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THE
LIFE OF PASTEUR

BY RENE VALLERY-RADOT

TRANSLATED FROM THE

FRENCH BY MRS. R. L.

DEVONSHIRE

L'ceuvre de Pasteur est admirable ; elle montre son
genie, maia il faut avoir vecu dans son intimite pour
connaitre toute la bonte de son coeur. — DR. Roux

POPULAR EDITION

NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

1915

Printed in Great Britain

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
1822—1843

Origin of the Pasteur Family, 1 — Jean Joseph Pasteur, a Conscript in
1811; Sergeant-major in the 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3; a Knight
of the Legion of Honour, 4; his Marriage, 5; the Tannery at Dole,
6 — Birth of Louis Pasteur, his Childhood and Youth, 6. Studies in
Arbois College, 7. Departure for Paris, 11. Arrival in Paris, 11;
the Barbet Boarding School, Home Sickness, 11. Return to Jura,
Pasteur a Portrait Painter, 12; enters Besan9on Royal College, 13;
a Bachelier es Lettres, a Preparation Master, 14 ; his Readings, 15.
Friendship with Chappuis, 18; a Bachelier es Sciences, 20; Pasteur
admitted to the Ecole Normale, 22; Sorbonne Lectures, Impression
produced by J. B. Dumas, 21.

CHAPTER II

1844—1849

First Crystallographic Researches, 26; Pasteur a Curator in Balard'a
Laboratory, works with Auguste Laurent, 32. Chemistry and
Physics Theses, 34. Pasteur reads a Paper at the Academic des
Sciences, 36. February daysx 1848, 37. Molecular Dissymmetry,
38; J. J. Biot's Emotion at Pasteur's first Discovery, 41. Pasteur
Professor of Physics at Dijon, 43. Professor of Chemistry at the
Strasburg Faculty, his Frienfl Bertin, 45; M. Laurent, Rector of
the Strasburg Academy, 47; Pasteur's Marriage, 51.

CHAPTER III

1850—1854

Disgrace of tlie Strasburg Rector, 54. Letter from Biot to Pasteur's
Father, 57. Letter from J. B. Dumas, 60. Interview with Mitscher-
lich, 61. Pasteur in quest of Racemic Acid, in Germany, Austria
and Bohemia, 62. Pasteur a Knight of the Legion of Honour, 70.
Biot'a Congratulations, 70. Proposed Work, 72.

CHAPTER IV

1855—1859

Pasteur Dean of the new Lille Faculty, 75; his Teaching, 77; First
Studies on Fermentations, 79. First Candidature for the Academy

CONTENTS

of Sciences, 81. Lactic Fermentation, 83. Pasteur Administrator
of the Ecole Normale, 84. Alcoholic Fermentation, 85. Death of
Pasteur's eldest Daughter. 86.

CHAPTER V

1860—1864

So-called spontaneous Generation, 88. Polemics and Experiments, 92.
Renewed Candidature for the Academic des Sciences, 100. Lectures
on Crystallography, 102. Pasteur elected a Member of the Academie
des Sciences, 103. Conversation with Napoleon III, 104. Lecture
at the Sorbonne on so-called spontaneous Generation, 106. Pasteur
and the Students of the Ecole Normale, 109. Discussions raised
by the question of spontaneous Generation, 111. Studies on
Wine, 113.

CHAPTER VI

1865—1870

The Silkworm Disease; Pasteur sent to Alais, 115. Death of Jean
Joseph Pasteur, 118. Return to Paris, 121; Pasteur's Article on
J. B. Dumas' Edition of Lavoisier's Works, 122. Death of his
Daughter Camille, 123. Candidature of Ch. Robin for the Academie
des Sciences, 124. Letters exchanged between Ste. Beuve and
Pasteur, 124. The Cholera, 126. Pasteur at Compiegne Palace,
127. Return to the Gard, 130; Pasteur's Collaborators, 130. Death
of his Daughter Cecile, 131. Letter to Duruy, 131. Publication of
the Studies on Wine, 133. Pasteur's Article on Claude Bernard's
Work, 134. Pasteur's Work in the South of France, 138. Letter
from Duruy, 139. Pasteur a Laureate of the Exhibition, 140;
solemn Distribution of Rewards, 141. Ste. Beuve at the Senate,
142. Disturbance at the Ecole Normale, 143. Pasteur's Letter to
Napoleon III, 147. Lecture on the Manufacture of Vinegar at
Orleans, 148. Council of Scientists at the Tuileries, 154. Studies
on Silkworm Diseases (continued), 155. Heating of Wines, 157.
Paralytic Stroke, 160 ; Illness, 161 ; private Reading, 163. Enlarge-
ment of the Laboratory, 164. Pasteur in the South, 166. Success
of his Method of opposing Silkworm Diseases, 168. Pasteur at
Villa Vicentina, Austria, 173. Interview with Liebig, 176.

CHAPTER VII

1870—1872

Pasteur in Strasburg, 177; the War, 179; Pasteur at Arbois, 180. The
Academie des Sciences during the Siege of Paris, 186. Pasteur
returns his Doctor's Diploma to the Bonn Faculty of Medicine, 189.
Retreat of Bourbaki's Army Corps, 192; Pasteur at Pontarlier,
102. Pasteur at Lyons, 194. " Why France found no superior Men

CONTENTS vii

in the Hours of Peril," 194. Proposed Studies, 198. Professorship
offered to Pasteur at Pisa, 200; his Refusal, 200. The Prussians
at Arbois, 201. Pasteur and his Pupil Raulin, 203. Pasteur at
Clermont Ferrand; stays with his Pupil M. Duclaux, 206. Studies
on Beer, 207. Visit to London Breweries, 210. Renewed Discus-
sions at the Academie des Sciences, 216.

CHAPTER VIII

187a— 1877

Pasteur elected to the Academie de Medecine, 225. General Condition
of Medicine, 226. Surgery before Pasteur, 234. Influence of his ]
Work, 236. Letter from Lister, 238. Debates at the Academie de J
Medecine, 240 ; Science and Religion, 244. National Testimonial,
245. Pasteur a Candidate for the Senate, 248. Speech at the Milan
Congress of Sericiculture, 251. Letter from Tyndall, 252. Dis-
cussion with Dr. Bastian, 253.

.

CHAPTER IX

1877—1879

Charbon, or Splenic Fever, 257; Pasteur studies it, 259. Traditional
Medicine and Pastorian Doctrines, 263. Progress of Surgery, 266.
The word Microbe invented, 266; renewed Attacks against Pasteur,
267. Charbon given to Hens— experiment before the Academie de
Medecine, 268. Pasteur's Note on the Germ Theory, 271. Cam-
paign of Researches on Charbon, 275. Critical Examination of a
posthumous Note by Claude Bernard, 281. Pasteur in the Hospitals,
289; Puerperal Fever, 289.

CHAPTER X

1880—1882

Chicken Cholera, 297. Attenuation of the Virus, 299. Suggested Re-
searches on the bubonic Plague, 301. The Share of Earthworms
in the Development of Charbon, 304; an Incident at the Academie
de Medecine, 309. The Vaccine of Charbon, 311 ; public Experiment
at Pouilly le Fort on the Vaccination of Splenic Fever, 316. First
Experiments on Hydrophobia, 318. Death of Sainte-Claire Deville,
326; Pasteur's Speech, 327. Pasteur at the London Medical Con-
gress, 329; Virchow and Anti-vivisection, 332. Yellow Fever, 338;
Pasteur at Pauillac, 338.

CHAPTER XI

1882—1884

•

Pasteur elected a Member of the Academie Fra^aise, 341 ; his Opinions
on Positivism, 342; J. B. Dumas and Nisard, his Sponsors, 344;

viii CONTENTS

Pasteur welcomed by Renan into the Academie Frangaise, 346.
Homage from Melun, from Aubenas, 350; Pasteur at Nimes and
at Montpellier, 353. Speech of J. B. Dumas, 354 ; Pasteur's
Answer, 355. Pasteur at the Geneva Conference of Hygiene, 358.
Studies on the Rouget of Pigs — Journey to Bollene, 360. Typhoid f
Fever and the Champions of old Medical Methods, 364. Pasteur
and the Turin Veterinary School, 368. Marks of Gratitude from
Agriculturists, 372; Pasteur at Aurillac, 373. Another Testimonial
of national Gratitude, 374; a commemorative Plate on the House
where Pasteur was born, 376; his Speech at the Ceremony, 377.
Cholera, 378; French Mission to Alexandria, 379. Death of
Thuillier, 380. J. B. Dumas' last Letter to Pasteur, 383. Third
Centenary of the University of Edinburgh — the French Delegation,
384; Ovation to Pasteur, 386; Pasteur's Speech, 386.

CHAPTER XII

1884—1885

The Hydrophobia Problem, 390; preventive Inoculations on Dogs, 395.
Experiments on Hydrophobia verified by a Commission, 396. The
Copenhagen Medical Congress, Pasteur in Denmark, 399. In-
stallation at Villeneuve 1'Etang of a Branch Establishment of
Pasteur's Laboratory, 406. Former Remedies against Hydrophobia,
407. Kennels at Villeneuve 1'Etang, 410.

CHAPTER XIII

1885^1888

First Antirabic Inoculation on Man, 414 ; the little Alsatian Boy, Joseph
Meister, 1415. Pasteur at Arbois; his Speech for the Welcome of
Joseph Bertrand, succeeding J. B. Dumas at the Academie Fran-
9aise, 418. Perraud the Sculptor, 421. Inoculation of the Shepherd
Jupille, 422; the Discovery of the Preventive Treatment of Rabies
announced to the Academie des Sciences and the Academie de
Medecine, 422. Death of Louise Pelletier, 426; Pasteur's Solici-
tude for inoculated Patients, 427. Foundation of the Pasteur
Institute, 428; the Russians from Smolensk, 429; English Commis-
sion for the Verification of the Inoculations against Hydrophobia,
430. Fete at the Trocadero, 431. Temporary Buildings in the Rue
Vauquelin for the Treatment of Hydrophobia, 432. Ill-health of
Pasteur, 433; his Stay at Bordighera, 434. Foundation of the
Annals of the Pasteur Institute, 434. Discussions on Rabies at the
Academie de Medecine, 434. Earthquake at Bordighera, 436.
Pasteur returns to France, 437. Report of the English Commission
on the Treatment of Rabies, 437. Pasteur elected Permanent
Secretary of the Academie des Sciences, 439; his Resignation, 439.
Inauguration of the Pasteur Institute, 440.

CONTENTS ix

CHAPTER XIV
1889—1895

Influence of Pasteur's Labours, 445 ( his Jubilee, 447 ; Speech, 450.
Pasteur's Name given to a District in Canada and to a Village in
Algeria, 451. Diphtheria, M. Boux' Studies in Serotherapy, 453;
Pasteur at Lille ; Lecture by M. Roux on Serotherapy, 456 ; repeated
at the Buda-Pesth Congress, 456. Subscription for the Organiza-
tion of the Antidiphtheritic Treatment, 456. Pasteur's Disciples,
457. Pasteur's Illness, 458 ; Visit from Alexandre Dumas, 460 ;
Visit from former Ecole Normale Students, 460. Pasteur refuses a
German Decoration, 461. Conversations with Chappuis, 462. De-
parture for Villeneuve 1'Etang, 462 ; last Weeks, 463. Project for
a Pasteur Hospital, 464. Death of Pasteur, 464.

Index 465

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

CHAPTER 1
1822—1843

THE origin of even the humblest families can be traced
back by persevering search through the ancient parochial
registers. Thus the name of Pasteur is to be found written
at the beginning of the seventeenth century in the old registers
of the Priory of Mouthe, in the province of Franche Comte".
The Pasteurs were tiDers of the soil, and originally formed a
sort of tribe in the small village of Reculf oz , dependent on the
Priory, but they gradually dispersed over the country.

The registers of Mieges, near Nozeroy, contain an entry
of the marriage of Denis Pasteur and Jeanne David, dated
February 9, 1682. This Denis, after whom the line of
Pasteur's ancestors follows in an unbroken record, lived in the
village of Plenisette, where his eldest son Claude was born in
1683. Denis afterward sojourned for some time in the village
of Douay, and ultimately forsaking the valley of Mieges came
to Lemuy, where he worked as a miller for Claude Francois
Count of Udressier, a noble descendant of a secretary of the
Emperor Charles V.

Lemuy is surrounded by wide plains affording pasture for
herds of oxen. In the distance the pine trees of the forest of
Joux stand close together, like the ranks of an immense army,
their dark masses deepening the azure of the horizon. It was
in those widespreading open lands that Pasteur's ancestors lived.
Near the church, overshadowed by old beech and lime trees, a
tombstone is to be found overgrown with grass. Some
members of the family lie under that slab naively inscribed :
" Here lie, each by the side of the others ..."

In 1716, in the mill at Lemuy, ruins of which still exist,
the marriage contract of Claude Pasteur was drawn up and
signed in the presence of Henry Girod, Royal notary of Salins.
The father and mother declared themselves unable to write,

B

2 ; :.;: THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

but we have the signatures of the affianced couple, Claude
Pasteur and Jeanne Belle, affixed to the record of the quaint
betrothal oath of the time. This Claude was in his turn a
miller at Lemuy, though at his death in 1746 he is only
mentioned as a labourer in the parish register. He had eight
children, the youngest, whose name was Claude Etienne, and
who was born in the village of Supt, a few kilometres from
Lemuy, being Louis Pasteur's great-grandfather.

What ambition, what love of adventures induced him to
leave the Jura plains to come down to Salins? A desire for
independence in the literal sense of the word. According to
the custom then still in force in Franche Comte (in con-
tradiction to the name of that ^province, as Voltaire truly
remarks), there were yet some serfs, that is to say, people
legally incapable of disposing of their goods or of their persons.
They were part of the possessions of a nobleman or of the
lands of a convent or monastery. Denis Pasteur and • his son
had been serfs of the Counts of Udressier. Claude Etienne
desired to be freed and succeeded in achieving this at the age
of thirty, as is proved by a deed, dated March 20, 1763, drawn
up in the presence of the Eoyal notary, Claude Jarry. Messire
Philippe-Marie-Francois, Count of Udressier, Lord of Ecleux,
Cramans, Lemuy and other places, consented " by special
grace " to free Claude Etienne Pasteur, a tanner, of Salins,
his serf. The deed stipulated that Claude Etienne and his
unborn posterity should henceforth be enfranchised from the
stain of mortmain. Four gold pieces of twenty-four livres
were paid then and there in the mansion of the Count of
Udressier by the said Pasteur.

The following year, he married Francoise Lambert. After
setting up together a small tannery in the Faubourg Champ-
tave they enjoyed the fairy tale ideal of happiness : they had
ten children. The third, Jean Henri, through whom this
genealogy continues, was born in 1769. On June 25, 1779,
letters giving Claude Etienne Pasteur the freedom of the city
of Salins were delivered to him by the Town Council.

Jean Henri Pasteur, in his twentieth year, went to
Besangon to seek his fortune as a tanner, but was not success-
ful. His wife, Gabrielle Jourdan, died at the age of twenty,
and he married again, but himself died at twenty-seven,
leaving one little son by his first marriage, Jean Joseph
Pasteur, born March 16, 1791. This child, who was to be

1822—1843

Louis Pasteur's father, was taken charge* of by his grand-
mother at Salins; later on, his father's sisters, one married to
a wood merchant named Chamecin, and the other to Philibert
Bourgeois, Chamecin's partner, adopted the orphan. He was
carefully brought up, but without much learning; it was
considered sufficient in those days to be able to read the
Emperor's bulletins ; the rest did not seem to matter very
much. Besides, Jean Joseph had to earn his living at the
tanner's trade, which had been his father's and his grand-
father's before him.

Jean Joseph was drawn as a conscript in 1811, and went
through the Peninsular War in 1812 and 1813. He belonged
to the 3rd Kegiment of the Jjine, whose mission was to pursue
in the northern Spanish provinces the guerillas of the famous
Espoz y Mina. A legend grew round this wonderful man ; he
was said to make his own gunpowder in the bleak mountain
passes ; his innumerable partisans were supplied with arms and
ammunition by the English cruisers. He dragged women and
old men after him, and little children acted as his scouts.
Once or twice however, in May, 1812, the terrible Mina was
very nearly caught; but in July he was again as powerful as
ever. The French had to organize mobile columns to again
occupy the coast and establish communications with France.
There was some serious fighting. Mina and his followers were
incessantly harassing the small French contingent of the 3rd
and 4th Eegiments, which were almost alone. " How many
traits of bravery," writes Tissot, "will remain unknown which
on a larger field would have been rewarded and honoured ! ' '

The records of the 3rd Eegiment allow us to follow step by
step this valiant little troop, and among the rank and file,
doing his duty steadily through terrible hardships, that private
soldier (a corporal in July, 1812, and a sergeant in October,
1813) whose name was Pasteur. The battalion returned to
France at the end of January, 1814. It formed a part of that
Leval division which, numbering barely 8,000 men, had to
fight at Bar-sur-Aube against an army of 40,000 enemies. The
3rd Kegiment was called "brave amongst the brave." "If
Napoleon had had none but such soldiers," writes Thiers in
his History of the Consulate and the Empire, "the result of
that great struggle would certainly have been different." The
Emperor, touched by so much courage, distributed crosses
among the men. Pasteur was made a sergeant-major on March

B 2

4 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

10, 1814, and received, two days later, the cross of the Legion
of Honour.

At the battle of Areis-sur-Aube (March 21) the Leval division
had again to stand against 50,000 men — Kussians, Austrians,
Bavarians, and Wurtembergers. Pasteur's battalion, the 1st
of the 3rd Eegiment, came back to St. Dizier and went on by
forced marches to Fontainebleau, where Napoleon had con-
centrated all his forces, arriving on April 4. The battalion was
now reduced to eight officers and 276 men. The next day, at
twelve o'clock, the Leval division and the remnant of the 7th
corps were gathered in the yard of the Cheval Blanc Inn and
were reviewed by Napoleon. The attitude of these soldiers,
who had heroically fought in Spain and in France, and who
were still offering their passionate devotion, gave him a few
moments' illusion. Their enthusiasm and acclamations con-
trasted with the coldness, the reserve, the almost insubordina-
tions of Generals like Ney, Lefebvre, Oudinot and MacDonald,
who had just declared that to march on Paris would be folly.

Marmont's defection hastened events; the Emperor, seeing
himself forsaken, abdicated. Jean Joseph Pasteur had not, like
Captain Coignet, the sad privilege of witnessing the Emperor's
farewell, his battalion having been sent into the department of
Eure on April 9. On April 23 the white cockade replaced the
tricolour.

On May 12, 1814, a royal order gave to the 3rd line Kegiment
the name of ' ' Kegiment Dauphin " ; it was reorganized at
Douai, where Sergeant-major Pasteur received his discharge
from the service. He returned to Besancon with grief and
anger in his heart : for him, as for many others risen from the
people, Napoleon was a demi-god. Lists of victories, prinbiples
of equality, new ideas scattered throughout the nations, had
followed each other in dazzling visions. It was a cruel trial
for half -pay officers, old sergeants, grenadiers, peasant soldiers,
to come down from this imperial epic to every-day monotony,
police supervision , and the anxieties of poverty ; their wounded
patriotism was embittered by feelings of personal humiliation.
Jean Joseph resigned himself to his fate and went back to his
former trade. The return from Elba was a ray of joy and hope
in his obscure life, only to be followed by renewed darkness.

He was living in the Faubourg Champtave a solitary life in
accordance with his tastes and character when this solitude
was interrupted for an instant. The Mayor of Salins, a knight

1822—1843 5

of Malta and an ardent royalist, ordered all the late soldiers of
Napoleon, the " brigands de la Loire " as they were now called,
to bring their sabres to the Mairie. Joseph Pasteur reluctantly
obeyed ; but when he heard that these glorious weapons were
destined to police service, and would be used by police agents,
further submission seemed to him intolerable. He recognized
his own sergeant-major's sabre, which had just been given to
an agent, and, springing upon the man, wrested the sword
from him. Great excitement ensued — a mixture of indigna-
tion , irritation and repressed enthusiasm ; the numerous Bona-
partists in the town began to gather together. An Austrian
regiment was at that time still garrisoned in the town. The
Mayor appealed to the colonel, asking him to repress this dis-
obedience ; but the Austrian officer refused to interfere, declar-
ing that he both understood and approved the military feelings
which actuated the ex-sergeant-major. Pasteur was allowed to
keep his sword, and returned home accompanied by sympa-
thizers who were perhaps more noisily enthusiastic than he
could have wished.

Having peacefully resumed his work he made the acquaint-
ance of a neighbouring family of gardeners, whose garden faced
his tannery on the other bank of the " Furieuse," a river rarely
deserving its name. From the steps leading to the water Jean
Joseph Pasteur often used to watch a young girl working in the
garden at early dawn. She soon perceived that the "old
soldier "—very young still ; he was but twenty-five years old —
was interested in her every movement. Her name was Jeanne
Etiennette Eoqui.

Her parents, natives of Marnoz, a village about four kilo-
metres from Salins, belonged to one of the most ancient
plebeian families of the country. The Salins archives mention
a Boqui working in vineyards as far back as 1555, and in 1659
there were Eoqui lampmakers and plumbers. The members of
this family were in general so much attached to each other that
1 ' to love like the Eoqui ' ' had become proverbial ; their wills
and testaments mentioned legacies or gifts from brother to
brother, uncle to nephew. In 1815 the father and mother of
Jeanne Etiennette were living very quietly in the old Salins
faubourg. Their daughter was modest, intelligent and kind;
Jean Joseph Pasteur asked for her hand in marriage. They
seemed made for each other ; the difference in their natures
only strengthened their mutual affection : he was reserved,

6 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

almost secretive, with a slow and careful mind apparently
absorbed in his own inner life; she was very active, full of
imagination, and ready enthusiasm.

The young couple migrated to Dole and settled down in the
Hue des Tanneurs. Their first child only lived a few months ;
in 1818 a little daughter came. Four years ktter in a small
room of their humble home, on Friday, December 27, 1822, at
2 a.m., Louis Pasteur was born.

Two daughters were born later — one at Dole and the other
at Marnoz, in the house of the Eoqui. Jean Joseph Pasteur's
mother-in-law, now a widow, considering that her great age no
longer allowed her to administer her fortune, had divided all
she possessed between her son Jean Claude Eoqui, a landed
proprietor a.t Marnoz, and Jeanne Etiennette her daughter.

Thus called away from Dole by family interests, Jean Joseph
Pasteur came to live at Marnoz. The place was not very
favourable to his trade, though a neighbouring brook rendered
the establishment of a tannery possible. The house, though
many times altered, still bears the name of " Maison Pasteur."
On one of the inner doors the veteran, who had a taste for
painting, had depicted a soldier in an old uniform now become
a peasant and tilling the soil. This figure stands against a
background of grey sky and distant hills ; leaning on his spade
the man suspends his labours and dreams of past glories. It is
easy to criticize the faults in the painting, but the sentimental
allegory is full of feeling.

Louis Pasteur's earliest recollections dated from that time ;
he could remember running joyously along the Aiglepierre road.
The Pasteur family did not remain long at Marnoz. A tannery
was to let in the neighbourhood by the town of Arbois, near the
bridge which crosses the Cuisance, and only a few kilometres
from the source of the river. The house, behind its modest
frontage, presented the advantage of a yard where pits had
been dug for the preparation of the skins. Joseph Pasteur
took this little house and settled there with his wife and chil-
dren.

Louis Pasteur was sent at first to the " Ecole Primaire"
attached to the college of Arbois. Mutual teaching was then
the fashion ; scholars were divided into groups : one child
taught the rudiments of reading to others, who then spelt aloud
in a sort of sing-song. The master, M. Eenaud, went from
group to group designating the monitors. Louis soon desired

1822—1843 7

to possess this title, perhaps all the more so because he was
the smallest scholar. But those who would decorate the early
years of Louis Pasteur with wonderful legends would be dis-
appointed : when a little later he attended the daily classes at
the Arbois college he belonged merely to the category of good
average pupils. He took several prizes without much diffi-
culty; he rather liked buying new lesson books, on the first
page of which he proudly wrote his name. His father, who
wished to instruct himself as well as to help his son, helped
him with his home preparation. During holidays, the boy
enjoyed his liberty. Some of his schoolfellows — Vercel, Char-
riere, Guillemin, Coulon — called for him to come out with them
and he followed them with pleasure. He delighted in fishing
parties on the Ouisance, and much admired the net throwing
of his comrade Jules Vercel. But he avoided bird trapping;
the sight of a wounded lark was painful to him.

The doors of Louis Pasteur's home were not usually open
except to his schoolboy friends, who, when they did not fetch
him away, used to come and play in the tannery yard with
remnants of bark, stray bits of iron, etc. Joseph Pasteur,
though not considered a proud man, did not easily make
friends. His language and manners were not those of a
retired sergeant ; he never spoke of his campaigns and never
entered a cafe*. On Sundays, wearing a military-looking frock
coat, spotlessly clean and adorned with the showy ribbon of the
Legion of Honour (worn very large at that time) , he invariably
walked out towards the road from Arbois to Besan£on. Thitf
road passes between vine-planted hills. On the left, on a
wooded height above the wide plain towards Dole, the ruins of
the Vadans tower invest the whole landscape with a lingering
glamour of heroic times. In these solitary meditations, he
dwelt more anxiously on the future than on present difficulties,
the latter being of little account in this hard-working family.
What would become of this son of his, conscientious and
studious, but, though already thirteen years old, with no
apparent preference for anything but drawing? The epithet
of artist given to Louis Pasteur by his Arboisian friends only
half pleased the paternal vanity. And yet it is impossible not
to be struck by the realism of his first original effort, a very
bold pastel drawing. This pastel represents Louis' mother,
one morning that she was going to market, with a white cap
and a blue and green tartan shawl. Her son insisted on painting

8 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

her just as she was. The portrait is full of sincerity and not
unlike the work of a conscientious pre-Kaphaelite. The power-
ful face is illumined by a pair of clear straightforward eyes.

Though they did not entertain mere acquaintances, the
husband and wife were happy to receive those who seemed to
them worthy of affection or esteem by reason of some superiority
of the mind or of the heart. In this way they formed a friend-
ship with an old army doctor then practising in the Arbois
hospital, Dr. Dumont, a man who studied for the sake of
learning and who did a great deal of good while avoiding
. popularity.

%l Another familiar friend was a philosopher named Bousson
pde Mairet. An indefatigable reader, he never went out with-
' out a book or pamphlet in his pocket. He spent his life in
compiling from isolated facts annals in which the character-
istics of the Francs-Corn tois, and especially the Arboisians,
were reproduced in detail, with labour worthy of a Benedictine
monk. He often came to spend a quiet evening with the
Pasteur family, who used to question him and to listen to his
interesting records of that strange Arboisian race, difficult to
understand, presenting as it does a mixture of heroic courage
and that slightly ironical good humour which Parisians and
Southerners mistake for nai'veness. Arboisians never distrust
themselves, but are sceptical where others are concerned. They
are proud of their local history, and even of their rodomontades.
For instance, on August 4, 1830, they sent an address to
the Parisians to express their indignation against the " Ordon-
nances " l and to assure them that all the available population
of Arbois was ready to fly to the assistance of Paris. In April,
1834, a lawyer's clerk, passing one evening through Arbois by
the coach, announced to a few gardes nationaux who were stand-
ing about that the Eepublic was proclaimed at Lyons. Arbois
immediately rose in arms ; the insurgents armed themselves
with guns from the Hotel de Ville. Louis Pasteur watched the

1 Ordonnances du 26 Juillet, 1830. A royal Decree issued by Charles X
under the advice of his minister, Prince de Polignac; it was based on a
misreading of one of the articles of the Charter of 1814, and dissolved
the new Chamber of Deputies before it had even assembled; it sup-
pressed the freedom of the Press and created a new electoral system
to the advantage of the royalist party. These ordonnances were the
cause of the 1830 Revolution, which placed Louis Philippe of Orleans on
the Throne. [Trans.]

