was absorbing him, to
undertake so many things and to achieve so many tasks,
he owed it to Mme. Pasteur, who watched over his peace,
keeping him safe from intrusions and interruptions* This
retired, almost recluse life, enabled him to complete many
works, a few of which would have sufficed to make several
scientists celebrated.

Every morning, between ten and eleven o'clock, Pasteur
walked down the Rue Claude-Bernard to the Rue Vauqueb'n,
where a few temporary buildings had been erected to
facilitate the treatment ol hydrophobia, close to the rabbit
hutches, hen-coops, and dog kennels which occupied the
yard of the old CoU^e RoUin. The patients under treat-
ment walked about cheerfully amidst these surr^imdings,
looking like holiday makers in a Zoological Garden.
Children, whose tears were already dried at the second
inoculation, ran about merrily. Pasteur, who loved the

vou II. 273 T

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

little ones, always kept sweets or new copper coins for
them in his drawer. One little girl amused herself by
having holes bored in those coins, and hung them round
her neck like a necklace ; she was wearing this ornament
on the day of her departure, when she ran to kiss the great
man as she would have kissed her grandfather.

Drs. Grancher, Roux, Chantemesse, and Charrin came
by turns to perform the inoculations. A surgery ward
had been installed to treat the numerous wounds of the
patients, and entrusted to the young and energetic Dr.
Terrillon.

In August, 1886, while staying at Arbois, Pasteur spent
much time over his notes and registers ; he was sometimes
tempted to read* over certain articles of passionate criticism.
"How difficult it is to obtain the triumph of truth! " he
would say. " Opposition is a useful stimulant, but bad faith
is such a pitiable thing. How is it that they are not struck
with the results as shown by statistics ? From 1880 to 1885,
sixty persons are stated to have died of hydrophobia in
the Paris hospitals; well, since November i, 1885, when
the prophylactic method was started in my laboratory, only
three deaths have occurred in those hospitals, two of which
were cases which had not been treated. It is evident that
very few people who had been bitten did not come to be
treated. In France, out of that unknown but very
restricted number, seventeen cases of death have been
noted, whilst out of the 1,726 French and Algerians who
came to the laboratory only ten died after the treatment."

But Pasteur was not yet satisfied with this proportion,
already so low ; he was trying to forestall the outburst of
hydrophobia by a greater rapidity and intensity of the treat-
ment. He read a paper on the subject to the Academy of
Science on November 2, 1886. Admiral Jurien de la
Gravière» who was in the chair, said to him, " All great

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i885-i888

discoveries have gone through a time of trial. May your
health withstand the troubles and difficulties in your
way."

Pâstetu*'s health had indeed suffered from so much work
and anxiety, and there were symptoms of some heart
trouble. Drs. Villemin and Grancher persuaded him to
interrupt his work and to think of spending a restful
winter in the south of France. M. Raphael Bischoffsheim,
a great lover of science, placed at Pasteur's disposal his
beautiful villa at Bordighera, close to the French frontier,
which he had on divers occasions lent to other distinguished
guests, the Queen of Italy, Henri Sainte-Claire Deville,
Gambetta, etc.

Pasteur consented to leave his work at the end of
November, and started one evening from the Gare de Lyon
with his wife, his daughter and her husband, and his two
grandchildren ; eighteen friends came to the station to see
him off, including his pupils, M. Bischoffsheim, and some
foreign physicians, who were staying in Paris to study
the prophylactic treatment of hydrophobia.

The bright dawn and the sunshine already appearing at
Avignon contrasted with the fc^gy November weather left
behind in Paris and brought a feeling of comfort, almost of
returning health ; a delegation of doctors met the train at
Nice, bringing Pasteur their good wishes.

The travelling party drove from Vintimille to Bordighera
under the deep blue sky reflected in a sea of a yet deeper
blue, along a road bordered with cacti, palms and other
tropical plants. The sight of the lovely gardens of the
Villa Bischoffsheim gave Pasteur a delicious feeling of rest

His health soon improved sufficiently for him to be able
to take some short walks. But his thoughts constantly
recurred to the laboratory. M. Ehiclaux was then thinking
of starting a monthly periodical entitled Amuds of the

THE LIFEiOF PASTEUR

Pasteur Institute. Pasteur, writing to him on December 27,
1887, to express his approbation, suggested various experi-
ments to be attempted. He attributed the action of the
preventive inoculations to a vaccinal matter associated
with the rabic microbe. P^tsteur had thought at first that
the first develofmient of the pathogenic microbe caused the
disappearance from the organism of an element necessary
to the life of that microbe. It was, in other words, a theory
of exhaustion. But since 1885, he adopted the other idea,
supported indeed by biolc^ts, that immunity was due to a
substance left in the body by the culture of the microbe
and which opposed the invasion — a theory of addition.

'' I am happy to learn," wrote Villemin, his friend and
his medical adviser, ^'that your health is improving;
continue to rest in that beautiful country, you have well
deserved it, and rest is absolutely necessary to you. You
have overtaxed yourself beyond all reason and you must
make up for it Repairs to the nervous system are worked
chiefly by relaxation from the mental storms and moral
anxieties which your rabid work has occasioned in you.
Give the Bordighera sun a chance I '*

But Pasteur was not allowed the rest he so much needed ;
on January 4, 1887, referring to a death which had
occurred after treatment in the preceding December,
M. Peter declared that the antirabic cure was useless;
at the following meeting he called it dangerous when
applied in the <' intensive *' form. Dujardin-Beaumetz,
Chauveau and Verneuil immediately intervened, declaring
that the alleged fact was '^ devoid of any scientific char-
acter.'* A week later, MM. Grancher and Brouardel bore the
brUnt of the discussion. Grancher, Pasteur's representative
on this occasion, disproved certain allegations, and added :
'' The medical men who have been chosen by M. Pasteur to
assist him in his work have not hesitated to practise the

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I885-I888

antirabic inoculation on themselves, as a safeguard against
an accidental inoculation of the virus which they are con-
stantly handling. What greater proof can they give of
their bona fide convictions ? '' He showed that the mortality
amongst the cases treated remained below i per 100. '' M.
Pasteur will soon publish foreign statistics from Samara,
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Warsaw and Vienna : they
are all absolutely favourable."

As it was insinuated that the laboratory of the Ecole
Normale kept its failures a secret, it was decided that the
Annals of the Pasteur Institute would publish a monthly list
and bulletin of patients under treatment.

Vulpian, at another meeting (it was almost the last time
he was heard at the Académie de Médecine) said, â propos
of what he called an inexcusable opposition, '' This new
benefit adds to the number of those which our illustrious
Pasteur has already rendered to humanity. . . . Our works
and our names will soon be buried under the rising tide of
oblivion : the name and the works of M. Pasteur will con-
tinue to stand on heights too great to be reached by its
sullen waves." Pasteur was much disturbed by the noise
of these discussions ; every post increased his feverishness,
and he spoke every morning of returning to Paris to answer
his opponents.

It was apitiful thing to note on his wchu countenance the
visible signs of the necessity of the peace and rest offered
by this beautiful land of serene sunshine, and to hear at
the same time a constant echo of those angry debates.
Anonymous letters were sent to him, insulting newspaper
articles — all that envy and hatred can invent ; the seamy
side of human nature was being revealed to him. '' I did not
know I had so many enemies,'' he said mournfully. He was
consoled to some extent by the ardent support of the
greatest medical men in France.

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Vulpian, in a statement to the Académie des Sciences,
constituted himself Pasteur's champion. Pasteur indeed
was safe from attacks in that centre, but certain low
slanderers who attended the public meetings of the Académie
continued to accuse Pasteur of concealing the failures oi
his method. Vulpian — ^who was furiously angry at such an
insinuation against '' a man like M. Pasteur, whose good faith,
loyalty and scientific integrity ^ould be an example to his
adversaries as they are to his friends" — ^thought that it
was in the interest both of science and of humanity, to state
once more the facts recently confirmed by new statistics ; the
public is so impressionable and so mobile in its opinions that
one article is often enough to shake general confidence. He
was therefore anxious to reassure all those who had been
inoculated on and who might be induced by those discussions
to wonder with anguish whether they really were saved.
The Academy of Science decided that Vulpian's statement
should be inserted in extenso in all the reports and a copy of
it sent to every village in France. Vulpian wrote to Pas-
teur at the same time, '' All your admirers hope that those
interested attacks will merely excite your contempt. Fine
weather is no doubt reigning at Bordighera : you must take
advantage kâ it and become quite well. . . . The Academy
of Medicine is almost entirely on your side; there are at the
most but four or five exceptions.

Pasteur had a few calm days after these debates.
Whilst planning out new investigations, he was much
interested in the plans for his Institute which were now
submitted to him. His thoughts were alwajrs away from
Bordighera, which he seemed to look upon as a sort of exile.
This impression was partly due to the situation of the
town, so close to the frontier, and the haunt of so many
homeless wanderers. He once met a sad-faced, still

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beautiful woman, in mourning robes, and recognized the
Empress Eugénie.

Shortly afterwards, he received a visit from Prince
Napoleon, who dragged his haughty etmui from town to
town. He presented himself at the Villa Bischoffsheim
under the name of Cotmt Moncalieri, coming, he said, to
greet his colleague of the Institute. Rabies formed the
subject of their conversation. The next day, Pasteur called
on the Prince, in his commonplace hotel rooms^ a mere
temporary resting place for the exiled Bonaparte, whose
mysterious, uncompleted destiny was made more enigmati-
cal by his startling resemblance to the great Emperor.

On February 23, the day after the carnival, early in the
morning, a violent earthquake cast terror over that peaceful
land where nature hides with flowers the spectre of death.
At 6.20 a.m. a low and distant rumbling sound was heard,
coming from the depths of the earth and resembling the
noise of a train passing in an underground tunnel ; houses
began to rock and ominous cracks were heard. This first
shock lasted more than a minute, during which the sense of
solidity disappeared altogether, to be succeeded by a feeling
of absolute, hopeless, impotence. No doubt, in every house-
hold, families gathered together, with a sudden yearning
not to be divided. Pasteur's wife, children and grand-
children had barely had time to come to him when another
shock took place, more terrible than the first ; everjrthing
seemed about to be engulfed in an abyss. Never had morn-
ing been more radiant, there was not a breath of wind, the
air was absolutely transparent.

An early departure was necessary : the broken ceilings
were dropping to pieces, shaken off by an incessant vibra-
tion of the ground which continued after the second shock,
and of which Pasteur observed the eflect on glass windows
with much interest. Pasteur and his family drove off to

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Vintimille in a carriage, along a road lined with ruined
houses, crowded with sick people in quest of carriages and
peasants coming down from their mountain dwellings
destroyed by the shock, leading donkeys loaded with
bedding, the women followed by little children hastily
wrapt in blankets and odd clothes. At Vintimille station,
terrified travellers were trying to leave France for Italy or
Italy for France, fancying chat the danger would cease on
the other side of the frontier.

" We have resolved to go to Arbois," vn-ote Mme. Pasteur
to her son from Marseilles ; " your father will be better able
there than anywhere else to recover from this shock to
his heart.*'

After a few weeks* stay at Arbois, Pasteur seemed quite
well again. He was received with respect and veneration
on his return to the Academies of Sciences and of Medicine.
His best and greatest colleagues had realized what the loss
of him would mean to France and to the world, and sur-
rounded him with an anxious solicitude.

At the beginning of July, Pasteur received the report
presented to the House of Commons by the English Com-
mission after a fourteen months' study of the prophylactic
method against hydrophobia. The English scientists had
verified every one of the facts upon which the method ¥ras
founded, but they had not been satisfied with their experi-
mental researches in Mr. Horsley's laboratory, and had
carried out a long and minute inquiry in France. After
noting on Pasteur's r^^ters the names of ninety persons
treated, who had come from the same neighbourhood,
they had interviewed each one of them in their own
homes. '*It may therefore be considered as certain"
— ^thus ran the report — " that M. Pasteur has discovered a
prophylactic method against hydrophobia which may be
compared with that of vaccination against small-pox. It

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would be difficult to overestimate the utility of this dis-
covery, both from the point of view of its practical side and
of its application to general pathology. We have here a
new method of inoculation, or vaccination, as M. Pasteur
sometimes calls it, and similar means might be employed to
protect man and domestic animals against other virus as
active as that of hydrophobia/'

Pasteur laid this report on the desk of the Academy of
Sciences on July 4. He spoke of its spirit of entire ai^
unanimous confidence, and added —

*' Thus fall to the ground the contradictions which have
been published. I leave on one side the passionate attacks
which were not justified by the least attempt at experiment,
the slightest observation of facts in my laboratory, or even
an exchange of words and ideas with the Director of the
Hydrophobia Clinic, Professor Grancher, and his medical
assistants.

'' But, however deep is my satisfaction as a Frenchman, I
cannot but feel a sense of deepest sadness at the thought
that this high testimony from a commission of illustrious
scientists, was not known by him who, at the very
beginning of the application of this method, supported me
by his cotmsels and his authority, and who later on, when
I was ill and absent, knew so well how to champion truth
and justice ; I mean our beloved colleague Vulpian."

Vulpian had succumbed to a few days' illness. His
speech in favour of Pasteur was almost the farewell to the
Academy of this great-hearted scientist.

The discussion threatened to revive. Other colleagues
defended Pasteur at the Academy of Medicine on July 12.
Professor Brouardel spoke, also M. Villemin, and then
Charcot, who insisted on quoting word for word Vulpian's
true and simple phrase : '' The discovery of the preventive
treatment of hydrophobia after a bite, entirely due to M.

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Pasteur's experimental genius, is one of the finest dis-
coveries ever made, both, from the scientific and the
humanitarian point of view/' And Charcot continued : '' I
am persuaded that I express in these words the opinion of
all the medical men who have studied the question with an
open mind, free from prejudice ; the inventor of antirabic
vaccination may, now more than ever, hold his head high
and continue to accomplish his glorious task, heedless of
the clamour of systematic contradiction or of the insidious
murmurs of slander. ' '

The Academy of Sciences begged Pasteur to become its
Life Secretary in Vulpian's place. Pasteur did not reply
at once to this offer, but went to see M. Berthelot : " This
high position," he said, ** would be more suitable to you
than to me." M. Berthelot, much touched, refused uncon-
ditionally, and Pasteur accepted. He was elected on July
i8. He said, in thanking his colleagues, **I would now
spend what time remains before me, on the one hand in
encouraging to research and in training for scientific
studies, — the future of which seems to me most prcmiis-
ing, — ^pupils worthy of French science ; and, on the other
hand, in following attentively the work incited and en-
couraged by this Academy.

'' Our only consolation, as we feel our own strength failing
us, is to feel that Yre may help those who come after us to
do more and to do b^etter than ourselves, fixing their eyes as
they can on the great horizons of which we only had a
glimpse."

He did not long fulfil his new duties. On October 23,
Sunday morning, after writing a letter in his room, he tried
to speak to Mme. Pasteur and could not pronounce a word ;
his tongue was paralysed. He had promised to lunch with
his daughter on that day, and, fearing that she might be
alarmed, he drove to her house. After spending a few

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hours in an easy chair, he consented to remain at her house
with Mme. Pasteur. In the evening his speech returned,
and two days later, when he went back to the Ecole
Normale, no one would have noticed any change in him.
But, on the following Saturday morning, he had another
almost similar attack, without any premonitory symptoms.
His speech remained ^mewhat difficult, and hi$ deep
powerful voice completely lost its strength. In January,
1888, he was obliged to resign his secretaryship.

Ill health had emaciated his features. A portrait of him
by Carolus Duran represents him looking ill and weary,
a sad look in his eyes. But goodness predominates in
those worn features, revealing that lovable soul, full of
pity for all human sufferings, and of which the painter has
rendered the unspeakable thrill.

Pasteur's various portraits, compared with one another,
show us different aspects of his physi(^nomy. A luminous
profile, painted by Henner ten years before, brings out the
powerful harmony of the forehead. In 1886, Bcmnat
painted, for the [«"ewer Jacobsen, who wished to present it
to Mme. Pasteur, a large portrait which may be called an
official one. Pasteur is standing in rather an artificial
attitude, which might be imperious, if his left hand was
not resting on the shoulder of his granddaughter, a child
of six, with clear pensive eyes. In that same year,
Edelfeldt, the Finnish painter, b^ged to be allowed to
come into the laboratory for a few sketches. Pasteur
came and went, attending to his work and taking no notice
of the painter. One day that Edelfeldt was watching him
thus, deep in observation, his forehead lined with almost
painful thoughts, he undertook to portray the savatU in his
meditative attitude. Pasteur is standing clad in a short
brown coat, an experimental card in his left hand, in his
right, a phial containing a fragment of rabic marrow, the

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

expression in his eyes entirely conœntrated on the
scientific problem.

During the year 1888, Pasteur, after spending the morn-
ing with his patients, used to go and watch the buildings
for the ^Pasteur Institute which were being erected in the
Rue Dutot. 11,000 square 3rards of ground had been
acquired in the midst of some market gardens. Instead of
rows of hand-lights and young lettuces, a stone building,
with a Louis XIII façade, was now being constructed. An
interior gallery connected the main building with the large
wings. The Pasteur Institute was to be at the same time a
great dispensary for the treatment of hydrophobia, a xrentre
of research on virulent and contagious diseases, and also
a teaching centre. M. Duclaux's class of biological
chemistry, held at the Sorbonne, was about to be trans-
ferred to the Pasteur Institute, where Dr. Roux would also
give a course of lectures on technical microbia. The
" service " of vaccinations against anthrax was entrusted
to M. Chamberland. (The statistics of 1882-1887 gave a
total of 1,600,000 sheep and nearly 200,000 oxen.) There
would also be, under M. MetchnikofiTs direction, some
private laboratories, the monkish cells of the Pastorians.

At the end of October, the work was almost completed ;
Pasteur invited the President of the Republic to come and
inaugurate the Institute. '' I shall catainly not fail to do
so," answered Carnot; "your Institute is a credit to
France."

On November 14, politicians, colleagues, friends, collabor-
ators, pupils assembled in the large library of the new
Institute. Pasteur had the pleasure of seeing before him,
in the first rank, Duruy and Jules Simon ; it was a great
day for these former Ministers of Public Instructicm. Like
them, Pasteur had all his life been deeply interested in
higher education. "If that teaching is but for a small

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number/' he said, '' it is with this small number, this élite
that the prosperity, glory and supremacy of a nation
rests/'

Joseph Bertrand, chairman of the Institute Committee,
knowing that by so doing he responded to Pasteur's dearest
wishes, spoke of the past and recalled the memories of Biot,
Senarmont, Claude Bernard, Balard, and J. B. Dumas.

Professor Grancher, Secretary of the Committee, alluded
to the way in which not only Vulpian but Brouardel,
Charcot, Verneuil, Chauveau and Villemin had recently
honoured themsdves by supporting the cause of progress
and preparing its triumph. These memories of early friends,
associated with that of recent champions, brought before
the audience a vision of the procession of years. After
speaking of the obstacles Pasteur had so often encountered
amongst the medical world —

'' You know," said M. Grancher, '' that M. Pasteur is an
innovator, and that his creative imagination, kept in check
by rigorous observation of facts, has overturned many
errors and built up in their place an entirely new science.
His discoveries on ferments, on the generation of the
infinitesimally small, on microbes, the cause of contagious
diseases, and on the vaccination of those diseases, have
been for biological chemistry, for the veterinary art and for
medicine, not a r^^lar progress, but a complete revolution.
Now, revolutions, even those imposed by scientific demon-
stration, ever leave behind them vanquished ones who do not
easily forgive. M. Pasteur has therefore many adversaries
in the world, without counting those Athenian French who
do not like to see one man always right or always
fortunate. And, as if he had not enough adversaries, M.
Pasteur makes himself new ones by the rigorous implac-
ability of his dialectics and the absolute form he sometimes
gives to his thought."

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Going on to the most recently acquired results, M.
Grancher stated that the mortality amongst persons treated
after bites from rabid dogs remained under i per loo.

" If those figures are indeed eloquent/' said M.Christophle,
the treasurer, who spoke after M. Grancher, " other figures
are touching. I would advise those who only see the dark
side of humanity/' he remarked, before entering upon the
statement of accounts — '^ those who go about repeating that
everything here below is for the worst, that there is no
disinterestedness, no devotion in this world — to cast their
eyes over the ' human documents ' of the Pasteur Institute.
They would learn therein, beginning at the begiiming, that
Acad^nies contain colleagues who are not offended, but
proud and happy in the fame of another ; that politicians
and journalists often have a passion for what is good and
true ; that at no former epoch have great men been more
beloved in France ; that justice is already rendered to them
during their lifetime, which is very much the best way of
doing so ; that we have cheered Victor Hugo*s birthday,
Chevreul's centenary, and the inauguration of the Pasteur
Institute. When a Frenchman runs himself down, said
one of M. Pasteur's colleagues, do not believe him ; he is
boasting I Reversing a celebrated and pessimistic phrase,
it might be said that in this public subscription all the
virtues flow into unselfishness like rivers into the sea."

M. Christophle went on to show how rich and poor had
joined in this subscription and raised an amount of
2,586,680 fr. The French Chambers had voted 200,000 fr.,
to which had been added international gifts from the Tsar,
the Emperor of Brazil, and the Sultan. The total expenses
would probably reach 1,563,786 fr., leaving a little more
than a million to form an endowment for the Pasteur
Institute, a fund which was to be increased every year by
the product of the sale of vaccines from the laboratory,

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which Pasteur and Messrs. Châmberland and Roux agreed
to give up to the Institute.

"It is thus, Sir," concluded the treasurer, directly
addressing Pasteur, " that public generosity, practical help
from the Government, and your own disinterestedness have
founded and consolidated the establishment which we are
to-day inaugurating." And, persuaded that the solicitude
of the public would never fail to support this great work,
"This is for you. Sir, a rare and almost unhoped for
happiness ; let it console you for the passionate struggles,
the terrible anxiety and the many emotions you have gone
through."

Pasteur, overcome by his feelings, had to ask his son to
read his speech. It b^^ by a rapid summary of what
Prance had done for education in all its degrees. " From
village schools to laboratories, everything has been founded
or renovated." After acknowledging the help given him
in later years by the public authorities, he continued —

"And when the day came that, foreseeing the future
which would be opened by the discovery of the attenua-
tion of virus, I appealed to my country, so that we
should be allowed, through the strength and impulse of
private initiative, to build laboratories to be devoted, not
only to the prophylactic treatment of hydrofdiobia, but also
to the study of virulent and contagious diseases— on that
day again, France gave in handfuls. ... It is now
finished, this great building, of which it might be said that
there is not a stone but what is the material sign of a
generous thought. All the virtues have subscribed to build
this dwelling place for work.

" Alas I mine is the bitter grief that I enter it, a man
' vanquished by Time,' deprived of my masters, even of my
companions in the struggle, Dumas, Bouley, Paul Bert, and
lastly Vulpian, who, after having been with you, my dear

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Grancher, my counsellor at the very first, became the most
energetic, the most convinced champion of this method.

" However, if I have the sorrow of thinkii^ that they are
no more, after having valiantly taken their part in discussions
which I have never provoked but have had to endure ; if
they cannot hear me proclaim all that I owe to their
counsels and support ; if I feel their absence as deeply as on
the morrow of their death, I have at least the consolation of
believing that all that we struggled for together will not
perish. The collaborators and pupils who are now here
share our scientific faith. . . .'' He continued, as in a sort
of testament : '* Keep your early enthusiasm, dear collabor-
ators, but let it ever be regulated by rigorous examinations
and tests. Never advance anything which cannot be
proved in a simple and decisive fashion.

'< Worship the spirit of criticism. If reduced to itself, it
is not an awakener of ideas or a stimulant to great things,
but, without it, everything is fallible ; it always has the last
word What I am now asking you, and you will ask of
your pupils later on, is what is most difficult to an
inventor.

*' It is indeed a hard task, when you believe you have
found an important scientific fact and are feverishly
anxious to publish it, to constrain yourself for days, weeks,
years sometimes, to fight with yourself, to try and ruin
your own experiments and only to proclaim your discovery
after having exhausted all contrary hypotheses.

'^ But when, after so many efforts, you have at last arrived
at a certainty, your joy is one of the greatest which can be
felt by a human soul, and the thought that you will have
contributed to the honour of your country renders that joy
still deeper.

'' If science has no country, the scientist should have one,
and ascribe to it the influence which his works may have

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I885-I888 '

in this world. If I might be allowed, M. le Président, to
conclude by a philosophical remark inspired by your
presence in this Home of Work, I should say that two
contrary laws seem to be wrestling with each other
nowadays ; the one, a law of blood and of death, ever
imagining new means of destruction and forcing nations
to be constantly ready for the battlefield — the othej-, a
law of peace, work and health, ever evolving new means
of delivering man from the scourges which beset him.

" The one seeks violent conquests, the other the relief of
humanity. The latter places one human life above any
victory; while the former would sacrifice hundreds and
thousands of lives to the ambition of one. The law of
which we are the instruments seeks, even in the midst of
carnage, to cure the sanguinary ills of the law of war ;
the treatment inspired by our antiseptic methods may pre-
serve thousands of soldiers. Which of those two laws will
ultimately prevail, Gkxi alone knows. But we may assert
that French Science will have tried, by obeying the law of
Humanity, to extend the frontiers of Life."

VOL. II. 289 u

CHAPTER Vn

I 8 8 9-1895

IN this Institute, which Pasteur entered ill and weary,
he contemplated with joy those large laboratories, which
would enable his pupils to work with ease and to attract
around them investigators from all countries. He was
happy to think that the material difficulties which had
hampered him would be spared those who came after him.
He believed in the realization of his wishes for peace,
work, mutual help among men. Whatever the obstacles,
he was persuaded that science would continue its civilizing
progress and that its benefits would spread from domain to
domain. Dififering from those old men who are ever
praising the past, he had an enthusiastic confidence in
the future ; he foresaw great developments of his studies,
some of which were already apparent. His first researches
on crystallography and molecular dissymmetry had served
as a basis to stereo-chemistry. But, while he followed the
studies on that subject of Le Bel and Van T'Hofi", he
continued to regret that he had not been able to revert
to the studies of his youth, enslaved as he had been
by the inflexible logical sequence of his works. " Every
time we have had the privil^e of hearing Pasteur speak
of his early researches,'* writes M. Chamberland, in an article
of the Revue Scientifique^ " we have seen the revival in him
of a smouldering fire, and we have thought that his coun-

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tenance showed a vague r^ret at having forsaken them.
Who can now say what discoveries he might have made
in that direction ? " " One day," said Dr. Héricourt — who
spent the summer near Villeneuve TEtang, and who often
came into the Park with his two sons — " he favoured me
with an admirable, captivating discourse on this subject,
the like of which I have never heard."

Pasteur, instead of feeling r^ret, might have looked
back with calm pride on the progress he had made in
other directions.

In what obscurity were fermentation and infection
enveloped before his time, and with what light he had
penetrated them I When he had discovered the all-
powerful rôle of the infinitesimally small, he had actually
mastered some of those living germs, causes of disease;
he had transformed them from destructive to preservative
agents. Not only had he renovated medicine and surgery,
but hygiene, misunderstood and neglected until then, was
benefiting by the experimental method. Light was being
thrown on preventive measures.

M. Henri Monod, Director of Hygiene and Public
Charities, one day quoted, à propos of sanitary measures,
these words of the great English minister, Disraeli —

^^ Public health is the foundation upon which rest the
happiness of the people and the power of the State. Take
the most beautiful kingdom, give it intelligent and laborious
citizens, prosperous manufactures, productive agriculture ;
let arts flourish, let architects cover the land with temples
and palaces ; in order to defend all these riches, have first-
rate weapons, fleets of torpedo boats — if the population
remains stationary, if it decreases yearly in vigour and in
stature, the nation must perish. And that is why I consider
that the first duty of a statesman is the care of Public
Health."

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

In 1889, when the International Congress of Hygiene
met in Paris, M. Brouardel was able to say —

^^ If echoes from this meeting could reach them . • ^
our ancestors would learn that a revolution, the most
formidable for thirty centuries, has shaken medical science
to its very foundations, and that it is the work of a stranger
to their corporation ; and their sons do not cry Anathema,
they admire him, bow to his laws. . . . We all proclaim
ourselves disciples of Pasteur."

On the very day after those words were pronounced,
Pasteur saw the realization of one of his most ardent
wishes, the inaugtu-ation of the new Sorbonne. At the
sight of the wonderful facilities for work offered by this
palace, he remembered Claude Bernard's cellar, his own
garret at the Ecole Normale, and felt a movement of
patriotic pride.

In October, 1889, though his health remained shaken,
he insisted on going to Alais, where a statue was being
raised to J. B. Dumas. Many of his colleagues tried, to
dissuade him from this long and fatiguing journey, but he
said : ^' I am alive, I shall go.'* At the foot of the statue,
he spoke of his master, one of those men who are *' the
tutelary spirits of a nation."

The sericicultors, desiring to thank him for the five
years he had spent in studying the silkworm disease,
offered him an artistic souvenir: a silver heather twig
laden with gold cocoons.

Pasteur did not fail to remind them that it was at the
request of their fellow-citizen that he had studied pébrine.
He said : ^^ In the expression of your gratitude, by which
I am deeply touched, do not forget that the initiative was
due to M. Dumas."

Thus his character revealed itself on every occasion.
Every morning, with a step rendered heavy by age and

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I889-I895

ill-health, he went from his rooms to the Hydrophobia
Clinic, arriving there long before the patients. He super-
intended the preparation of the vaccinal marrows ; no detail
escaped him. When the time came for inoculations, he
was already informed of each patient's name, sometimes
of his poor circumstances ; he had a kind word for every
one, often substantial help for the very poor. The children
interested him most ; whether severely bitten, or frightened
at the inoculation, he dried their tears and consoled them.
How many children have thus kept a memory of him I
"When I see a child," he used to say, "he inspires me
with two feelings : tenderness for what he is now, respect
for what he may become hereafter."

Already in May, 1892, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway
had formed various Committees of scientists and pupils of
Pasteur to celebrate his seventieth birthday. In France, it
was in November that the Medical and Surgical Section of
the Academy of Sciences constituted a Subscription Com-
mittee to oflFer Pasteur an aflFectionate homage. Roty, the
celebrated engraver, was desired to finish a medal he had
already begun, representing Pasteur in profile, a skull cap
on his broad forehead, the brow strongly prominent, the
whole face full of energy and meditation. His shoulders
are covered with the cape he usually wore in the morning
in the passages of his Institute. Roty had not time to
design a satisfactory reverse side; he surrounded with
laurels and roses the following inscription : " To Pasteur,
on his seventieth birthday. France and Humanity grateful. * *

On the morning of December 27, 1892, the great theatre
of the Sorbonne was filled. The seats of honour held the
French and foreign déliâtes from scientific Societies, the
members of the Institute, and the Professors of Faculties.
In the amphitheatre were the deputations from the Ecoles

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Normale, Polytechnique, Centrale, of Pharmacy, Vétérin-
aires, and of Agriculture— deep masses of students. People
pointed out to each other Pasteur's pupils, Messrs. Duclaux,
Roux, Chamberland, MetchnikoflF, in their places ; M. Per-
drix, a former Normalien, now an Agrégé-préparateur \
M. Edouard Calmette, a former student of the Ecole Cen-
trale, who had taken part in the studies on beer; and
M. Denys Cochin, who, thirteen years before, had studied
alcoholic fermentation in the laboratory of the Rue d'Ulm.
The first gallery was full of those who had subscribed to-
wards the presentation about to be made to Pasteur. In
the second gallery, boys from lycées crowned the inmiense
assembly with a youthful garland.