© C 1822—1843 9

arrival from Besancon of 200 grenadiers, four squadrons of
light cavalry, and a small battery of artillery sent to reduce the
rebels. The sous-prdfet of Poligny having asked the rioters
who were their leaders, they answered with one voice, " We
are all leaders." A few days later the great, the good news
was published in all the newspapers: " Arbois, Lyons, and
Paris are pacified." The Arboisians called their neighbours
11 the Braggarts of Salins," probably with the ingenious inten-
tion of turning such a well-deserved accusation from them-
selves.

Louis Pasteur, whose mind already had a serious bent,
preferred to these recent anecdotes such historical records as
that of the siege of Arbois under Henry IV, when the Arbois-
ians held out for three whole days against a besieging army of
25,000 men. His childish imagination, after being worked
upon by these stories of local patriotism, eagerly seized upon
ideals of a higher patriotism, and fed upon the glory of the
French people as represented by the conquests of the Empire.

He watched his parents , day by day working under dire neces-
sity and ennobling their weary task by considering their
children's education almost as essential as their daily bread ;
and, as in all things the father and mother took an interest in
noble motives and principles, their material life was lightened
and illumined by their moral life.

One more friend, the headmaster of Arbois college, M.
Komanet, exerted a decisive influence on Louis Pasteur's
career. This master, who was constantly trying to elevate ,
the mind and heart of his pupils, inspired Louis with great
admiration as well as with respect and gratitude. Komanet
considered that whilst instruction doubled a man's value, educa-
tion, in the highest sense of the word, increased it tenfold.
He was the first to discover in Louis Pasteur the hidden spark -
that had not yet revealed itself by any brilliant success in the /
hardworking schoolboy. Louis' mind worked so carefully that
he was considered slow ; he never affirmed anything of which
he was not absolutely sure ; but with all his strength and
caution he also had vivid imaginative faculties.

Eomanet, during their strolls round the college playground,
took pleasure in awakening with an educator's interest the
leading qualities of this young nature — circumspection and
enthusiasm. The boy, who had been sitting over his desk

10 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

with all-absorbing attention, now listened with sparkling eyes
to the kind teacher talking to him of his future and opening to
him the prospect of the great Ecole Normale.1

An officer of the Paris municipal guard, Captain Barbier,
who always came to Arbois when on leave, offered to look after
Louis Pasteur if he were sent to Paris. But Joseph Pasteur
— in spite of all — hesitated to send his son, not yet sixteen
years old, a hundred leagues away from home. Would it not
be wiser to let him go to Besancon college and come back to
Arbois college as professor? What could be more desirable
than such a position? Surely Paris and the Ecole Normale
were quite unnecessary ! The question of money also had to
be considered.

" That need not trouble you," said Captain Barbier. " In
the Latin Quarter, Impasse des Feuillantines, there is a pre-
paratory school, of which the headmaster, M. Barbet, is a
Franc-Comtois. He will do for your son what he has done for
many boys from his own country — that is, take him at reduced
school fees."

Joseph Pasteur at last allowed himself to be persuaded, and
Louis' departure was fixed for the end of October, 1838. He
was not going alone : Jules Vercel, his dear school friend, was
also going to Paris to work for his " baccalaureat." 2 This
youth had a most happy temperament : unambitious, satisfied
with each day's work as it came, he took pride and pleasure
in the success of others, and especially in that of " Louis," as
he then and always fraternally called his friend. The two

1 Ecole Normale Superieure, under the supervision of the Ministry of
Public Instruction and Fine Arts, founded in 1808 by Napoleon I, with
the object of training young professors. Candidates must (1) be older
than eighteen and younger than twenty-one; (2) pass one written and
one viva voce examination ; (3) be already in possession of their diploma
as bachelier of science or of letters, according to the branch of studies
which they wish to take up ; and (4) sign an engagement for ten years'
work in public instruction. The professors of the Ecole Normale take
the title of Maitre des Conferences. [Trans.]

2 Baccalaureat (low Latin bachalariatus) , first degree taken in a
French Faculty; the next is licence, and the next doctorate. It is
much more elementary than a bachelor's degree in an English university.
There are two baccalaureats : (1) the baccalaureat es lettres required of
candidates for the Faculties of Medicine and of Law, to the Ecole
Normale Superieure and to several public offices ; (2) the baccalaureat es
sciences, required for admission to the Schools of Medicine and of Phar-
macy, to the Ecole Normale Superieure (scientific section), and the
Polytechnic, Military and Foresters' Schools. [Trans.]

1822—1843 11

boys' friendship went some way to alleviate the natural
anxieties felt by both families. The slowness and difficulty of
travelling in those days gave to farewells a sort of solemn sad-
ness ; they were repeated twenty times whilst the horses were
being harnessed and the luggage hoisted on to the coach in the
large courtyard of the "Hotel de la Poste." On that bleak
October morning, amidst a shower of rain and sleet, the two
lads had to sit under the tarpaulin behind the driver ; there
were no seats left inside or under the hood. In spite of
Vercel's habit of seeing the right side of things and his joy in
thinking that in forty-eight hours he, the country boy, would
see the wonders of Paris — in spite of Pasteur's brave resolve
to make the most of his unexpected opportunities of study,
of the now possible entrance into the " Ecole Normale " —
both looked with heavy hearts at the familiar scene they were
leaving behind them — their homes, the square tower of Arbois
church, the heights of the Ermitage in the grey distance.

Every native of Jura, though he affects to feel nothing of the
kind, has, at the bottom of his heart, a strong feeling of attach-
ment for the corner of the world where he has spent his child-
hood ; as soon as he forsakes his native soil his thoughts return
to it with a painful and persistent charm. The two boys did
not take much interest in the towns where the coach stopped
to change horses, Dole, Dijon, Auxerre, Joigny, Sens, Fon-
tainebleau, etc.

When Louis Pasteur reached Paris he did not feel like
Balzac's student hero, confidently defying the great city. In
spite of the strong will already visible in his pensive features,
his grief was too deep to be reasoned away. No one at first
suspected this; he was a reserved youth, with none of the
desire to talk which leads weak natures to ease their sorrows
by pouring them out; but, when all was quiet in the Impasse
des Feuillantines and his sleeping comrades could not break
in upon his regrets, he would lie awake for hours thinking of
his home and repeating the mournful line —

How endless unto watchful anguish
Night doth seem.

The students of the Barbet school attended the classes of
the Lycee St. Louis. In spite of his willingness and his pas-
sionate love of study, Louis was overcome with despair at being
away from home. Never was homesickness more acute. " If

12 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

I could only get a whiff of the tannery yard," he would say to
Jules Vercel, "I feel I should be cured." M. Barbet en-
deavoured in vain to amuse and turn the thoughts of this lad
of fifteen so absorbed in his sorrow. At last he thought it his
duty to warn the parents of this state of mind , which threatened
to become morbid.

One morning in November Louis Pasteur was told with an
air of mystery that he was wanted. " They are waiting for you
close by," said the messenger, indicating a small cafe at the
corner of the street. Louis entered and found a man sitting at
a small table at the back of the shop, his face in his hands. It
was his father. " I have come to fetch you," he said simply.
No explanations were necessary ; the father and son understood
each other's longings.

What took place in Pasteur's mind when he found himself
again at Arbois? After the first few days of relief and joy, did
he feel, when he went back to Arbois college, any regret, not
to say remorse, at not having overcome his homesickness?
Was he discouraged by the prospect of a restricted career in
that small town ? Little is known of that period when his will
had been mastered by his feelings ; but from the indecision of
his daily life we may hazard a guess at the disquieted state of
his mind at this time. At the beginning of that year (1839)
he returned for a time to his early tastes ; he went back to his
coloured chalks, left aside for the last eighteen months, ever
since one holiday time when he had drawn Captain Barbier,
proudly wearing his uniform, and with the high colour of ex-
cellent health.

He soon got beyond the powers of his drawing master, M.
Pointurier, a good man who does not seem to have seen any
scientific possibilities in the art of drawing.

Louis' pastel drawings soon formed a portrait gallery of
friends. An old cooper of seventy, Father Gaidot, born at
Dole, but now living at Arbois, had his turn. Gaidot appears
in a festive costume, a blue coat and a yellow waistcoat, very
picturesque with his wrinkled forehead and close-shaven cheeks.
Then there are all the members of a family named Koch. The
father and the son are drawn carefully, portraits such as are
often seen in country villages ; but the two daughters Lydia
and Sophia are more delicately pencilled ; they live again in the
youthful grace of their twenty summers. Then we have a
notary, the wide collar of a frock coat framing his rubicund

1822—1843 18

face ; a young woman in white ; an old nun of eighty-two in a
fluted cap, wearing a white hood and an ivory cross ; a little
boy of ten in a velvet suit, a melancholy-looking child, not
destined to grow to manhood. Pasteur obligingly drew any
one who wished to have a portrait. Among all these pastels,
two are really remarkable. The first represents, in his official
garb, a M. Blondeau, registrar of mortgages, whose gentle and
refined features are perfectly delineated. The other is the por-
trait of a mayor of Arbois, M. Pareau; he wears his silver-
embroidered uniform, with a white stock. The cross of the
Legion of Honour and the tricolour scarf are discreetly indi-
cated. The whole interest is centred in the smiling face, with
hair brushed up a la Louis Philippe, and blue eyes harmonizing
with a blue ground.

The compliments of this local dignitary and Komanet's
renewed counsels at the end of the year — when Pasteur took
more school prizes than he could carry — reawakened within
him the ambition for the Ecole Normale.

There was no "philosophy " * class in the college of Arbois,
and a return to Paris seemed formidable. Pasteur resolved
to go to the college at Besancon, where he could go on with
his studies, pass his baccalaureat and then prepare for the
examinations of the Ecole Normale. Besancon is only forty
kilometres from Arbois, and Joseph Pasteur was in the habit
of going there several times a year to sell some of his prepared
skins. This was by far the wisest solution of the problem.

On his arrival at the Koyal College of Franche Comte*
Pasteur found himself under a philosophy master, M. Daunas,

1 Philosophie class. In French secondary schools or lycees the forms
or classes, in Pasteur's time, were arranged as follows, starting from the
bottom —

1° huitieme.

2° septieme.

G° sixieme (French grammar was begun).

5° cinquieme (Latin was begun).

6° quatrieme (Greek was begun).

7° troisieme.

8° seconde.

9° Mathematiques elementaires. Rhetoriqu®.
10° Mathematiques speciales. Philosophie.

The seconde students who intended to pass their baccalaureat Is
sciences went into the mathematiques elementaires class, whilst those
who were destined for letters or the law entered the rhetorique class,
from which they went on to the philosophie class. [Trans.]

14 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

who had been a student at the Ecole Normale and was a
graduate of the University; he was young, full of eloquence,
proud of his pupils, of awakening their faculties and directing
their minds. The science master, M. Darlay, did not inspire
the same enthusiasm; he was an elderly man and regretted
the good old times when pupils were less inquisitive.
Pasteur's questions often embarrassed him. Louis' reputation
as a painter satisfied him no longer, though the portrait he
drew of one of his comrades was exhibited. " All this does
not lead to the Ecole Normale," he wrote to his parents in
January, 1840. "I prefer a first place at college to 10,000
praises in the course of conversation. . . . We shall meet on
Sunday, dear father, for I believe there is a fair on Monday.
If we see M. Daunas, we will speak to him of the Ecole
Normale. Dear sisters, let me tell you again, work hard, love
each other. When one is accustomed to work it is impossible
to do without it; besides, everything in this world depends on
that. Armed with science, one can rise above all one's
fellows. . . . But I hope all this good advice to you is super-
fluous, and I am sure you spend many moments every day
learning your grammar. Love each other as I love you, while
awaiting the happy day when I shall be received at the Ecole
Normale." Thus was his whole life filled with tenderness as
well as with work. He took the degree of " bachelier es
lettres " on August 29, 1840. The three examiners, doctors
" es lettres," put down his answers as "good in Greek on
Plutarch and in Latin on Virgil, good also in rhetoric,
medicine, history and geography, good in philosophy, very
good in elementary science, good in French composition."

At the end of the summer holidays the headmaster of the
Royal College of Besancon, M. Repecaud, sent for him and
offered him the post of preparation master. Certain adminis-
trative changes and an increased number of pupils were the
reason of this offer, which proved the master's esteem for
Pasteur's moral qualities, his first degree not having been
obtained with any particular brilliancy.

The youthful master was to be remunerated from the month
of January, 1841. A student in the class of special mathema-
tics, he was his comrades' mentor during preparation time.
They obeyed him without difficulty ; simple and yet serious-
minded, his sense of individual dignity made authority easy
to him. Ever thoughtful of his distant home, he strengthened

1822—1843 15

the influence of the father and mother in the education of his
sisters, who had not so great a love of industry as he had.
On November 1, 1840 — he was not eighteen yet — pleased to
hear that they were making some progress, he wrote the follow-
ing, which, though slightly pedantic, reveals the warmth of
his feelings — " My dear parents, my sisters, when I received
at the same time the two letters that you sent me I thought
that something extraordinary had happened, but such was not
the case. The second letter you wrote me gave me much
pleasure ; it tells me that — perhaps for the first time — my
sisters have willed. To will is a great thing, dear sisters,
for Action and Work usually follow Will, and almost always
Work is accompanied by success. These three things, Will,
Work, Success, fill human existence. Will opens the door to
success both brilliant and happy ; Work passes these doors,
and at the end of the journey Success comes to crown one's
efforts. And so, my dear sisters, if your resolution is firm,
your task, be it what it may, is already begun ; you have but to
walk forward, it will achieve itself. If perchance you should
falter during the journey, a hand would be there to support
you. If that should be wanting, God, who alone -could take
that hand from you, would Himself accomplish its work. . . .
May my words be felt and understood by you, dearest sisters.
I impress them on your hearts. May they be your guide.
Farewell. Your brother."

The letters he wrote, the books he loved, the friends he
chose, bear witness to the character of Pasteur in those days
of early youth. As he now felt, after the discouragmg trial
he had gone through in Paris, that the development of the will
should hold the first place in education, he applied all his efforts
to the bringing out of this leading force. He was already
grave and exceptionally matured ; he saw in the perfecting of
self the great law of man, and nothing that could assist in
that improvement seemed to him without importance. Books
read in early life appeared to him to have an almost decisive
influence. In his eyes a good book was a good action con-
stantly renewed, a bad one an incessant and irreparable fault.

There lived at that time in Tranche Comte an elderly writer,
whom Sainte Beuve considered as the ideal of the upright man
and of the man of letters. His name was Joseph Droz, and
his moral doctrine was that vanity is the cause of many
wrecked and aimless lives, that moderation is a form of

16 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

wisdom and an element of happiness, and that most men
sadden and trouble their lives by causeless worry and agitation.
His own life was an example of his precepts of kindliness and
patience, and was filled to the utmost with all the good that a
pure literary conscience can bestow ; he was all benevolence
and cordiality. It seemed natural that he should publish one
after another numberless editions of his Essay on the Art of
being Happy.

"I have still," wrote Pasteur to his parents, "that little
volume of M. Droz which he was kind enough to lend me.
I have never read anything wiser, more moral or more virtuous.
I have also another of his works ; nothing was ever better
written. At the end of the year I shall bring you back these
books. One feels in reading them an irresistible charm which
penetrates the soul and fills it with the most exalted and
generous feelings. There is not a word of exaggeration in
what I am writing. Indeed I take his books with me to the
services on Sundays to read them, and I believe that in so
acting, in spite of all that thoughtless bigotry might say, I am
conforming to the very highest religious ideas."

Those ideas Droz might have summarized simply by
Christ's words, "Love ye one another." But this was a
time of circumlocution. Young people demanded of books,
of discourses, of poetry, a sonorous echo of their own secret
feelings. In the writings of the Besancon moralist, Pasteur
saw a religion such as he himself dreamed of, a religion free
from all controversy and all intolerance, a religion of peace,
love and devotion.

A little later, Silvio Pellico's Miei Prigioni developed in him
an emotion which answered to his instinctive sympathy for
the sorrows of others. He wrote advising his sisters to read
1 ' that interesting work , where you breathe with every page a
religious perfume which exalts and ennobles the soul." In
read Miei Prigioni his sisters would light upon a passage on
fraternal love and all the deep feelings which it represents.

" For my sisters," he wrote in another letter, " I bought,
a few days ago, a very pretty book; I mean by very pretty
something very interesting. It is a little volume which took
the Montyon l prize a few years ago, and it is called, Picciola.

1 Prix Montyon : a series of prizes founded at the beginning of the
nineteenth century by Baron de Montyon, a distinguished philanthropist,
and conferred on literary works for their moral worth, and on individuals

1822—1843 17

How could it have deserved the Montyon prize," he added,
with an edifying respect for the decisions of the Academy,
' ' if the reading of it were not of great value ? ' '

"You know," he announced to his parents when his
appointment was definitely settled, "that a supplementary
master has board and lodging and 300 francs a year ! " This
sum appeared to him enormous. He added, on January 20 :
" At {he end of this month money will already be owing to
me ; and yet I assure you I am not really worth it."

Pleased with this situation, though such a modest one, full
of eagerness to work, he wrote in the same letter : " I find it
an excellent thing to have a room of my own ; I have more
time to myself, and I am not interrupted by those endless
little things that the boys have to do, and which take up a-^
good deal of time. Indeed I am already noticing a change
in my work ; difficulties are getting smoothed away because I
have more time to give to overcoming them ; in fact I am
beginning to hope that by working as I do and shall continue
to do I may be received with a good rank at the Ecole./ But
do not think that I am overworking myself at all ; I take every ,
recreation necessary to my health."

Besides his ordinary work, he had been entrusted with
the duty of giving some help in mathematics and physical
science to the youths who were reading for their baccalaureat.

As if reproaching himself with being the only member of
the family who enjoyed the opportunity of learning, he offered
to pay for the schooling of his youngest sister Josephine in a
girls' college at Lons-le-Saulnier. He wrote, "I could easily
do it by giving private lessons. I have already refused to
give some to several boys at 20 or 25 fr. a month. I refused
because I have not too much time to give to my work." But
he was quite disposed to waive this motive in deference to
superior judgment. His parents promised to think over this
fraternal wish, without however accepting his generous sugges-
tion, offering even to supplement his small salary of 24 francs
a month by a little allowance, in case he wished for a few
private lessons to prepare himself more thoroughly for the
Ecole Normale. They quite recognized his right to advise ;

for acts of private virtue or self-sacrifice. The laureates are chosen
every year by the Academie Frai^aise, and in this way many obscure
heroes are deservedly rewarded, and many excellent books brought to
public notice. [Trans.]

0

18 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

and — as he thought that his sister sfcould prepare herself
beforehand for the class she was to enter — he wrote to his
mother with filial authority, " Josephine should work a good
deal until the end of the year, and I would recommend to
Mother that she should not continually be Vent out on errands ;
she must have time to work." \

Michelet, in his recollections, tells of his\ hours of intimacy
with a college friend named Poinsat, and thus expresses him-
self : "It was an immense, an insatiable ponging for con-
fidences, for mutual revelations." Pasteur f$lt something of
the sort for Charles Chappuis, a philosophic student at
Besancon college. He was the son of a notary at St. Vit, one
of those old-fashioned provincial notaries, who, by the dignity
of their lives, their spirit of wisdom, the perpetual preoccupa-
tion of their duty, inspired their children with a sense of
responsibility. His son had even surpassed his father's hopes.
Of this generous, gentle-faced youth there exists a lithograph
signed "Louis Pasteur." A book entitled Les Graveurs du
XIXme Siecle mentions this portrait, giving Pasteur an un-
expected form of celebrity. Before the Graveurs, the Guide
de V Amateur des (Euvres d* Art had already spoken of a
pastel drawing discovered in the United States near Boston.
It represents another schoolfellow of Pasteur's, who, far from
his native land, carefully preserved the portrait of Chappuis
as well as his own. /Everything that friendship can give in
strength and disinterestedness, everything that, according to
Montaigne — who knew more about it even that Michelet —
"makes souls merge into each other so that the seam which
originally joined them disappears," was experienced by Pasteur
and Chappuis. I Filial piety, brotherly solicitude, friendly
confidences — Pasteur knew the sweetness of all these early
human joys ; the whole of his life was permeated with them)
The books he loved added to this flow of generous emotions.
Chappuis watched and admired this original nature, which,
with a rigid mind made for scientific research and always
seeking the proof of everything, yet read Lamartine's
Meditations with enthusiasm. Differing in this from many
science students, who are indifferent to literature — just as some
literature students affect to disdain science — Pasteur kept for
literature a place apart. He looked upon it as a guide for
general ideas. Sometimes he would praise to excess some
writer or orator merely because he had found in one page or

1822—1843 19

in

one sentence the expression of an exalted sentiment. It
was with Chappuis that he exchanged his thoughts, and
together they mapped out a life in common. When Chappuis
went to Paris, the better to prepare himself for the Ecole
Normale, Pasteur felt an ardent desire to go with him.
Chappuis wrote to him with that open spontaneity which is
such a charm in youth, " I shall feel as if I had all my Franche
Comte" with me when you are here." Pasteur's father feared
a crisis like that of 1838, and, after hesitating, refused his
consent to an immediate departure. "Next year," he said.

In October, 1841, though still combining the functions of
master and student, Pasteur resumed his attendance of the
classes for special mathematics. But he was constantly think-
ing of Paris, "Paris, where study is deeper." One of
Chappuis' comrades, Bertin, whom Pasteur had met during
the holidays, had just entered the Ecole Normale at the head
of the list after attending in Paris a class of special
mathematics.

"If I do not pass this year," Pasteur wrote to his father
on November 7 , " I think I should do well to go to Paris for
a year. But there is time to think of that and of the means
of doing so without spending too much, if the occasion should
arise. I see now what great advantage there is in giving two
years to mathematics ; everything becomes clearer and easier.
Of all our class students who tried this year for the Ecole
Poly technique and the Ecole Normale, not a single one has
passed, not even the best of them, a student who had already
done one year's mathematics at Lyons. The master we have
now is very good. I feel sure I shall do a great deal this year."

He was twice second in his class ; once he was first in
physics. " That gives me hope for later on," he said. He
wrote about another mathematical competition, "If I get a
good place it will be well deserved, for this work has given me
a pretty bad headache ; I always do get one, though, whenever
we have a competition." Then, fearful of alarming his
parents, he hastily adds, " But those headaches never last long,
and it is only an hour and a half since we left off."

Anxious to stifle by hard work his growing regrets at not
having followed Chappuis to Paris, Pasteur imagined that he
might prepare himself for the Ecole Poly technique as well as
for the Ecole Normale. One of his masters. M. Bouch6, had
led him, to hope that he might be successful. " I shall try this

r 9

20 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

year for both schools," Pasteur wrote to his friend (January
22, 1842). " I do not know whether I am right in deciding to
do so. One thing tells me that I am wrong : it is the idea
that we might thus be parted; and when I think of that, I
firmly believe that I cannot possibly be admitted this year into
the Ecole Poly technique. I feel quite superstitious about it.
I have but one pleasure, your letters and thdse from my family.
Oh ! do write often, very long letters ! "

Chappuis, concerned at this sudden resolve, answered in
terms that did credit to his heart and youthful wisdom.
" Consult your tastes, think of the present, of the future.
You must think of yourself ; it is your own fate that you have
to direct. There is more glitter on the one side ; on the other
the gentle quiet life of a professor, a trifle monotonous perhaps,
but full of charm for him who knows how to enjoy it. You too
appreciated it formerly, and I learned to do so when we thought
we should both go the same way. Anyhow, go where you
think you will be happy, and think of me sometimes. I hope
your father will not blame me. I believe he looks upon me as
your evil genius. These last holidays I wanted you to come to
me , then I advised you to go to Paris ; each time your father
created some obstacle ! But do what he wishes, and never
forget that it is perhaps because he loves you too much that he
never does what you ask him."

Pasteur soon thought no more of his Polytechnic fancy,
and gave himself up altogether to his preparation for the
Ecole Normale. But the study of mathematics seemed to him
dry and exhausting. He wrote in April, " One ends by having
nothing but figures, formulas and geometrical forms before
one's eyes. . . . On Thursday I went out and I read a charm-
ing story, which, much to my astonishment, made me weep.
I had not done such a thing for years. Such is life."

On August 13, 1842, he went up for his examination
(baccalaureat es sciences) before the Dijon Faculty. He
passed less brilliantly even than he had done for the
baccalaureat es lettres. In chemistry he was only put down
as " mediocre." On August 26 he was declared admissible to
the examinations for the Ecole Normale. But he was only
fifteenth out of twenty -two candidates. He considered this
too low a place, and resolved to try again the following year.
In October, 1842, he started for Paris with Chappuis. On the
eve of his departure Louis drew a last pastel, a portrait of his

1822—1843 21

father. It is a powerful face, with observation and meditation
apparent in the eyes, strength and caution in the mouth and
chin.

Pasteur arrived at the Barbet Boarding School, no longer
a forlorn lad, but a tall student capable of teaching and engaged
for that purpose. He only paid one-third of the pupil's fees,
and in return had to give to the younger pupils some instruction
in mathematics every morning from six to seven. His room
was not in the school, but in the same Impasse des Feuillan-
tines ; two pupils shared it with him.

"Do not be anxious about my health and work," he wrote
to his friends a few days after his arrival. "I need hardly
get up till 5.45; you see it is not so very early." He went
on outlining the programme of his time. " I shall spend my
Thursdays in a neighbouring library with Chappuis, who has
four hours to himself on that day. On Sundays we shall walk
and work a little together; we hope to do some Philosophy
on Sundays, perhaps too on Thursdays; I shall also read some
literary works. Surely you must see that I am not homesick
this time."

Besides attending the classes of the Lyce"e St. Louis, he also
went to the Sorbonne 1 to hear the Professor, who, after taking
Gay-Lussac's place in 1832, had for the last ten years delighted
his audience by an eloquence and talent which opened bound-
less horizons before every mind.

In a letter dated December 9, 1842, Pasteur wrote, " I attend
at the Sorbonne the lectures of M. Dumas, a celebrated
chemist. You cannot imagine what a crowd of people come to
these lectures. The room is immense, and always quite full.
We have to be there half an hour before the time to get a good
place, as you would in a theatre; there is also a great deal of
applause; there are always six or seven hundred people."

1 Sorbonne. Name given to the Paris Faculty of Theology and the
buildings in which it was established. It was originally intended by its
founder, Robert de Sorbon (who was chaplain to St. Louis, King of
France, 1270) as a special establishment to facilitate theological studies
for poor students. This college became one of the most celebrated in the
world, and produced so many clever theologians that it gave its name to
all the members of the Faculty of Theology. It was closed during the
Revolution in 1789, and its buildings, which had been restored by
Richelieu in the seventeenth century, were given to the Universite in
1808. Since 1821 they have been the seat of the Universitarian Academy
of Paris, and used for the lectures of the Faculties of Theology, of
Letters, and of Sciences. [Trans.]

22 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Under this rostrum, Pasteur became, in his own words, a
"disciple " full of the enthusiasm inspired by Dumas.

Happy in this industrious life, he wrote in response to an
expression of his parents' provincial uneasiness as to the
temptations of the Latin Quarter. ' When one wishes to keep
straight , one can do so in this place as well as in any other ; it
is those who have no strength of will that succumb."