At half-past lo o'clock, whilst the band of the Republican
Guard played a triumphal march, Pasteur entered, leaning
on the arm of the President of the Republic. Camot led
him to a little table, whereon the addresses from the various
delegates were to be laid. The Presidents of the Senate
and of the Chamber, the Ministers and Ambassadors, took
their seats on the platform. Behind the President of the
Republic stood, in their uniform, the official delegates of
the five Academies which form the Institut de France. The
Academy of Medicine and the great Scientific Societies
were represented by their presidents and life-secretaries.

M. Charles Dupuy, Minister of Public Instruction, rose
to speak, and said, ^fter retracing Pasteur's great works —

" Who can now say how much human life owes to you
and how much more it will owe to you in the future ! The
day wilt come when another Lucretius will sing, in a new
poem on Nature, the immortal Master whose genius engen-
dered such benefits.

'' He will not describe him as a solitary, unfeeling man,
like the hero of the Latin poet; but he will show him
mingling with the life of his time, with the joys and trials

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of his country, dividing his life between the stem enjoyment
of scientific research and the sweet communion of family
Intercourse ; going from the laboratory to his hearth, find-
ing in his dear ones, particularly in the helpmeet who has
understood him so well and loved him all the better for it,
that comforting encouragement of every hour and each
moment, without which so many struggles might have
exhausted his ardour, arrested his perseverance, and ener-
vated his genius. . . .

" May France keep you for many more years, and show
you to the world as the worthy object of her love, of her
gratitude and pride/'

The President of the Academy of Sciences, M. d' Abbadie,
was chosen to present to Pasteur the conunemorative medal
of this great day.

Joseph Bertrand said that the same science, wide, accu-
rate, and solid, had been a foundation to all Pasteur's works,
each of them shining " with such a dazzling light, that, in
looking at either, one is inclined to think that it eclipses all
others.''

After a few words from M. Daubrée, senior member of
the Mineralogical Section and formerly a colleague of
Pasteur's at the Strasburg Faculty, the great Lister, who
represented the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh,
brought to Pasteur the homage of medicine and surgery.
" You have," said he, " raised the veil which for centuries
had covered infectious diseases ; you have discovered and
demonstrated their microbian nature."

When Pasteur rose to embrace Lister, the sight of those
two men gave the impression of a brotherhood of science
labouring to diminish the sorrows of humanity.

After a speech from M. Bergeron, Life-Secretary of the
Academy of Medicine, and another from M. Sauton, Presi-
dent of the Paris Municipal Council, the various delegates

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THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

{«"esented the addresses they had brought. Each of the large
cities of Europe had its representative. The national dele-
gates were called in their turn. A student from the Alfort
Veterinary School brought a medal offered by the united
Veterinary Schools of France. Amongst other oflFerings,
Pasteur was given an album containing the signatures of
the inhabitants of Arbois, and another coming from Dole,
in which were reproduced a facsimile of his birth-certifi-
cate and a photograph of the house in which he was born.
The sight of his father's signature at the end of the certi-
ficate moved him more than anything else.

The Paris Faculty of Medicine was represented by its
Dean, Professor Brouardel. " More fortunate than Harvey
and than Jenner/* he said, " you have been able to see
the triumph of your doctrines, and what a triumph ! . . ."
The last word of homage was pronounced by M. Devise,
President of the Students* Association, who said to Pasteur,
" You have been very great and very good ; you have given
a beautiful example to students."

Pasteur's voice, made weaker than usual by his emotion,
could not have been heard all over the large theatre ; his
thanks were read out by his son —

" Monsieur le Président de la République, your presence
transforms an intimate fête into a great ceremony, and
makes of the simple birthday of a savant a special date for
French science.

"M. le Ministre, Gentlemen — In the midst of all this
magnificence, my first thought takes me back to the
melancholy memory of so many men of science who have
known but trials. In the past, they had to struggle,
against the prejudices which hampered their ideas. After
those prejudices were vanquished, they encountered ob-
stacles and difficulties of all kinds.
" Very few years ago, before the public authorities and

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the town councils had endowed science with splendid
dwellings, a man whom I loved and admired, Claude
Bernard, had, for a laboratory, a wretched cellar not far
from here, low and damp. Perhaps it was there that he
contracted the disease of which he died. When I heard
what you were preparing for me here, the thought of him
arose in my mind ; I hail his great memory.

'^ Gentlemen, by an ingenious and delicate thought, you
seem to make the whole of my life pass before my eyes.
One of my Jura compatriots, the Mayor of Dole, has
brought me a photograph of the very humble home where
my father and mother lived such a hard life. The presence
of the students of the Ecole Normale brings back to me
the glamour of my first scientific enthusiasms. The repre-
sentatives of the Lille Faculty evoke memories of my first
studies on crystallography and fermentation, which opened
to me a new world. What hopes seized upon me when I
realized that there must be laws behind so many obscure
phenomenal You, my dear colleagues, have witnessed
by what series of deductions it was given to me, a disciple
of the experimental method, to reach physiological studies.
If I have sometimes disturbed the calm of our Academies
by somewhat violent discussions, it was because I was
passionately defending truth.

"And you, déliâtes from foreign nations, who have
come from so far to give to France a proof of sympathy,
you bring me the deepest joy that can be felt by a man
whose invincible belief is that Science and Peace will
triumph over Ignorance and War, that nations will unite,
not to destroy, but to build, and that the future will belong
to those who will have done most for sufiering humanity.
I appeal to you, my dear Lister, and to you all, illustrious
representatives of medicine and surgery.

" Young men, have confidence in those powerful and safe

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methods, of which we do not yet know all the secrets.
And, whatever your career may be, do not let yourselves
become tainted by a deprecating and barren scepticism,
do not let yourselves be discouraged by the sadness of
certain hours which pass over nations. Live in the serene
peace of laboratories and libraries. Say to yourselves first :
* What have I done for my instruction î ' and, as you
gradually advance , * What have I done for my country? '
until the time comes when you may have the immense
happiness of thinking that you have contributed in some
way to the progress and to the good of humanity. But,
whether our efforts are or not favoured by life, let us be
able to say, when we come near the great goal, * I have
done what I could.'

" Gentlemen, I would express to you my deep emotion and
hearty gratitude. In the same way as Roty, the great
artist, has, on the back of this medal, hidden under roses
the heavy number of years which weigh on my life, you
have, my dear colleagues, given to my old age the most
delightful sight of all this living and loving youth."

The shouts " Vive Pasteur I ** resounded throughout the
building. The President of the Republic rose, went towards
Pasteur to congratulate him, and embraced him with
effusion.

Hearts went out to Pasteur even from distant countries.
The Canadian Government, acting on the suggestion of the
deputies of the province of Quebec, gave the name of
Pasteur to a district on the borders of the state of Maine.

A few weeks after the fête, the Governor-General of
Algeria, M. Cambon, wrote to Pasteur as follows —

" Sir— desirous of showing to you the special gratitude
which Algeria bears you for the immense services you have
rendered to science and to humanity by your great and fruit-

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fui discoveries, I have decided that your name should be
given to the village of Sériana, situated in the arrondisse-
ment of Batna, department of Constantine. I am happy
that I have been able to render this slight homage to your
illustrious person." " I feel a deep emotion," replied Pasteur,
'' in thinking that, thanks to you, my name will remain
attached to that comer of the world. When a child of this
village asks what was the origin of this denomination, I
should like the schoolmaster to tell him simply that it is the
name of a Frenchman who loved France very much, and
who, by serving her, contributed to the good of humanity.
My heart is thrilled at the thought that my name might one
day awaken the first feelings of patriotism in a child's soul.
I shall owe to you this great joy in my old age ; I thank you
more than I can say." The origin of Sériana is very ancient.
M. Stéphane Gsell relates that this village was occupied long
before the coming of the Romans, by a tribe which became
Christian, as is seen by ruins of chapels and basilicas. It
is situated on the slope of a mountain covered with oaks
and cedars, and giving rise to springs of fresh water. A
bust of Pasteur was soon after erected in this village, at the
request of the inhabitants.

Enthusiasm for Pasteur was spreading everywhere.
Women understood that science was entering their domain,
since it served charity. They gave magnificent gifts;
clauses in wills bore these words: **To Pasteur, to help in
his humanitarian task." In November, 1893, Pasteur saw
an unknown lady enter his study in the Rue Dutot, and
heard her speak thus : ^' There must be some students who
love science and who, having to earn their living, cannot
give themselves up to disinterested work. I should like to
place at your disposal four scholarships, for four young men
chosen by you. Each scholarship would be of 3,000 frs. ;
2,400 for the men themselves, and 600 frs. for the expenses

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they would incur in your laboratories. Their lives would
be rendered easier. You could find amongst them» either an
inunediate collaborator for your Institute or a missionary
whom you might send far away ; and if a medical career
tempted them, they would be enabled by their momentary
independence to prepare themselves all the better for their
profession. I only ask one thing, which is that my name
should not be mentioned.''

Pasteur was infinitely touched by the scheme of this
mysterious lady. The scholarship foundation was for one
year only, but other years were about to follow and to
resemble this one.

Many letters brought to Pasteur requested that he should
study or order the study of such and such a disease. Some
of these letters responded to preoccupations which had long
been in the mind of Pasteur and his disciples. One day he
received these lines :

<' You have done all the good a man could do on earth.
If you will, you can surely find a remedy for the horrible
disease called diphtheria. Our children, to whom we teach
your name as that of a great benefactor, will owe their
lives to you. — ^A Mother."

Pasteur, in spite of his failing strength, had hopes that
he would yet live to see the defeat of the foe so dreaded by
mothers. In the laboratory of the Pasteur Institute, Dr.
Roux and Dr Yersin were obstinately pursuing the study
of this disease. In their first paper on the subject, modestly
entitled A Contribution to the Study of Diphtheria^ they said:
'^ Ever since Bretonneau, diphtheria has been looked upon
as a specific and contagious disease ; its study has there^
fore been undertaken of late years with the help of the
microbian methods which have already been the means of
finding the cause of many other infectious diseases."

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In spite of the convictions of Bretonneau, who had, in
1818, witnessed a violent epidemic of croup in the centre of
France, his view was far from being generally adopted.
Velpeau, then a young student, wrote to him in 1820 that
all the members, save two, of the Faculty of Medicine were
agreed in opposing or blaming his opinions. Another
brilliant pupil of Bretonneau's, Dr. Trousseau, who never
ceased to correspond with his old master, wrote to him in
1854: "It remains to be proved that diphtheria always
comes from a germ. I hardly doubt this with regard to
small-pox ; to be consistent, I ought not to doubt it either
with regard to diphtheria. I was thinking so this morning,
as I was performing tracheotomy on a poor child twenty-
eight months old ; opposite the bed, there was a picture of
his five-year-old brother, painted on his death-bed. He had
succumbed five years ago, to malignant angina.**

Knowing Bretonneau's ideas on contagion, Trousseau
wrote further down : " I shall have the beds and bedding
burnt, the paper hangings also, for they have a velvety and
attractive surface ; I shall tell the mother to purify herself
like a Hindoo — else what would you say to me I **

A German of the name of Klebs discovered the bacillus
of diphtheria in 1883, by studying the characteristic mem-
branes; it was afterwards isolated by Loeffler, another
German.

Pure cultures of this bacillus, injected on the surface of
the excoriated fauces of rabbits, guinea-pigs, and pigeons,
produce the diphtheritic membranes: Messrs. Roux and
Yersin demonstrated this fact and ascertained the method
of its deadly action.

Dr. Roux, in a lecture to the London Royal Society, in
1889, said : " Microbes are chiefly dangerous on account of
the toxic matters which they produce." He recalled that
Pasteur had been the first to investigate the action of the

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toxic products elaborated by the microbe of chicken-cholera-
By filtering the culture, Pasteur had obtained a liquid
which contained no microbes. Hens inoculated with this
liquid presented all the symptoms of cholera, "This
experiment shows us," continued M. Roux, "that the
chemical products contained in the culture are capable by
themselves of provoking the symptoms of the disease ; it is
therefore very probable that the same products are pre-
pared within the body itself of a hen attacked with cholera.
It has been shown since then that many pathogenic microbes
manufactured these toxic products. The microbes of
typhoid fever, of cholera, of blue pus, of acute experimental
septicaemia, of diphtheria, are great poison-producers. The
cultures of the diphtheria bacillus particularly are, after
a certain time, so full of the toxin that, without microbes,
and in infinitesimal doses, they cause the death of the
animals with all the signs observed after inoculation with
the microbe itself. The picture of the disease is complete,
even presenting the ensuing paralysis if the injected dose is
too weak to bring about a rapid death. Death in infectious
diseases is therefore caused by intoxication."

This bacillus, like that of tetanus, secretes a poison
which reaches the kidneys, attacks the nervous system, and
acts on the heart, the beats of which are accelerated or
suddenly arrested. Sheltered in the membrane like a foe
in an ambush, the microbe manufactures its deadly poison.
Diphtheria, as defined by M. Roux, is an intoxication caused
by a very active poison formed by the microbe within the
restricted area wherein it develops.

It was sufficient to examine a portion of diphtheritic
membrane to distinguish the diphtheritic bacilli, tiny rods
resembling short needles laid across each other. Other
microbes were frequently associated with these bacilli, and
it became necessary to study microbian associations in

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diphtheria. The Klebs-Loeffler bacillus, disseminated in
hroth, gave within a month or three weeks a richly toxic
culture ; the bottom of the vessel was covered with a thick
deposit of microbes, and a film of younger bacilli floated on
the surface- By [filtering this broth and freeing it from
microbes, Messrs. Roux and Yersin made a great discovery :
they obtained pure toxin, capable of killing, in forty-eight
hours, a guinea-pig inoculated with one tenth of a cubic
centimeter of it

Now that the toxin was found, the remedy, the antitoxin,
could be discovered. This was done by Behring, a German
scientist, and by Kitasato, a Japanese physician. Drs.
Richet and Héricourt had already opened the way in 1888,
while studying another disease.

M. Roux inoculated a horse with diphtheritic toxin
mitigated by the addition of iodine, in doses, very weak at
first, but gradually stronger ; the horse grew by degrees
capable of resisting strong doses of pure toxin. It was
then bled by means of a large trocar introduced into the
jugular vein, the blood received in a bowl was allowed to
coagulate, and the liquid part of it, the serum, was then
collected ; this serum was antitoxic, antidiphtheritic — ^in one
word, the long-desired cure.

At the beginning of 1894, M- Roux had several horses
rendered immune by the above process. He desired to
prove the efiiciency of the serum in the treatment of
diphtheria, with the collaboration of MM. Martin and
Chaillou, who had, both clinically and bacteriolc^ically,
studied more than 400 cases of diphtheria.

There are in Paris two hospitals where diptheritic chil-
dren are taken in. It was decided that the new treatment
should be applied at the hospital of the Enfants Malades^
whilst the old system should be continued at the Hôpital
Trousseau.

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From February i, MM. Roux, Martin, and Chaillou paid
a daily visit to the En/ants Malades ; they treated all the
little diphtheria patients by injection, in the side, of a dose of
twenty cubic centimetres of serum, followed, twenty-four
hours later, by another dose of twenty, or only of ten cubic
centimetres. Almost invariably, not only did the mem-
branes cease to increase during the twenty-four hours
following the first injection, but they began to come away
within thirty-si? or forty-eight hours, the third day at the
latest ; the livid, leaden paleness of the face disappeared :
the child was saved.

From 1890 to 1893 there had been 3,971 cases of diph-
theria, fatal in 2,029 cases, the average mortality being
therefore 51 per 100. The serum treatment, applied to
hundreds of children, brought it down to less than 24 per
100 in four months. At the Trousseau Hospital, where the
serum was not employed, the mortality during the same
period was 60 per 100.

In May, M. Roux gave a lecture on diphtheria at Lille,
at the request of the Provident Society of the Friends of
Science, which held its general meeting in that town.
Pasteur, who was president of the Society, came to Lille to
thank its inhabitants for the support they had afforded for
forty years to the Society.

The master and his disciple were received in the Hall of
the Industrial Society. Pasteur listened with an admiring
emotion to his pupil, whose rigorous experimentation, to-
gether with the beauty of the object in view, filled him with
enthusiasm. He who had said, '' Exhaust every combina-
tion, until the mind can conceive no others possible," was
delighted to hear the methodical exposition of the manner in
which this great problem had been attacked and solved.

At the Hygiene and Demography Congress at Buda-
pesth, M. Roux, repeating and enlarging his lecture, made

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a communication on the serotherapy of di|^theria which
created a great sensation in Europe.

In France, prefects asked the Minister of the Interior how
local physicians might obtain this anti-diphtheritic serum.
The Figaro newspaper opened a subscription towards pre-
serving children from croup ; it soon reached more than a
million francs. The Pasteur Institute was now able to build
stables, buy a hundred horses, render them immune, and
constitute a permanent organization for serotherapy. In
three months, 5o,cxx) doses of serum were about to be given
away.

Pasteur, who was then at Arbois, followed every detail
with passionate interest. Sitting luider the old quinces
in his little garden, he read the lists of subscribers, names
of little children, oflfering charitable gifts as they entered
this life, and names of sorrowing parents, giving in the
names of dear lost ones.

When he started again for Paris, October 4, 1894, Pasteur
was seized again with the melancholy feeling which had
attended his first departure from his home, when he was
sixteen years old. He saw the same grey sky, the same
fine rain and misty horizon, as he looked for the last time
upon the distant hills and wide plains he loved, perhaps
conscious that it was sq. But he remained silent, as was
his wont when troubled by his thoughts, his sadness only
revealing itself to those who lovingly watched every move-
ment of his countenance.

On October 6, the Pasteur Institute was invaded by a
crowd of medical men ; M. Martin gave a special lecture in
compliance with the desire of many practitioners unaccus-
tomed to laboratory work, who desired to understand the
diagnosis of diphtheria and the mode in which the senun
should be used. Pasteur, from his study window, was
watching all this coming and going in his Institute. A

VOL. II. 305 X

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

twofold feeling was visible on his worn features : a sorrow-
ing regret that his age now disarmed him for work, but
also the satisfaction of feeling that his work was growing
day by day, and that other investigators would, in a similar
spirit, pursue the many researches which remained to be
undertaken. About that time, M. Yersin, now a physician
in the colonies, communicated to the Annals of the Pasteur
Institute the discovery of the plague bacillus. He had
been desired to go to China in order to study the nature of
the scourge, its conditions of propagation and the most
efficient means of preventing it from attacking the French
possessions. Pasteur had long recognized very great
qualities in this pupil whose habits of silent labour were
almost those of an ascète. M. Yersin started with a
missionary's zeal. When he reached Hong-Kong, three
hundred Chinese had already succumbed, and the hospitals
of the colony were full; he immediately recognized the
symptoms of the bubonic plague, which had ravaged
Europe on many occasions. He noticed that the epidemic I

raged principally in the slums occupied by Chinese of the
poorer classes, and that, in the infected quarters, there were
a great many rats, which had died of the plague. Pasteur
read with the greatest interest the following lines, so
exactly in accordance with his own method of observation :
"The peculiar aptitude to contract plague possessed by
certain animals," wrote M. Yersin, " enabled me to imder-
take an experimental study of the disease under very
favourable circumstances; it was obvious that the first
thing to do was to look for a microbe in the blood of the
patients and in the bubonic pulp." When M. Yersin inocu-
lated rats, mice, or guinea-pigs with this pulp, the animals
died, and he foimd several bacilli in the ganglions, spleen
and blood. After some attempts at cultures and inocula-
tions, he concluded thus : '' The plague is a contagious and

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inoculable disease. It seems likely that rats constitute its
principal vehicle, but I have also ascertained that flies can
contract the disease and die of it, and may therefore become
agents for its transmission."

At the very time when M. Yersin was discovering the
specific bacillus of the plague in the bubonic pulp, Kitasato
was making similar investigations. The foe now being
recognized, hopes of vanquishing it might be entertained.

And whilst those good tidings were arriving, Pasteur
was reading a new work by M. Metchnikoff, a Russian
scientist, who had elected to come to France for the privilege
of working by the side of Pasteur. M. Metchnikoff" ex-
plained by the action of the white corpuscles of the blood,
named " leucocytes," the inmiunity or resistance, either
natural or acquired, of the organism against a defined
disease. These corpuscles may be considered as soldiers
entrusted with the defence of the organism against foreign
invasions. If microbes penetrate into the tissues, the
defenders gather all their forces together and a free fight
ensues. The organism resists or succumbs according to
the power or inferiority of the white blood-cells. If the
invading microbe is surrounded, eaten up and ingested by
the victorious white corpuscles (also named phagocytes)^ the
latter find in their victory itself fresh reserve forces against
a renewed invasion.

On November 1 , in the midst of all this laborious activity
and daily progress, Pasteur was about to pay his daily
visit to his grandchildren, when he was seized by a violent
attack of uraemia. He was laid on his bed and remained
nearly unconscious for four hours ; the sweat of agony
bathed his forehead and his whole body, and his eyes
remained closed. The evening brought with it a ray of
hope ; he was able to speak, and asked not to be left alone.

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Immediate danger seemed avoided, but great anxiety con-
tinued to be felt

It was easy to organize a series of devoted nurses ; all
Pasteur's disciples were eager to watch by his bedside.
Every evening, two persons took their seats in his room :
one a member of the family, and one a '' Pastorian." About
one a.m., they were replaced by another Pastorian and
another member of the family. From November i to
December 25, the laboratory workers continued this watch-
ing, regfulated by Dr. Roux as follows : —

Sunday night. Roux and Chantemesse ; Monday, Queyrat
and Marmier ; Tuesday, Borrel and Martin ; Wednesday,
Mesnil and Pottevin; Thursday, Marchoux and Viala;
Friday, Calmette and Veillon ; Saturday, Renon and Morax.
A few alterations were made in this order; Dr. Marie
claimed the privilege. M. MetchnikoflF, full of anxiety,
came and went continually from the laboratory to the
master's room. After the day's work, each faithful watcher
came in, bringing books or notes, to go on with the work
begun, if the patient should be able to sleep. In the middle
of the night, Mme. Pasteur would come in and send away
with a sweet authority one of the two volunteer nurses.
Pasteur's loving and faithful wife was straining every
faculty of her valiant and tender soul to conjure the vision
of death which seemed so near. In spite of all her courage,
there were hours of weakness, at early dawn, when life
was beginning to revive in the quiet neighbourhood, when
she could not keep her tears from flowing silently. Would
they succeed in saving him whose life was so precious, so
useful to others? In the morning, Pasteur's two grand-
children came into the bedroom. The little girl of four-
teen, fully realizing the prevailing anxiety, and rendered
serious by the sorrow she struggled to hide, talked quietly
with him. The little boy, only eight years old, climbed on

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to his grandfather's bed, kissing him affectionately and
gazing on the loved face which always found enough
strength to smile at him.

Dr. Chantemesse attended Pasteur with an incomparable
devotion. Dr. Gille, who had often been sent for by
Pasteur when staying at Villeneuve V Etang, came to Paris
from Garches to see him. Professor Guyon showed his
colleague the most affectionate solicitude. Professor
Dieulafoy was brought in one morning by M. Metchnikoff ;
Professor Grancher, who was ill and away from Paris
hurried back to his master's side.

How often did they hang over him, anxiously following
the respiratory rhythm due to the uraemic intoxication I
movements slow at first, then rapid, accelerated, gasp-
ing, slackening again, and arrested in a long pause of
several seconds, during which all seemed suspended.

At the end of December, a marked improvement took
place. On January i, after seeing all his collaborators,
down to the youngest laboratory attendant, Pasteur received
the visit of one of his colleagues of the Académie Française.
It was Alexandre Ehimas, carrying a bunch of roses, and
accompanied by one of his daughters : " I want to begin
the year well," he said : " I am bringing you my good
wishes." Pasteur and Alexandre Dumas, meeting at the
Academy every Thursday for twelve years, felt much
attraction towards each other. Pasteur, charmed from the
first by this dazzling and witty intellect, had been surprised
and touched by the delicate attentions of a heart which
only opened to a chosen few. Ehimas, who had observed
many men, loved and admired Pasteur, a modest and kindly
genius ; for this dramatic author hid a man thirsting for
moral action, his realism was lined with mysticism, and he
placed the desire to be useful above the hunger for fame.

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His blue eyes, usually keen and cold, easily detecting secret
thoughts and looking on them with irony, were full of
an expression of affectionate veneration when they rested
on "our dear and great Pasteur" as he called him.
Alexandre Dumas' visit gave Pasteur very great pleasure ;
he compared it to a ray of simshine.

As he could not go out, those who did not come to see
him thought him worse than he really was. It was there-
fore with great surprise that people heard that he would be
pleased to receive the old Normaliens, who were about to
celebrate the centenary of their school, and who, after
putting up a memorial plate on the small laboratory of the
Rue d'Ulm, desired to visit the Pasteur Institute. They
filed one after another into the drawing-room on the first
floor. Pasteur, seated by the fire, seemed to revive the old
times when he used to welcome young men into his home
circle on Sunday evenings. He had an affectionate word or
a smile for each of those who now passed before him, bow-
ing low. Every one was struck with the keen expression
of his eyes ; never had the strength of his intellect seemed
more independent of the weakness of his body. Many
believed in a speedy recovery and rejoiced. "Your
health," said some one, " is not only national but universal
property."

On that day. Dr. Roux had arranged on tables, in the
large laboratory, the little flasks which Pasteur had used in
his experiments on so-called spontaneous generation, which
had been religiously preserved ; also rows of little tubes
used for studies on wines ; various preparations in various
culture media ; microbes and bacilli, so numerous that it
was difficult to know which to see first The bacteria
of diphtheria and bubonic plague completed this museum.

Pasteur was carried into the laboratory about twelve
o'clock, and Dr. Roux showed his master the plague bacillus

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through a microscope. Pasteur, looking at these things,
souvenirs of his own work and results of his pupils* re-
searches, thought of those disciples who were continuing
his task in various parts of the world. In France, he had
just sent Dr. Calmette to Lille, where he soon afterwards
created a new and admirable Pasteur Institute. Dr. Yersin
was continuing his Investigations in China. A Normalien,
M. Le Dantec, who had entered the Ecole at sixteen at the
head of the list, and who had afterwards become a curator
at the laboratory, was in Brazil, studying yellow fever, of
which he very nearly died. Dr. Adrien Loir, after a pro-
tracted mission in Australia, was head of a Pasteur Insti-
tute at Tunis. Dr. NicoUe was setting up a laboratory of
bacteriology at Constantinople. '* There is still a great deal
to do!" sighed Pasteur as he aflfectionately pressed Dr.
Roux' hand.

He was more than ever full of a desire to allay human
suffering, of a humanitarian sentiment which made of him
a citizen of the world. But his love for France was in no
wise diminished, and the permanence of his patriotic feel-
ings was, soon after this, revealed by an incident. The
Berlin Academy of Sciences was preparing a list of illus-
trious contemporary scientists to be submitted to the Kaiser
with a view to conferring on them the badge of the Order of
Merit. As Pasteur's protest and return of his diploma to
the Bonn University had not been forgotten, the Berlin
Academy, before placing his name on the list, desired to
know whether he would accept this distinction at the hands
of the German Emperor. Pasteur, while acknowledging
with courteous thanks the honour done to him as a scientist,
declared that he could not accept it.

For him, as for Victor Hugo, the question of Alsace-
Lorraine was a question of humanity ; the right of peoples
to dispose of themselves was in question. And by a bitter

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irony of fate, France, which had proclaimed this principle
all over Europe, saw Alsace torn away from her. And by
whom ? by the very nation whom she had looked upon as
the most idealistic, with whom she had desired an alliance
in a noble hope of pacific civilization, a hope shared by
Humboldt, the great German scientist.

It was obvious to those who came near Pasteur that, in
spite of the regret caused in him by the decrease of his
physical strength, his moral energy remained unimpaired.
He never complained of the state of his health, and usually
avoided speaking of himself. A little tent had been put up
for him in the new garden of the Pasteur Institute, under
the young chestnuts, the flowers of which were now
b^inning to fall, and he often spent his afternoons there.
One or other of those who had watched over him through
the long winter nights frequently came to talk with him,
and he would inquire, with all his old interest, into every
detail of the work going on.

His old friend Chappuis, now Honorary Rector of the
Academy of Dijon, often came to sit with him under this
tent. Their friendship remained unchanged though it had
lasted more than fifty years. Their conversation now took
a yet more exalted turn than in the days of their youth and
middle age. The dignity of Chappuis' life was almost
austere, though tempered by a smiling philosophy.

Pasteur, less pre-occupied than Chappuis by philosophical
discussions, soared without an effort into the domain of
spiritual things. Absolute faith in God and in Eternity,
and a conviction that the power for good given to us in this
world will be continued beyond it, were feelings which per-
vaded his whole life ; the virtues of the Gk)spel had ever
been present to him. Full of respect for the form of
religion which had been that of his forefathers, he came to

312

I889-I895

it simply and naturally for spiritual help in these last
weeks of his life.

On June 13, he came, for the last time, down the steps of
the Pasteur Institute, and entered the carriage which was to
take him to Villeneuve TEtang. Every one spoke to him
of this stay as if it were sure to bring him back to health.
Did he believe it ? Did he try, in his tenderness for those
around him, to share their hopes? His face almost bore
the same expression as when he used to go to Villeneuve
TEtang to continue his studies. When the carriage passed
through Saint Cloud, some of the inhabitants, who had seen
him pass in former years, saluted him with a mixture of
emotion and respectful interest.

At Villeneuve TEtang, the old stables of the Cent Gardes
had reverted to thejir former purpose and were used for
the preparation of the diphtheria anti-toxin. There were
about one hundred horses there ; old chargers, sold by the
military authorities as unfit for further work ; racehorses
thus ending their days ; a few, presents from their owners,
such as Marshal Canrobert's old horse.

Pasteur spent those summer weeks in his room or under
the trees on the lawns of the Park. A few horses had been
put out to grass, the stables being quite full, and occasion-
ally came near, looking over their hurdles towards him.
Pasteur felt a deep thankfulness in watching the busy
comings and goings of Dr. Roux and his curator, M. Martin,
and of the veterinary surgeon, M. Prévôt, who was entrusted
with the bleeding operations and the distribution of the
flasks of serum. He thought of all that would survive him
and felt that his weakened hand might now drop the torch
which had set so many others alight And, more than
resigned, he sat peacefully under a beautiful group of
pines and purple beeches, listening to the readings of
Mme. Pasteur and of his daughter. They smiled on him

313

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

with that valiant smile which women know how to keep
through deepest anguish.

Biographies interested him as of yore. There was at
that time a renewal of interest in memories of the First
Empire; old letters, memoirs, war anecdotes were being
published every day. Pasteur never tired of those great
souvenirs. Many of those stories brought him back to the
emotions of his youth, but he no longer looked with the
same eyes on the glory of conquerors. The true guides of
humanity now seemed to him to be those who gave devoted
service, not those who ruled by might. After enjoying
pages full of the thrill of battlefields, Pasteur admired the
life of a great and good man, St. Vincent de Paul. He
loved this son of poor peasants, proud to own his humble
birth before a vainglorious society ; this tutor of a future
cardinal, who desired to become the chaplain of some un-
happy convicts ; this priest, who founded the work of the
Enfants Trauv/Sy and who established lay and religious
alliance over the vast domain of charity.

Pasteur himself exerted a great and charitable influence.
The unknown lady who had put at his disposal four scholar-
ships for young men without means, came to him in August
and offered him the funds for a Pasteur Hospital, the natural
outcome, she said, of the Pastorian discoveries.