He made himself so useful at Barbet's that he was soon
kept free of all expense. But the expenses of his Parisian life
are set out in a small list made about that time. His father
wished him to dine at the Palais Eoyal on Thursdays and
Sundays with Chappuis, and the price of each of those dinners
came to a little less than two francs. He had, still with the
inseparable Chappuis, gone four times to the theatre and once
to the opera. He had also hired a stove for his stone-floored
room ; for eight francs he had bought some firewood, and also a
two-franc cloth fqr his table, which he said had holes in it,
and was not convenient to write on. '

At the end of the school year, 1843, he took at the Lycee
St. Louis two " Accessits," l and one first prize in physics,
and at the " Concours General"* a sixth "Accessit" in
physics. He was admitted fourth on the list to the Ecole
Normale. He then wrote from Arbois to M. Barbet, telling
him that on his half-holidays he would give some lessons at
the school of the Impasse des Feuillantines as a small token
of his gratitude for past kindness. " My dear Pasteur,"
answered M. Barbet, "I accept with pleasure the offer you
have made me to give to my school some of the leisure that
you will have during your stay at the Ecole Normale. It will
indeed be a means of frequent and intimate intercourse
between us, in which we shall both find much advantage."

Pasteur was in such a hurry to enter the Ecole Normale
that he arrived in Paris some days before the other students.
He solicited permission to come in as another might have
begged permission to come out. He was readily allowed to
sleep in the empty dormitory. His first visit was to M. Barbet.
The Thursday half -holiday, usually from one to seven, was

1 Accessit. A distinction accorded in French schools to those who
hare come nearest to obtaining the prize in any given subject. [Trans.]

3 Concours General. An open competition held every year at the Sor-
bonne between the ilite of the students of all the colleges in France,
from the highest classes down to the quatri&me. [Trans.]

1822—1843 23

now from one to eight. "There is nothing more simple," he
said, " than to come regularly at six o'clock on Thursdays and
give the schoolboys a physical science class."

" I am very pleased," wrote his father, "that you are
giving lessons at M. Barbet's. He has been so kind to us that
I was anxious that you should show him some gratitude ; be
therefore always most obliging towards him. You should do
so, not only for your own sake, but for others; it will
encourage him to show the same kindness to other studious
young men, whose future might depend upon it."

Generosity, self-sacrifice, kindliness even to unknown
strangers, cost not the least effort to the father and son, but
seemed to them the most natural thing possible. Just as
their little house at Arbois was transformed by a ray of the
ideal, the Broken down walls of the old Ecole Normale — then
a sort of annexe of the Louis Le Grand college, and looking,
said Jules Simon, like an old hospital or barracks — reflected
within them the ideas and sentiments which inspire useful
lives. Joseph Pasteur wrote (Nov. 18; 1843) : "The details
you give me on the way your work is directed please me very
much ; everything seems organized so as to produce dis-
tinguished scholars. Honour be to those who founded this
School." Only one thing troubled him, he mentioned it in
every letter. "You know how we worry about your health;
you do work so immoderately. Are you not injuring your
eyesight by so much night work? Your ambition ought to be
satisfied now that you have reached your present position ! ' '
He also wrote to Chappuis : " Do tell Louis not to work so
much ; it is not good to strain one's brain. That is not the way
to succeed but to compromise one's health." And with some
little irony as to the cogitations of Chappuis the philosopher :
" Believe me, you are but poor philosophers if you do not know
that one can be happy even as a poor professor in Arbois
College."

Another letter, December, 1843, to his son this time : " Tell
Chappuis that I have bottled some 1834 bought on purpose to
drink the health of the Ecole Normale during the next holidays.
There is more wit in those 100 litres than in all the books on
philosophy in the world; but, as to mathematical formulae,
there are none, I believe. Mind you tell him that we shall
drink the first bottle with him. Remain two good friends."

Pasteur's letters during this first period at the Normale have

24 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

been lost, but his biography continues without a break, thanks
to the letters of his father. " Tell us always about your studies,
about your doings at Barbet's. Do you still attend M. Pouillet's
lectures, or do you find that one science hampers the other?
I should think not; on the contrary, one should be a help to
the other." This observation should be interesting to a student
of heredity ; the idea casually mentioned by the father was to
receive a vivid demonstration in the life-work of the son.

CHAPTEK II
1844—1849

PASTEUR often spent his leisure moments in the library of
the Ecole Norm ale. \ Those who knew him at that time remem-
ber him as grave, quiet, almost shy. But under these reflec-
tive characteristics lay the latent fire of enthusiasm. The
lives of illustrious men, of great scientists, of great patriots
inspired him with a generous ardour. To this ardour he added
a great eagerness of mind ; whether studying a book, even a
commonplace one — for he was so conscientious that he did not —
even know what it was to " skim " through a book— or coming
away from one of J. B. Dumas' lectures, or writing his
student's notes in his small fine hand writing,/ he was always
thirsting to learn more, to devote himself to great researches.,/
There seemed to him no better way of spending a holiday than
to be shut up all Sunday afternoon at the Sorbonne laboratory
or coaxing a private lesson from the celebrated Barruel, Dumas'
curator.

Chappuis — anxious to obey the injunctions of Pasteur's
father, who in every letter repeated " Do not let him work
too much ! " desirous also of enjoying a few hours' outing with
his friend — used to wait philosophically, sitting on a laboratory
stool, until the experiments were over. Conquered by this
patient attitude and reproachful silence Pasteur would take off
his apron, saying half angrily, half gratefully, " Well, let us go
for a walk." And, when they were out in the street, the same
serious subjects of conversation would inevitably crop up —
classes, lectures, readings, etc.

One day, in the course of those long talks in the gardens of
the Luxembourg, Pasteur carried Chappuis with him very far
away from philosophy. He began to talk of tartaric acid and
of paratartaric acid. The former had been known since 1770,
thanks to the Swedish chemist Scheele, who discovered it in

26 * THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

the thick crusty formations within wine barrels called " tar-
tar "; but the latter was disconcerting to chemists. In 1820
an Alsatian manufacturer, Kestner, had obtained by chance,
whilst preparing tartaric acid in his factory at Thann, a very
singular acid which he was unable to reproduce in spite of
various attempts, fie had kept some of it in stock. Gay-
Lussac, having visited the Thann factory in 1826, studied this
mysterious acid ; he proposed to call it racemic acid. Berzelius
studied it in his turn, and preferred to call it paratartaric .
Either name may be adopted ; it is exactly the same thing :
men of letters or in society are equally frightened by the word
paratartaric or racemic. Chappuis certainly was when Pasteur
repeated to him word for word a paragraph by a Berlin chemist
and crystallographer named Mitscherlich. Pasteur had pon-
dered over this paragraph until he knew it by heart ; often
indeed, absorbed in reading the reports for 1844 of the
Academic des Sciences, in the dark room which was then the
library of the Ecole Normale, he had wondered if it were pos-
sible to get over a difficulty which seemed insurmountable to
scientists such as Mitscherlich and Biot. This paragraph
related to two saline combinations — tartrate and paratartrate
of soda or ammonia — and may be epitomized as follows : in
these two substances of similar crystalline form, the nature and
number of the atoms, their arrangement and distances are the
same. Yet dissolved tartrate rotates the plane of polarized
light and paratartrate remains inactive.

Pasteur had the gift of making scientific problems interest-
ing in a few words , even to minds least inclined to that particii-
lar line of thought. He rendered his listener's attention very
easy ; no question surprised him and he never smiled at ignor-
ance. Though Chappuis, absorbed in the series of lectures on
philosophy given at that time by Jules Simon, was deep in a
train of thought very far away from Mitscherlich 's perplexities,
he gradually became interested in this optical inactivity of para-
tartrate, which so visibly affected his friend. Pasteur liked to
look back into the history of things, giving in this way a
veritable life to his explanations. Thus, a propos of the optical
phenomenon which puzzled Mitscherlich, Pasteur was speak-
ing to his friend of crystallized carbonate of lime, called Iceland
spar, which presents a double refraction — that is 'to say : if you
look at an object through this crystal, you perceive two repro-
ductions of that object. In describing this, Pasteur was not

1844—1849 27

giving to Chappuis a vague notion of some piece of crystal
in a glass case, but was absolutely evoking a vision of the beauti-
ful crystal, perfectly pure and transparent, brought from Ice-
land in 1669 to a Danish physicist. Pasteur almost seemed to
experience the surprise and emotion of this scientist, when,
observing a ray of light through this crystal, he saw it sud-
denly duplicated. Pasteur also spoke enthusiastically of an
officer of -Engineers under the First Empire, Etienne Louis
Mains. Malus was studying double refraction, and holding in
his hands a piece of spar crystal, when, from his room in the
Rue de 1'Enfer, it occurred to him to observe through the
crystal the windows of the Luxembourg Palace, then lighted
up by the setting sun. It was sufficient to make the crystal
rotate slowly round the visual ray (as on an axis) to perceive
the periodic variations in the intensity of the light reflected
by the windows. No one had yet suspected that light, after
being reflected under certain conditions, would acquire proper-
ties quite different from those it had before its reflection.
Malus gave the name of polarized light to light thus modified
(by reflection in this particular case). Scientists admitted in
those days, in the theory of emission, the existence of luminous
molecules, and they imagined that these molecules " suffered
the same effects simultaneously when they had been reflected
on glass at a certain angle. . . . They were all turned in the
same direction." Pouillet, speaking of this discovery of Malus
in the class on physics that Pasteur attended, explained that
the consequent persuasion was ' ' that those molecules had rota-
tory axes and poles, around which their movements could be
accomplished under certain influences."

Pasteur spoke feverishly of his regrets that Malus should
have died at thirty-seven in the midst of his researches ; of
Biot, and of Arago, who became illustrious in the path opened
by Malus. He explained to Chappuis that, by means of a
polarizing apparatus, it could be seen that certain quartz
crystals deflected to the right the plane of polarized light, whilst
others caused it to turn to the left. Chappuis also learned that
some natural organic material, such as solutions of sugar or of
tartaric acid, when placed in such an apparatus, turned to the
right the plane of polarization, whilst others, like essence of
turpentine or quinine, deflected it to the left ; whence the ex-
pression " rotatory polarization."

These would seem dry researches, belonging altogether to

28 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

the domain of science. And yet, thanks to the saccharimeter ,
which is a polarizing apparatus, a manufacturer can ascertain
the quantity of pure sugar contained in the brown sugar of
commerce, and a physiologist can follow the progress of
diabetes.

Chappuis, who knew what powers of investigation his friend
could bring to bear on the problem enunciated by Mitscherlich ,
thought with regret that the prospect of such examinations as
that for the licence and for the aggregation did not allow Pasteur
to concentrate all his forces on such a special scientific point.
But Pasteur was resolved to come back definitely to this sub-
ject as soon as he should have become " docteur es sciences."

When writing to his father he did not dwell upon tartrate and
paratartrate ; but his ambition was palpable. He was ever
eager to do double work, to go up for his examination at the
very earliest. " Before being a captain," answered the old
sergeant-major, " you must become a lieutenant."

These letters give one the impression of living amongst
those lives, perpetually reacting upon each other. The thoughts
of the whole family were centred upon the great School, where
* that son, that brother, was working, in whom the hopes of
each were placed. If one of his bulky letters with the large
post mark was too long in coming, his father wrote to reproach
him gently : " Your sisters were counting the days. Eighteen
days, they said! Louis has never kept us waiting so long!
Can he be ill? It is a great joy to me," adds the father, " to
note your attachment to each other. May it always remain so."

The mother had no time to write much ; she was burdened
with all the cares of the household and with keeping the books
of the business. But she watched for the postman with a
tender anxiety increased by her vivid imagination. Her
thoughts were ever with the son whom she loved, not with a
selfish love, but for himself, sharing his happiness in that he
was working for a useful career.

So, between that corner in the Jura and the Ecole Normale,
there was a continual exchange of thoughts ; the smallest inci-
dents of daily life were related. The father, knowing that he
should inform the son of the fluctuations of the family budget,
spoke of his more or less successful sales of leathers at the
Besancon fair. The son was ever hunting in the progress of
industry anything that could tend to lighten the father's heavy
handicraft. But though the father declared himself ready to

1844—1849 29

examine Vauquelin's new tanning process, which obviated the
necessity of keeping the skins so long in the pits, he asked
himself with scrupulous anxiety whether leathers prepared in
that way would last as long as the others. Could he safely
guarantee them to the shoemakers, who were unanimous in
praising the goods of the little tannery-yard, but alas equally
unanimous in forgetting to reward the disinterested tanner by
prompt payment? He supplied his family with the neces-
saries of life : what more did he want? When he had news
of his Normalien he was thoroughly happy. He associated
himself with his son's doings, sharing his enthusiasm over
Dumas' lectures, and taking an interest in Pouillet's classes :
Pouillet was a Franc-Comtois, and had been a student at the
Ecole Normale ; he was now Professor of Physics at the Sor-
bonne and a member of the Institut.1 When Balard, a
lecturer at the Ecole, was nominated to the Acad&nie des
Sciences, Louis told his father of it with the delight of an
admiring pupil.

Like J. B. Dumas, Balard had been an apothecary 's pupil.
When he spoke of their humble beginnings, Dumas was wont
to say rather pompously—" Balard and I were initiated into
our scientific life under the same conditions." When, at the
age of forty-two, he was made a member of the Institute,
Balard could not contain his joy ; he was quite a Southerner in
his language and gestures, and the adjective exuberant might
have been invented for him. But this same Southerner, ever
on the move as he was, belonged to a special race : he always
kept his word. "I was glad to note your pleasure at this
nomination," wrote Joseph Pasteur to his son; "it proves

1 Institut de France. Name given collectively to the five following
societies —

1. Academie Fran$aise, founded by Richelieu in 1635 in order to
polish and maintain the purity of the French language. It is composed
of forty Life members, and publishes from time to time a dictionary
which is looked upon as a standard test of correct French.

2. Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, founded by Colbert in
1G63.

3. Academie des Sciences, also founded by Colbert in 1666. It has
published most valuable reports ever since 1699.

4. Academie des Beaux-Arts, which includes the Academies of Paint-
ing, of Sculpture, of Music, and of Architecture.

5. Academie des Sciences Morales et Pqlitiques.

It was in 1795 that these ancient academies, which had been sup-
pressed two years before by the Revolution, were reorganized and com-
bined together to form the Institut de France. [Trans.]

30 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

that you are grateful to your masters." About that same time
the headmaster of Arbois College, M. Romanet, used to read
out to the older boys the letters, always full of gratitude, which
he received from Louis Pasteur. These letters reflected life
in Paris, such as Pasteur understood it — a life of hard work
and exalted ambition. M. Romanet, in one of his replies,
asked him to become librarian in partibus for the college and
to choose and procure books on science and literature. The
headmaster also begged of the young man some lectures for
the rhetorique class during the holidays. "It would seem to
the boys like an echo of the Sorbonne lectures ! And you
would speak to us of our great scientific men," added M.
Romanet, " amongst whom we shall one day number him who
once was one of our best pupils and will ever remain one of
our best friends."

A corresponding member of Arbois College, and retained as
vacation lecturer,, Pasteur now undertook a yet more special
task. He had often heard his father deplore his own lack of
instruction, and knew well the elder man's desire for know-
ledge. By a touching exchange of parts, the child to whom
his father had taught his alphabet now became his father's
teacher ; but with what respect and what delicacy did this filial

/ master express himself ! "It is in order that you may be able
to help Josephine that I am sending you this work to do." He
took most seriously his task of tutor by correspondence ; the
papers he sent were not always easy. His father wrote (Jan.
2, 1845) — "I have spent two days over a problem which I
afterwards found quite easy ; it is no trifle to learn a thing and
teach it directly afterwards." And a month later : " Josephine
does not care to rack her brains, she says ; however I promise
you that you will be pleased with her progress by the next
holidays."
The father would often sit up late at night over rules of

,L grammar and mathematical problems, preparing answers to
send to his boy in Paris.

Some Arboisians, quite forgotten now, imagined that they
would add lustre to the local history. General Baron Delort,
a peer of France,1 aide de camp to Louis Philippe, Grand Cross

1 Peers of France. A supreme Council formed originally of the First
Vassals of the Crown ; became in 1420 one of the Courts of Parliament.
In 1789 the Peerage was suppressed, but reinstated in 1814 by the
Restoration, when it again formed part of the Legislative Corps ; there
were then hereditary peers and life-peers. In 1831 the hereditary

1844—1849 31

of the Legion of Honour and the first personage in Arbois —
where he beguiled his old age by translating Horace— used to
go across the Cuisance bridge without so much as glancing at
the tannery where the Pasteur family lived. Whilst the
general in his thoughts bequeathed to the town of Arbois his
books, his papers, his decorations, even his uniform, he was
far from foreseeing that the little dwelling by the bridge would
one day become the cynosure of all eyes.

Months went by and happy items of news succeeded one
another. The Normalien was chiefly interested in the trans-
formations of matter, and was practising in order to become
capable of assisting in experiments ; difficulties only stimulated
him. At the chemistry class that he attended, the process of
obtaining phosphorus was merely explained, on account of the
length of time necessary to obtain this elementary substance ;
Pasteur, with his patience and desire for proven knowledge,
was not satisfied. He therefore bought some bones, burnt
them, reduced them to a very fine ash, treated this ash with
sulphuric acid, and carefully brought the process to its close.
What a triumph it seemed to him when ke had in his posses-
sion sixty grammes of phosphorus, extracted from bones, which
he could put into a phial labelled " phosphorus.'* This was his
first scientific joy.

Whilst his comrades ironically (but with some discernment)
called him a " laboratory pillar," some of them, more intent
upon their examinations, were getting ahead of him. — M.
Darboux, the present "doyen" of the Faculty1 of Science,
finds in the Sorbonne registers that Pasteur was placed 7th at
the licence examination; two other students having ^obtained
equal marks with him, the jury (Balard, Dumas and Delafosse),
mentioned his name after theirs.

Those who care for archives would find in the Journal
General de V Instruction Publique of September 17, 1846, a
report of the agregation* competition (physical science). Out
peerage was abolished and life-peers were nominated by the King under
certain restrictions. This House of Peers was suppressed in 1848, and
in 1852 the Senate was instituted in its stead. [Trans.]

1 Facultes, Government establishments for superior studies ; there are
in France Faculties of Theology, of Law, of Medicine, of Sciences and
of Letters, distributed among the larger provincial towns as well as in
Paris. The administrator of a faculty is styled doyen (dean) and is
chosen among the professors. [Trans.]

2 Agr6gation. An annual competition for recruiting professors for
faculties and secondary schools or lycees. A candidate for the lycees

32 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

of fourteen candidates only four passed and Pasteur was the
third. His lessons on physics and chemistry caused the jury
to say, "He will make an excellent professor."

Many Normaliens of that time fancied themselves called to
a destiny infinitely superior to his. Some of them, in later
times, used to complacently allude to this momentary
superiority when speaking to their pupils. Of all Pasteur's
acquaintances Chappuis was the only one who divined the
future. " You will see what Pasteur will be," he used to say,
with an assurance generally attributed to friendly partiality.
Chappuis — Pasteur's confidant — was well aware of his friend's
powers of concentration.

Balard also realised this ; he had the happy idea of taking the
young agrdgd into his laboratory, and intervened vehemently
when the Minister of Public Instruction desired — a few months
later — that Pasteur should teach physics in the Tournon Lycee.
It would be rank. folly, Balard declared, to send 500 kilometres
away from Paris a youth who only asked for the modest title of
curator, and had no ambition but to work from morning till
night, preparing for his doctor's degree. There would be time
to send him away later on. It was impossible to resist this
torrent of words founded on solid sense. Balard prevailed.

Pasteur was profoundly grateful to him for preserving him
from exile to the little town in Ardeche ; and, as he added to his
Franc-Comtois patience and reflective mind a childlike heart
and deep enthusiasm, he was delighted to remain with a master
like Balard, who had become celebrated, at the age of twenty-
four, as the discoverer of bromin.

At the end of 1846, a newcomer entered Balard 's laboratory,

Va strange delicate-looking man, whose ardent eyes were at
the same time proud and yet anxious. This man, a scientist
and a poet, was a professor of the Bordeaux Faculty, named
Auguste Laurent. Perhaps he had had some friction with his
Bordeaux chiefs, possibly he merely wished for a change ; at
all events, he now desired to live in Paris. Laurent was
already known in the scientific world, and had recently been
made a correspondent of the Academic des Sciences. He had
foreseen and confirmed the theory of substitutions, formulated
by Dumas as early as 1834 before the Academic. Dumas had

agregation must have passed his licence examination, and a candidate
for the superior aggregation must be in possession of his doctorate.
[Trans.]

1844—1849 S3

expressed himself thus : " Chlorine possesses the singular
power of seizing upon the hydrogen in certain substances, and
of taking its place atom by atom."

This theory of substitutions was — according to a simple and
vivid comparison of Pasteur's — a way of looking upon chemical
bodies as upon " molecular edifices, in which one element could
be replaced by another without disturbing the structure of the
edifice ; as if one were to replace, one by one, every stone of a
monument by a new stone." Original researches, new and
bold ideas, appealed to Pasteur. But his cautious mind pre-
vented his boldness from leading him into errors, surprises or
hasty conclusions. " That is possible," he would say, " but
we must look more deeply into the subject."

When asked by Laurent to assist him with some experiments
upon certain theories, Pasteur was delighted at this suggested
collaboration, and wrote to his friend Chappuis : " Even if the
work should lead to no results worth publishing, it will be
most useful to me to do practical work for several months with
such an experienced chemist."

It was partly due to Laurent, that Pasteur entered more
deeply into the train of thought which was to lead him to
grapple with Mitscherlich's problem. "One day" (this
is a manuscript note of Pasteur's) "one day it happened that
M. Laurent — studying, if I mistake not, some tungstate of
soda, perfectly crystallized and prepared from the directions of
another chemist, whose results he was verifying — showed me
through the microscope that this salt, apparently very pure,
was evidently a mixture of three distinct kinds of crystals, easily
recognizable with a little experience of crystalline forms. The
lessons of our modest and excellent professor of mineralogy, M.
Delafosse, had long since made me love crystallography; so, in
order to acquire the habit of using the goniometer, I began to
carefully study the formations of a very fine series of combina-
tions, all very easily crystallized, tartaric acid and the
tartrates." He appreciated any favourable influence on his
work ; we find in the same note : ' ' Another motive urged me to
prefer the study of those particular forms. M. de la Provos-
taye had just published an almost complete work concerning
them ; this allowed me to compare as I went along my own
observations with those, always so precise, of that clever
scientist."

Pasteur and Laurent's work in common was interrupted.

D

84 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Laurent was appointed as Dumas' assistant at the Sorbonne.
Pasteur did not dwell upon his own disappointment, but
rejoiced to see honour bestowed upon a man whom he thought
worthy of the first rank. Some judges have thought that
Laurent, in his introductory lesson, was too eager to expound
his own ideas ; but is not every believer an apostle ? When a
mind is full of ideas, it naturally overflows. It is probable
that Pasteur in Laurent's place would have kept his part as
an assistant more in the background. He did not give vent to
the slightest criticism, but wrote to Chappuis. "Laurent's
lectures are as bold as his writings, and his lessons are making
a great sensation amongst chemists." Whether one of
criticism or of approbation, this sensation was a living element
of success. In order to answer some insinuations concerning
Laurent's ambition and constant thirst for change, Pasteur
proclaimed in his thesis on chemistry how much he had been
" enlightened by the kindly advice of a man so distinguished,
both by his talent &nd by his character. ' '

This essay was entitled "Researches into the saturation
capacity of arsenious acid. A study of the arscnites of potasli,
soda and ammonia." This, to Pasteur's mind, was but school-
boy work. He had not yet, he said, enough practice and
experience in laboratory work. "In physics," he wrote to
Chappuis, "I shall only present a programme of some re-
searches that I mean to undertake next year, and that I merely
indicate in my essay."

This essay on physics was a " Study of phenomena relative
to the rotatory polarization of liquids." In it he rendered full
homage to Biot, pointing out the importance of a branch of
science too much neglected by chemists ; he added that it was
most useful, in order to throw light upon certain difficult
chemical problems, to obtain the assistance of crystallography
and physics. " Such assistance is especially needed in the
present state of science."

These two essays, dedicated to his father and mother, were
read on August 23, 1847. He only obtained one white ball and
two red ones for each. " We cannot judge of your essays,"
wrote his father, in the name of the whole family, " but our
satisfaction is no less great. As to a doctor's degree, I was far
from hoping as much ; all my ambition was satisfied with the
agregation." Such was not the case with his son.

1844—1849 85

" Onwards " was his motto, not from a desire for a diploma/
but from an insatiable thirst for knowledge.

After spending a few days with his family and friends, he
wanted to go to Germany with Chappuis to study German from
morning till night. The prospect of such industrious holidays
enchanted him. But he had forgotten a student's debt. " I
cannot carry out my project," he sadly wrote, on September
8, 1847 ; " I am more than ruined by the cost of printing my
thesis."

On his return to Paris he shut himself up in the laboratory.
"I am extremely happy. I shall soon publish a paper on
crystallography." His father writes (December 25, 1847) :
' We received your letter yesterday ; it is absolutely satisfac-
tory, but it could not be otherwise coming from you ; you have
long, indeed ever, been all satisfaction to me." And in^
response to his son's intentions of accomplishing various tasks,
fully understanding that nothing will stop him : ' ' You are
doing right to make for your goal ; it was only out of excessive
affection that I have often written in another sense. I only
feared that you might succumb to your work ; so many noble
youths have sacrificed their health to the love of science.
Knowing you as I do, this was my only anxiety."

After being reproved for excessive work, Louis was repri-
manded for too much affection (January 1, 1848). " The
presents you sent have just arrived; I shall leave it to your
sisters to write their thanks. For my part, I should prefer
a thousand times that this money should still be in your purse,
and thence to a good restaurant, spent in some good meals
that you might have enjoyed with your friends. There are
not many parents, my dearest boy, who have to write such
things to their son ; my satisfaction in you is indeed deeper than
I can express." At the end of this same letter, the mother
adds in her turn : " My darling boy, I wish you a happy new
year. Take great care of your health. . . . Think what a
worry it is to me that I cannot be with you to look after you.
Sometimes I try to console myself for your absence by thinking
how fortunate I am in having a child able to raise himself to
such a position as yours is — such a happy position, as it seems
to be from your last letter but one." And in a strange sen-
tence, where it would seem that a presentiment of her approach-
ing death made worldly things appear at their true value :

36 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

1 ' Whatever happens to you , do not grieve ; nothing in life is
more than a chimera. Farewell, my son."

On March 20, 1848, Pasteur read to the Acad&nie des
Sciences a portion of his treatise on "Researches on Dimorph-
ism." There are some substances which crystallize in two
different ways. Sulphur, for instance, gives quite dissimilar
crystals according to whether it is melted in a crucible or dis-
solved in sulphide of carbon. Those substances are called
dimorphous. Pasteur, kindly aided by the learned M. Dela-
fosse (with his usual gratefulness he mentions this in the very
first pages) had made out a list — as complete as possible — of
all dimorphous substances. When M. Eomanet, of Arbois
College, received this paper he wag quite overwhelmed. " It
is much too stiff for you," he said with an infectious modesty
to Vercel, Charriere, and Coulon, Pasteur's former comrades.
Perhaps the head master desired to palliate his own incom-
petence in the eyes of coming generations, for on the title page
of the copy of Pasteur's booklet still to be found in the Arbois
library, he wrote this remark, which he signed with his initial
B. : — " Dimorphisms ; this word is not even to be found in the
Dictionnaire de V Academic " 1 1 The approbation of several
members of the Academic des Sciences compensated for the
somewhat summary judgment of M. Eomanet, whose good
wishes continued to follow the rapid course of his old pupil.

After this very special study, dated at the beginning of 1848,
one might imagine the graduate-curator closing his ears to all
outside rumours and little concerned with political agitatien,
but that would be doing him an injustice. Those who wit-
nessed the Kevolution of 1848 remember how during the early
days France was exalted with the purest patriotism. Pasteur
had visions of a generous and fraternal Kepublic ; the words
drapeau and patrie moved him to the bottom of his soul.
Lamartine1 as a politician inspired him with an enthusiastic
confidence; he delighted in the sight of a poet leader of men.
Many others shared the same illusions. France, as Louis
Veuillot has it, made the mistake of choosing her band-master

1 This celebrated poet took a large share in the Revolution of 1848,
when his popularity became enormous. His political talents, however,
apart from his wonderful eloquence, were less than mediocre, and he
retired into private life within three years.

His "Meditations," " Jocelyn," " Resettlements," etc.', etc., are beau-
tiful examples of lyrical poetry, and may be considered as forming part
of the literature of the world. [Trans.]

1844—1849 37

as colonel of the regiment. Enrolled with his fellow students,
Pasteur wrote thus to his parents : " I am writing from the
Orleans Eailway, where as a garde national1 I am stationed.
I am glad that I was in Paris during the February days 2 and
that I am here still ; I should be sorry to leave Paris just now.
It is a great and a sublime doctrine which is now being un-
folded before our eyes . . . and if it were necessary I should
heartily fight for the holy cause of the Kepublic." " What a
transformation of our whole being I ' ' has written one who
was then a candidate to the Ecole Normale, already noted by
his masters for his good sense, Francisque Sarcey. "How
those magical words of liberty and fraternity, this renewal of
the Kepublic, born in the sunshine of our twentieth year, filled
our hearts with unknown and absolutely delicious sensations !
With what a gallant joy we embraced the sweet and superb
image of a people of free men and brethren ! The whole nation
was moved as we were ; like us, it had drunk of the intoxicat-
ing cup. The honey of eloquence flowed unceasingly from the
lips of a great poet, and France believed, in childlike faith,
that his word was efficacious to destroy abuses, cure evils and
soothe sorrows."

One day when Pasteur was crossing the Place du Pantheon,
he saw a gathering crowd around a wooden erection, decorated
with the words : Autel de la Patrie. A neighbour told him
that pecuniary offerings might be laid upon this altar. Pasteur
goes back to the Ecole Normale, empties a drawer of all his
savings, and returns to deposit it in thankful hands.

1 Garde Nationale. A city militia, intended to preserve order and to
maintain municipal liberties; it was improvised in 1789, and its first
Colonel was General Lafayette, of American Independence fame. Its
cockade united the King's white to the Paris colours, blue and red, and
thus was inaugurated the celebrated Tricolour.

The National Guard was preserved by the Restoration, but Charles X
disbanded it as being dangerously Liberal in its tendencies. It re-formed
itself of its own accord in 1830, and helped to overthrow the elder
branch of Bourbon. It proved a source of disorder in 1848 and was re-
organized under the second Empire, but, having played an active and
disastrous part in the Commune (1871), it was disarmed and finally
suppressed. [Trans.]

a February days. The Republicans had organized a banquet in Paris
for February 22, 1848. The Government prohibited it, with the result
that an insurrection took place. Barricades were erected and some
fighting ensued; on the 24th, the insurgents were masters of the situa-
tion. Louis Philippe abdicated (vainly) in favour of his grandson," the
Comte de Paris, and fled to England. [Trans.]

38 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

" You say," wrote his father on April 28, 1848, " that you
have offered to France all your savings, amounting to 150
francs. You have probably kept a receipt of the office where
this payment was made, with mention of the date and place? "
And considering that this action should be made known, he
advises him to publish it in the journal Le National or La
RS forme in the following terms, " Gift to the Patrie : 150
francs, by the son of an old soldier of the Empire, Louis
Pasteur of the Ecole Normale." He wrote in the same letter,
" You should raise a subscription in your school in favour of
the poor Polish exiles who have done so much for us ; it would
be a good deed."

After those days of national exaltation, Pasteur returned to
his crystals. He studied tartrates under the influence of
certain ideas that he himself liked to expound. Objects con-
sidered merely from the point of view of form, may be divided
into two great categories. First, those objects which, placed
before a mirror, give an image which can be superposed to
them : these have a symmetrical plan ; secondly , those which
have an image which cannot be superposed to them : they are
dissymmetrical. A chair, for instance, is symmetrical, or a
straight flight of steps. But a spiral staircase is not sym-
metrical, its own image cannot be laid over it. If it turns to
the right, its image turns to the left. In the same way the
right hand cannot be superposed to the left hand, a righthand
glove does not fit a left hand, and a right hand seen in a mirror
gives the image of a left hand.

Pasteur noticed that the crystals of tartaric acid and the
tartrates had little faces, which had escaped even the profound
observation of Mitscherlich and La Provostaye. These faces,
which only existed on one half of the edges or similar angles,
constituted what is called a hemihedral form. When the
crystal was placed before a glass the image that appeared could
not be superposed to the crystal ; the comparison of the two
hands was applicable to it. Pasteur thought that this aspect
of the crystal might be an index 'of what existed within the
molecules, dissymmetry of form corresponding with molecular
dissymmetry. Mitscherlich had not perceived that his tartrate
presented these little faces, this dissymmetry, whilst his para-
tartrate was without them, was in fact not hemihedral. There-
fore, reasoned Pasteur, the deviation to the right of the plane
of polarization produced by tartrate and the optical neutrality

1844—1849 89

of paratartrates would be explained by a structural law. The
first part of these conclusions was confirmed ; all the crystals of
tartrate proved to be hemihedral. But when Pasteur came
to examine the crystals of paratartrate , hoping to find none of
them hemihedral, he experienced a keen disappointment. The
paratartrate also was hemihedral, but the faces of some of the
crystals were inclined to the right, and those of others to the
left. It then occurred to Pasteur to take up these crystals one
by one and sort them carefully, putting on one side those which
turned to the left, and on the other those which turned to the
right. He thought that by observing their respective solutions
in the polarizing apparatus , the two contrary hemihedral forms
would give two contrary deviations; and then, by mixing to-
gether an equal number of each kind, as no doubt Mitscherlich
had done, the resulting solution would have no action upon
light, the two equal and directly opposite deviations exactly
neutralizing each other.

With anxious and beating heart he proceeded to this experi-
ment with the polarizing apparatus and exclaimed, "I have
it ! " His excitement was such that he could not look at the
apparatus again ; he rushed out of the laboratory, not unlike
Archimedes. He met a curator in the passage, embraced him
as he would have embraced Chappuis, and dragged him out
with him into the Luxembourg garden to explain his discovery.
Many confidences have been whispered under the shade of the
tall trees of those avenues, but never was there greater or more
exuberant joy on a young man's lips. He foresaw all the con-
sequences of his discovery. The hitherto incomprehensible
constitution of paratartaric or racemic acid was explained ; he
differentiated it into righthand tartaric acid, similar in every
way to the natural tartaric acid of grapes, and lefthand tartaric
acid. These two distinct acids possess equal and opposite rota-
tory, powers which neutralize each other when these two sub-
stances , reduced to an aqueous solution , combine spontaneously
in equal quantities.

"How often," he wrote to Chappuis (May 5), whom he
longed to have with him, " how often have I regretted that we
did not both take up the same study, that of physical science.
We who so often talked of the future, we did not understand.
What splendid work we could have undertaken and would be
undertaking now ; and what could we not have done united by
the same ideas, the same love of science, the same ambition !

40 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

I would we were twenty and with the three years of the Ecole
before us!" Always fancying that he could have done more,
he often had such retrospective regrets. He was impatient to
begin new researches, when a sad blow fell upon him — his
mother died almost suddenly of apoplexy. " She succumbed in
a few hours," he wrote to Chappuis on May 28, " and when I
reached home she had already left us. I have asked for a
holiday." He could no longer work; he remained steeped in
tears and buried in his sorrow. For weeks his intellectual life
was suspended.

In Paris, in the scientific world perhaps even more than
in any other, everything gets known, repeated, discussed.
Pasteur's researches were becoming a subject of conversation,
Balard, with his strident voice, spoke of them in the library at
the Institute, which is a sort of drawing-room for talkative old
Academicians. J. B. Dumas listened gravely; Biot, old Biot,
then seventy-four years old, questioned the story with some
scepticism. " Are you quite sure? " he would ask, his head a
little on one side, his words slow and slightly ironical. He
could hardly believe, on first hearing Balard, that a new doctor,
fresh from the Ecole Normale, should have overcome a difficulty
which had proved too much for Mitscherlich. He did not care
for long conversations with Balard, and as the latter continued
to extol Pasteur, Biot said, " I should like to investigate that
young man's results."

Besides Pasteur's deference for all those whom he looked
upon as his teachers, he also felt a sort of general gratitude
for their services to Science. Partly from an infinite respect
and partly from an ardent desire to convince the old scientist,
he wrote on his return to Paris to Biot, whom he did not know
personally, asking him for an interview. Biot answered : " I
shall be pleased to verify your results if you will communicate
them confidentially to me. Please believe in the feelings of
interest inspired in me by all young men who work with
accuracy and perseverance."

An appointment was made at the College de France,1 where
Biot lived. Every detail of that interview remained for ever

1 College de France. An establishment of superior studies founded
in. Paris by Francis I in 1530, and where public lectures are given on
languages, literature, history, mathematics, physical science, etc. It
was formerly independent, but is now under the jurisdiction of the
Ministry of Public Instruction. [Trans.]

1844—1849 41

filed in Pasteur's memory. Biot began by fetching some
paratartaric acid. " I have most carefully studied it," he said
to Pasteur ; " it is absolutely neutral in the presence of polarized
light." Some distrust was visible in his gestures and audible
in his voice. "I shall bring you everything that is neces-
sary," continued the old man, fetching doses of soda and
ammonia. He wanted the salt prepared before his eyes.

After pouring the liquid into a crystallizer, Biot took it into
a corner of his room to be quite sure that no one would touch it.
" I shall let you know when you are to come back," he said to
Pasteur when taking leave of him. Forty-eight hours later
some crystals, very small at first, began to form; when there
was a sufficient number of them, Pasteur was recalled. Still in
Biot's presence, Pasteur withdrew, one by one, the finest
crystals and wiped off the mother-liquor adhering to them. He
then pointed out to Biot the opposition of their hemihedral
character, and divided them into two groups — left and right.

" So you affirm," said Biot, " that your righthand crystals
will deviate to the right the plane of polarization, and your
lefthand ones will deviate it to the left? "

" Yes," said Pasteur.

" Well, let me do the rest."

Biot himself prepared the solutions, and then sent again for
Pasteur. Biot first placed in the apparatus the solution which
should deviate to the left. Having satisfied himself that this
deviation actually took place, he took Pasteur's arm and said
to him these words, often deservedly quoted : " My dear boy, I
have loved Science so much during my life, that this touches
my very heart."

"It was indeed evident," said Pasteur himself in recalling
this interview, " that the strongest light had then been thrown
on the cause of the phenomenon of rotatory polarization
and hemihedral crystals ; a new class of isomeric substances
was discovered ; the unexpected and until then unexampled
constitution of the racemic or paratartaric acid was revealed ;
in one word a great and unforeseen road was opened to science."

Biot now constituted himself the sponsor in scientific matters
of his new young friend, and undertook to report upon Pasteur's
paper entitled : " Researches on the relations which may exist
between crystalline form, chemical composition, and the
direction of rotatory power " — destined for the Acadeinie des
Sciences.

42 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Biot did full justice to Pasteur; he even rendered him
homage, and— not only in his own name but also in that of his
three colleagues, Regnault, Balard, and Dumas— he suggested
that the Academic should declare its highest approbation of
Pasteur's treatise.

Pasteur did not conceive greater happiness than his laboratory
life, and yet the laboratories of that time were very unlike what
they are nowadays, as we should see if the laboratories of the
College de France, of the Sorbonne, of the Ecole Normale had
been preserved. They were all that Paris could offer Europe,
and Europe certainly had no cause to covet them. Nowadays
the most humble college, in the smallest provincial town, would
not accept such dens as the State offered (when it offered them
any) to the greatest French scientists. Claude Bernard,
Magendie's curator, worked at the College de France in a regu-
lar cellar. Wurtz only had a lumber-room in the attics of the
Dupuytren Museum. Henri Sainte Claire Deville , before he be-
came head of the Besancon Faculty, had not even as much ; he
was relegated to one of the most miserable corners of the Rue
Lafarge. J. B. Dumas did not care to occupy the unhealthy
room reserved for him at the Sorbonne; his father-in-law,
Alexandre Brongniart, having given him a small house in the
Rue Cuvier, opposite the Jardin des Plantes, he had had it
transformed into a laboratory and was keeping it up at his own
expense. He was therefore comfortably situated, but he was
exceptionally fortunate. Every scientist who had no private
means to draw upon had to choose between the miserable
cellars and equally miserable garrets which were all that the
State could offer. And yet it was more tempting than a Pro-
fessor's chair in a College or even in a Faculty, for there one
could not give oneself up entirely to one's work.

Nothing would have seemed more natural than to leave
Pasteur to his experiments. But his appointment to some
definite post could no longer be deferred, in spite of Balard's
tumultuous activity. The end of the summer vacation was
near, there was a vacancy : Pasteur was made a Professsor of
Physics at the Dijon Lycee. The Minister of Public Instruc-
tion consented to allow him to postpone his departure until the
beginning of November, in order to let him finish some work
begun under the eye of Biot, who thought and dreamt of
nothing but these new investigations. During thirty years
Biot had studied the phenomena of rotatory polarization. He

1844—1849 43

had called the attention of chemists to these phenomena, but
his call had been unheeded. Continuing his solitary labour, he
had — in experimenting on cases both simple and complex-
studied this molecular rotatory power, without suspecting that
this power bore a definite relation to the hemihedral form of
some crystals. And now that the old man was a witness of a
triumphant sequel to his own researches, now that he had the
joy of seeing a young man with a thoughtful mind and an
enthusiastic heart working with him , now that the hope of this
daily collaboration shed a last ray on the close of his life,
Pasteur's departure for Dijon came as a real blow. "If at
least," he said, " they were sending you to a Faculty ! " He
turned his wrath on to the Government officials. " They don't
seem to realize that such labours stand above everything else I
If they only knew it, two or three such treatises might bring a
man straight to the Institut ! ' '

Nevertheless Pasteur had to go. M. Pouillet gave him a
letter for a former Polytechnician / now a civil engineer at
Dijon, a M. Parandier, in which he wrote—

" M. Pasteur is a most distinguished young chemist. He
has just completed some very remarkable work, and I hope
it will not be long before he is sent to a first-class Faculty. I
need add nothing else about him ; I know no more honest,
industrious, or capable young man. Help him as much as you
can at Dijon ; you will not regret it."

Those first weeks away from his masters and from his beloved
pursuits seemed very hard to Pasteur. But he was anxious to
prove himself a good teacher. This duty appeared to him to
be a noble ideal, and to involve a wide responsibility. He felt
none of the self satisfaction which is sometimes a source of
strength to some minds conscious of their superiority to others.
He did not even do himself the justice of feeling that he was

1 Polytechnician. A student of the Ecole Polytechnique, a military
and engineering school under the jurisdiction of the Minister of War,
founded in 1794. Candidates for admission must be older than sixteen
and younger than twenty, but the limit of age is raised to twenty-five in
the case of private soldiers and non-commissioned officers. They must
also have passed their baccalaurtat bs lettres or cs sciences— preferably
the latter. After two years' residence (compulsory) students pass c
leaving examination, and are entered according to their list number
as engineers of the Navy, Mines, or Civil Works, or as officers in the
military Engineers or in the Artillery; the two last then have to go
through one of the military training schools (Ecol«s d 'Application).
[Trans.J

44 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

absolutely sure of his subject. He wrote to Chappuis (Novem-
ber 20, 1848) : " I find that preparing my lessons takes up a
great deal of time. It is only when I have prepared a lesson
very carefully that I succeed in making it very clear and capable
of compelling attention. If I neglect it at all I lecture badly
and become unintelligible."

He had both first and second year pupils ; these two classes
took up all his time and all his strength. He liked the second
class ; it was not a very large one. " They all work," Pasteur
wrote, "some very intelligently." As to the first year class,
what could he do with eighty pupils ? The good ones were kept
back by the bad. " Don't you think," he wrote, " that it is a
mistake not to limit classes to fifty boys at the most? It is
with great difficulty that I can secure the attention of all
towards the end of the lesson. I have only found one means,
which is to multiply experiments at the last moment."

Whilst he was eagerly and conscientiously giving himself up
to his new functions — not without some bitterness , for he really
was entitled to an appointment in a Faculty, and he could not
pursue his favourite studies— his masters were agitating on his
behalf. Balard was clamouring to have him as an assistant at
the Ecole Normale. Biot was appealing to Baron Thenard.
This scientist was then Chairman of the Grand Council of the
University.1 He had been a pupil of Vauquelin, a friend of
Laplace, and a collaborator of Gay-Lussac; he had lectured
during thirty years at the Sorbonne, at the College de France,
and at the Ecole Polytechnique ; he could truthfully boast that
he had had 40,000 pupils. He was, like J. B. Dumas, a born
professor. But, whilst Dumas was always self possessed and
dignified in his demeanour, his very smile serious, Thenard,
a native of Burgundy, threw his whole personality into his work,
a broad smile on his beaming face.

He was now (1848) seventy years old, and the memory of his

1 UniversiU. The celebrated body known as Universite de Paris, and
instituted by Philippe Auguste in 1200, possessed great privileges from
its earliest times. It had the monopoly of teaching and a jurisdiction
of its own. It took a share in public affairs on several occasions, and
had long struggles to maintain against several religious orders. The
Universite was suppressed by the Convention, but re-organized by
Napoleon I in 1808. It is now subdivided into sixteen Academies
Universitaires, each of which is administered by a Rector. The title of
Grand Master of the Universite alwaj's accompanies that of Minister of
Public Instruction. [Trans.]

1844—1849 4^

teaching, the services rendered to industry by his discoveries,
the eclat of his name and titles contrasted with his humble
origin, all combined to render him more than a Chancellor of
the University ; he was in fact a sort of Field Marshal of
science, and all powerful. Three years previously he had much
scandalized certain red-tape officials by choosing three very
young men — Puiseux, Delesse, and H. Sainte Claire Deville —
as professors for the new Faculty of Science at Besancon. He
had accentuated this authoritative measure by making Sante
Claire Deville Dean of the Faculty. In the unknown professor
of twenty-six, he had divined the future celebrated scientist.

At the end of the year 1818 Pasteur solicited the place of
assistant to M. Delesse, who was taking a long leave of absence.
This would have brought him near Arbois, besides placing
him in a Faculty. He asked for nothing more. Thenard, who
had Biot's report in his hands, undertook to transmit to the
Minister this modest and natural request. He was opposed $-
by an unexpected argument — the presentation of assistantships
belonged to each Faculty. This custom was unknown to
Pasteur. Thenard was unable to overcome this routine
formality. Pasteur thought that the unanimous opinion of
Thenard, Biot, and Pouillet ought to have prevailed. " I can
practically do nothing here," he wrote on the sixth of
December, thinking of his interrupted studies. " If I cannot
go to Besancon, I shall go back to Paris as a curator."

His father, to whom he paid a visit for the new year, per-
suaded him to look upon things more calmly, telling him that
wisdom repudiated too much hurry. Louis deferred to his
father's opinion to the extent of writing, on January 2, 1849,
to the Minister of Public Instruction, begging him to overlook
his request. However, the members of the Institute who had
taken up his cause did not intend to be thwarted by minor
difficulties. Pasteur's letter was hardly posted when he
received an assistantship, not at the Besancon Faculty but at
Strasburg, to take the place of M. Persoz, Professor of
Chemistry, who was desirous of going to Paris.

Pasteur, on his arrival at Strasburg (January 15) was
welcomed by the Professor of Physics, his old school friend, _ *
the Franc-Comtois Bertin. " First of all, you are coming to
live with me," said Bertin gleefully. "You could not do
better; it is a stone's throw from the FaculteV' By living
with Bertin, Pasteur acquired a companion endowed with a

46 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

rare combination of qualities — a quick wit and an affectionate
heart. Bertin was too shrewd to be duped, and a malicious
twinkle often lit up his kindly expression ; with one apparently
careless word, he would hit the weak point of the most self
satisfied. He loved those who were simple and true, hence his
affection for Pasteur. His smiling philosophy contrasted with
Pasteur's robust faith and ardent impetuosity. Pasteur
admired, but did not often imitate, the peaceful manner with
which Bertin, affirming that a disappointment often proved to
be a blessing in disguise, accepted things as they came. In
order to prove that this was no paradox, Bertin used to tell
what had happened to him in 1839, when he was mathematical
preparation master at the College of Luxeuil. He was entitled
to 200 francs a month, but payment was refused him. This
injustice did not cause him to recriminate, but he quietly
tendered his resignation. He went in for the Ecole Normale
examination, entered the school at the head of the list, and
subsequently became Professor of Physics at the Strasburg
Faculty. "If it had not been for my former disappointment,
I should still be at Luxeuil." He was now perfectly satisfied,
thinking that nothing could be better than to be a Professor in
a Faculty ; but this absence of any sort of ambition did not
prevent him from giving his teaching the most scrupulous
attention. He prepared his lessons with extreme care, en-
deavouring to render them absolutely clear. He took great
personal interest in his pupils, and often helped them with his
advice in the interval between class hours. This excellent
man's whole life was spent in working for others, and to be
useful was ever to him the greatest satisfaction.

Perhaps Pasteur was stimulated by Bertin's example to give
excessive importance to minor matters in his first lessons. He
writes : ' ' I gave too much thought to the style of my two first
lectures, and they were anything but good; but I think the
subsequent ones were more satisfactory, and I feel I am im-
proving." His lectures were well attended, for the numerous
industries of Alsace gave to chemistry quite a place by itself.

Everything pleased him in Strasburg save its distance from

Arbois. He who could concentrate his thoughts for weeks, for

/ months even, on one subject, who could become as it were a

/ prisoner of his studies, had withal an imperious longing for

family life. His rooms in Bertin's house suited him all the

1844—1849 47

better that they were large enough for him to entertain one of
his relations. His father wrote in one of his letters : " You
say that you will not marry for a long time, that you will ask
one of your sisters to live with you. I could wish it for you
and for them, for neither of them wishes for a greater happi-
ness. Both desire nothing better than to look after your
comfort; you are absolutely everything to them. One may
meet with sisters as good as they are, but certainly with none
better."

Louis Pasteur's circle of dear ones was presently enlarged
by his intimacy with another family. The new Rector of the
Academy of Strasburg, M. Laurent, had arrived in October.
He was no relation to the chemist of the same name, and the
place he was about to take in Pasteur's life was much greater
than that held by Auguste Laurent at the time when they were
working together in Balard's laboratory.

After having begun, in 1812, as preparation master in the
then Imperial College of Louis le Grand, M. Laurent had
become, in 1826, head master of the College of Riom. He
found at Riom more tutors than pupils ; there were only three
boys in the school ! Thanks to M. Laurent, those three soon
became one hundred and thirty-four. From Riom he was sent
to Gu6ret, then to Saintes, to save a college in imminent
danger of disappearing ; there were struggles between the
former head master and the Mayor, the town refused the
subsidies, all was confusion. Peace immediately followed his
arrival. " Those who have known him," wrote M. Pierron
in the Revue de V Instruction Publique, " will not be surprised
at such miracles coming from a man so intelligent and so
active, so clever, amiable, and warm-hearted." Wherever he
was afterwards sent, at Orleans, Angouleme, Douai, Toulouse,
Cahors, he worked the same charm, born of kindness. At
Strasburg, he had made of the Academic a home where all the
Faculty found a simple and cordial welcome. Madame
Laurent was a modest woman who tried to efface herself, but
whose exquisite qualities of heart and mind could not remain
hidden. The eldest of her daughters was married to M.
Zevort, whose name became doubly dear to the Universite.
The two younger ones, brought up in habits of industry and
unselfishness which seemed natural to them, brightened the
home by their youthful gaiety.

48 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

When Pasteur on his arrival called on this family, he ha<
the feeling that happiness lay there. He had seen at Arboii
how, through the daily difficulties of manual labour, his parent!
looked at life from an exalted point of view, appreciating i
from that standard of moral perfection which gives dignity
and grandeur to the humblest existence. In this family — o
a higher social position than his own — he again found the sam<
high ideal, and, with great superiority of education, the sam<
simple-mindedness. When Pasteur entered for the first tim<
the Laurent family circle, he immediately felt the delightfu
impression of being in a thoroughly congenial atmosphere ; i
communion of thoughts and feelings seemed established afte
the first words, the first looks exchanged between him an<
his hosts.

In the evening, at the restaurant where most of the younge
professors dined, he heard others speak of the kindliness an<
strict justice of the Rector; and everyone expressed respec
for his wonderfully united family.

At one of M. Laurent's quiet evening " at homes," Berth
was saying of Pasteur, " You do not often meet with such j
hard worker; no attraction ever can take him away from hi
work." The attraction now came, however, and it was sucl
a powerful one that, on February 10, only a fortnight after hii
arrival, Pasteur addressed to M. Laurent the following officia
letter :—

11 SIR,—

" An offer of the greatest importance to me and to you:
family is about to be made to you on my behalf ; and I feel i
my duty to put you in possession of the following facts, whicl
may have some weight in determining your acceptance 01
refusal.

" My father is a tanner in the small town of Arbois in th<
Jura, my sisters keep house for him, and assist him with hii
books, taking the place of my mother whom we had the mis
fortune to lose in May last.

"My family is in easy circumstances, but with nc
fortune; I do not value what we possess at more than 50,00(
francs, and, as for me, I have long ago decided to hanc
over to my sisters the whole of what should be my share
I have therefore absolutely no fortune. My only means

1844—1849 49

are good health, some courage, and my position in the
University.

" I left the Ecole Normale two years ago, an agrege in
physical science. I have held a Doctor's degree eighteen
months, and I have presented to the Academie a few works
which have been very well received, especially the last one,
upon which a report was made which I now have the honour
to enclose.

"This, Sir, is all my present position. As to the future,
unless my tastes should completely change, I shall give myself
up entirely to chemical research. I hope to return to Paris
when I have acquired some reputation through my scientific
labours. M. Biot has often told me to think seriously about
the Institute ; perhaps I may do so in ten or fifteen years' time,
and after assiduous work ; but this is but a dream, and not the
motive which makes me love Science for Science's sake.

' ' My father will himself come to Strasburg to make this
proposal of marriage.

" Accept, Sir, the assurance of my profound respect, etc.

" P.S. — I was twenty-six on December 27."

A definite answer was adjourned for a few weeks. Pasteur,
in a letter to Madame Laurent, wrote, " I am afraid that Mile.
Marie may be influenced by early impressions, unfavourable to
me. There is nothing in me to attract a young girl's fancy. .
But my recollections tell me that those who have known me *v
very well have loved me very much."