Pasteur's strength diminished day by day, he now could
hardly walk. When he was seated in the Park, his grand-
children around him suggested young rose trees climbing
around the trunk of a dying oak. The paralysis was
increasing, and speech was becoming more and more
difficult. The eyes alone remained bright and clear;
Pasteur was witnessing the ruin of what in him was
perishable.

How willingly they would have given a moment of their
lives to prolong his, those thousands of human beings

314

I889-I895

whose existence had been saved by his methods: sick
children, women in lying-in hospitals, patients operated
upon in surgical wards, victims of rabid dogs saved from
hydrophobia, and so many others protected against the
infinitesimally small ! But, whilst visions of those living
beings passed through the minds of his family, it seemed as
if Pasteur already saw those dead ones who, like him, had
preserved absolute faith in the Future Life.

The last week in September he was no longer strong
enough to leave his bed, his weakness was extreme. On
September 27, as he was offered a cup of milk : " I can-
not," he murmured ; his eyes looked around him with an
unspeakable expression of resignation, love and farewell.
His head fell back on the pillows, and he slept ; but, after
this delusive rest, suddenly came the gaspings of agony.
For twenty-four hours he remained motionless, his eyes
closed, his body almost entirely paralysed; one of his
hands rested in that of Mme. Pasteur, the other held a
crucifix.

Thus, surrounded by his family and disciples, in this
room of almost monastic simplicity, on Saturday,
September 28, 1895, at 4.40 in the afternoon, very
peacefully, he passed away.

The End.

315

Index

Abbadie, d', presents medals to

Pasteur, ii. 295
Abdul Aziz, Sultan, i. 185
About, Edmond :

On Pasteur, ii. 210

On Pasteur's lecture at Sorbonne

l 147
Pamphlet quoted, i. 233
Académie des Sciences, i. 38 note^
105
During siege of Paris, i. 245
Académie Française, PasteuPs re-
ception at, ii. 161
Aerobes, i. 130
Af^égaHon^ i. 41 note
Alaîs :
Pasteur goes to, i. 150, 153, 169,

181, 204, 218
Statue to J. B. Dumas at, ii. 292
Alexandria, French mission to, ii.

204
Alfort, experiments on sheep at, ii.

109
Alsace- Lorraine question, ii. 311
Amat, Mlle., i. 223
Anaerobes, i. 130, 290
Andral, Dr., i. 210

Advice to Pasteur, il 32
Anglada, work '*0n Contagion **

quoted, i. 104
Anguillulse, i. 196
Anthrax (splenic fever, charbon),
il 45 seqq.t 91
Hens and, ii. 59, 71

Commission on, 72
Vaccination against, ii. 115, 117
Experiment, 120, 123, 124, 127,

138, 190
Results, ii. 133, 138

Antirabic inoculation on man, ii.
249
Discussion on, ii. 276

Antivivisection, Virchow on, ii. 143

Aosta, Duke and Duchess o^ i. 185

Arago, i. 35 ; ii. 175
On Monge, i. 257
Speech l^ore Chamber of De-
puties, il 30

Arbois :
Pasteur at, i. 8, 9, 236 ; ii. 257,

280
Presentation to Pasteur from, ii.

296
Prussians at, i. 265

Arboisian characteristics, i. 1 1

Arcis-sur-Aube, battle o^ i. 5

Ardèche, L 42

Ardouin, Dr., ii. 206

Aristotle, allusions to hydrophobia,
ii. 241

Arsoural, M. d', ii. 74

Aselli, discoveries through vivi-
section, ii. 149

Aspartic acid, i. 73, 91

Aspergillus ntger^ i. 269

Aubenas, tribute to Pasteur, ii. 167,
168

Augier, Emile, i. 230

Aurillac, testimonial to Pasteur, ii.
197

" Baccalauréat," L 14 and note
Baciocchi, Princess, leaves Villa
Vicentina to Prince Im-
perial, i. 227
Bagnèrcs-de-Luchon, i. 137
Balard, lecturer at Ecole Normale,
î. 37, 38, 41, 72, 76, 131.
139

317

INDEX

Balard, advice to Pasteur, 1 135

Appeal to Pasteur, I 286

Discovers bromin, i. 42

Inspector - Geneial of Higher
Education, i. 190

On Pasteur's discovery, i. 52
Bar-sur-Aube, 3rd Regiment at, i. 4
Barbet Boarding School, I 13, 15,

27
Barbet, M., L 13, 29
Barbier, Captain, L 13
Barmel, Dumas' Curator, i. 32
Bastian, Dr., attacks Pasteur, ii.

39 seq^.
Baudry, Paul, 1. 166
Bazaine at Metz, L 243
Beauce, i. 193 note

Splenic fever in, ii. 45, 70, 80, 1 19
Béchamp, theory of fermentation,

ii. 25
Bédard, Permanent Secretary of

Académie de Médecine,

ii. 113
On commission on hydrophobia,

ii. 226
Beer, Pasteur studies manuÊtcture

of, i. 273 seqq,
Béhier, Dr., ii. 14
Behring discovers antitoxin for

diphtheria, ii. 303
Bellaguet, Kf., i. 179
Belle, Jeanne, wife of Claude Pas-
teur, i. 2
Bellevue, Château, Napoleon and
William of Prussia meet
at, i. 239
Bellotti, M., i. 272
Berchon, sanitary director, Bor-
deaux, ii. 153
Bergeron, Jules :
Annual Secretary of Académie

de Médecine, ii. 113
On Pasteur's treatment of hydro-
phobia, ii. 262
Speech at Pasteur Jubilee, ii.
295
Bernard Claude, i. 55 :
At Académie de Médecine, il 4
At Tuileries, i. 202
Discoveries, i. 176
Experiment on dog, ii. 146
Experiments on fermentation, ii.

Bernard, Claude :
Illness, L 175
Joins in Pasteur's experiments, L

135
Letter to Deville, 1. 179

Letter to Pasteur, L 178

On fermentation, i. 104

— Medicine, il 5

— Pasteur's researches, i. 93, 1 13

— Primary causes, iL 28

— Vivisection, ii. 148
Posthumous notes, iL 74, 84
Senator, i. 229

Studies cholera, L 165
Bersot, Ernest, quoted on spon-
taneous generation, L 120
Bert, Paul, iL 74, 199 :
Classifies Pasteur's work, iL 200
Experiments, iL 53, 222
On commission on hydrophobia,

ii. 226
Speech on Pasteur's discoveries,
iL 30
Berthelot, M. :
Consulted by Pasteur, ii. 282
On alcoholic fermentation, iL 83
Berthollet, M., ii. 34, 175

Discoveries, L 256
Bertillon, candidate for Académie

de Médecine, iL 4
Bertin, M., iL 173
At Ecole Nonnale,L 25, 190^ 211,

236, 247
Character, L 60^ 190
Professor of Physics, Strasburg,

i-59
Welcomes Pasteur to Paris, L 279

Bertrand, Joseph :

Letter to Pasteur, i. 180

Sketch of^ ii. 255

Speech at inauguration of Pasteur
Institute, iL 285

Speech at Pasteur jubilee, ii. 295
Berzelius, L 257

Studies paratartaric acid, L 33

Theories of fermentation, L 104 ;
iL25
Besançon, Jean Henri Pasteur at,

i.3,5
Besson, candidature for senate, iL

34
Beust, Baron von, superintendent
of factories, i. 85

318

INDEX

Big^ manufactures beetroot alco-
hol, i. I02
Biot, T. J.,i. 35, 55, 71, 76,268
At Fouilly le Fort, experiment, ii.

123, 127
Attitude towards spontaneous

generation,!. 115, 130
Death, i. 132, 134
Interview with Pasteur, i. 53
Last letter, i. 135
Letters to Joseph Pasteur, i. 74,

92, 106
Letter to Louis Pasteur, i. 77
Oldest member of Institute, L

10;
Passion for reading, i. 116
Praises Pasteur, i. 71
Bischoffsheim, Raphael, lends villa

to Pasteur, ii. 275
Bbmarck, Prince :
Armistice with France, L 254
Interview with Jules Favre, i.

242
On Napoleon III., i. 238
Blondeau, registrar of mortgages,

i. 17
BoUène, Pasteur at, ii. 180
Bonaparte, Elisa, at Villa Vicen-

tina, i. 227
Bonn, sous-préfecture^ i. 248

University, i. 248
Bonnat, portrait of Pasteur, ii. 283
Bordeaux, Pasteur at, ii. 151
Bordighera :
Earthquake at, ii. 279
Pasteur at, ii. 275
Borrel attends on Pasteur, il 308
Bouchardat, M. :
On Commission of Hygiene, i.
244

Report on remedies for hydro-
phobia, ii. 243
Bouillaud, Dr., ii. 9, 51, 94
Bouillier, M. F., Director of Ecole

Normale, i. 190^ 236
Bouley, H., il 55, 72, 131, 173
At experiment on earthworm^ ^

106
Chairman of ComiT>*'.iOh on
Hydropho^^^#É. 226, 227,
228
Report, ii. 229
Deathy ii. 262

Bouley, H. :
Letters to Pasteur, ii. 132, 139

— on Colin, it 127

— germ of hydrophobia, ii. 220

— methods of Delafond and

Pasteur, ii. 68

— microbes, ii. 187, 189

— Pasteur's treatment of hydro-

phobia, ii. 261
— remedies for hydrophobia, ii.

243

— virulence of bacteridia, ii. 116

Sketch of, ii. 51

Statistics of death from hydro-
phobia, ii. 267
Vaccinates sheep against anthrax,
ii. 109
Bourbaki, General :
Death, i. 253

Retreat of Army Corps, i. 252
Bourboulon, Commandant, gives
Pasteur news oif his son,
i.254
Bourgeois, Philibert, L 3
Bourrel sends dogs to laboratory,

ii. 219, 227
Boussingault, M., iL 173
Boutel, veterinary surgeon, iL 50,

80,139
On splenic fever, ii, 70

Report on vaccinated sheep, ii.

184

Boutroux, curator in Pasteur's

laboratory, ii. 43

Boyle, Robert, on fermentation, iL

Brand, Dr., treatment of typhoid, iL
185

Breithaupt, Professor of Minera-
logy, i. 85

Bretonneau, on diphtheria, ii. 300

Brie cattle suffer from anthrax, ii.

45» 1 19
Brochin, candidate for Académie

de Médecine, ii. 4

Brongniart, Alexandre, i. 55

On commission on spontaneous

feneration, i. 139

Brouardcu, Professor :

On antirabic cure, iL 276^ 281

Speech at Congress of Hygiene,

ii. 292

Speech at Pasteur Jubilee, ii. 296

319

INDEX

Broussais, siugery under, il 17
Broce, Mrs., presents Pasteur with
Life of Livingstone^ ii.
218
Buda-Pesth, Hygiene and Demo-
graphy Congress at, ii.

304

Budberg,M.de, Russian Ambassa-
dor, L 166

Budin and antisepsis, ii. 89

BufTon, theory of spontaneous
l^neration, i. 118

Buonanni, recipe for producing
worms, i. 116

Butyric fermentation, i. 129

Cagniard-Latour studies yeast, 103,

105
Cailletet invents apparatus for

Hque&ction of gases, ii.

211
Cairo, cholera at, ii. 204
Calmette, Edouard :
At Lille, il 311
At Pasteur Jubilee, ii. 294
Attends on Pasteur, ii. 308
Cambon, Governor • General of

Algeria, letter to Pasteur,

ii. 298
Cardaillac, M. de, i. 214
Cardinal cultivates silkworms, i.

181
Camot, President, ii. 34
At inauguration of Pasteur In-
stitute, ii. 284
At Pasteur Jubilee, ii. 294
Caro, deputy to Edinburgh, ii. 211
Casabianca, Comte de, i. 221, 222
Celsus on hydrophobia, ii. 241, 243
ChalTois, i. 253, 254
Chaillon collaborates with Roux,

ii. 303
Chamalière's brewery, i. 273

Chamberland, M. :

At Pasteur Jubilee, ii. 294

Collaborates with Pasteur, ii.

50, 60, 63, 79, %i, 105, 107,

109, III, 116, 123, 126,

128, 179, 257, 263

Cross of Legion of Honour, ii.

136

Chamberland, M. :
On Pasteur's early researches, ii

290
Vaccinations against anthrax, ii.

284
Chambéry, Pasteur at, L 171 1
Chamecin, wood merchant, i. 3
Chamonix, Pasteur at, i. 126
Chantemesse, Dr. :
Attends on Pasteur, ii. 308, 309
On antirabic cure, ii. 276
Performs inoculations, ii. 274
Chanzy, General, open letter, i. 250
Chappuis, Charles, i. 42
Letter to Pasteur, i. 26
On national testimonial to Pas-
teur, ii. 31
Sketch of, i. 24
Visits Pasteur, ii. 312
Chaptal, discoveries of, i. 256
Charbon. (See anthrax)
Charcot on Pasteur's antirabic cure,

ii. 281
Charrière, schoolfellow of Louis

Pasteur, i. 9, 47
Charrin, Dr., performs inoculations,

ii. 274
Chartres :
Experiment on vaccination
against anthrax near, iL

138
Pasteur at, ii. 80, 105

Scientific congress at, ii. 70

Chassaignac, Dr., on " laboratory
surgery," ii. 8

Chauveau on contap^ion, ii. 188

Chemists and Physicians, ii. 3, 14

Chevreul, M., i. 76
On siege of Paris, i. 247, 248

Chicken cholera, ii. 97 seqq.

Chiozza, letter to Pasteur, i. 263

Cholera, i. 165
At Damietta and Cairo, ii. 204

Christen, town councillor at Vau-
cresson, ii. 240

Christophle, speech at inauguration
of Pasteur Institute, ii. 286

Clermont Ferraud, Pasteur at, i. 271

Clouet invents system of manu-
facturing steel, i. 256

Coblentz, préfecture^ i. 248

Cochin, Denys, at Pasteur Jubilee
11294

3^0

INDEX

Colin, Professor G.^ ii. 71, 72
Advice to Biot, ii. 126
Experiments on anthrax, ii. 54, 59
Collège de France, i. 53 noU^ 192
Compiègne, Pasteur at, i. 165
Comte, Auguste, i. 162, 164

Doctrine, ii. 157
Conseil général de d^MUtement, i.

ICI note
Contagious diseases, problem o^ ii.

I segq,
Conti, Napoleon Ill's secretary, i.

201
Copenhagen Medical Congress,

Pasteur at, ii 230
Coquelin:
Acts in Plaideurs^ i. 167
Recites at Trocadéro fête, il 272
Comil, on acarus of kch, ii. 189
Coulon, schoolfellow of Louis Pas-

teur, 19,47
Cnbier, Mme., i. 211
Cuisance River, i. 8, 9, 237
Cuvier, ii, 175

Daguerre, national testimonial to,

il 30
Dalimier, Paul, Pasteur's advice to,

i. 143
Dalloz, editor of Moniteur^ L aoi

Damietta, cholera at, ii. 204

Darboux, "doyen" of Faculty of

Science, L 41

Daremberg, Dr., on Pasteur at

Medical Congress, ii 143

Darlajr as science master, L 18

Darwin :

On earthwonns, iL 106

On vivisection, iL 149

Dastre, M., it 74

Daubrée, speech at Pasteur Jubilee,

ii. 295

Daunas, sketch oi, L 18

David, Jeanne;^ wife of Denis Pas-

tetu:, 1. 1

Davaine, Dr. C, ii. 64, 72, 173

At ei^eriment on earthworms,

iL 106

Experiments on septicaemia, ii.