Of these letters, religiously preserved, fragments like the
following have also been obtained. " All that I beg of you,
Mademoiselle (he had now been authorised to address himself
directly to her) is that you will not judge me too hastily, and
therefore misjudge me. Time will show you that below my
cold, shy and unpleasing exterior, there is a heart full of
affection for you!" In another letter, evidently remorseful
at forsaking the laboratory, he says, "I, who did so love my
crystals ! ' '

He loved them still, as is proved by an answer from Biot to
a proposal of Pasteur's. In order to spare the old man's
failing sight, Pasteur had the ingenious idea of cutting out of
pieces of cork, with exquisite skill, some models of crystalline
types greatly enlarged. He had tinted the edges and faces,

B

50 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

and nothing was easier than to recognize their hemihedral
character. "I accept with great pleasure," wrote Biot on
April 7, "the offer you make me of sending me a small
quantity of your two acids, with models of their crystalline
types." He meant the righthand tartaric acid and the left-
hand tartaric acid , which Pasteur — not to pronounce too hastily
on their identity with ordinary tartaric acid— then called
dextroracemic and lavoracemic.

Pasteur wished to go further ; he was now beginning to
study the crystallizations of formate of strontian. Comparing
them with those of the paratartrates of soda and ammonia,
surprised and uneasy at the differences he observed, he once
exclaimed, " Ah ! formate of strontian, if only I had got you ! "
to the immense amusement of Bertin, who long afterwards
used to repeat this invocation with mock enthusiasm.

Pasteur was about to send these crystals to Biot, but the
latter wrote, "Keep them until you have thoroughly investi-
gated them. . ., . You can depend on my wish to serve you in
every circumstance when my assistance can be of any use to
you, and also on the great interest with which you have
inspired me."

Eegnault and Senarmont had been invited by Biot to
examine the valuable samples received from Strasburg, the
dextroracemic and laevoracemic acids. Biot wrote to Pasteur,
' We might make up our minds to sacrifice a small portion of
the two acids in order to reconstitute the racemic , but we doubt
whether we should be capable of discerning it with certainty by
those crystals when they are formed. You must show it us
yourself, when you come to Paris for the holidays. Whilst
arranging my chemical treasures, I came upon a small quantity
of racemic acid which I thought I had lost. It would be
sufficient for the microscopical experiments that I might
eventually have to make. So if the small phial of it that you
saw here would be useful to you, let me know, and I will
willingly send it. In this, as in everything else, you will
always find me most anxious to second you in your labours."

This period was all happiness. Pasteur's father and his
sister Josephine came to Strasburg. The proposal of marriage
was accepted, the father returned to Arbois, Josephine stay-
ing behind. She remained to keep house and to share the
everyday life of her brother, whom she loved with a mixture of

1844—1849 51

pride, tenderness and solicitude. In her devoted sisterly
generosity, she resigned herself to the thought that her happy
dream must be of short duration. The wedding was fixed for
May 29.

"I believe," wrote Pasteur to Chappuis, "that I shall be
very happy. Every quality I could wish for in a wife I find
in her. You will say, ' He is in love ! ' Yes, but I do not
think I exaggerate at all, and my sister Josephine quite agrees
with me."

CHAPTEK III
1850—1854

FROM the very beginning Mme. Pasteur not only admitted,
but approved, that the laboratory should come before every-
thing else. She would willingly have adopted the typographic
custom of the Academic des Sciences Eeports, where the word
Science is always spelt with a capital S. It was indeed
impossible to live with her husband without sharing his joys,
anxieties and renewed hopes, as they appeared day by day
reflected in his admirable eyes — eyes of a rare grey-green colour
like the sparkle of a Ceylon gem. Before certain scientific
possibilities, the flame of enthusiasm shone in those deep eyes,
and the whole stern face was illumined. Between domestic
happiness and prospective researches, Pasteur's life was com-
plete. But this couple, who had now shared everything for
more than a year, was to suffer indirectly through the new
law on the liberty of teaching.

Devised by some as an effort at compromise between the
Church and the University, considered by others as a scope for
competition against State education, the law of 1850 brought
into the Superior Council of Public Instruction four archbishops
or bishops, elected by their colleagues. In each Department1
an Academy Council was instituted, and, in this parcelling
out of University jurisdiction, the right of presence was recog-
nized as belonging to the bishop or his delegate. But all these
advantages did not satisfy those who called themselves
Catholics before everything else. The rupture between Louis
Veuillot on one side and, on the other, Falloux and Montalem-
bert, the principal authors of this law, dates from that time.

1 D6 par tern ents. The present divisions of French territory, number-
ing eighty-seven in all. Each department is administered by a pr6fet,
and subdivided into arrondissements, each of which has a sous-prifet.
[Trans.]

1850—1864 53

" What we understood by the liberty of teaching," wrote
Louis Veuillot, " was not a share given to the Church, but the
destruction of monopoly. ... No alliance with the University !
Away with its books, inspectors, examinations, certificates,
diplomas ! All that means the hand of the State laid on the
liberty of the citizen ; it is the breath of incredulity on the
younger generation." Confronted by the violent rejection of
any attempt at reconciliation and threatened interference with
the University on the part of the Church, the Government was
trying to secure to itself the whole teaching fraternity.

The primary schoolmasters groaned under the heavy yoke
of the prefects. "These deep politicians only know how to
dismiss. . . . The rectors will become the valets of the pre-
fects . . ." wrote Pasteur with anger and distress in a letter
dated July, 1850. After the primary schools, the attacks now
reached the colleges. The University was accused of attend-
ing exclusively to Latin verse and Greek translations, and of
neglecting the souls of the students. Komieu, who ironically
dubbed the University " Alma Parens," and attacked it most
bitterly, seemed hardly fitted for the part of justiciary. He
was a former pupil of the Ecole Poly technique, who wrote
vaudevilles until he was made a prefect by Louis Philippe.
He was celebrated for various tricks which amused Paris and
disconcerted the Government, much to the joy of the Prince de
Joinville,1 who loved such mystifications. After the fall of
Louis Philippe, Romieu became a totally different personality.
He had been supposed to take nothing seriously ; he now put a
tragic construction on everything. He became a prophet of
woe , declaring that * ' gangrene was devouring the souls oi
eight year old children." According to him, faith, respect, all
was being destroyed; he anathematized Instruction without
Education, and stigmatized village schoolmasters as "obscure
apostles" charged with "preaching the doctrines of revolt."
This violence was partly oratory , but oratory does not minimize
violence, it excites it. Every pamphleteer ends by being a
bond-slave to his own phraseology.

When Romieu appeared in Strasburg as an Envoy Extra-
ordinary entrusted by the Government with a general inquiry,
he found that M. Laurent did not answer to that ideal of a

1 Prince de Joinville. Third son of Louis Philippe, and an Admiral
in the French navy. It was he who was sent to fetch Napoleon's remains
from St. Helena. [Trans.]

54 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

functionary which was entertained by a certain party. M.
Laurent had the very highest respect for justice ; he distrusted
the upstarts whose virtues were very much on the surface ; he
never decided on the fate of an inferior without the most pains-
taking inquiry ; he did not look on an accidental mistake as
an unpardonable fault ; he refused to take any immediate and
violent measures : all this caused him to be looked upon with
suspicion. " The influence of the Hector " (thus ran Komieu's
official report) "is hardly, if at all, noticeable. He should be
replaced by a safe man."

The Minister of Public Instruction, M. de Parieu, had to
bow before the formal wish of the Minister of the Interior,
founded upon peremptory arguments of this kind. M.
Laurent was offered the post of Rector at Chateauroux, a
decided step downward. He refused, left Strasburg, and, with
no complaint or recriminations, retired into private life at the
age of fifty-five.

It was when this happy family circle was just about to be
enlarged that its quiet was thus broken into by this untoward
result of political agitation. M. Laurent's youngest daughter
soon after became engaged to M. Loir, a professor at the
Strasburg Pharmaceutical School, who had been a student at
the Ecole Normale, and who ultimately became Dean of the
Faculty of Sciences at Lyons. He was then preparing, assisted
by Pasteur, his " thesis" for the degree of Doctor of Science
In this he announced some new results based on the simul-
taneous existence of hemihedral crystalline forms and the
rotatory power. He wrote, "I am happy to have brought
new facts to bear upon the law that M. Pasteur has
enunciated."

' ' Why are you not a professor of physics or chemistry ! ' *
wrote Pasteur to Chappuis ; " we should work together, and in
ten years' time we would revolutionize chemistry. There are
wonders hidden in crystallization, and, through it, the inmost
construction of substances will one day be revealed. If you
come to Strasburg, you shall become a chemist ; I shall talk to
you of nothing but crystals."

The vacation was always impatiently awaited by Pasteur.
He was able to work more, and to edit the result of his
researches in an extract for the Academic des Sciences. On
October 2 his friend received the following letter: "On
Monday I presented this year's work to the ' Institut.' I

1850—1854 55

read a long extract from it, and then gave a viva voce demon-
stration relative to some crystallographic details. This
demonstration, which I had been specially desired to give, was
quite against the prevailing customs of the Academie. I gave
it with my usual delight in that sort of thing, and it was
followed with great attention. Fortunately for me, the most
influential members of the Academie were present. M. Dumas
sat almost facing me. I looked at him several times, and he
expressed by an approving nod of his head that he understood
and was much interested. He asked me to his house the next
day, and congratulated me. He said, amongst other things,
that I was a proof that when a Frenchman took up crystal-
lography he knew what he was about, and also that if I
persevered, as he felt sure I should, I should become the
founder of a school.

" M. Biot, whose kindness to me is beyond all expression,
came to me after my lecture and said, ' It is as good as it can
possibly be.' On October 14 he will give his report on my
work ; he declares I have discovered a very California. Do
not suppose I have done anything wonderful this year. This
is but a satisfactory consequence of preceding work."

In his report (postponed until October 28) Biot was more
enthusiastic. He praised the numerous and unforeseen results
brought out by Pasteur within the last two years. "He
throws light upon everything he touches," he said.

To be praised by Biot was a rare favour ; his diatribes were
better known. In a secret committee of the Academie des
Sciences (January, 1851) the Academie had to pronounce on
the merits of two candidates for a professorship at the College
de France : Balard, a professor of the Faculty of Science, chief
lecturer of the Ecole Normale, and Laurent the chemist, who
in order to live had been compelled to accept a situation as
assayer at the Mint. Biot, with his halting step, arrived at
the Committee room and spoke thus : " The title of Member
of the Institute is the highest reward and the greatest honour
that a French scientist can receive, but it does not constitute
a privilege of inactivity that need only be claimed in order to
obtain everything. . . . For several years, M. Balard has been
in possession of two large laboratories where he might have
executed any work dictated to him by his zeal, whilst nearly all
M. Laurent's results have been effected by his unaided personal
efforts at the cost of heavy sacrifices. If you give the college

56 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

vacancy to M. Balard, you will add nothing to the opportunities
for study which he already has ; but it will take away from M.
Laurent the means of work that he lacks and that we have
now the opportunity of providing for him. The chemical
section, and indeed the whole Academy will easily judge on
which side are scientific justice and the interests of future
progress."

Biot had this little speech printed and sent a copy of it to
Pasteur. The incident led to a warm dispute, and Biot lost
his cause. Pasteur wrote to Chappuis, " M. Biot has done
everything that was possible to do in order that M. Laurent
should win, and the final result is a great grief to him. But
really," the younger man added, more indulgent than the old
man, and divided between his wishes for Laurent and the fear
of the sorrow Balard would have felt, " M. Balard would not
have deserved so much misfortune. Think of the disgrace it
would have been to him if there had been a second vote favour-
able to Laurent, especially coming from the Institute of which
he is a member." At the end of that campaign, Biot in a fit
of misanthropy which excepted Pasteur alone, and knowing
that Pasteur had spoken with effusion of their mutual feelings,
wrote to him as follows : " I am touched by your acknowledg-
ment of my deep and sincere affection for you, and I thank you
for it. But whilst keeping your attachment for me as I
preserve mine for you, let me for the future rejoice in it in the
secret recesses of my heart and of yours. The world is jealous
of friendships however disinterested, and my affection for you
is such that I wish people to feel that they honour themselves
by appreciating you, rather than that they should know that
you love me and that I love you. Farewell. Persevere in
your good feelings as in your splendid career, and be happy.
Your friend."

The character of Biot, a puzzle to Sainte Beuve, seems easier
to understand after reading those letters, written in a small
conscientious hand. The great critic wrote : "Who will give
us the secret key to Biot's complex nature, to the curiosities,
aptitudes, envies, prejudices, sympathies, antipathies, folds
and creases of every kind in his character?" Even with no
other documents, the history of his relations with Pasteur
would throw light upon this nature, not so " complex " after
all. From the day when Pasteur worked out his first experi-
ment before Biot, at first suspicious, then astonished and

1850 —1854 57

finally touched to the heart, until the period of absolute mutual
confidence and friendship, we see rising before us the image of
this true scientist, with his rare independence, his good- will
towards laborious men and his mercilessness to every man
who, loving not Science for itfl owp sake, faflk^ ttpnn JLJJft*
co ver^r aa %, goad to fortune, pecuniary or political.

He loved both scienceTand letters, and, now that age had
bent his tall form, instead of becoming absorbed in his own
recollections and the contemplation of his own labours, he
kept his mind open, happy to learn more every day and to
anticipate the future of Pasteur.

During the vacation of 1851 Pasteur came to Paris to bring
Biot the results of new researches on aspartic and malic acids,
and he desired his father to join him in order to efface the sad
impression left by his former journey in 1838. Biot and his
wife welcomed the father and son as they would have welcomed
very few friends. Touched by so much- kindness, Joseph
Pasteur on his return in June wrote Biot a letter full of
gratitude, venturing at the same time to send the only thing it
was in his power to offer, a basket of fruit from his garden.
Biot answered as follows : "Sir, my wife and I very much
appreciate the kind expressions in the letter you have done me
the honour of writing me. Our welcome to you was indeed as
hearty as it was sincere, for I assure you that we could not see
without the deepest interest such a good and honourable father
sitting at our modest table with so good and distinguished a son.
I have never had occasion to show that excellent young man
any feelings but those of esteem founded on his merit, and an
affection inspired by his personality. It is the greatest pleasure
that I can experience in my old age, to see young men of talent
working industriously and trying to progress in a scientific
(career by means of steady and persevering labour, and not by
[wretched intriguing. That is what has made your son dear to
me, and his affection for me adds yet to his other claims and
increases that which I feel for him. We are therefore even
with one another. As to your kindness in wishing that I
should taste fruit from your garden, I am very grateful for it,
and I accept it as cordially as you send it."

Pasteur had also brought Biot some other products— a case
full of new crystals. Starting from the external configuration
of crystals, he penetrated the individual constitution of their
molecular groups, and from this point of departure, he then

58 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

had recourse to the resources of chemistry and optics. Biot
never ceased to admire the sagacity of the young experi-
mentalist who had turned what had until then been a mere
crystallographic character into an element of chemical research.

Equally interested by the general consequences of these
studies, so delicate and so precise, M. de Senarmont wished in
his turn to examine the crystals. No one approved more fully
than he the expressions of the old scientist, who ended in this
way his 1851 report : " If M. Pasteur persists in the road he
has opened, it may be predicted of him that what he has found
is nothing to what he will find." And, delighted to see the
important position that Pasteur was taking at Strasburg and
the unexpected extension of crystallography, Biot wrote to
him : "I have read with much interest the thesis of your
brother-in-law, M. Loir. It is well conceived and well written,
and he establishes with clearness many very curious facts. M.
de Senarmont has also read it with very great pleasure, and I
beg you will transmit our united congratulations to your
brother-in-law." Biot added, mixing as he was wont family
details with scientific ideas : ' * We highly appreciated your
father, the rectitude of his judgment, his firm, calm, simple
reason and the enlightened love he bears you."

" My plan of study is traced for this coming year," wrote
Pasteur to Chappuis at the end of December. " I am hoping
to develop it shortly in the most successful manner. . . . I think
I have already told you that I am on the verge of mysteries,
and that the veil which covers them is getting thinner and
thinner. The nights seem to me too long, yet I do not com-
plain, for I prepare my lectures easily, and often have five
whole days a week that I can give up to the laboratory. I
am often scolded by Mme. Pasteur, but I console her by telling
her that I shall lead her to fame."

He already foresaw the greatness of his work. However
he dare not speak of it, and kept his secret, save with the
confidante who was now a collaborator, ever ready to act as
secretary, watching over the precious health of which he him-
self took no account, an admirable helpmeet, to whom might
be applied the Koman definition, soda rei humance atque divince.
Never did life shower more affection upon a man. Everything
at that time smiled upon him. Two fair children in the home,
great security in his work, no enemies, and the comfort of

1850—1854 59

receiving the approval and counsel of masters who inspired him
with a feeling of veneration.

"At my age," wrote Biot to Pasteur, "one lives only in
the interest one takes in those one loves. You are one of the
small number who can provide such food for my mind." And
alluding in that same letter (December 22, 1851) to four reports
successively approved of by Balard, Dumas, Eegnault,
Chevreul, Senarmont and Thenard : " I was very happy to see,
in those successive announcements of ideas of so new and so
far-reaching a nature, that you have said — and that we have
made you say— nothing that should now be contradicted or
objected to in one single point. I still have in my hands the
pages of your last paper concerning the optical study of malic
acid. I have not yet returned them to you, as I wish to extract
from them some results that I shall place to your credit in a
paper I am now writing."

It was no longer Biot and Senarmont only who were watch-
ing the growing importance of Pasteur's work. At the
beginning of the year 1852 the physicist Eegnault thought of
making Pasteur a corresponding member of the Institute.
Pasteur was still under thirty. There was a vacancy in the
General Physics section, why not offer it to him? said Eegnault,
with his usual kindliness. Biot shook his head : " It is to the
Chemistry section that he ought to belong." And, with the
courage of sincere affection, he wrote to Pasteur, " Your work
marks your place in chemistry rather than physics, for in
chemistry you are in the front rank of inventors, whilst in
physics you have applied processes already known rather than
invented new ones. Do not listen to people, who, without
knowing the ground, would cause you to desire, and even to
hastily obtain, a distinction which would be above your real
and recognized claims. . . . Besides, you can see for yourself
how much your work of the last four years has raised you in
every one's estimation. JAnd that place, which you have made
for yourself in the general esteem, has the advantage of not
being subject to the fluctuations of the ballot! Farewell, dear
friend, write to me when you have time, and be assured that
my interest in hard workers is about the only thing which yet
makes me wish to live/ Your friend."

Pasteur gratefully accepted these wise counsels. In an
excess of modesty, he wrote to Dumas that he should not apply

60 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

as candidate even if a place for a correspondent were vacant in
the Chemistry section. "Do you then believe," answered
Dumas with a vivacity very unlike his usual solemn calmness,
' ' do you believe that we are insensible to the glory which your
work reflects on French chemistry, and on the Ecole from
whence you come? The very day I entered the Ministry, I
asked for the Cross l for you. I should have had in giving it to
you myself a satisfaction which you cannot conceive. I don't
know whence the delay and difficulty arise. But what I do
know is that you make my blood boil when you speak in your
letter of the necessity of leaving a free place in chemistry to
the men you mention, one or two excepted. . . . What opinion
have you then of our judgment? When there is a vacant
place, you shall be presented, supported and elected. It is a
question of justice and of the great interests of science : we
shall make them prevail. . . . When the day comes, there will
be means found to do what is required for the interests of
science, of which you are one of the firmest pillars, and one of
the most glorious hopes. Heartily yours."

" My dear father," wrote Pasteur, sending his father a copy
of this letter, " I hope you will be proud of M. Dumas' letter.
It surprised me very much. I did not believe that my work
deserved such a splendid testimony, though I recognize its
great importance."

Thus were associated in Pasteur the full consciousness of his
great mental power with an extreme ingenuousness. Instead
( of the pride and egotism provoked, almost excusably, in so
i many superior men by excessive strength, his character pre-
sented the noblest delicacy.

Another arrangement occurred to Eegnault : that he himself
should accept the direction of the Sevres Manufactory, and
give up to Pasteur his professorship at the Ecole Poly technique.
Others suggested that Pasteur should become chief lecturer at
the Ecole Normale. Rumours of these possibilities reached
Strasburg, but Pasteur's thoughts were otherwise absorbed.
He was concerned with the manner in which he could modify
the crystalline forms of certain substances which, though
optically active, did not at the first view present the hemihedral
character, and with the possibility of provoking the significant
faces by varying the nature of the dissolving agents. Biot was

1 Of the Legion of Honour.

1850—1854 61

anxious that he should not be disturbed in these ingenious
researches, and advised him to remain at Strasburg in terms
as vigorous as any of his previous advice. " As to the accidents
which come from or depend on men's caprice, be strong-
minded enough to disdain them yet awhile. Do not trouble
about anything, but pursue indefatigably your great career.
You will be rewarded in the end, the more certainly and un-
questionably that you will have deserved it more fully. The
time is not far when those .who can serve you efficiently will
feel as much pride in doing so as shame and embarrassment
in not having done so already."

When Pasteur came to Paris in August, for what he might
have called his annual pilgrimage, Biot had reserved for him a
most agreeable surprise. Mitscherlich was in Paris, where
he had come, accompanied by another German crystallo-
grapher, G. Eose, to thank the Academic for appointing him
a foreign Associate. They both expressed a desire to see
Pasteur, who was staying in a hotel in the Eue de Tournon.
Biot, starting for his daily walk round the Luxembourg
Garden , left this note : ' ' Please come to my house to-morrow
at 8 a.m., if possible with your products. M. Mitscherlich and
M. Kose are coming at 9 to see them." The interview was
lengthy and cordial. In a letter to his father — who now knew
a great deal about crystals and their forms, thanks to Pasteur's
lucid explanations — we find these words. " I spent two and a
half hours with them on Sunday at the College de France,
showing them my crystals. They were much pleased, and
highly praised my work. I dined with them on Tuesday at M.
Thenard's; you will like to see the names of the guests :
Messrs. Mitscherlich, Kose, Dumas, Chevreul, Begnault,
Pelouze, Peligot, C. Provost, and Bussy. You see I Was the
only outsider, they are all members of the Academic. . . . But
the chief advantage of my meeting these gentlemen is that I
have heard from them the important fact that there is a
manufacturer in Germany who again produces some racemic
acid. I intend to go and see him and his products, so as to
study thoroughly that singular substance."

At the time when scientific novels were in fashion, a whole
chapter might have been written on Pasteur in search of that
acid. In order to understand in a measure his emotion on
learning that a manufacturer in Saxony possessed this
mysterious acid, we must remember that the racemic acid —

6* THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

produced for the first time by Kestner at Thann in 1820,
through a mere accident in the manufacture of tartaric acid-
had suddenly ceased to appear, in spite of all efforts to obtain
it again. What then was the origin of it?

Mitscherlich believed that the tartars employed by this
Saxony manufacturer came from Trieste. "I shall go to
Trieste," said Pasteur; " I shall go to the end of the world.
I must discover the source of racemic acid, I must follow up the
tartars to their origin." Was the acid existent in crude
tartars, such as Kestner received in 1820 from Naples, Sicily,
or Oporto? This was all the more probable from the fact that
from the day when Kestner began to use semi-refined tartars
he had no longer found any racemic acid. Should one conclude
that it remained stored up in the mother-liquor?

With a feverish impetuosity that nothing could soothe,
Pasteur begged Biot and Dumas to obtain for him a mission
from the Ministry or the Academic . Exasperated by red tape
delays, he was on the point of writing directly to the President
of the Republic. "It is a question," he said, "that France
should make it a point of honour to solve through one of her
children." Biot endeavoured to moderate this excessive
impatience. "It is not necessary to set the Government in
motion for this," he said, a little quizzically. " The Academy,
when informed of your motives might very well contribute a
few thousand francs towards researches on the racemic acid."
But when Mitscherlich gave Pasteur a letter of recommendation
to the Saxony manufacturer, whose name was Fikentscher and
who lived near Leipzig, Pasteur could contain himself no
longer, and went off, waiting for nothing an 4 listening to no one.
His travelling impressions were of a peculiar nature. We will
extract passages from a sort of diary addressed to Madame
Pasteur so that she might share the emotions of this pursuit.
He starts his campaign on the 12th September. " I do not
stop at Leipzig, but go on to Zwischau, and then to M.
Fikentscher. I leave him at nightfall and go back to him the
next morning very early. I have spent all to-day, Sunday,
with him. M. Fikentscher is a very clever man, and he has
shown me his whole manufactory in every detail, keeping no
secrets from me. . . . His factory is most prosperous. It
comprises a group of houses which, from a distance, and
situated on a height as th^y a.Te, look almost like a little village.

1850—1854 63

It is surrounded by 20 hectares l of well cultivated ground.
All this is the result of a few years' work. As to the question,
here is a little information that you will keep strictly to your-
self for the present. M. Fikentscher obtained racemic acid
for the first time about twenty-two years ago. He prepared at
that time rather a large quantity. Since then only a very email
amount has been formed in the process of manufacture and he
has not troubled to preserve it. When he used to obtain most,
his tartars came from Trieste. This confirms, though not in
every point, what I heard from M. Mitscherlich. Anyhow,
here is my plan : Having no laboratory at Zwischau, I have just
returned to Leipzig with two kinds of tartars that M.
Fikentscher now uses, some of which come from Austria, and
some from Italy. M. Fikentscher has assured me that I
should be very well received here by divers professors, who
know my name very well, he says. To-morrow Monday morn-
ing, I will go to the Universite and set up in some laboratory
or other. I think that in five or six days I shall have finished
my examination of these tartars. Then I shall start for
Vienna, where I shall stay two or three days and rapidly study
Hungarian tartars. . . . Finally I shall go to Trieste, where I
shall find tartars of divers countries, notably those of the
Levant, and those of the neighbourhood of Trieste itself. On
arriving here at M. Fikentscher 's I have unfortunately dis-
covered a very regrettable circumstance. It is that the tartars
he uses have already been through one process in the country
from which they are exported, and this process is such that it
evidently eliminates and loses the greater part of the racemic
acid. At least I think so. I must therefore go to the place
itself. If I had enough money I should go on to Italy; but
that is impossible, it will be for next year. I shall give ten
years to it if necessary ; but it will not be, and I am sure that
in my very next letter I shall be able to tell you that I have
some good results. For instance, I am almost sure to find a
prompt means of testing tartars from the point of view of
racemic acid. That is a point of primary importance for my
work. I want to go quickly through examining all these
different tartars ; that will be my first study. . . . M.
Fikentscher will take nothing for his products. It is true that
I have given him hints and some of my own enthusiasm. He
1 Hectare : French measure of surface, about 2^ acres. [Trans.]

64 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

wants to prepare for commercial purposes some Seft tartaric
acid, and I have given him all the necessary crystallographic
indications. I have no doubt he will succeed."

Leipzig, Wednesday, September 15, 1852. " My dear
Marie, I do not want to wait until I have the results of my
researches before writing to you again. And yet I have
nothing to tell you, for I have not left the laboratory for three
days, and I know nothing of Leipzig but the street which
goes from the Hotel de Baviere to the Universite. I come
home at dusk, dine, and go to bed. I have only received,
in M. Erdmann's study, the visit of Professor Hankel, pro-
fessor of physics of the Leipzig University, who has translated
all my treatises in a German paper edited by M. Erdmann.
He has also studied hemihedral crystals, and I enjoyed talking
with him. 1 shall also soon meet the professor of mineralogy,
M. Naumann.

" To-morrow only shall I have a first result concerning
racemic acid. I shall stay about ten days longer in Leipzig.
It is more than I told you, and the reason lies in rather a happy
circumstance. M. Fikentscher has kindly written to me and to
a firm in Leipzig, and I heard yesterday from the head of that
firm that, very likely, they can get me to-morrow some tartars
absolutely crude and of the same origin as M. Fikentscher's.
The same gentleman has given me some information about a
factory at Venice , and will give me a letter of recommendation
to a firm in that city, also for Trieste. In this way the journey I
proposed to make in that town will not simply be a pleasure
trip. ... I shall write to M. Biot as soon as I have important
results. To-day has been a good day, and in about three or
four more you will no doubt receive a satisfactory letter."