8,56
On butync ferment, iL 7, 46

Davy, Sir H.^ L 257
Debray, M., iL 137
Dédat, Dr., on Pasteur's experi-
ments, iL I
Prescribes carbolic solution
for wounds, ii. 22
Delafbnd, Dr. :
On charbon blood, iL 46
Studies anthrax, iL 68
Delafosse, Professor of Mineralogy,

i. 43, 47 . ^

Delaunay acts in Plaideurs^ 1. 167

Delesse, Professor of Science at
Besançon, i. 58

Delor^ General Baron, L 39
Native of Arbois, L 266

Demarquay, Dr., prescribes carbolic
solution for wounds, iL 22

Demark, Kinjg and Queen of, at
Medical Congress, iL 230

Denouvilliers, surgery under, iL 17

Départements^ L 67 note

Descartes in Holland, i, 263

Despeyrottx, Professor of Chem-
ist^, L 225

Dessaignes, cîiemist, L 91

Deville, Henri Sainte Claire, L $$,

58, 179, 2" :—

Admiration for Pasteiic's pre-
cision, ii. 85

At Compiègne, L 214

At Tuilôîes, i. 202

Character, L 191

Congratulates Pasteur 00 Testi-
monial, iL 31

Death, iL 136

Laboratonr, L iio

Letter to Mme. Pastewr, i. 229

On Académie and Sdence, i. 258

On Commission of Hygiene, L 244

Scientific mission in oerouny, i.

235
Studies diolera, L 165

Devise, speech at Pasteur Jubilee,

li. 296

Diabetes, L 176

Diderot on ^xmtaneoos generation,

L 117 ^

Didon, gratitude to Pasteur, L 189,
211

DiefTenback, M., iL 146

Dieulafoy, Professor, attends Pas-
teur, iL 309

VOL. IL

321

INDEX

Diphtheria, il 300

Statistics of mortality, ii. 304
Disraeli (juoted on public health,

il. 291
Dole:
Jean Joseph Pasteur settles at, i. 7
Memorial plate on Pasteur's house

at, li. 201
Presentation to Pasteur from, ii.
296
Douay village, i. i
Doucet, Camille, on Pasteur's

speech, iL 161
Dresden, Pasteur at, 84
Droz, Joseph, his moral doctrine,

L 21
Dubané, Dr., theory on hydro-
phobia, ii. 223
Dubois, Alphée, engraves medal

for Pasteur, ii. 173
Dubois, Paul, L 166

Bust of Pasteur, ii. 233
Due, Viollet le, i. 166^ 167
Du Camp, Maxime, ii. 1^2
Duchartre elected member of

Académie, i. 131
Dudaux, M., i. 133, 134, 137, 171,
181, 222, 224, 2(S8, 270
Accompanies Pasteur to Milan,

ii.35
Advice to Pasteur, L 287

Annals of Pasteur InsHtuUy ii.

275
At Pasteur jubilee, ii. 294
Class of biological chemistry, ii.

284
Congratulates Pasteur on testi-
monial, iL 31
On Bastian, ii. 40
On heating liquids, ii. 43
Professor of Chemistry at Cler-
mont-Ferraud, i. 271
Ducret, Antoine and Charles, shot,

i. 266
Ducrot, General, i. 204
Dujardin-Beaumetz, on antirabic

cure, ii. 276
Dumas, Alexandre, i. 139
Pasteur and, iL 155
Visits Pasteur, iL 309
Dumas, J. B., iL 255
Académie sponsor for Pasteur,
iL 158

Dumas, J. B. :
Advice to Pasteur, L 115, 135
Appreciation of Pasteur, iL 39
At Alais, L 224
Death, iL 211

Interest in sériciculture, i. 150
La VUiPun Savant^n. 210 note I

letter on, 211
Laboratory, i. 55
Letter to Bouley, iL 1 17
Letters to Pasteur, i. yj^ 218, 22|
On Académie and Science, i. 250
— - Commission on spontaneous
generation, L 139

— Critical examinaHon^ iL 85

— Destruction of Regnault's in-

struments, L 252

— Fermentation, L 104
Presents Pasteur to Napoleon

III, L 136

President of Monetary Com-
mission, i. 190

Requests Pasteur for article on
Lavoisier, L 159

Senator, i. 229

Sketch of, ii. 175

Sorbonne lecturer, i. 28, 32, 52,
58, 71, 76

Speech at Péclet's tomb, ii. 137

Speech to Pasteur, ii. 173

Statue at Alais to, ii. 292
Dumont, Dr., L 10
Dupuy, Charles, speech at Pasteur

Jubilee, ii. 294
Duran, Carolus, portrait of Pas-
teur, ii. 283
Duruy, M., L 139

At inauguration of Pasteur In-
stitute, ii. 284

At Tuileries, i. 202

Attitude towards Germany, L 233

Letter to Pasteur, i. 183

Minister of Public Instruction, i.
170

System of National education, L

183
Visits Pasteur, 1. 217

Earthworms, pathogenic action of,

ii. ICO
Eastern Army Corps, i. 252, 254

322

INDEX

Ecole NormaUy L 13 and noU^ 202
An ambulance, i. 236, 247
Disturbances at, i. 188
Scientific Atmals of, i. 144
Students enlist, i. 236
Ecole Polytechnique, i. 56 noie^ 202
Edelfeldt, portrait of rasteur, ii.

283

Eggs, researches on alteration of,
il 12

Ehrenbere, discoveries on in-
fusories, i. 283

Electric telegraph, birth of, i. 99

Elsinore, congress visit, ii. 234

Emperor of Brazil, interest in Pas-
teur's experiments, iL 237

Empress Eugénie :
At Bordighera, ii. 279
Interview with Pasteur, i. 166,

168
Regent, i. 238

Enfants Malades hospital : diph-
theric treatment at, ii. 303,

304
English commission on inoculation

for hydrophobia, ii. 271

Report, ii. 280

Erdnîann, M., i. 83

Exhibition reward distribution, i.

185

Facultés, i. 41 note

Falloux, attitude towards liberty of

teaching, i. 68
Fauvel, on Pasteur's inductions, il

193
Favé, General, L 174, 192, 213, 214

Favre, Jules, Minister of Foreign

Affiurs, i. 239

Armistice, i. 254

Interview with Bismarck, i. 242

" February days," i. 48 note

Feltz on puerperal fever, ii. 91

Fermentation, teaching on, i. 103,

132, 293 ; ii. 24

Alcoholic, i. Ill, 136, 148; ii.

83
Butync, 1. 129, 290 ; ii. 7, 46

Lactic, i. 108, 284

of tan, i. 244

Virus, ii. i seçf.

Fenrières Château, interview be-
tween Bismarck and Favre
at, i. 242

Fikentscher, obtains racemic acid,
i. 81

Fleming, Mr., ii. 271
On commission on inoculation
for hydrophobia, iL 271

Flesschutt, Dr., L 171

Fleys, Dr., proposes toast of
Pasteur, li. 198

Florens, on spontaneous genera-
tion, i. 138, 139

Foly, heterogenist, i. 285

Fontainebleau, Napoleon at, i. 5

Formate of strontian crystals, i.

Fortoul, Minister of Public Instmc-

tion, i. 97
Fouqué, M., il 137
Fourcroy, M., ii. ^

Discoveries of, 1. 256
Foy, General, works ol^ L 240
Franco-German War, i. 232 seçç,
Franklin on scientific discovery,

L98
Frederick III, sketch c^, ii. 141
Frémy, M. :
On origin of ferments, L 284,

287
Theory of fermentation, ii, 25
French character, i. 273

Gadâier, Dr., L 210
Gaidot, Father, i. 16
Gaillard, M. de, ii. 181
Galen :
Discoveries through vivisection,

ii. 148
Remedy for hydrophobia, iL 241
Galtier, experiments on hydropho-
bia, iL 223
Garde ^attonaUt L 48 note
Gardette, M. de la, ii. 181
Gautier, Théophile, L 163
Gay-Lussac, ii. 175
Lectures at Jardin des Plantes^

iL256.
Speech before Chambers of Peers,

11. 30
Studies racemic acid, i. 33

323

INDEX

Gayon, «researches on alteration of

cggSjii 12
Geneva Congress of Hygiene, ii.

177
Genns, Pasteur's theory of, i. 245.

Gemez, M., i. 137, 211, 218» 222,
224, it 137
Centenary of Ecole Normale^ i.
144

Collaborates with Pasteur, L 170,
181, 205, 268
Gër6nie, Knight of Legion of Hon-
our, I. 186
GiUe, Dr., attends Pastenr, ii. 309
Girard on vineyard labourers and

Pasteur, ii. 258.
Girardin, St Marc, L 107
Girod, Henry, Royal Notary of

Salins, L 2
Glâiard adopts Brand's treatmait

of typhoid, ii. 185
Goltz, M. de., Prussian Ambas-
sador, L 166.
Gosselin, Dr., ii. 23
Got acts in Plaideurs^ L 167.
Gounod conducts Ave Maria at

Trocadéro fete, ii 272
Grancher, Dr. :
Admiration for Pasteur's experi-
ments, ii. 253, 262
Advises Pasteur to winter in

South, ii. 275
Attends Pasteur, iL 309
On antirabic cure, ii. 276
Pasteur consults, ii. 251
Performs inoculations, ii. 274.
Speech at inauguration of Pasteur
Institute, ii. 285
Grandean, M., ii 137.

Letter to Pasteur, iL 155
Gravière, Admiral Jurien de la, ii.

274

Gréard, d^uty to Edinburgh, ii.
211

Greece, King and Queen of, at
Medical Congress, ii. 230

Grenet, Pasteur's curator, L 281

Gressier, M. Minister of Agricul-
ture, i. 223

Grévy, Jules, supp|ort8 Tamisier and
Thurel, ii. 34^

Gridaine, Cunin, Minister of Agri-
culture, ii. 68.

Gsell, Stâ>hatte, on origin of

Senana,ii 299
Guériu, Alphonse, on cause of

purulent infection^ iL 18
Guérin, Jules, on vaccine, li. 112
Guillaume, Eugène, deputy to

Edinburgh, iL 212
Guillemin, M., L 100
SchooUellow of Louis Pasteur, L

9-
Gnizot, M. :

Deputy to Edinbuigfa, iL 212
Quoted on spontaneous genera-
tion, i. 147
Welcomes Biot to Académie, L
106
Guyon, Professor :
Accepts Pasteur's advice, iL 13
Attends Pasteur, iL 309

Hankel, Professor of Physics at
Leiprig, i. 83

Hardy, M., wdcomes Pasteur to
Académie de Médecine,
ii. 193

Harvey, discoveries through vivi-
section, ii. 148

Hautefeuille, M., ii. 137

Heated wine, experiments on, i.
207

Hemiorganism^ L 284

Henner, portrait of Pasteur, iL 283

Henri I V plants mulberry trees, i.
151, 227

Hens and anthrax, iL S9> 7^
Commission on, ii. 72

Héricourt, Dr., ii. 303
At Villeneuve L'Etang, iL 291

Hervé, Edouard, vl 267

Heterogenia. (Su Spcmtaaeous
generation)

Hippocrates, allusions to hydro-
ohobia, iL 241

Horsley, Victor, secretary to Com-
mission on inoculation for
hydrophobia, ii. 271, 280

Houssaye, Henry, on ovation to
Pasteur, ii, 265

Hugo, Victor, Année Terrible^ L
251

324

INDEX

Hugnenin, portrait of Bonaparte, L

337
Humbert of Italy, Prince, L 185

Humboldt, Alexander von^ inter-
view with J. B. Damas, iL

175
Husson, M^ L 229

Researches on vaedfUy ii. 259

Huxley on Pasteur's discoveries, iL

198, 200
Hydrophobia :
Dogs inoculated against, ii. 226 :

Commission, 226^ 245
English Commission on inocula-
tion for, iL 271

Report, 280
Experiments on, iL 125, 184,210,

219 seqa,^ 24^, 251, 26a
Former remeoies, it 241
Origin of, iL 243,
Hygiene, Central Commission, L

244
Hygiene, International Congress

o^ iL 292.

Iceland spar^ L 34
Ingenhousz, 1. 131
Institut de France^ i. 37 note

Jacobsen, J. C founds Carlsberg

Brewery, iL 233
Jacquinet, sub-director of Ecole

Normale, L 109, 189, 190
Jaillard, experiments on anihrax^

ii. 47, 50
Jamin, M., iL 173
On heterogenist dispute, L 145

}arry Claude, royal notary, L 2
enner, national rewards to, iL 199
Joinville, Prince de, L 6g and note
oly, Nicolas, professor of physio-
logy, Toulouse, L 123, 137,
181 ; iL 42
Demands Commission on spon-
taneous generation, L 138,

145
Lecture at Faculty of Medicine,
L 146.
Jouassin, Mlle., acts in Plaideurs.
L167

Joubert, professor of physics at

Collège Rollin^iL 42, 55,

60,63
Jourdan, Gabrielle, wife of Jean

Henri Pasteur, L 3
Journal de la Médecine et de la

Chimie quoted, iL 114
Joux, forest ol^ L i
JupiUe, J. B., bitten by mad dog, iL

259, inoculated, 260

Kaemfen, director of fine arts. Dole,

ii. 202
Kestner, produces paratartaric acid,

1. ^3, 80, 84, 89
Kitasato, discovers antitoxin for
diphtheria, iL 303
Studies plague, iL 307
Klebs, discovers bacUlus of dipb-

theria, iL 301
Klein, Dr., fmeunuhenteritis of

STtdne^ iL 183
Koch, Dr. :
At Thuillier's funeral, iL 208
Campaign against Pasteur, iL 176»

178. 179, 184, 185, 189.
Finds bacillus of tuberculosis, ii. 6
On ôacillns anthraciSj ii. 47, 49
Studies cholera, ii. 206, 210
Kuhn, Chamalières brewer, L 273

Laboratories, i. 54, i lo^ 200
Lachadenède, KL de, i. 158, 225
Lactic fermentation, L i<â, 129
Lagrange, quoted on Lavoisier's

execution, i. 256
Lamartine, L 47 and note
Lambert, Françoise, wife of Qande

Etienne Pasteur, i. 3
Lamy, Auguste, i. ^i i
Landouzy, on ambulance ward,

(1870), iL 17
Lannelongue, Dr., iL 86, 220
Laplace, M., ii. 175
Lapparent, M. de. Chairman of

Commission on wine^ i.

207, 208

3^5

INDEX

Larrey Baron, ii. 1 13
On Jupille and Pasteur's dis-
covery, ii. 261
Surgery under, ii. 16, 23

Laubespin, Comte de, ii. 267

Lauder-Brunton, Dr., on Commis-
sion on inoculation for
hydrophobia, ii. 271

Laurent, Auguste, i. 71

Sketch of, i. 42, 44

Laurent, Madame, i. 62

Laurent, Maria. {See Pasteur,
Mme. Louis)

Laurent, M., Rector of Academy of
Strasburg, i. 61, 206
Sketch of, i. 62, 69

Lavoisier, death, i. 256

Edition of his works, L 160

Le Bel, studies on stereo-chemistry,
ii. 290

Le Dantec, studies on yellow fever
in Brazil, ii. 311

Le Roux, Dissertation sur laRage^
ii. 241

Lc Verrier, i. 168 note y 172

Lebliuic, statistics of deaths from
hydrophobia, ii. 268

Lechartier, M., i. 137 ; ii. 137

Lefebvre, General, i. 5

Lefort, Léon :
On puerperal fever, il 88
Surgery under, ii. 17, 62

Lefort, Mayor of Arbois, i. 266

Lemaire, Jules, prescribes carbolic
solution for wounds, ii, 22

Lemuy, situation of, i. i

Leplat, experiments on anthrax^
ii. 47, 50

Lereboullet, on anthrax, ii. 62

Lesseps, Ferdinand de, i. 186
Deputy to Edinburgh, ii. 211

Levai Division :
At Arcis-sur-Aube, i. 5
At Bar-sur-Aube, i. 4

Lhéritier, candidate for Académie
de Médecine, ii. 4

Liberty of teaching, law on, L 67

Liebig :
Ideas on fermentation, i. 230,

283, 293
Interview with Pasteur, i. 231
Theory of fermentation, i. 104,
105 ; ii. 25

Lille :
Pasteur Dean of Faculté at, L 97
Pasteur Institute at, ii. 311

Lister, Sir Joseph :
Appreciation of Pasteur, ii. 39
At Pasteur jubilee, ii. 295
Letter to Pasteur, ii. 20
Method of surgery, ii. 21, 22
On Commission on inoculation

for hydrophobia, iL 271
Surgical method, i. 245, 285

Littré :
Medicine and Physicians^ ii. 94
On Microbe^ ii 58
On primary causes, ii. 28
Sketch of, ii. 156

Loeffler, isolates bacillus of diph-
theria, ii. 301

Loir, Adrien, i. 70, 75 ; iL 180, 183,

235
Dean of Lyons Faculty of Science,

i. 2Ç5
Head of Pasteur Institute,

Tunis, ii. 311
London Medical Congress, Pasteur

at, ii. 139
London, Pasteur visits, i. 276.
London Society for Protection of

Animals, complaints on

vivisection, iL 148
Longet, Dr., i. 68

Treatise on Physiology ^ L 166.
Lons-le-Saulnier, i. 252 ; ii. 34
Louis XI introduces moibeny tree

into Touraine, L 151.
Louis XVI, i. 225
Proposal for balloon ascent, ii.

239
Lucas-Championniere, Just :

Edits Journal de la Médecine^

iL 114

On dressing of wounds, iL 21

Lycée St. Louis, i. 15, 28, 20

Lyons Commission on silkworm

disease, i. 224

Lyons, Pasteur at, L 255

MacDonald, General, i. 5
Magendie, M. :

Experiment with rabic blood, iL
222

Interview with Quaker, ii. 146

326

INDEX

MaUlot, M. :
Accompanies Pasteur to Milan,

iL 36
Collaborates with Pasteur, î. 170,

181, 218, 222
Maireti Bousson de, sketch of^ L 10
Maisonneuve, Dr., prescribes car-
bolic solution for wounds,

iL 22
Malic acid, optical study of, i. 73, 76
Malus, Etienne Louis, discovers

polarization of li^ht, i. 35
Marat, conduct to Lavoisier, i. 256
Marchoux, attends on Pasteur, ii.

308
Marcon, geologist, i. 21X
Marie, Dr., attends on Pasteur, iL

308
Marie, Grand Duchess of Russia,

i. 185
Mannier, attends on Pasteur, ii.

308
Mamoz, Jean Joseph Pasteur at,

L8
Martin, M. :
Attends on Pasteur, ii. 308
Collaborates with Roux, ii. 303
Lecture on diphtheria, ii. 305
Maternité, mortality at, ii. 88
Mathilde, Princesse, L 139

Salon, i. 163
Maucuer, at Bollène, ii. 180
Maunoury, M., il 80, 106
Maury^ A., i. 179

Medici, Catherine de, plants mul-
berry tree in Orléannais,

i. 151
Medidue, general condition (1873),

ii. 5, 15
Meissonnier, Knight of L^on of

Honour, 1. 186
Meister, Joseph, ii. 273
Bitten by road dog, ii. 249
Inoculated, iL 251, 26^
Melun Agricultural Soaety, tribute

to Pasteur, iL 167
Melun, experiment on vaccination

of anthrax near, ii. 120,

123
Méricoort, Le Roj de, ii. 4
Méry, on anatomists» ii. 5
Menul, M. du, L 214
Attends on ratteur, ii. 308

Metchnikoff :
At Pasteur jubilee, ii. 294
Directs private laboratories, ii.

2^
Work on " leucocytes," iL 307
Metz surrendered, i. 244
Meudon, proposed laboratory at,

ii. 229, 239
Mézières, mission to Edinburgh, ii.

212
Michelet <}uoted on his friendship

with Poinsat, i. 23
Microbe :
Rossignol on, iL 1 19
Word invented, ii. ^7
Microscope, results of its invention,

1. 117
Mièges, near Nozeroy, registers of^

L I
Milan Congress of Sériciculture,

Pasteur at, iL 35
MiUer, M., i. 85
Milne, Edwards :
At Tuileries, L 202
On Commission on spontaneous
generation, L 139
Mina, Espoz y, sketch of^ i. 4
Mitscherlich, chemist and crystallo-
prapher, L 33, 34
In Pans, 1. 79

Theory of fermentation, ii. 25
Moigno, Abbé, on spontaneous

generation, L 146
Molecular dissymmetry, L 50, 94,

1 14, 262 ; ii. 290
Monge, me&od of founding can-
non, L 256 ; ii. 34
Monod, Henri, quotes Disraeli on

public health, ii. 291
Montaigne quoted on friendship, i.

Montalembert, attitute towards

liberty of teaching, L 68
Montanvert, L 126, 137
Montpellier, Pasteur at, iL 171
Montrond, rasteur at, L 253
Moquin-Tandon, on rastenr's can-
didature for Académie, i.

131
Morax, attends on Pasteur, iL 308
Moreau, Armand, ii. 72, 74
Moritz, on chicken cholera, ii. 9/
Morveau, Guyton de, L 256 ; iL 34

INDEX

Mount Poupeti Pasteur climbs, i.

126
Moathe priory, L i
Mucors, Ramm's experiments on,

i. 269
Mulberry tree, i. 151
Musset, Charles, L 137, 285 ; iL 42
Demands Commission on spon-
taneous generation, i. 138
New Experimental Resi€trch€s an
HeterogemeLy L 123
Mussy, Dr. Henry Guenean de :
Congratulates Pasteur, ii. 150
Deputy to Edinburgh, ii. 212
Paper on conts«ium germ, ii. 53
Mussy, Dr. No^ Gueneau de, L

210
Mycoderma, L 131, 132, 167
Mycoderma acetic i. 195, 283, 284 ;

iL 10
Mycoderma vini^ i. 287, 288, 289 ;
il II

Napoleon I :
At Fontainebleau, L 5
Respect for science, i. 257
Restores silk industry, L 152

Napoleon III :
Distributes exhibition rewards, L

185
Grants laboratory to Pasteur, i.

193
Interest in sériciculture, i. 168,

174, 329
Interview with Pasteur, L 136
Invites Pasteur to Compiègne, i.

165
Leaves Sedan and Paris, i. 238
Letter on Pasteur's laboratory, L

214
Summons scientists to Tuileries,

i. 202
Napoleo^ Prince, interviews with

Pasteur, ii. 279
National Testimonials, ii. 30
Naumann, Dr. Maurice, i. 259
Professor of mineralogy, i. 83
Needham, partisan of spiontaneous

generation, i. 118
Néaton, on sui^ery (1870), ii. 18
Ney, General, i. 5

Nicolle, Dr., laboratory of bacteri-
ology at Constantinople,

ii.3"
Niepce, national testimcmial to, iL

Nîmes, Pasteur at, iL 170^ 172

NisarcL Professor :

Académie sponsor for Pasteur, iL

158

Director of Ecole Normale, L 109,

188

Letters to Pasteur, L 156 ; ii. 105

Sketch o^ iL 159

Nocard, M., iL 1 10

Goes to Alexandria, ii. 205

On hydrophobia, iL 236^ 244

Oersted and modem telegraph, L 99
" Ordonnances," i. 1 1 arid note
Orleans, Pasteur lectures on vin^ar

at, i. 194
Oudinot, General. L 5
Ovariotomy, £EUaI residts of^ iL 16

Pages, Dr., Mayor of Alais, L 158,

226
Paget, Sir James :

At Copenha||;en Medical Con-
gress, li. 230

President of Commission on ino-
culation for hydrophobia,
iL 271

Speech at Medical Congress, iL
140

Paillen^V^^^^ Digne, i. 223
Panum, President of Copenhagen
Medical Congress, ii. 230
Parandier, M., i. 56
Paratartaric {racemic) acid, L 33,
50^54,80
Pasteur in search of, L 81 seqg.
Pareau, mayor of Arbois, L 17
Parien, M. de. Minister of Public

Instruction, L 69
Paris:
Bombarded, L 247
Capitulation, L 254
Prepares Unr siege, L 239

328

INDEX

Parmentier on potato, L 225
Pasteur, Camîu^ l 156^ 158, 161
Pasteur, Cécile, i. 171
Pasteur, Claude, i. i

Marriage contract, L 2
Pasteur, Claude Etienne, i. 2

Enfranchised, L 3
Pasteur, Denis, marries Jeanne

David, L i
Pasteur Hospital, project for, ii.

Pasteur Institute :

Annals of^ vl 275, 277, 306

Founded, iL 268

Inauguration, il 284

Scholarships, il 299

Trocadéro fête for, 272
Pasteur, Jean Henri, at Besançon,

Pasteur, Jean Joseph, i. 3, 66

Character, i. 9, 30^ 75

Conscript, L 3

Death, l 154

In Paris, L 16, 74

Marriage, L 7

Sergeant-major, i. 5

Studies, L 39
Pasteur, Jeanne^ death of, L 112,

154
Pasteur, Josephine, i. 23, 39, 66
Pasteur, Louis :
Administration of Ecole Nor-
male, i. 109, 14^ 187
Advice to Paul Dalimier, i. 143
Advice to Raulin, i. 268
Article on Claude Bernard's
works, L 175

— indifference of public authori-

ties, i. 199

— Lavoisier, i. 159, 161

At Arbois, L 9, 23iS ; ii. 257, 280

— Besançon Royal College, i.

18 seqq,

— Bordeaux, ii. 155

— Compiègne, i. 106

— Copenhagen Medical Con-

gress, il 230
Speech, 231

— Geneva C<mgres8 of Hygiene,

ii. 177
^ London Medical Congress, il

139
Lecture, 142, 150

Pasteur, Louis {continued) :
At Muan Congress of Séricicul-
ture, ii. 35
Speech, 37

— Villa Vicentina, i. 228

— Villeneuve l'Etang, il 313
Birth, i. 7

Candidate Ibr Academy of

Science, L 105, 130
Candidature for Senate, iL 33
Characteristics, i. 12, 13, 15, 20,

30V 32, 43, 78» 198 ; »>• 2,

32» 39» 95» 134, .312
Chemistry and Physics theses,

i*44
Consulted on inoculation for

peripneumonia, iL 167

Criticism of Bernard's posthu-
mous notes, ii. 76, 04

Curator in Balard's Laboratory,
L 42

Crystallographic researches, L 33,
50, 74, 78, ; ii. 290
Lecture on, L 133

Dean of Lille Faculté, L 97 ; iL

35
Death, iL 315

Delegation to, ii. 173

Deputy to Edinburgh, iL 211

Speech, 215

Discovers constitution of para-

tartaric acid, L 51

Discussion with Bastian, ii. 41

Dispute with Rammelsberg, i.

133
Experiments on atmospheric air,

i. 122 UÇÇ.
Friendship for Charles Chappuis,

L 24, 26, 29
Grand Cross of L^on of Honour,

iL 135
His masters, i. 190 ; ii. 39
His name given to district in

Canada and to village in

Algeria, ii. 298
His teaching, i. 99, 102
lUness, ii. 275, 282, 292, 307, 314

Watchers, 308, 312
In hospitals, ii. 86, 89

— London, i. 276

— Paris, L 14, 27, 73

— Strasburg, i. 59, 232
Influence of his labours, ii. 290

329

INDEX

Pasteur, Louis (cotUinued) :
Influince of Oxygen on Develop-

ment of Yeast, i. 291
Interview with Biot, i. 53

— Liebigy L 231

— Mitscherlidi and Rose, i. 79

— Napoleon III, L 136, 168
Jubilee celebration, ii. 293

Speech, 296
Knight of L^on of Honour, i.

Laboratory (new), i. 206, 213,

216, 25 q ; ii. 13, 290
Lauréat of Exhibition, L 184
Lecture on germ theory, ii. 64
Lectures on vinegar at Orleans,

L 194
Letters, i. 31, 36
On experunent at Pouilly le

Fort, ii. 129, 132
To Bellotti, i. 272

— Chappuis on Lille Faculty,

L 100

— Dumas, i. 184, 219 ; iL 36

— Duruy, i. 172

— Emperor of Brazil, iL 237

— Jupille, ii. 266

— Laurent, i. 63

— Napoleon III, t. 192

— Raulin, i. 261

— Sainte Beuve, i. 164
M.D. of Bonn, L 204

Returns diploma, i. 248, 249,
259

Marks of gratitude from agri-
culturists, ii. 196

Marriage, i. 66

Medal from Society of French
Agricultors, il. 117

Member of Acadânie de Méde-
cine, ii. 4
Speech, 25, 26, 27

— Académie des Sciences, i.

134 ; il 64

— Académie Française, ii. 155,

161
Memorial plate on house at Dole,

iL 201
National Testimonial, iL 30
Obtains racemic acid, i. 90
Ofiered professorship at Pisa, i.

263
On chicken cholera, iL 99, m

Pasteur, Louis {continued) :
On Littré and Positivism, iL 156

— Science and religion, ii. 28

— Scientific supremacy of

France, i. 257

— Vaccine, iL 113, 115

of Anthrax, iL 115, 117

— Experiment, 120, 123, 124,

127, 131, 190
Results, 133
Paper on Plaque, ii. 102
Paralytic stroke, L 210 ; iL 282
Pastel drawings, L 16, 27
Pension augmented, iL 199
Permanent Secretary of Acadé-
mie des Sciences, iL 282
Portraits, iL 283
Professor of Chemistry, Stras-

burg, i. 59
Professor of Physics at Dijon, L

Proposed studies, L 260

Refuses German decoration, ii.

3"
Reply to Dumas, iL 174

''Researches on Dimorphism,"

i. 46
Researches on spontaneous

generation, L 113 seqg,,

28s, 293 ; ii- 72

Lecture at Sorboune on, L 139
Speech on, iL 26

Researches on stereo-chemistry,
iL 290

Sciences Budget^ i. 201

Scientific Annals of Ecole Nor-
male, L 144

Searches for his son, L 252

Solicitude for patients, iL 253,
264,267

Speech at Aubenas, iL 169

Speech at inauguration of Insti-
tute, ii. 287

Speech on Deville, iL 136

Speech on Josef^ B^trand, iL
255, 265

Studies beer, L 273 seqq^ 288 ;
iL 9, 13, 78, 82
Book OB, L 282, 289 ; ii. 152

— Cholera, L 165

— Contagious diseases, iL 2 i«^^.

— Fermentations, L 102, 108,

III, 129, 148 ;iL 2,24

330

INDEX

Pasteur, Louis {continued):
Studies, Hydrophobia, ii. 125,
184, 210, 2igseçç.
Inoculates dogs, ii. 226, 245
Inoculates Joseph Meister, ii.

251
Inoculates Jupille, ii. 260

— Silkworm Disease, \. 153» 156,

16^ 181, 204, 221

— on Wine, L 148, 207 ; ii. 78
Book on, i. 174

— Rouget of pigs, ii. 180
Report on, 182

— Splenic fever, ii. 45, 48, 68, 80
Traveb in search of racemic acid,

L 81 seqq.
Trephines dog, ii. 125
Tunn veterinary school and, ii.

190, 194
Vintage tour, i. 137
Visitors, ii. 257
Visits Duclaux, i. 271
Pasteur, Madame Louis, i. 64, 67,

76, 134, 211,226; ii. 273,

308
Goes to Alais, L 170.
Letters to daughter, ii. 125, 129,

134, 136, 227
Paul, St. Vincent de, Life of, ii.

314
Payén, paper on beer, I 273

Pecquet, discoveries through vivi-
section, ii. 149
Peers of France, i. 39 note
Pelletier, Louisa, bitten by mad dog,

ii. 264
Pellico, Silvio, Miei Prigioni, i. 21
Pelouze, M., ii. 147
Pénicillium glaucum, L 269 ; ii. 1 1
Perdrix, at Pasteur jubilee, iL 294
Perraud, T. J., bust at Mouay to,

il. 258
Perreyve, Henri, on Poland, i, 242
Perroncito, on microbe of chicken

cholera, ii. 97
Perrot, deputy to Edinburgh, ii.