Leipzig, September 18, 1852. " My dear Marie, the very
question which has brought me here is surrounded with very
great difficulties. ... I have only studied one tartar
thoroughly since I have been here ; it comes from Naples and
has been refined once. It contains racemic acid, but in such
infinitesimal proportions that it can only be detected by the
most delicate process. It is only by manufacture on a very
large scale that a certain quantity could be prepared. But I
must tell you that the first operation undergone by this tartar
must have deprived it almost entirely of racemic acid. For-
tunately M. Fikentscher is a most enlightened man, he
perfectly understands the importance of this acid and he is

1850—1854 6S

prepared to follow most minutely the indications that I shall
give him in order to obtain this singular substance in quantities
such that it can again be easily turned into commercial use.
I can already conceive the history of this product. M. Kestner
must have had at his disposal in 1820 some Neapolitan tartars,
as indeed he said he had, and he must have operated on crude
tartar. That is the whole secret. . . . But is it certain that
almost the whole of the acid is lost in the first manufacture
undergone by tartar? I believe it is. But it must be proved.
There are at Trieste and at Venice two tartar refineries of
which I have the addresses. I also have letters of introduction.
I shall examine there (if I find a laboratory) the residual pro-
ducts, and I shall make minute inquiries respecting the places
the tartars used in those two cities come from. Finally, I shall
procure a few kilogrammes, which I shall carefully study when
I get back to France. ..."

Freiberg, September 23, 1852. "I arrived on the evening
of the 21st at Dresden, and I had to wait until eleven the next
morning to have my passport vise, so I could not start for
Freiberg before seven p.m. I took advantage of that day to
visit the capital of Saxony, and I can assure you that I saw
some admirable things. There is a most beautiful museum
containing pictures by the first masters of every school. I
spent over four hours in the galleries, noting on my catalogue
the pictures I most enjoyed. Those I liked I marked with a
cross; but I soon put two, three crosses, according to the
degree of my enthusiasm. I even went as far as four.

" I also visited what they call the green vault room, an
absolutely unique collection of works of art, gems, jewels . . .
then some churches, avenues, admirable bridges across the
Elbe. . . .

" I then started for Freiberg at 7. ... My love of crystals
took me first to the learned Professor of mineralogy, Breithaupt,
who received me as one would not be received in France.
After a short colloquy, he passed into the next room, came back
in a black tail-coat with three little decorations in his button
hole, and told me he would first present me to the Baron von
Beust, Superintendent of Factories, so as to obtain a permit
to visit the latter. . . . Then he took me for a walk, talking
crystals the whole time. ..."

p.g. — " Mind you tell M. Biot how I was received; it will
please him."

P

66 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Vienna, September 27, 1852. " Yesterday, Monday morn-
ing, I set out to call upon several people. Unfortunately, I
hear that Professor Schrotten is at Wiesbaden, at a scientific
congress, as well as M. Seybel, a manufacturer of tartaric acid.
M. Miller, a merchant for whom I had a letter of recommenda-
tion, was kind enough to ask M. Seybel's business manager
for permission for me to visit the factory in his absence. He
refused, saying he was not authorized. But I did not give in ;
I asked for the addresses of Viennese professors, and I for-
tunately came upon that of a very well known scientific man,
M. Kedtenbacher, who has been kind to me beyond all
description. At 6 a.m. he came to my hotel, and we took the
train at 7 for the Seybel manufactory, which is at a little dis-
tance from Vienna. We were received by the chemist of the
factory, who made not the slightest difficulty in introducing
us into the sanctuary, and after many questions we ended by
being convinced that the famous racemic acid was seen there
last winter. ... I reserve for later many details of great
interest, for here they have operated for years on crude tartar.
I came away very happy.

" There is another factory of tartaric acid in Vienna. We
go there ; I repeat through M. Redtenbacher my string of
questions. They have seen nothing. I ask to see their
products , and I come upon a barrel full of tartaric acid crystals ,
on the surface of which I think I perceive the substance. A
first test made with dirty old glasses then and there confirms
my doubts ; they become a certainty a few moments later at
M. Eedtenbacher's laboratory. We dine together ; then we
go back to the factory, where we learn, miraculous to relate,
that they are just now embarrassed in their manufacturing
process, and, almost certainly, the product which hinders them
—though it is in a very small quantity, and they take it for
sulphate of potash — is no other than racemic acid. I wish I
could give you more details of this eventful day. I was to
have left Vienna to-day, but, as you will understand, I shall
stay until I have unravelled this question. I have already in
the laboratory three kinds of products from the factory. To-
morrow night, or the day after, I shall know what to think. . . .

"You remember what I used to say to you and to M. Dumas,
that almost certainly the first operation which tartar goes
through in certain factories causes it to lose all or nearly all its
racemic acid. Well, in the two Viennese factories, it is only

1850—1854 67

two years since they began to operate on crude tartar, and it is
only two years since they first saw the supposed sulphate of
potash, the supposed sulphate of magnesia. For, at M.
Seybel's, they had taken for sulphate of magnesia the little
crystals of racemic acid.

" Shortly, this is as far as I have come— I spare you many
details : —

1. " The Naples tartar contains racemic acid.

2. " The Austrian tartar (neighbourhood of Vienna) contains
racemic acid.

3. " The tartars of Hungary, Croatia, Carniola contain
racemic acid.

4. " The tartar of Naples contains notably more than the
latter, for it presents racemic acid even after one refining
process, whilst that from Austria and Hungary only presents
it when in the crude state.

" I believe it now to be extremely probable that I shall find
some racemic acid in French tartars, but in very small quanti-
ties ; and if it is not detected it is because all the circumstances
of the manufacture of tartaric acid are unknown or un-
appreciated, or because some little precaution Is neglected that
would preserve it or make it visible.

' You see, dear Marie, how useful was my journey."

" Vienna, September 30, 1852. I am not going to Trieste ;
I shall start for Prague this evening."

"Prague, October 1, 1852. Here is a startling piece of
news. I arrive in Prague; I settle down in the Hotel
d'Angleterre, have lunch, and call on M. Kochleder, Professor
of chemistry, so that he may introduce me to the manufacturer.
I go to the chemist of the factory, Dr. Kassmann, for whom I
had a letter from M. Eedtenbacher, his former master. That
letter contained all the questions that I usually make to the
manufacturers of tartaric acid.

" Dr. Bassmann hardly took time to read the letter; he saw
what it dealt with, and said to me : 'I have long obtained
racemic acid. The Paris Pharmaceutical Society offered a
prize for whoever manufactured it. It is a product of manu-
facture; I obtain it with the assistance of tartaric acid.' I
took the chemist's hand affectionately, and made him repeat
what he had said. Then I added : ' You have made one of the
greatest discoveries that it is possible to make in chemistry.
Perhaps you do not realise as I do the full importance of it.

F 2

68 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

But allow me to tell you that, with my ideas, I look upon that
discovery as impossible. I do not ask for your secret ; I shall
await the publication of it with the greatest impatience. So
that is really true? You take a kilogramme of pure tartaric
acid, and with that you make racemic acid?'

" ' Yes,' he said; ' but it is still ' . . . and as he had some
difficulty in expressing himself, I said : ' It is still surrounded
with great difficulties ? '

' ' Yes, monsieur.'

"Great heavens! what a discovery! if he had really done
what he says ! But no ; it is impossible. There is an abyss
to cross, and chemistry is yet too young."

Second letter, same date. " M. Eassmann is mistaken. . . .
He has never obtained racemic acid with pure tartaric acid.
He does what M. Fikentscher and the Viennese manufacturers
do, with slight 'differences, which confirm the general opinion
I expressed in my letter to M. Dumas a few days ago."

That letter, and also another addressed to Biot, indicated
that racemic acid was formed in varying quantities in the
mother-liquor, which remained after the purification of crude
tartars.

"I can at last," Pasteur wrote from Leipzig to his wife,
" turn my steps again towards France. I want it ; I am very
weary."

In an account of this journey in a newspaper called
La Verite there was this sentence, which amused everybody,
Pasteur included : " Never was treasure sought, never adored
beauty pursued over hill and vale with greater ardour."

But the hero of scientific adventures was not satisfied. He
had foreseen by the examination of crystalline forms, the
correlation between hemihedral dissymmetry and rotatory
power; this was, to his mind, a happy foresight. He had
afterwards succeeded in separating the racemic acid, inactive
on polarized light, into two acids, left and right, endowed with
equal but contrary rotatory powers ; this was a discovery
deservedly qualified as memorable by good judges in those
matters. Now he had indicated the mother-liquor as a source
of racemic acid, and this was a precious observation that
Kestner, who was specially interested in the question, confirmed
in a letter to the Academic des Sciences (December, 1852),
sending at the same time three large phials of racemic acid,
one of which, made of thin glass, broke in Biot's hands. But

1850—1854 69

a great advance, apparently unrealizable, remained yet to be
accomplished. Could not racemic acid be produced by the aid
of tartaric acid?

Pasteur himself, as he told the optimist Eassmann, did not
believe such a transformation possible. But, by dint of in-
genious patience, of trials, of efforts of all sorts, he fancied he
was nearing the goal. He wrote to his father : " I am think-
ing of one thing only, of the hope of a brilliant discovery which
seems not very far. But the result I foresee is so extraordinary
that I dare not believe it." He told Biot and Senarmont of
this hope. Both seemed to doubt. "I advise you," wrote
Senarmont, "not to speak until you can say: 'I obtain
racemic acid artificially with some tartaric acid, of which I
have myself verified the purity ; the artificial acid, like the
natural, divides itself into equal equivalents of left and right
tartaric acids, and those acids have the forms, the optical pro-
perties, all the chemical properties of those obtained from the
natural acid.' Do not believe that I want to worry you; the
scruples I have for you I should have for myself ; it is well to
be doubly sure when dealing with such a fact." But with
Biot, Senarmont was less reserved ; he believed the thing done.
He said so to Biot, who, prudent and cautious, still desirous of
warning Pasteur, wrote to him on May 27, 1853, speaking of
Senarmont : " The affection with which your work, your per-
severance and your moral character have inspired him makes
him desire impossible prodigies for you. My friendship for
you is less hastily hopeful and harder to convince. However,
enjoy his friendship fully, and be as unreserved with him as
you are with me. You can do so in full security ; I do not
know a stronger character than his. I have said and repeated
to him how happy I am to see the affection he bears you.
For there will be at least one man who will love you and under-
stand you when I am gone. Farewell ; enough sermons for
to-day ; a man must be as I am, in his eightieth year, to write
such long homilies. Fortunately you are accustomed to mine,
and do not mind them."

At last, on the first of June, here is the letter announcing
the great fact: "My dear father, I have just sent out the
following telegram : Monsieur Biot, College de France, Paris.
I transform tartaric acid into racemic acid; please inform MM.
Dumas and Senarmont. Here is at last that racemic acid
(which I went to seek at Vienna) artificially obtained through

70 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

tartaric acid. I long believed that that transformation was
impossible. This discovery will have incalculable conse-
quences."

" I congratulate you," answered Biot on the second of June.
" Your discovery is now complete. M. de Senarmont will be as
delighted as I am. Please congratulate also Mme. Pasteur from
me; she must be as pleased as you." It was by maintaining
tartrate of cinchonin at a high temperature for several hours
that Pasteur Kad succeeded in transforming tartaric acid into
racernic acid. Without entering here into technical details
(which are to be found in a report of the Paris Pharmaceutical
Society, concerning the prize accorded to Pasteur for the
artificial production of racemic acid) it may be added that he
had also produced the neutral tartaric acid — that is : with no
action on polarized light — which appeared at the expense of
racemic acid already formed. There were henceforth four
different tartaric acids : — (1) the right or dextro-tartaric acid;
(2) the left or Isevo-tartaric acid; (3) the combination of the
right and the left or racemic acid ; and (4) the meso-tartaric
acid, optically inactive.

' The reports of the Academie des Sciences also contain
accounts of occasional discoveries, of researches of all kinds
accessory to the history of racemic acid. Thus aspartic acid
had caused Pasteur to make a sudden journey from Strasburg
to Vendome. A chemist named Dessaignes — who was munici-
pal receiver of that town, and who found time through sheei
love of science for researches on the constitution of divers sub
stances — had announced a fact which Pasteur wished to verify
it turned out to be inaccurate.

One whole sitting of the Academie, the third of January,
\X1853, was given up to Pasteur's name and growing achieve-
\ ments.

After all this Pasteur came back to Arbois with the red
ribbon of the Legion of Honour. He had not won it in the same
way as his father had, but he deserved it as fully. Joseph
Pasteur, delighting in his illustrious son, wrote effusively to
Biot ; indeed the old scientist had had his share in this act of
justice. Biot answered in the following letter, which is a
further revelation of his high and independent ideal of a scien-

^ ti&c career.

*=;;\~" ... "Monsieur, your good heart makes out my share to be
greater than it is. The splendid discoveries made by your

I

1850—1854 71

worthy and excellent son, his devotion to science, his indefatig-
able perseverance, the conscientious care with which he fulfils
the duties of his situation, all this had made his position such
that there was no need to solicit for him what he had so long
deserved. But one might boldly point out that it would be a
real loss to the Order if he were not promptly included within
its ranks. That is what I did, and I am very glad to see that
the too long delay is now at an end. I wished for this all the
more as I knew of your affectionate desire that this act of justice
should be done. Allow me to add, however, that in our pro-
fession our real distinction depends on us alone, fortunately,
and not on the favour or indifference of a minister. In the
position that your son has acquired, his reputation will grow
with his work, no other help being needed ; and the esteem
he already enjoys, and which will grow day by day, will be
accorded to him, without gainsaying or appeal, by the Grand
Jury of scientists of all nations — an absolutely just tribunal,
the only one we recognize.

" Allow me to add to my congratulations the expression of
the esteem and cordial affection with which you have in-
spired me."

On his return to Strasburg Pasteur went to live in a house
in the Eue des Couples, which suited him as being near the
Academic and his laboratory ; it also had a garden where his
children could play. He was full of projects, and what he
called the "spirit of invention" daily suggested some new
undertaking. The neighbourhood of Germany, at that time a
veritable hive of busy bees, was a fertile stimulant to the
French Faculty at Strasburg.

But material means were lacking. When Pasteur received
the prize of 1,500 francs given him by the Pharmaceutical So-
ciety, he gave up half of it to buying instruments which the
Strasburg laboratory was too poor to afford. The resources then
placed by the State at his disposal by way of contribution to
the expenses of a chemistry class only consisted of 1,200 francs
under the heading " class expenses." Pasteur had to pay the
wages of his laboratory attendant out of it. Now that he was
better provided, thanks to his prize, he renewed his studies on
crystals.

Taking up an octahedral crystal, he broke off a piece of it,
then replaced it in its mother-liquor. Whilst the crystal was
growing larger in every direction by a deposit of crystalline par-

72 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

tides, a very active formation was taking place on the muti-
lated part ; after a few hours the crystal had again assumed its
original shape. The healing up of wounds, said Pasteur, might
be compared to that physical phenomenon. Claude Bernard,
much struck later on by these experiments of Pasteur's and
recalling them with much praise, said in his turn —

' ' These reconstituting phenomena of crystalline redintegration
afford a complete comparison with those presented by living
beings in the case of a wound more or less deep. In the crystal
as in the animal, the damaged part heals, gradually taking back
its original shape, and in both cases the reformation of tissue
is far more active in that particular part than under ordinary
evolutive conditions. ' *

Thus those two great minds saw affinities hidden under facts
apparently far apart. Other similarities yet more unexpected
carried Pasteur away towards the highest region of speculation.
He spoke with enthusiasm of molecular dissymmetry ; he saw
it everywhere in the universe. These studies in dissymmetry
gave birth twenty years later to a new science arising immedi-
ately out of his work, viz. stereo-chemistry, pr the chemistry of
space. He also saw in molecular dissymmetry the influence of
a great cosmic cause —

"The universe," he said one day, " is a dissymmetrical
whole. I am inclined to think that life, as manifested to us,
must be a function of the dissymmetry of the universe and of
the consequences it produces. The universe is dissymmetrical ;
for, if the whole of the bodies which compose the solar system
were placed before a glass moving with their individual move-
ments, the image in the glass could not be superposed to the
reality. Even the movement of solar life is dissymmetrical.
A luminous ray never strikes in a straight line the leaf where
vegetable life creates organic matter. Terrestrial magnetism,
the opposition which exists between the north and south poles
in a magnet, that offered us by the two electricities positive
and negative, are but resultants from dissymmetrical actions
and movements."

"Life," he said again, "is dominated by dissymmetrical
actions. I can even foresee that all living species are primor-
dially, in their structure, in their external forms, functions of
cosmic dissymmetry."

And there appeared to him to be a barrier between mineral
or artificial products and products formed under the influence

1850—1854 73

of life. But he did not look upon it as an impassable one, and
he was careful to say, "It is a distinction of fact and not of
absolute principle." As nature elaborates immediate principles
of life by means of dissymmetrical forces, he wished that the
chemist should imitate nature, and that, breaking with methods
founded upon the exclusive use of symmetrical forces, he should
bring dissymmetrical forces to bear upon the production of chem-
ical phenomena. He himself, after using powerful magnets to
attempt to introduce a manifestation of dissymmetry into the
form of crystals, had had a strong clockwork movement
constructed, the object of which was to keep a plant in
continual rotatory motion first in one direction then in another.
He also proposed to try to keep a plant alive, from its germina-
tion under the influence of solar rays reversed by means of a
mirror directed by a heliostat.

But Biot wrote to him : "I should like to be able to turn
you from the attempts you wish to make on the influence of
magnetism on vegetation. M. de Senarmont agrees with me.
To begin with, you will spend a great deal on the purchase of
instruments with the use of which you are not familiar, and of
which the success is very doubtful. They will take you away
from the fruitful course of experimental researches which you
have followed hitherto, where there is yet so much for you to do,
and will lead you from the certain to the uncertain."

" Louis is rather too preoccupied with his experiments,"
wrote Mme. Pasteur to her father-in-law; "you know that
those he is undertaking this year will give us, if they succeed,
a Newton or a Galileo."

But success did not come. " My studies are going rather
badly," wrote Pasteur in his turn (December 30). " I am
almost afraid of failing in all my endeavours this year, and
of having no important achievement to record by the end of
next year. I am still hoping, though I suppose it was rather
mad to undertake what I have undertaken."

Whilst he was thus struggling, an experiment, which for
others would have been a mere chemical curiosity, interested
him passionately. Kecalling one day how his first researches
had led him to the study of ferments : " If I place," he said,
" one of the salts of racemic acid, paratartrate or racemate of
ammonia, for instance, in the ordinary conditions of fermenta-
tion, the dextro-tartaric acid alone ferments, the other remains
in the liquor. I may say, in passing, that this is the best means

74 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

of preparing laevo-tartaric acid. Why does the dextro-tartaric
acid alone become putrefied? Because the ferments of that
fermentation feed more easily on the right than on the left
molecules."

" I have done yet more," he said much later, in a last lecture
to the Chemical Society of Paris ; ' ' I have kept alive some little
seeds of penicillium glaucum — that mucor which is to be found
everywhere — on the surface of ashes and paratartaric acid
and I have seen the laevo-tartaric acid appear ..."

What seemed to him startling in those two experiments was
to find molecular dissymmetry appear as a modifying agent
on chemical affinities in a phenomenon of the physiological
order.

By an interesting coincidence it was at the very moment
when his studies were bringing him towards fermentations
that he was called to a country where the local industry was
to be the strongest stimulant to his new researches.

CHAPTEK IV
1855—1859

IN September, 1854, he was made Professor and Dean of
the new Faculte des Sciences at Lille. "I need not, Sir,"
wrote the Minister of Public Instruction, M. Fortoul, in a
letter where private feelings were mixed with official solemnity,

recall to your mind the importance which is attached to the
success of this new Faculty of Science, situated in a town which
is the richest centre of industrial activity in the north of France.
By giving you the direction of it, I show the entire confidence
which I have placed in you. I am convinced that you will
fulfil the hopes which I have founded upon your zeal."

Built at the expense of the town, the Faculte was sit-
uated in the Hue des Fleurs. In the opening speech
which he pronounced on December 7, 1854, the young
Dean expressed his enthusiasm for the Imperial decree
of August 22, which brought two happy innovations into the
Faculties of Science : (1) The pupils might, for a small annual
sum, enter the laboratory and practise the principal experi-
ments carried out before them at the classes ; and (2) a new
diploma was created. After two years of practical and theoret-
ical study the young men who wished to enter an industrial
career could obtain this special diploma and be chosen as fore-
men or overseers. Pasteur was overjoyed at being able to do
useful work in that country of distilleries, and to attract large
audiences to the new Faculty. ' Where in your families will
you find," he said, to excite indolent minds — "where will you
find a young man whose curiosity and interest will not imme-
diately be awakened when you put into his hands a potato,
when with that potato he may produce sugar, with that sugar
alcohol, with that alcohol aether and vinegar? Where is he
that will not be happy to tell his family in the evening that he
has just been working out an electric telegraph? And, gentle-
men, be convinced of this, such studies are seldom if ever
forgotten. It is somewhat as if geography were to be taught

76 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

by travelling ; such geography is remembered because one has
seen the places. Ihjthe same way your sons will not forget
what xthe air we breathe contains when they have once analysed
it, when^iiK ^heir jhan4s #nd ur^ler their eyes the admirable
properties of* its elemejats have been resolved."

After stating tfisvwish "to fce'flttec'tiy useful to these sons of
manufacturers and to put his laboratory at their disposal, he
eloquently upheld the rights of theory in teaching—

" Without theory, practice is but routine born of habit.
Theory alone can bring forth and develop the spirit of inven-
tion. It is to you specially that it will belong not to share the
opinion of those narrow minds who disdain everything in
science which has not an immediate application. You know
Franklin's charming saying? He was witnessing the first
demonstration of a purely scientific discovery, and people
round him said :' But what is the use of it?' Franklin
answered them : ' What is the use of a new-born child? '
Yes, gentlemen, what is the use of a new-born child? And
yet, perhaps, at that tender age, germs already existed in you
of the talents which distinguish you! In your baby boys,
fragile beings as they are, there are incipient magistrates,
scientists, heroes as valiant as those who are now covering
themselves with glory under the walls of Sebastopol. And
thus, gentlemen, a theoretical discovery has but the merit of
its existence : it awakens hope, and that is all. But let it be
cultivated, let it grow, and you will see what it will become.

"Do you know when it first saw the light, this electric
telegraph, one of the most marvellous applications of modern
science? It was in that memorable year, 1822 : Oersted, a
Danish physicist, held in his hands a piece of copper wire,
joined by its extremities to the two poles of a Volta pile. On
his table was a magnetized needle on its pivot, and he suddenly
saw (by chance you will say, but chance only favours the mind
which is prepared) the needle move and take up a position
quite different from the one assigned to it by terrestrial mag-
netism. A wire carrying an electric current deviates a mag-
netized needle from its position. That, gentlemen, was the
birth of the modern telegraph. Franklin's interlocutor might
well have said when the needle jnoved : ' But what is the use
of that? ' And yet that discovery was barely twenty years old
when it produced by its application the almost supernatural
effects of the electric telegraph ! "

1855—1859 77

The small theatre where Pasteur gave his chemistry lessons
soon became celebrated in the students' world.

The faults had disappeared with which Pasteur used to
reproach himself when he first taught at Dijon and later at
Strasburg. He was sure of himself, he was clear in his ex-
planations; the chain of thought, the fitness of words, all was
perfect. He made few experiments, but those were decisive.
He endeavoured to bring out every observation or comparison
they might suggest. The pupil who went away delighted
from the class did not suspect the care each of those apparently
easy lessons had cost. When Pasteur had carefully prepared
all his notes, he used to make a summary of them; he had
these summaries bound together afterwards. We may thus
sketch the outline of his work ; but who will paint the gesture
of demonstration, the movement, the grave penetrating voice,
the life in short?

After a few months the Minister wrote to M. Guillemin, the
rector, that he was much pleased with the success of this
Faculty of Sciences at Lille, "which already owes it to the
merit of the teaching — solid and brilliant at the same time—
of that clever Professor, that it is able to rival the most
flourishing Faculties." The Minister felt he must add some
official advice : " But M. Pasteur must guard against being
carried away by his love for science, and he must not forget
that the teaching of the Faculties, whilst keeping up with
scientific theory, should, in order to produce useful and far-
reaching results, appropriate to itself the special applications
suitable to the real wants of the surrounding country."

A year after the inauguration of the new Faculty, Pasteur
wrote to Chappuis : "Our classes are very well attended; I
have 250 to 300 people at my most popular lectures, and we
have twenty-one pupils entered for laboratory experiments.
I believe that this year, like last year, Lille holds the first
rank for that innovation, for I am told that at Lyons there
were but eight entries." It was indeed a success to distance
Lyons. " The zeal of all is a pleasure to watch (January,
1856). It reaches that point that four of the professors take
the trouble to have their manuscript lessons printed ; there
are already 120 subscribers for the course of applied mechanics.

' ' Our building is fortunately completed ; it is large and
handsome, but will soon become insufficient owing to th^
progress of practical teaching.

78 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

" We are very comfortably settled on the first floor, and 1
have (on the ground floor immediately below) what I have
always wished for, a laboratory where I can go at any time.
This week, for instance, the gas remains on, and operations
follow their course whilst I am in bed. In this way I try to
make up a little of the time which I have to give to the direc-
tion of all the rather numerous departments in our Faculties.
Add to this that I am a member of two very active societies,
and that I have been entrusted, at the suggestion of the
Conseil-G^n^ral,1 with the testing of manures for the d^parte-
ment of the Nord, a considerable work in this rich agricultural
land, but one which I have accepted eagerly, so as to popularize
and enlarge the influence of our young Faculty.

" Do not fear lest all this should keep me from the studies
I love. I shall not give them up, and I trust that what is
already accomplished will grow without my help, with the
growth that time gives to everything that has within it the
germ of life. Let us all work; that only is enjoyable. I
am quoting M. Biot, who certainly is an authority on that
subject. You saw the share he took the other day in a great
discussion at the Academie des Sciences ; his presence of mind,
high reasoning powers, and youthfulness were magnificent,
and he is eighty-four ! "

In a mere study on Pasteur as a scientific man, the way
in which he understood his duties as Dean would only be a
secondary detail. It is not so here, the very object of this
book being to paint what he was in all the circumstances,
all the trials of life. Besides his professional obligations,
his kindness in leaving his laboratory, however hard the sacri-
fice, bears witness to an ever present devotion. For instance,
he took his pupils round factories and foundries at Aniche,
Denain, Valenciennes, St. Omer. In July, 1856, he organized
for the same pupils a tour in Belgium. He took them to visit
factories, iron foundries, steel and metal works, questioning
the foremen with his insatiable curiosity, pleased to induce in
his tall students a desire to learn. All returned from these
trips with more pleasure in their work ; some with the fiery
enthusiasm that Pasteur wished to see.

1 Conseil-Gentral de dipartement. A representative assembly for the
general management of each departement, somewhat similar to the
County Councils in England. [Trans.]