211
Persoz, professor of chemistry,

Strasbuig, L 59
Peter M. :
Dispute with Pasteur, ii. 186,

188, 189, 192, 194
On antirabic cure, ii. 276

Philomathic Society, Pasteur Mem-
ber of, i. 133

Phthisis, theory of, ii. 6, 7
Phylloxera, ii. 94
Physicians, attitude towards

chemists, iL 3, 14
Picard, General, candidature for

senate, ii. 34
Pidoux and Trousseau ^ Traité de

Thérapeutique, ii, 3
Pidoux, Dr. :
On disease, ii. 6
On tuberculosis, ii. 6
Pierrefonds Castle restored, i. 167
Pierron, on Laurent at Riom, i.

62
Pinseux, professor of science at

Besançon, i. 58
Piorry, Dr. :
On disease and patient, ii. 54
On tuberculosis, ii. 8
Pisa, Pasteur offered professorship

at, i. 263
Pitt, on vote to Jenner, iL 199, 200
Plague bacillus discovered, ii. 306
Pl^ue, Pasteur's paper on, ii. 102
Plaideurs acted at Compiègne, L

167
Plénisette village, i. i
Pliny the Elder, remedy for hydro-
phobia, iL 241
Poggiale, speech on spontaneous

generation, ii. 25
Pointurier, M., L 16
Polarization of light, i. 35
Polignac, Cardinal of, Anti-Lucrc'

tius, L 117
Poligny, i. 252

Sous-érê/et of, i. 1 1
Polytechmdan, i. 56 note
Pontarlier, retreat to, i. 253
Positivist doctrine, ii. 157
Potatoes, prejudice against, L 225
Pottevin, attends on Pasteur, iL

308
Pouchet, M., L 128, 137, 181, 285 ;

ii. 42
Note on Vegetable and Animal

ProUhor^nisms, L 120
The Universe, 1. 283
Theory of fermentation, ii. 25
Pouillet, Professor of Physics at

Sorbonne, L 35, 37, 56

331

INDEX

Pomlly le Fort, experiment on vac-
cination of anthrax, ii. 120^
123, 124, 127, 131
Results, ii. 133
Prague, Pasteur at, i. 87
Prévôt, at Villeneuve PEtang, ii. 313
Primary teaching, law on reorgani-
zation, L 183
Prince Imperial, Vilia Vicentina, i.

227
Prix de Rome^ L 251 ftote
Prix MontyoHy L 22 note
Provost, acts in Plaideurs^ î. 167
Provostaye, de la, work on crystallo-
graphy, i. 43, 50
Prussia, Crown Prince of, L 185
Puerperal fever, ii. 88 seqq.
Putrefaction, i. 136

Quain, Dr., on Commission on
inoculation for hydro-
phobia, ii. 271

Quatrefages, essay on history of
silkworm, L 151

Queyrat, attends on Pasteur, ii.
308

Rabies and hydrophobia, ii. 244
Rabies, Commission. (See under

Hydro(>hobia}
Rabourdin, M., ii. 80
Racemic {Su Paratartaric acid)
Raibaud- Lange. M., i 222
Rammelsberg, dispute with Pasteur,

i. 133
Randon, General, i. 219
Raspail, F. V., researches on

origin of itch, ii. 199
Rassmann, Dr., obtains racemic

acid, i. %^
Raulin, Jules, i. 121, 169, 211, 218,

228, 276
Accompanies Pasteur to Milan,

ii. 35
Sketch of, 1. 268

Raulin's liquid, i. 270

Ravaisson, F., i. 179

Rayer, on charbon blood, ii. 46

Raynaud, Dr. Maurice, ii. 86

On hydrophobia, ii. 220
Reaudin, Auguste, on Lister's

niethods, il 22
Reclus, Dr., on purulent infection,

ii. 19
Reculfoz village, i. i
Redi, Francesco, experiment on
spontaneous generation,
i. 116
Redtenbacher, M., i. 85, 86
" Regiment Dauphin," i. 5
Regnault, Henri, i. 65, 76

Death, L 251
Régnier acts in Plaideurs^ L 167
Renan, £., i. 179
On State of France, i. 262
Quoted from Revuê Germanique^

i. 144
Sketch of, ii. 164

Speech to Pasteur on hydropho-
bia, il 219
Welcomes Pasteur to Académie
Française, ii 161

Renaud, M., i. ^

Renault, eiqpenments with rabic
blood, iL 222

Rencluse, i. 1^7

Renon, attends on Pasteur, iL 308

Répécaud, Headmaster of Royal
College Besançon, L 19

Rhenish provinces, i. 240

Richet, Dr., ii. 303

Rigault, lectures at Collège d«
France, i. 107

Robin, Charies, sketch of, L 162

Rochaxd, Dr., on plaque, ii. 103

Rochett^ Baron de la, sketch o^
li. 120

Rochleder, professor of chemistry,
Prague^ i. 87

Roger, on Pasteur's services, ii. 30

RoTlin College, experimentsin labo-
ratory at, iL 247, 251, 273

Romanet, Headmaster of Axbois
College, L 12, 17, 38, 47

Romieu, sketch of, i. 68

'* Rouget" of pigs (swine fever), iL
180, 182

Roqui, Jean Claude, i. 8

Roqui, Jeanne Etiennette, wife of
Jeanjoseph Pasteur, L 7, 8
Death, L 52

332

INDEX

Roscoe, Sir Henry, on Commission

on inoculation for hydro-

phobia, iL 271
Rose, G., crystallografdier, in

Paris, L 79
Rossi|^ol, M. :
Article in Vetermary Press on

microbe, iL 119
Vaccination of sheep against

anthrax and, ti. 120, 128,

131
Rotz, Pasteur medal, ii. 293

Ronher, at Tuileries, L 202

Roux, Dr. :

Account of Thuillier's death, il

207

At Pasteur Jubilee^ H. 294

Attends Pasteur, ii. 308

Collaborates with Pasteur, ii. 87,

89, 105, 107,111,123, 125,

128, 150, 179, 196, 223,

257,2^
Cross of Legion of Honour, ii.

Goes to Alexandria, ii. 205
Inoculates horse with diphtheri*

tic toxin, iL 303
Lectures on diphtheria, iL 304
Lectures on technical microbia,

iL284
Lecture to London Royal Society,

iL3oi
On Pasteur's medical work, iL

80
Performs inoculations, ii. 274
Sketch of^ ii. 14
Studies diphtheria, ii. 300
Roziers, Pilâtre de, balloon ascent,

iL 239
Russian mujilb bitten by wolf, iL

269

Saccharimeter, L 36

Sadowa, battle of, i. 233

Sainte Beuve :
Letters to Pasteur, i. 163, 164
On Biotas character, L 73
Opinion of Joseph Droz, i. 20
Pasteur attends his lectures, L

161
Philosophy, i. 162
Speech at Senate, L 187

St Dizier, i. 5

St. Hippolyte le Fort, L 218, 229

St Victor, Paul de, on Germany,

L247
Salimbeni, treatise on serioicultu re,

L 209
Salins, L 126
Claude Etienne Pasteur settles

at, L 2
Sand, Georges, L 139
Sandeau, Jtues, 1. 166
Sanderson, Professor Burdon, on

Commission on inoculation

for h^drofAobia, iL 271
Sarcey, Frandsooe^ i. 48
Saussure, Théodore de, L 131
Sauton, speech at Pasteur jubilee,

11. 295
Say, Léon, Pasteur's reply to, ii.

254
Scheele discovers tartaric add, L 33

Schrotter, Professor, L 85
Schwann, Dr., observations on fer-
mentations, L 104
Science and Religion, ii. 28
Scientists meet at Tuileries, L 202
Sedan, L 238
SédiUot, Dr. :

Correspondent of Institute,!. 245

Sketch of, ii. 56
Senarmont, M. de, i. 65, 75, 76, 132

Advice to'Pasteur, L 89

Confidence in Pasteur, L 115
Sepdcaemia, iL 8, 15, 52, iii, 191
Sériana village, Algeria, iL 299
Sériciculture, L 1 50 seqq,
Sero-Theraçy. (Su Diphtheria)
Serres, Olivier de, i. 227

Statue to, iL 167, 169

Theatre d'Agriculture, i. 227

Treatise on gathering of silk, L
151J 156
Seybel, M., l 85
Signol, experiments, ii. 51
Siflcworm disease, L 152x^^^182,
204,221

Lyons Commission on, L 224
Simon, Jides, L 189 ; iL 254

At inauguration of Pasteur Insti-
tute, ii. 284

On Ecole Normale, L 30
Sorbonne, L 28 note, 192

Inauguration of new, iL 292

333

INDEX

Sorbonne {contiftued) :
Pasteur Jubilee celebration, ii.
293
Spallanzanij Abbé, experiments on

animaculae, L 118
Splenic fever (charbon). (See

Anthrax)
Spontaneous generation, L 1 1 3 seqç,,
285, 293 ; il 7, 13, 72
Commission on, i. 139, 145
Pasteur's lecture at Sorbonne on,

î. 139
StofTel, Colonel Baron, i. 204

Strasburg arsenal, i. 235, 243

Strasburg, Pasteur at, i. 59, 92

Strasburg university, i. 248

Strauss, M. :
Goes to Alexandria, ii. 205
On Cholera Commission, ii. 210

Sully, opposes silk industry, i. 151

Sully-Prudhomme, love of France,
i. 251

Supt village, L 2

Surgery before Pasteur, ii. 15 seqq,

Susani, S., iL 37

Swine Ifever. (Sa Rouget of pigs)

Talmy, Dr., at Bordeaux, ii. 153
Tamisier, candidature for Senate,

». 34
Tamier, Dr., ii. 87

On puerperal fever, ii. 88

Tartaric acid, constitution of, i. 33,

Tautonville brewery, 1. 281
Teaching, law on liberty of, i. 67
Teaching, law on primary, i. 183
Terrillon, Dr., ii. 274
Thenard, Baron, i. 76 ; ii. 175

Sketch of, L 58
Thierry, M., at Pouilly le Fort

experiment, ii. 123, 126
Thiers, M. :

Letter to Pasteur, i. 188

On bravery of 3rd Regiment, i. 4
Third Regiment of the Une, i. 4

*^ Regiment Dauphin," i. 5
Thorwaldsen museum, Copen-
hagen, ii. 235
Thuillier, Louis, ii. 123

Collaborates with Pasteur, ii. 177,
179, 180, 183

Thuillier, Louis (conttmted) :
Death, ii. 207
Goes to Alexandria, iL 205
Studies hydrophobia, ii. 221

Thurel, candidature for Senate, ii.

Tisserand, M., ii. 173
Director of Crown Açîcultural

establishments, L 228
On Commission on hydrophobia,
ii. 226
Toscanelli, S., L 263, 264
Toul, on second line of fortifi-
cations, i. 235
Tourtel brewery at Tautonville, L

281
Toussaint, professor at Toulouse
Veterinary School, il 55,
80
Studies microbe of chicken

cholera, ii. 98
Vaccinates sheep against anthrax,
ii. 109, III
Traube, Dr., on ammoniacal fer-
mentation, ii. 13
Trécul, Dr., ii. 10
On heterogenesis, i. 285, 287
Theory of fermentation, iL 25
Trélat, Dr., surgeon at Maternité,
iL 88
On Commission of Hygiene, L
244
Trocadéro fete for Pasteur Institute,

iL 272
Troost, M., iL 137
Trousseau and Pidoux, Traité d€

Thérapeutique^ iL 3
Trousseau, Dr. :
Lecture on ferments quoted, ii. 9
On diphtheria. iL 301
On puerperal fever, ii. 88
Tsar, sends Cross of St. Anne of

Russia to Pasteur, iL 271
Tuberculosis, researches on, iL 6
Tuileries, scientists meet at, i. 202
Tunis, Pasteur Institute at, iL 311
Turin Veterinary School and Pas-
teur, iL 190, 194
Tyndall, Professor :
Dusts and Diseases^ ii. 22
Letter to Pasteur, ii. 39
Typhoid fever, medical methods of
treating, iL 185

334

INDEX

Udressier, Claude François, Count
of, i. I

Udressier, Philippe Marie Fran-
çois, Count of, L 2

Université, L 58 notg^ 203

University of Edinburgh, Tercen-
tenary, ii. 211
D^;rees, ii. 213

Vaccination, ii. loi, 112, 115
A^inst anthrax, ii. 116, 117
Experiment, 120, 123, 124, 127,

138, 190
Results, 133
Against swine fever, iL 209
Vaillant, Field-Marshal, i. 186, 221
At Tuileries, L 202
Silkworm nursery, i. 227
Vallisneri, medical professor of

Padua, L 116
Van Helmont, recipe for producing

mice, i. 116
Van THoff, studies on stereo-chem-
istry, ii. 290
Van Tieghem, i. 286 ; ii. 13
Vauquelin, tanning process, i. 37
Veillon, attends on Pasteur, ii. 308
Velpeau :
On diphtheria, iL 301
On pin prick, iL 15
Venasque Pass, L 137
Vercel, Jules, L 9, 47, 126, 253 ; iL
56
Accompanies Pasteur to Paris, L

Vemeuil, M. :

On antirabic cure, iL 276

On surgery (1870), iL 18
Vescovato, i. 222
Veuillot, Louis^ L 48

On liberty of teaching, L 68
Viala, Eugène :

Attends on Pasteur, ii. 308

Preparations for inoculations, ii.
262

Sketch of, ii. 235

Vice-President of Agricultural
Society, Mont^ier, ii.
172
Vicat, national testimonial to, iL 30

Villa Vicentina, lUyria, L 227
Villemin, Dr. :
Advises Pasteur to winter in

south, ii. 275, 276
At experiment on earthworms, ii.

106
On Commission on hydrophobia,

ii. 226
On contagion of tuberculosis, ii.

189
Researches on tuberculosis, ii.

6,7
ViUeneuve TEtang, branch estab-
lishment of laboratory at,
ii. 230, 240, 245
Stables, iL 313
Villers-Farlay, mayor of, writes to

Pasteur, iL 258, 259
Vinegar, Pasteur lecture on manu-
facture of, i. 194
Virchow, Professor :
At Copenhagen Medical Con-
gress, iL 231
At Edinburgh, ii. 214
On anti vivisection, iL 143
ViruUnt Diseases — Chicken Cholera,

iL98
Virus ferments, iL i seqq.
Vivisection :
Discoveries made through, iL 148
Virchow on, ii. 143
Volta, S., L 257
Voltaire :
Philosophic Dictionary quoted on

God, i. 120
Singularities of Nature, i. 1 19
Vone, Théodore, consults Pasteur,

iL 249
Vulpian, iL 72
Champions Pasteur, iL 277, 278
Death, ii. 281
On Brand's treatment of typhoid,

iL 186
On Conunission of hydrophobia,

iL 226
Pasteur consults, iL 250
Speech on Pasteur's experiments
on hydrophobia, iL 260^
281

W
Wales, Prince of, L 185

335

INDEX

Wallace^ Sir Richard, founds do^

cemetery at Bagatelle, il

246
Wasserzog, Etienne, interprets for

Pasteur, ii. 263
Weber, Dr., advises Mme. Meister

to consult Pasteur, iL 249
William, King of Prussia, meets

Napoleon, i. 239
Wine, studies on, i. 148, 207
Wissemburg, L 233
Wolf-bit^ statistics of deaths from,

ii. 270
Wurtz:

Laboratory, L 55

On Commission of Hygiene, L

244

Yeast, i. 103
Pasteur's paper on, L 291 ; iL 10.
(See also Fennentadon)
Yellow fever, Pasteur studies, iL

150
YersiiL Dr. :
Stumes diphtheria, iL 300
Studies plague in China, iL 306,

3"
Younger, welcomes Pasteur to

Edinbuiigh, iL 212

Zevort, M., L 62, 171
Zimmem, sous-preftdure^ i. 248

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