1855—1859 79

The sentence in his Lille speech, " in the fields of observa-
tion, chance only favours the mind which is prepared," was
particularly applicable to him. In the summer of 1856 a
Lille manufacturer, M. Bigb, had, like many others that same
year, met with great disappointments in the manufacture of
beetroot alcohol. He came *to the young Dean for advice.
The prospect of doing a kindness , of communicating the results
of his observations to the numerous hearers who crowded the
small theatre of the Faculty, and of closely studying the pheno-
mena of fermentation which preoccupied him to such a degree,
caused Pasteur to consent to make some experiments. He
spent some time almost daily at the factory. On his return
to his laboratory — where he only had a student's microscope
and a most primitive coke-fed stove — he examined the globules
in the fermentation juice, he compared filtered with non-
filtered beetroot juice, and conceived stimulating hypotheses
often to be abandoned in face of a fact in contradiction with
them. Above some note made a few days previously, where
a suggested hypothesis had not been verified by fact, he would
write: "error," "erroneous," for he was implacable in his
criticism of himself.

M. Bigo's son, who studied in Pasteur's laboratory, has
summed up in a letter how these accidents of manufacture
became a starting point to Pasteur's investigations on fer-
mentation, particularly alcoholic fermentation. "Pasteur
had noticed through the microscope that the globules were
round when fermentation was healthy, that they lengthened
when alteration began, and were quite long when fermen-
tation became lactic. This very simple method allowed us
to watch the process and to avoid the failures in fermentation
which we used so often to meet with. ... I had the good
fortune to be many times the confidant of the enthusiasms
and disappointments of a great man of science." Young
Bigo indeed remembered the series of experiments, the
numerous observations noted, and how Pasteur, whilst study-
ing the causes of those failures in the distillery, had wondered
whether he was not confronted with a general fact, common
to all fermentations. Pasteur was on the road to a discovery
the consequences of which were to revolutionize chemistry.
During months and months he worked to assure himself that
he was not a prey to error.

In order to appreciate the importance of the ideas which

80 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

from that small laboratory were about to inundate the world,
and in order to take account of the effort necessitated to obtain
the triumph of a theory which was to become a doctrine, it is
necessary to go back to the teachings of that time upon the
subject of fermentations. All was darkness, pierced in 1836
by a momentary ray of light. The physicist Cagniard-Latour,
studying the, ferment of beer called yeast, had observed that
that ferment was composed of cells " susceptible of reproduc-
tion by a sort of budding, and probably acting on sugar
through some effect of their vegetation." Almost at the same
time the German doctor Schwann was making analogous
observations. However, as the fact seemed isolated, nothing
similar being met with elsewhere, Cagniard-Latour 's remark
was but a curious parenthesis in the history of fermentations.

When such men as J. B. Dumas said that perhaps there
might be a sequel to Cagniard-Latour 's statement, they
emitted the idea so timidly that, in a book On Contagion
published at Montpellier in 1853, Anglada, the well known
author, expressed himself thus—

" M. Dumas, who is an authority, looks upon the act of
fermentation as strange and obscure ; he declares that it gives
rise to phenomena the knowledge of which is only tentative at
present. Such a competent affirmation is of a nature to dis-
courage those who claim to unravel the mysteries of contagion
by the comparative study of fermentation. What is the
advantage of explaining one through the other since both are
equally mysterious ! " This word, obscure, was to be found
everywhere. Claude Bernard used the same epithet at the
College de France in March, 1850, to qualify those phenomena.

Four months before the request of the Lille manufacturer,
Pasteur himself, preparing on a loose sheet of paper a lesson
on fermentation, had written these words : " What does fer-
mentation consist of?— Mysterious character of the phe-
nomenon.—A word on lactic acid." Did he speak in that
lesson of his ideas of future experiments? Did he insist upon
the mystery he intended to unveil? With his powers of con-
centration it is probable that he restrained himself and decided
to wait another year.

The theories of Berzelius and of Liebig then reigned
supreme. To the mind of Berzelius, the Swedish chemist,
fermentation was due to contact. It was said that there
was a catalytic force. In his opinion, what Cagniard-Latour

1855—1859 81

believed he had seen, was but "an immediate vegetable
principle, which became precipitated during the fermentation
of beer, and which, in precipitating, presented forms analogous
to the simpler forms of vegetable life, but formation does not
constitute life."

In the view of the German chemist Liebig, chemical
decomposition was produced by influence : the ferment was
an extremely alterable organic substance which decomposed,
and in decomposing set in motion, by the rupture of its own
elements, the molecules of the fermentative matter; it was the
dead portion of the yeast, that which had lived and was being
altered, which acted upon the sugar. These theories were
adopted, taught, and to be found in all treatises on chemistry.

A vacancy at the Academic des Sciences took Pasteur away
from his students for a time and obliged him to go to Paris.
Biot, Dumas, Balard and Senarmont had insisted upon his
presenting himself in the section of mineralogy. He felt
himself unfit for the candidature. He was as incapable of
election manoeuvres as he was full of his subject when he had to
convince an interlocutor or to interest an audience in his works
on crystallography. (These works had just procured the
bestowal on him of the great Eumford medal, conferred by the
London Eoyal Society.) During this detested canvassing
campaign he had one happy day : he was present on February
5, 1857, at the reception of Biot by the Academic Fransaise.

Biot, who had entered the Academic des Sciences fifty -four
years earlier, and was now the oldest member of the Institute,
took advantage of hjs great age to distribute, in the course of
his speech, a good deal of wise counsel, much applauded by
Pasteur from the ranks of the audience. Biot, with his calm
irony, aimed this epigram at men of science who disdained
letters : " Their science was not the more apparent through
their want of literary culture." He ended by remarks which
formed a continuation of his last letter to Pasteur's father.
Making an appeal to those whose high ambition is to conse-
crate themselves to pure science, he proudly said : "Perhaps
your name, your existence will be unknown to the crowd. But
you will be known, esteemed, sought after by a small number
of eminent men scattered over the face of the earth , your rivals ,
your peers in the intellectual Senate of minds ; they alone have
the right to appreciate you and to assign to you your rank,

G

82 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

a well-merited rank, which no princely will, no popular caprice
can give or take away, and which will remain yours as long
as you remain faithful to Science, which bestows it upon you."

Guizot, to whom it fell to welcome Biot to the Academic,
rendered homage to his independence, to his worship of dis-
interested research, to his ready counsels. " The events which
have overturned everything around you," he said, "have never
turned the course of your free and firm judgment, or of your
peaceful labours." On that occasion the decline of Biot's life
seemed like a beautiful summer evening in the north, before
nightfall, when a soft light still envelops all things. No
disciple ever felt more emotion than Pasteur when participating
in that last joy of his aged master. In Kegnault's laboratory, a
photograph had been taken of Biot seated with bent head and
a weary attitude, but with the old sparkle in his eyes. Biot
offered it to Pasteur, saying : " If you place this proof near a
portrait of your father, you will unite the pictures of two men
who have loved you very much in the same way."

Pasteur, between two canvassing visits, gave himself the
pleasure of going to hear a young professor that every one was
then speaking of. "I have just been to a lecture by Eigault,
at the College de France," he wrote on March 6, 1857. " The
room is too small, it is a struggle to get in. I have come away
delighted ; it is a splendid success for the Universite , there is
nothing to add, nothing to retrench. Fancy a professor in one
of the Paris lycees making such a debut at the College de
France!"

Pasteur preferred Bigault to St. Marc Girardin. " And
Eigault is only beginning!" But, under Eigault 's elegance
and apparent ease, lurked perpetual constraint. One day that
St. Marc Girardin was congratulating him, " Ah," said
Bigault, " you do not see the steel corsets that I wear when I
am speaking !" That comparison suited his delicate, ingenious,
slightly artificial mind, never unrestrained even in simple
conversation, at the same time conscientious and self-conscious.
He who had once written that ' ' Life is a work of art to be
fashioned by a skilful hand if the faculties of the mind are to
be fully enjoyed," made the mistake of forcing his nature. He
died a few months after that lecture.

Pasteur's enthusiastic lines about Eigault show the joy he felt
at the success of others. He did not understand envy, ill-will,
or jealousy, and was more than astonished, indeed amazed,

1855—1859 83

when he came across such feelings. One day that he had read an
important paper at the Academic des Sciences, " Would you
believe it," he wrote to his father, " I met a Paris Professor of
chemistry the very next day, whom I know to have been present,
who had indeed come purposely to hear my reading, and he
never said a word ! I then remembered a saying of M. Biot's :
' When a colleague reads a paper and no one speaks to him
about it afterwards, it is because it has been thought well
of.

The election was at hand. Pasteur wrote (March 11) :
" My dear father, I am certain to fail." He thought he might
count upon twenty votes; thirty, were necessary. He resigned
himself philosophically. His candidature would at any rate
bring his works into greater prominence. In spite of a splendid
report by Senarmont, enumerating the successive steps by
which Pasteur had risen since his first discoveries concerning
the connection between internal structure and external
crystalline forms, Pasteur only obtained sixteen votes.

On his return to Lille he set to work with renewed energy ;
he took up again his study of fermentations, and in particular
that of sour milk , called lactic fermentation ; he made notes of
his experiments day by day ; he drew in a notebook the little
globules, the tiny bodies that he found in a grey substance
sometimes aranged in a zone. Those globules, much smaller
than those of yeast, had escaped the observation of chemists
and naturalists because it was easy to confound them with other
products of lactic fermentation. After isolating and then
scattering in a liquid a trace of that grey substance, Pasteur saw
some well-characterized lactic fermentation appear. That
matter, that grey substance was indeed the ferment.

Whilst all the writings of the chemists who followed in the
train of Liebig and Berzelius united in rejecting the idea of an
influence of life in the cause of fermentations, Pasteur recog-
nizad therein a phenomenon correlative to life. That special
lactic yeast, Pasteur could see budding, multiplying, and offer-
ing the same phenomena of reproduction as beer yeast.

It was not to the Acaddmie des Sciences, as is generally
believed, that Pasteur sent the paper on lactic fermentation, the
fifteen pages of which contained such curious and unexpected
facts. With much delicacy of feeling, Pasteur made to the
Lille Scientific Society this communication (August, 1857) ^V
which the Academic des Sciences only saw three months later. '

G 2

84 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

How was it that he desired to leave this Faculty at Lille to
which he had rendered such valuable service? The Ecole
Normale was going through difficult times. " In my opinion,"
wrote Pasteur with a sadness that betrayed his attachment
to the great school, "of all the objects of care to the authorities,
the Ecole Normale should be the first ; it is now but the shadow
of its former self." He who so often said, " Do not dwell upon
things already acquired ! " thought that the Lille Faculty was
henceforth sure of its future and needed him no longer. Was it
not better to come to the assistance of the threatened weak
point? At the Ministry of Public Instruction his wish was
understood and approved of. Nisard had just been made Di-
rector of the Ecole Normale with high and supreme powers ; his
sub-director of literary studies was M. Jacquinet. The adminis-
tration was reserved for Pasteur, who was also entrusted with
the direction of the scientific studies. To that task were added
"the surveillance of the economic and hygienic management,
the care of general discipline, intercourse with the families of
the pupils and the literary or scientific establishments fre-
quented by them."

The rector of the Lille Faculty announced in these terms
the departure of the Dean : " Our Faculty loses a professor and
a scientist of the very first order. You have yourselves, gentle-
men , been able to appreciate more than once all the vigour and
clearness of that mind at once so powerful and so capable."

At the Ecole Normale, Pasteur's labours were not at first
seconded by material convenience. The only laboratory in
the Rue d'Ulm building was occupied by Henri Sainte Claire
Deville who, in 1851, had taken the place of Balard, the latter
leaving the Ecole Normale for the College de France. Dark
rooms, a very few instruments, and a credit of 1,800 francs a
year, that was all Sainte Claire Deville had been able to obtain.
It would have seemed like a dream to Pasteur. He had to
organize his scientific installation in two attics under the roof of
the Ecole Normale ; he had no assistance of any kind, not even
that of an ordinary laboratory attendant. But his courage was
not of the kind which evaporates at the first obstacle, and no
difficulty could have kept him from work : he climbed the stairs
leading to his pseudo-laboratory with all the cheerfulness of a
soldier's son. Biot— who had been grieved to see the chemist
Laurent working in a sort of cellar, where that scientist's health
suffered (he died at forty-three)— was angry that Pasteur should

1855—1859 85

be relegated to an uninhabitable garret. Neither did he under-
stand the " economic and hygienic surveillance " attributed to
Pasteur. He hoped Pasteur would reduce to their just propor-
tions those secondary duties. " They have made him an ad-
ministrator," he said with mock pomposity; "let their
believe that he will administrate." Biot was mistaken. The
de minimis non cur at did not exist for Pasteur.

On one of his agenda leaves, besides subjects for lectures, w«
find notes such as these : ' ' Catering ; ascertain what weight of
meat per pupil is given out at the Ecole Poly technique. Court-
yard to be strewn with sand. Ventilation of classroom. Dining
hall door to be repaired." Each detail was of importance in his
eyes, when the health of the students was in question.

He inaugurated his garret by some work almost as celebrated
as that on lactic fermentation. In December, 1857, he pre-
sented to the Academic des Sciences a paper on alcoholic
fermentation. "I have submitted," he said, "alcoholic fer-
mentation to the method of experimentation indicated in the
notes which I recently had the honour of presenting to the
Academie. The results of those labours should be put on the
same lines, for they explain and complete each other." And
in conclusion : " The deduplication of sugar into alcohol and
carbonic acid is correlative to a phenomenon of life, an organiza-
tion of globules ..."

The reports of the Acad&nie des Sciences for 1858 show how
Pasteur recognized complex phenomena in alcoholic fermenta-
tion. Whilst chemists were content to say : " So much sugar
gives so much alcohol and so much carbonic acid," Pasteur
went further. He wrote to Chappuis in June : " I find that
alcoholic fermentation is constantly accompanied by the produc-
tion of glycerine ; it is a very curious fact. For instance, in one
litre of wine there are several grammes of that product which
had not been suspected." Shortly before that he had also recog-
nized the normal presence in alcoholic fermentation of succinic
acid. " I should be pursuing the consequences of these facts,"
he added, " if a temperature of 36° C. did not keep me from my
laboratory. I regret to see the longest days in the year lost to
me. Yet I have grown accustomed to my attic, and I should be
sorry to leave it. Next holidays I hope to enlarge it. You too
are struggling against material hindrances in your work ; let it
stimulate us, my dear fellow, and not discourage us. Our dis-
coveries wiill have the greater merit."

86 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

The year 1859 was giveja up to examining further facts
concerning fermentation. Whence came those ferments,
those microscopic bodies, those transforming agents, so weak in
appearance, so powerful in reality? Great problems were
working in his mind ; but he was careful not to propound them
hastily, for he was the most timid, the most hesitating of men
until he held proofs in his hands. " In experimental science,"
he wrote , ' ' it is always a mistake not to doubt when facts do not
compel you to affirm."

In September he lost his eldest daughter. She died of
typhoid fever at Arbois, where she was staying with her grand-
father. On December 30 Pasteur wrote to his father: "I
cannot keep my thoughts from my poor little girl, so good, so
happy in her little life, whom this fatal year now ending has
taken away from us. She was growing to be such a com-
panion to her mother and to me, to us all. . . . But forgive
me, dearest father, for recalling these sad memories. She is
happy ; let us think of those who remain and try as much as
lies in our power to keep from them the bitterness of this life."

CHAPTER V
1860—1864

ON January 30, 1860, the Academie des Sciences conferred
on Pasteur the Prize for Experimental Physiology. Claude
Bernard, who drew up the report, recalled how much Pasteur's
experiments in alcoholic fermentation, lactic fermentation, the
fermentation of tartaric acid, had been appreciated by the
Academie. He dwelt upon the great physiological interest of
the results obtained. "It is," he concluded, "by reason of
that physiological tendency in Pasteur's researches, that the
Commission has unanimously selected him for the 1859 Prize
for Experimental Physiology."

That same January, Pasteur wrote to Chappuis : "I am
pursuing as best I can these studies on fermentation which are
of great interest, connected as they are with the impenetrable
mystery of Life and Death. I am hoping to mark a decisive
step very soon by solving, without the least confusion, the
celebrated question of spontaneous generation. Already I could
speak, but I want to push my experiments yet further. There
is so much obscurity, together with so much passion, on both
sides, that I shall require the accuracy of an arithmetical
problem to convince my opponents by my conclusions. I intend
to attain even that."

This progress was depicted to his father in the following
letter, dated February 7, 1860 —

' ' I think I told you that I should read a second and last lec-
ture on my old researches on Friday, at the Chemical Society,
before several members of the Institute— amongst others,
Messrs. Dumas and Claude Bernard. That lecture has had the
same success as the first. M. Biot heard about it the next day
through some distinguished persons who were in the audience,
and sent for me in order to kindly express his great satisfaction.

11 After I had finished, M. Dumas, who occupied the chair,

88 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

rose and addressed me in these words. After praising the zeal I
had brought to this novel kind of teaching at the Society's
request, and the so great penetration I had given proof of, in the
course of the work I had just expounded, he added, ' The
Academic, sir, rewarded you a few days ago for other profound
researches; your audience of this evening will applaud you as
one of the most distinguished professors we possess.9

" All I have underlined was said in those very words by M.
Dumas, and was followed by great applause.

" All the students of the scientific section of the Ecole Nor-
male were present ; they felt deeply moved and several of them
have expressed their emotion to me.

" As for myself, I saw the realization of what I had foreseen.
You know how I have always told you confidentially that time
would see the growth of my researches on the molecular dissym-
metry of natural organic products. Founded as they were on
varied notions borrowed from divers branches of science-
crystallography, physics, and chemistry — those studies could
not be followed by most scientists so as to be fully under-
stood. On this occasion I presented them in the aggregate
with some clearness and power and every one was struck by
their importance.

"It is not by their form that these two lectures have de-
lighted my hearers, it is by their contents; it is the future
reserved to those great results, so unexpected, and opening such
entirely new vistas to physiology. I have dared to say so, for at
these heights all sense of personality disappears, and there only
remains that sense of dignity which is ever inspired by true
love of science.

' ' God grant that by my persevering labours I may bring a
little stone to the frail and ill-assured edifice of our knowledge
of those deep mysteries of Life and Death where all our
intellects have so lamentably failed.

" P. S.— Yesterday I presented to the Academy my re-
searches on spontaneous generation ; they seemed to produce
a great sensation. More later."

When Biot heard that Pasteur wished to tackle this study
of spontaneous generation, he interposed, as he had done
seven years before, to arrest him on the verge of his audacious
experiments on the part played by dissymmetrical forces in
the development of life. Vainly Pasteur, grieved at Biot's
disapprobation, explained that this question, in the course of

1860—1864 89

such researches, had become an imperious necessity; Biot
would not be convinced. But Pasteur, in spite of his quasi-
filial attachment to Biot, could not stop where he was ; he
had to go through to the end.

' You will never find your way out," cried Biot.

" I shall try," said Pasteur modestly.

Angry and anxious, Biot wished Pasteur to promise that
he would relinquish these apparently hopeless researches.
J. B. Dumas, to whom Pasteur related the more than dis-
couraging remonstrances of Biot, entrenched himself behind
this cautious phrase —

"I would advise no one to dwell too long on such a subject.*'

Senarmont alone, full of confidence in the ingenious curiosity
of the man who could read nature by dint of patience, said
that Pasteur should be allowed his own way.

It is regrettable that Biot — whose passion for reading was
so indefatigable that he complained of not finding enough
books in the library at the Institute — should not have thought
of writing the history of this question of spontaneous genera-
tion. He could have gone back to Aristotle, quoted Lucretius,
Virgil, Ovid, Pliny. Philosophers, poets, naturalists, all be-
lieved in spontaneous generation. Time went on, and it was
still believed in. In the sixteenth century, Van Helmont —
who should not be judged by that one instance — gave a cele-
brated recipe to create mice : any one could work that prodigy
by putting some dirty linen in a receptacle, together with a
few grains of wheat or a piece of cheese. Some time later an
Italian, Buonanni, announced a fact no less fantastic : certain
timberwood, he said, after rotting in the sea, produced worms
which engendered butterflies, and those butterflies became
birds.

Another Italian, less credulous, a poet and a physician,
Francesco Redi, belonging to a learned society calling itself
The Academy of Experience, resolved to carefully study one
of those supposed phenomena of spontaneous generation. In
order to demonstrate that the worms found in rotten meat
did not appear spontaneously, he placed a piece of gauze over
the meat. Flies, attracted by the odour, deposited their eggs
on the gauze. From those eggs were hatched the worms,
which had until then been supposed to begin life spontaneously
in the flesh itself. This simple experiment marked some pro-
gress. Later on another Italian, a medical professor of

90 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Padua, Vallisneri, recognized that the grub in a fruit is also
hatched from an egg deposited by an insect before the
development of the fruit.

The theory of spontaneous generation, still losing ground,
appeared to be vanquished when the invention of the micro-
scope at the end of the seventeenth century brought fresh
arguments to its assistance. Whence came those thousands
of creatures, only distinguishable on the slide of the micro-
scope, those infinitely small beings which appeared in rain
water as in any infusion of organic matter when exposed to
the air ? How could they be explained otherwise than through
spontaneous generation, those bodies capable of producing
1,000,000 descendants in less than forty-eight hours.

The world of salons and of minor courts was pleased to
have an opinion on this question. The Cardinal of Polignao,
a diplomat and a man of letters, wrote in his leisure moments
a long Latin poem entitled the Anti- Lucretius. After scout-
ing Lucretius and other philosophers of the same school, the
cardinal traced back to one Supreme Foresight the mechan-
ism and organization of the entire world. By ingenious
developments and circumlocutions, worthy of the Abbe Delille,
the cardinal, while vaunting the wonders of the microscope,
which he called "eye of our eye," saw in it only another
prodigy offered us by Almighty Wisdom. Of all those accu-
mulated and verified arguments, this simple notion stood out :
" The earth, which contains numberless germs, has not pro-
duced them. Everything in this world has its germ or seed."

Diderot, who disseminated so many ideas, (since borrowed
by many people and used as if originated by them), wrote
in some tumultuous pages on nature : ' ' Does living matter
combine with living matter? how? and with what result?
And what about dead matter? "

About the middle of the eighteenth century the problem
was again raised on scientific ground. Two priests, one an
Englishman, Needham, and the other an Italian, Spallanzani,
entered the lists. Needham, a great partisan of spontaneous
generation, studied with Buff on some microscopic animalculse.
Buffon afterwards built up a whole system which became
fashionable at that time. The force which Needham found in
matter, a force which he called productive or vegetative, and
which he regarded as charged with the formation of the organic
world, Buffon explained by saying that there are certain primi-

1860—1864 91

tive and incorruptible parts common to animals and to vegetables.
These organic molecules cast themselves into the moulds or
shapes which constituted different beings. When one of those
moulds was destroyed by death, the organic molecules became
free ; ever active, they worked the putrefied matter, appropriat-
ing to themselves some raw particles and forming, said
Buffon, "by their reunion, a multitude of little organized
bodies, of which some, like earthworms, and fungi, seem to
be fair-sized animals or vegetables, but of which others, in
almost infinite numbers, can only be seen through the
microscope."

All those bodies, according to him, only existed through
spontaneous 'generation. Spontaneous generation takes place
continually and universally after death and sometimes during
life. Such was in his view the origin of intestinal worms.
And, carrying his investigations further, he added, " The eels
in flour paste, those of vinegar, all those so-called microscopic
animals, are but different shapes taken spontaneously, accord-
ing to circumstances, by that ever active matter which only
tends to organization."

The Abbe Spallanzani, armed with a microscope, studied
these infinitesimal beings. He tried to distinguish them and
their mode of life. Needham had affirmed that by enclosing
putrescible matter in vases and by placing those vases on warm
ashes, he produced animalculse. Spallanzani suspected :
firstly that Needham had not exposed the vases to a sufficient
degree of heat to kill the seeds which were inside ; and secondly,
that seeds could easily have entered those vases and given
birth to animalculse, for Needham had only closed his vases
with cork stoppers, which are very porous.

" I repeated that experiment with more accuracy," wrote
Spallanzani. " I used hermetically sealed vases. I kept them
for an hour in boiling water, and after having opened them
and examined their contents within a reasonable time I found
not the slightest trace of animalculae, though I had examined
with the microscope the infusions from nineteen different
vases."

Thus dropped to the ground, in Spallanzani 's eyes, Need-
ham's singular theory, this famous vegetative force, this occult
virtue. Yet Needham did not own himself beaten. He
retorted that Spallanzani had much weakened, perhaps de-
stroyed, the vegetative force of the infused substances by

92 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

leaving his vases in boiling water during an hour. He advised
him to try with less heat.

The public took an interest in this quarrel. In an opuscule
entitled Singularities of Nature (1769), Voltaire, a born jour-
nalist, laughed at Needham, whom he turned into an Irish
Jesuit to amuse his readers. Joking on this race of so-called
eels which began life in the gravy of boiled mutton, he said :
" At once several philosophers exclaimed at the wonder and
said, * There is no germ; all is made, all is regenerated by a
vital force of nature.' 'Attraction/ said one; 'Organized
matter,' said another, ' they are organic molecules which have
found their casts.' Clever physicists were taken in by a
Jesuit."

In those pages, lightly penned, nothing remained of what
Voltaire called ' ' the ridiculous mistake , the unfortunate ex-
periments of Needham, so triumphantly refuted by M. Spal-
lanzani and rejected by whoever has studied nature at all."
"It is now demonstrated to sight and to reason that there is
no vegetable, no animal but has its own germ.'" In his
Philosophic Dictionary, at the word God, " It is very strange,"
said Voltaire, " that men should deny a creator and yet attri-
bute to themselves the power of creating eels!" The Abbe
Needham, meeting with these religious arguments, rather
unexpected from Voltaire, endeavoured to prove that the
hypothesis of spontaneous generation was in perfect accordance
with religious beliefs. But both on Needham's side and on
Spallanzani's there was a complete lack of conclusive proofs.

Philosophic argumentation always returned to the fore. As
recently as 1846 Ernest Bersot (a moralist who became later
a director of the Ecole Normale) wrote in his book on Spiritual-
ism : "The doctrine of spontaneous generation pleases
simplicity -loving minds ; it leads them far beyond their own
expectations. But it is yet only a private opinion, and, were
it recognized, its virtue would have to be limited and narrowed
down to the production of a few inferior animals."

That doctrine was about to be noisily re-introduced.

On December 20, 1858, a correspondent of the Institute,
M. Pouchet, director of the Natural History Museum of Rouen,
sent to the Acade"mie des Sciences a Note on Vegetable and
Animal Proto -organisms spontaneously Generated in Artificial
Air and in Oxygen Gas. The note began thus: "At

At tjjii

1860—1864 93

time when, seconded by the progress of science, several
naturalists are endeavouring to reduce the domain of spon-
taneous generation or even to deny its existence altogether, I
have undertaken a series of researches with the object of
elucidating this vexed question." Pouchet, declaring that he
had taken excessive precautions to preserve his experiments
from any cause of error, proclaimed that he was prepared to
demonstrate that " animals and plants could be generated in a
medium absolutely free from atmospheric air, and in which,
therefore, no germ of organic bodies could have been brought
by air.1'

On one copy of that communication, the opening of a four
years' scientific campaign, Pasteur had underlined the pas-
sages which he intended to submit to rigorous experimentation.
The scientific world was discussing the matter; Pasteur set
himself to work.

A new installation, albeit a summary one, allowed him to
attempt some delicate experiments. At one of the extremities
of the facade of the Ecole Normale, on the same line as the
doorkeeper's lodge, a pavilion had been built for the school
architect and his clerk. Pasteur succeeded in obtaining pos-
session of this small building, and transformed it into a labora-
tory. He built a drying stove under the staircase ; though he
could only reach the stove by crawling on his knees, yet this
was better than his old attic. He also had a pleasant surprise
— he was given a curator. He had deserved one sooner, for he
had founded the institution of agreges preparateurs. Eemem-
bering his own desire, on leaving the Ecole Normale, to have a
year or two for independent study, he had wished to facilitate
for others the obtaining of those few years of research and per-
haps inspiration. Thanks to him, five places as laboratory
curators were exclusively reserved to Ecole Normale students
who had taken their degree (agreges). The first curator who
entered the new laboratory was Jules Kaulin, a young man with
a clear and sagacious mind, a calm and tenacious character,
loving difficulties for the sake of overcoming them.

Pasteur began by the microscopic study of atmospheric air.
"If germs exist in atmosphere," he said, "could they not
be arrested on their way ? " It then occurred to him to draw
— through an aspirator — a current of outside air through a
tube containing a little plug of cotton wool. The current as it
passed deposited on this sort of filter some of the solid corpuscles

assed d

*»

94 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

contained in the air ; the cotton wool often became black with
those various kinds of dust. Pasteur assured himself that
amongst various detritus those dusts presented spores and
germs. " There are therefore in the air some organized cor-
puscles. Are they germs capable of vegetable productions, or
of infusions? That is the question to solve." He undertook
a series of experiments to demonstrate that the most putrescible
liquid remained pure indefinitely if placed out of the reach of
atmospheric dusts. But it was sufficient to place in a pure
liquid a particle of the cotton-wool filter to obtain an immediate
alteration.

A year before starting any discussion Pasteur wrote to
Pouchet that the results which he had attained were " not
founded on facts of a faultless exactitude. I think you are
wrong, not in believing in spontaneous generation (for it is
difficult in such a case not to have a preconceived idea) , but in
affirming the existence of spontaneous generation. In ex-
perimental science it is always a mistake not to doubt when
facts do not compel affirmation. ... In my opinion, the ques-
tion is whole and untouched by decisive proofs. What is there
in air which provokes organization? Are they germs? is it a
solid? is it a gas? is it a fluid? is it a principle such as ozone?
All this is unknown and invites experiment."

After a year's study, Pasteur reached this conclusion :
"Gases, fluids, electricity, magnetism, ozone, things known
or things occult, there is nothing in the air that is conditional
to life, except the germs that it carries."

Pouchet defended himself vigorously. To suppose that germs
came from air seemed to him impossible. How many millions
of loose eggs or spores would then be contained in a cubic
millimetre of atmospheric air?

'What will be the outcome of this giant's struggle?"
grandiloquently wrote an editor of the Moniteur Scientifique
(April, 1860). Pouchet answered this anonymous writer by
advising him to accept the doctrine of spontaneous generation
adopted of old by so many " men of genius." Pouchet 's prin-
cipal disciple was a lover of science and of letters, M. Nicolas
Joly, an agrege of natural science, doctor of medicine, and pro-
fessor of physiology at Toulouse. He himself had a pupil,
Charles Musset, who was preparing a thesis for his doctor's
degree under the title : New Experimental Researches on
Heterogenia, or Spontaneous Generation. By the words

1860—1864 95

heterogenia or spontaneous generation Joly and Musset agreed
in affirming that " they did not mean a creation out of nothing,
but the production of a new organized being, lacking parents,
and of which the primordial elements are drawn from ambient
organic matter."

Thus supported, Pouchet multiplied objections to the views
of Pasteur, who had to meet every argument. Pasteur in-
tended to narrow more and more the sphere of discussion. It
was an ingenious operation to take the dusts from a cotton-wool
filter, to disseminate them in a liquid, and thus to determine
the alteration of that liquid ; but the cotton wool itself was an
organic substance and might be suspected. He therefore sub-
stituted for the cotton wool a plug of asbestos fibre, a mineral
substance. He invented little glass flasks with a long curved
neck ; he filled them with an alterable liquid, which he de-
prived of germs by ebullition ; the flask was in communication
with the outer air through its curved tube, but the atmospheric
germs were deposited in the curve of the neck without reaching
the liquid ; in order that alteration should take place , the vessel
had to be inclined until the point where the liquid reached the
dusts in the neck.

But Pouchet said, " How could germs contained in the air
be numerous enough to develop in every organic infusion?
Such a crowd of them would produce a thick mist as dense as
iron." Of all the difficulties this last seemed to Pasteur the
hardest to solve. Could it not be that the dissemination of
germs was more or less thick according to places? " Then,"
cried the heterogenists , "there would be sterile zones and
fecund zones, a most convenient hypothesis, indeed ! " Pasteur
let them laugh whilst he was preparing a series of flasks re-
served for divers experiments. If spontaneous generation
existed, it should invariably occur in vessels filled with the same
alterable liquid. " Yet it is ever possible," affirmed Pasteurr
' ' to take up in certain places a notable though limited volume
of ordinary air, having been submitted to no physical or
chemical change, and still absolutely incapable of producing any.
alteration in an eminently putrescible liquor." He was ready
to prove that nothing was easier than to increase or to reduce
the number either of the vessels where productions should ap-*
pear or of the vessels where those productions should be lacking.
After introducing into a series of flasks of a capacity of 250
cubic centimetres a very easily corrupted liquid, such as yeast

96 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

water, he submitted each flask to ebullition. The neck of
those vessels was ended off in a vertical point. Whilst the
liquid was still boiling, he closed, with an enameller's lamp, the
pointed opening through which the steam had rushed out,
taking with it all the air contained in the vessel. Those flasks
were indeed calculated to satisfy both partisans or adversaries
of spontaneous generation. If the extremity of the neck of one
of these vessels was suddenly broken, all the ambient air
rushed into the flask, bringing in all the suspended dusts ; the
bulb was closed again at once with the assistance of a jet of
flame. Pasteur could then carry it away and place it in a tem-
perature of 25-30° C., quite suitable for the development of
germs and mucors.

In those series of tests some flasks showed some alteration,
others remained pure, according to the place where the air had
been admitted. 'During the beginning of the year 1860 Pasteur
broke his bulb points and enclosed ordinary air in many dif-
ferent places, including the cellars of the Observatory of Paris.
There, in that zone of an invariable temperature, the abso-
lutely calm air could not be compared to the air he gathered
in the yard of the same building. The results were also very
different : out of ten vessels opened in the cellar, closed again
and placed in the stove , only one showed any alteration ; whilst
eleven others, opened in the yard, all yielded organized bodies.

In a letter to his father (June, 1860), Pasteur wrote : "I
have been prevented from writing by my experiments, which
continue to be very curious. But it is such a wide subject that
I have almost too many ideas of experiments. I am still being
contradicted by two naturalists, M. Pouchet of Eouen and M.
Joly of Toulouse. But I do not waste my time in answering
them ; they may say what they like, truth is on my side. They

/do not know how to experiment ; it is not an easy art ; it de-
mands, besides certain natural qualities, a long practice which
naturalists have not generally acquired nowadays."

When the long vacation approached, Pasteur, who intended
to go on a voyage of experiments, laid in a store of glass flasks.
He wrote to Chappuis, on August 10, 1860 : " I fear from your
letter that you will not go to the Alps this year. . . . Besides
the pleasure of having you for a guide, I had hoped to utilize
your love of science by offering you the modest part of curator.
It is by some study of air on heights afar from habitations and
vegetation that I want to conclude my work on so-called spon-

1860—1864 97

taneous generation. The real interest of that work for me lies
in the connection of this subject with that of ferments which
I shall take up again November."

Pasteur started for Arbois, taking with him seventy-three
flasks ; he opened twenty of them not very far from his father's
tannery, on the road to Dole, along an old road, now a path
which leads to the mount of the Bergere. The vine labourers
who passed him wondered what this holiday tourist could be
doing with all those little phials ; no one suspected that he was
penetrating one of nature's greatest secrets. " What would
you have?" merrily said his old friend, Jules Vercel ; "it
amuses him!" Of those twenty vessels, opened some dis-
tance away from any dwelling, eight yielded organized bodies.

Pasteur went on to Salins and climbed Mount Poupet, 850
metres above the sea-level. Out of twenty vessels opened, only
five were altered. Pasteur would have liked to charter a
balloon in order to prove that the higher you go the fewer
germs you find, and that certain zones absolutely pure contain
none at all. It was easier to go into the Alps.

He arrived at Chamonix on September 20, and engaged a
guide to make the ascent of the Montanvert. The very next
morning this novel sort of expedition started. A mule carried
the case of thirty-three vessels, followed very closely by Pasteur,
who watched over the precious burden and walked alongside
of precipices supporting the case with one hand so that it
should not be shaken.

When the first experiments were started an incident occurred.
Pasteur has himself related this fact in his report to the
Academic. " In order to close again the point of the flasks
after taking in the air, I had taken with me an eolipyle spirit-
lamp. The dazzling whiteness of the ice in the sunlight was
such that it was impossible to distinguish the jet of burning
alcohol, and as moreover that was slightly moved by the wind,
it never remained on the broken glass long enough to her-
metically seal my vessel. All the means I might have em-
ployed to make the flame visible and consequently directable
would inevitably have given rise to causes .of error by spreading
strange dusts into the air. I was therefore obliged to bring
back to the little inn of Montanvert, unsealed, the flasks which
I had opened on the glacier."

The inn was a sort of hut, letting in wind and rain. The
thirteen open vessels were exposed to all the dusts in the room

H

98 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

where Pasteur slept; nearly all of them presented altera-
tions.

In the meanwhile the guide was sent to Chamonix where a
tinker undertook to modify the lamp in view of the coming
experiment.

The next morning, twenty flasks, which have remained cele-
brated in the world of scientific investigators, were brought to
the Mer de Glace. Pasteur gathered the air with infinite pre-
cautions ; he used to enjoy relating these details to those people
who call everything easy. After tracing with a steel point a
line on the glass, careful lest dusts should become a cause of
error, he began by heating the neck and fine point of the bulb
in the flame of the little spirit-lamp. Then raising the vessel
above his head, he broke the point with steel nippers, the long
ends of which had also been heated in order to burn the dusts
which might be on their surface and which would have been
driven into the vessel by the quick inrush of the air. Of those
twenty flasks, closed again immediately, only one was altered.
" If all the results are compared that I have obtained until
now," he wrote, on March 5, 1880, when relating this journey
to the Academic, "it seems to me that it can be affirmed that
the dusts suspended in atmospheric air are the exclusive origin ,
the necessary condition of life in infusions."

And in an unnoticed little sentence, pointing already then to
the goal he had in view, " What would be most desirable would
be to push those studies far enough to prepare the road for a
serious research into the origin of various diseases." The
action of those little beings, agents not only of fermentation but
also of disorganization and putrefaction, already dawned upon
him.

While Pasteur was going from the Observatoire cellars to the
Mer de Glace, Pouchet was gathering air on the plains of
Sicily, making experiments on Etna, and on the sea. He saw
everywhere , he wrote , "air equally favourable to organic
genesis, whether surcharged with detritus in the midst of our
populous cities, or taken on the summit of a mountain, or on
the sea, where it offers extreme purity. With a cubic deci-
metre of air, taken where you like, I afiirm that you can ever
produce legions of microzoa."

And the heterogenists proclaimed in unison that " every-
where, strictly everywhere, air is constantly favourable to life."
Those who followed the debate nearly all leaned towards

1860—1864 99

Pouchet. "I am afraid," wrote a scientific journalist in La
Presse (1860), "that the experiments you quote, M. Pasteur,
will turn against you. . . . The world into which you wish to
take us is really too fantastic. ..."

And yet some adversaries should have been struck by the
efforts of a mind which, while marching forward to establish
new facts, was ever seeking arguments against itself, and
turned back to strengthen points which seemed yet weak. In
November, Pasteur returned to his studies on fermentations in
general and lactic fermentation in particular. Endeavouring
to bring into evidence the animated nature of the lactic ferment,
and to indicate the most suitable surroundings for the self-
development of that ferment, he had come across some compli-
cations which hampered the purity and the progress of that
culture. Then he had perceived another fermentation, following
upon lactic fermentation and known as butyric fermentation.
As he did not immediately perceive the origin of this butyric
acid — which causes the bad smell in rancid butter — he ended
by being struck by the inevitable coincidence between the (then
called) infusory animalcule and the production of this acid.

" The most constantly repeated tests," he wrote in February,
18G1, " have convinced me that the transformation of sugar,
mannite and lactic acid into butyric acid is due exclusively to
those Infusories, and they must be considered as the real
butyric ferment." Those vibriones that Pasteur described as
under the shape of small cylindric rods with rounded ends,
sliding about, sometimes in a chain of three or four articles,
he sowed in an appropriate medium, as he sowed beer yeast.
But, by a strange phenomenon, "those infusory animalculae,"
he said, " live and multiply indefinitely, without requiring the
least quantity of air. And not only do they live without air,
but air actually kills them. It is sufficient to send a current of
atmospheric air during an hour or two through the liquor
where those vibriones were multiplying to cause them all to
perish and thus to arrest butyric fermentation, whilst a current
of pure carbonic acid gas passing through that same liquor
hindered them in no way. Thence this double proposition,"
concluded Pasteur ; ' ' the butyric ferment is an infusory ; that
infusory lives without free oxygen." He afterwards called
anaerobes those beings which do not require air, in opposition
to the name of aerobes given to other microscopic beings who
require air to live.

H 2

100 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Biot, without knowing all the consequences of these studies,
had not been long in perceiving that he had been far too
sceptical, and that physiological discoveries of the very first
rank would be the outcome of researches on so-called spon-
taneous generation. He would have wished, before he died, not
only that Pasteur should be the unanimously selected candidate
for the 1861 Zecker prize in the Chemistry Section, but also
that his friend, forty-eight years younger than himself, should
be a member of the Institute. At the beginning of 1861, there
was one vacancy in the Botanical Section. Biot took advan-
tage of the researches pursued by Pasteur within the last three
years, to say and to print that he should be nominated as a
candidate. "I can hear the commonplace objection : he is a
chemist, a physicist, not a professional botanist. . . . But that
very versatility, ever active and ever successful, should be a
title in his favour. . . . Let us judge of men by their works
and not by the destination more or less wide or narrow that they
have marked out for themselves. Pasteur made his debut
before the Academic in 1848, with the remarkable treatise
which contained by implication the resolution of the paratartaric
acid into its two components, right and left. He was then
twenty-six; the sensation produced is not forgotten. Since
then, during the twelve years which followed, he has submitted
to your appreciation twenty -one papers, the last ten relating
to vegetable physiology. All are full of new facts, often very
unexpected, several very far reaching, not one of which has
been found inaccurate by competent judges. If to-day, by
your suffrage, you introduce M. Pasteur into the Botanical
Section, as you might safely have done for Theodore de
Saussure or Ingenhousz, you will have acquired for the Acade"-
mie and for that particular section an experimentalist of the
same order as those two great men."

Balard, who in this academic campaign made common cause
with Biot, was also making efforts to persuade several mem-
bers of the Botanical Section. He was walking one day in the
Luxembourg with Moquin-Tandon, pouring out, in his rasping
voice, arguments in fa'vour of Pasteur. " Well," said Moquin-
Tandon, " let us go to Pasteur's, and if you find a botanical
work in his library I shall put him on the list. ' ' It was a witty
form given to the scruples of the botanists. Pasteur only had
twenty-four votes ; Duchartre was elected.

The study of a microscopic fungus, capable by itself of

1860— 18'di /, ; j\; [ ;J01

transforming wine into vinegar, the bringing to light of the
action of that mycoderma, endowed with the power of taking
oxygen from air and fixing it upon alcohol, thus transforming
the latter into acetic acid ; the most ingenious experiments to
demonstrate the absolute and exclusive power of the little plant,
all gave reason to Blot's affirmation that such skill in the obser-
vation of inferior vegetables equalled any botanist's claim.
Pasteur, showing that the interpretations of the causes which
act in the formation of vinegar were false, and that alone the
microscopic fungus did everything, was constantly dwelling on
this power of the infinitesimally small. " Mycoderma," he
said, " can bring the action of combustion of the oxygen in air
to bear on a number of organic materia. If microscopic beings /
were to disappear from our globe , the surface of the earth /
would be encumbered with dead organic matter and corpses of
all kinds, animal and vegetable. It is chiefly they who give
to oxygen its powers of combustion. Without them, life would
become impossible because death would be incomplete."

Pasteur's ideas on fermentation and putrefaction were being
adopted by disciples unknown to him. " I am sending you,"
he wrote to his father, " a treatise on fermentation, which was
the subject of a recent competition at the Montpellier Faculty.
This work is dedicated to me by its author, whom I do not know
at all, a circumstance which shows that my results are spread-
ing and exciting some attention.

" I have only read the last pages, which have pleased me ; if
the rest is the same , it is a very good rdsumd , entirely conceived
in the new direction of my labours, evidently well understood
by this young doctor.

" M. Biot is very well, only suffering a little from insomnia.
He has, fortunately for his health, finished that great account
of my former results which will be the greatest title I can have
to the esteem of scientists."

Biot died without having realized his last wish, which was to
have Pasteur for a colleague. It was only at the end of the
year 1862 that Pasteur was nominated by the Mineralogical
Section for the seat of Senarmont. This new candidature did
not go without a hitch. In his study on tartrates, Pasteur, as
will be remembered , had discovered that their crystalline forms
were hemihedral. When he examined the characteristic faces,
he held the crystal in a particular way and said : " It is hemi-
hedral on the right side." A German mineralogist, named

OF PASTEUR

Kammelsberg, holding the crystal in the opposite direction,
said: "It is hemihedral on the left side." It was a mere
matter of conventional orientation ; nothing was changed in the
scientific results announced by Pasteur. But some adversaries
made a weapon of that inverted crystal ; not a dangerous
weapon, thought Pasteur at first, fancying that a few words
would clear the misunderstanding. But the campaign per-
sisted, with insinuations, murmurs, whisperings. When
Pasteur saw this simple difference in the way the crystal was
held stigmatised as a cause of error, he desired to cut short this
quarrel made in Germany. He then had with him no longer
Eaulin, but M. Duclaux, who was beginning his scientific life.
M. Duclaux remembers one day when Pasteur, seeing that
incontrovertible arguments were required, sent for a cabinet
maker with his tools. He superintended the making of a com-
plete wooden set of the crystalline forms of tartrates, a gigantic
set, such as Gulliver might have seen in Brobdingnag if he had
studied geometrical forms in that island. A coating of coloured
paper finished the work ; green paper marked the hemihedral
face. A member of the Philomathic Society, Pasteur asked
the Society to give up the meeting of November 8, 1862, to the
discussion of that subject. Several of his colleagues vainly
endeavoured to dissuade him from that intention ; Pasteur
hearkened to no one. He took with him his provision of
wooden crystals, and gave a vivid and impassioned lecture.
" If you know the question," he asked his adversaries, " where
is your conscience? If you know it not, why meddle with
it?" And with one of his accustomed sudden turns, " What
is all this? " he added. " One of those incidents to which we
all, more or less, are exposed by the conditions of our career;
no bitterness remains behind. Of what account is it in the
presence of those mysteries, so varied, so numerous, that we
all, in divers directions, are working to clear? It is true I
have had recourse to an unusual means of defending myself
against attacks not openly published, but I think that means
•was safe and loyal, and deferential towards you. And," he
added, thinking of Biot and Senarmont, "will you have my
full confession? You know that I had during fifteen years the
inestimable advantage of the intercourse of two men who are
no more, but whose scientific probity shone as one of the
beacons of the Academic des Sciences. Before deciding on the
course I have now followed, I questioned my memory and

1860—1864 103

endeavoured to revive their advice, and it seemed to me that
they would not have disowned me."

M. Duclaux said about this meeting: "Pasteur has since
then won many oratorical victories. I do not know of a greater
one than that deserved by that acute and penetrating improvisa-
tion. He was still much heated as we were walking back to
the Kue d'Ulm, and I remember making him laugh by asking
him why, in the state of mind he was in, he had not concluded
by hurling his wooden crystals at his adversaries' heads."

On December 8, 1862, Pasteur was elected a member of the
Academic des Sciences ; out of sixty voters he received thirty-
six suffrages.

The next morning, when the gates of the Montparnasse
cemetery were opened, a woman walked towards Biot's grave
with her hands full of flowers. It was Mme. Pasteur who was
bringing them to him who lay there since February 5, 1862,
and who had loved Pasteur with so deep an affection.

A letter picked up at a sale of autographs, one of the last
Biot wrote, gives a finishing touch to his moral portrait. It
is addressed to an unknown person discouraged with this life.
" Sir, — The confidence you honour me with touches me. But
I am not a physician of souls. However, in my opinion, you
could not do better than seek remedies to your moral suffering
in work, religion, and charity. A useful work taken up with
energy and persevered in will revive by occupation the forces
of your mind. Eeligious feelings will console you by inspiring
you with patience. Charity manifested to others will soften
your sorrows and teach you that you are not alone to suffer in
this life. Look around you, and you will see afflicted ones more
to be pitied than yourself. Try to ease their sufferings; the
good you will do to them will fall back upon yourself and will
show you that a life which can thus be employed is not a burden
which cannot, which must not be borne."

On his entering the Academic des Sciences, Balard and
Dumas advised Pasteur to let alone his wooden crystals and to
continue his studies on ferments. He undertook to demon-
strate that "the hypothesis of a phenomenon of mere contact
is not more admissible than the opinion which placed the fer-
ment character exclusively in dead albuminoid matter. Whilst
continuing his researches on beings which could live without-
air, he tried, as he went along, & propos of spontaneous genera-
tion, to find some weak point in his work. Until now the

104 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

liquids he had used, however alterable they were, had been
brought up to boiling point. Was there not some new and
decisive experiment to make? Could he not study organic
matter as constituted by life and expose to the contact of air
deprived of its germs some fresh liquids, highly putrescible,
such as blood and urine? Claude Bernard, joining in these
experiments of Pasteur's, himself took some blood from a dog.
This blood was sealed up in a glass phial, with every condition
of purity, and the phial remained in a stove constantly heated
up to 30° C. from March 3 until April 20, 1862, when Pasteur
laid it on the Acad£mie table. The blood had suffered no sort
of putrefaction ; neither had some urine treated in the same
way. " The conclusions to which I have been led by my first
series of experiments," said Pasteur before the Acade'mie, " are
therefore applicable in all cases to organic substances."

While studying putrefaction, which is itself but a fermenta-
tion applied to animal materia, while showing the marvellous
power of the infinitesimally small, he foresaw the immensity
of the domain he had conquered, as will be proved by the fol-
lowing incident. Some time after the Academic election, in
March, 1863, the Emperor, who took an interest in all that
took place in the small laboratory of the Rue d'Ulm, desired
to speak with Pasteur. J. B. Dumas claimed the privilege of
presenting his former pupil, and the interview took place at the
Tuileries. Napoleon questioned Pasteur with a gentle, slightly
dreamy insistence. Pasteur wrote the next day : "I assured
the Emperor that all my ambition was to arrive at the know-
ledge of the causes of putrid and contagious diseases."

In the meanwhile, the chapter on ferments was not yet
closed ; Pasteur was attracted by studies on wine. At the
beginning of the 1863 holidays, just before starting for Arbois,
he drew up this programme with one of his pupils : ' ' From the
20th to the 30th (August) preparation in Paris of all the
vessels, apparatus, products, that we must take. September 1,
departure for the Jura; installation; purchase of the products
of a vineyard. Immediate beginning of tests of all kinds. We
shall have to hurry ; grapes do not keep long."

Whilst he was preparing this vintage tour, which he in-
tended to make with three " Normaliens," Duclaux, Gernez
and Lechartier, the three heterogenists, Pouchet, Joly and
Musset, proposed to use that same time in fighting Pasteur
on his own ground. They started from Bagneres-de-Lmchon

1860—1864 105

followed by several guides and taking with them all kinds
of provisions and some little glass flasks with a slender pointed
neck. They crossed the pass of Venasque without incident,
and decided to go further, to the Rencluse. Some isard-
stalkers having come towards the strange-looking party, they
were signalled away ; even the guides were invited to stand
aside. It was necessary to prevent any dusts from reaching
the bulbs, which were thus opened at 8 p.m. at a height
of 2,083 metres. But eighty-three metres higher than the
Montanvert did not seem to them enough, they wished to
go higher. " We shall sleep on the mountain," said the
three scientists. Fatigue and bitter cold, they withstood
everything with the courage inspired by a problem to solve.
The next morning they climbed across that rocky chaos, and
at last reached the foot of one of the greatest glaciers of the
Maladetta, 3,000 metres above the sea-level. " A very
deep narrow crevasse," says Pouchet, "seemed to us the
most suitable place for our experiments." Four phials (filled
with a decoction of hay) were opened and sealed again with
precautions that Pouchet considered as exaggerated.

Pouchet, in his merely scientific report, does not relate
the return journey, yet more perilous than the ascent. At
one of the most dangerous places, Joly slipped, and would
have rolled into a precipice, but for the strength and presence
of mind of one of the guides. All three at last came back
to Luchon, forgetful of dangers run, and glorying at having
reached 1,000 metres higher than Pasteur. They triumphed
when they saw alteration in their flasks! "Therefore,"
said Pouchet, "the air of the Maladetta, and of high
mountains in general, is not incapable of producing altera-
tion in an eminently putrescible liquor ; therefore heterogenia
or the production of a new being devoid of parents, but
formed at the expense of ambient organic matter, is for us a
reality."

The Academy of Sciences was taking more and more
interest in this debate. In November, 1863, Joly and Musset
expressed a wish that the Academy should appoint a Com-
mission, before whom the principal experiments of Pasteur
and of his adversaries should be repeated. On this occasion
Flourens expressed his opinion thus : " I am blamed in certain
quarters for giving no opinion on the question of spontaneous
generation. As long as my opinion was not formed, I had

106 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

nothing to say. It is now formed, and I give it : M. Pasteur's
experiments are decisive. If spontaneous generation is real,
what is required to obtain animalculse? Air and putrescible
liquor. M. Pasteur puts air and putrescible liquor together
and nothing happens. Therefore spontaneous generation is
not. To doubt further is to misunderstand the question."

Already in the preceding year, the Academie itself had
evidenced its opinion by giving Pasteur the prize of a com-
petition proposed in these terms : " To attempt to throw some
new light upon the question of so-called spontaneous genera-
tion by well-conducted experiments." Pasteur's treatise on
Organized Corpuscles existing in Atmosphere had been unani-
mously preferred. Pasteur might have entrenched himself
behind the suffrages of the Academy, but begged it, in order
to close those incessant debates, to appoint the Commission
demanded by Joly and Musset.

The members of the Commission were Flourens, Dumas,
Brongniart, Milne-Edwards, and Balard. Pasteur wished
that the discussion should take place as soon as possible, and
it was fixed for the first fortnight in March. But Pouchet,
Joly and Musset asked for a delay on account of the cold.
' We consider that it might compromise, perhaps prevent,
our results, to operate in a temperature which often goes below
zero even in the south of France. How do we know that it
will not freeze in Paris between the first and fifteenth of
March ? ' ' They even asked the Commission to adjourn ex-
periments until the summer. " I am much surprised," wrote
Pasteur, "at the delay sought by Messrs. Pouchet, Joly and
Musset ; it would have been easy with a stove to raise the
temperature to the degree required by those gentlemen. For
my part I hasten to assure the Academy that I am at its
disposal, and that in summer, or in any other season, I am
ready to repeat my experiments."

Some evening scientific lectures had just been inaugurated
at the Sorbonne ; such a subject as spontaneous generation
was naturally on the programme. When Pasteur entered the
large lecture room of the Sorbonne on April 7, 1864, he
must have been reminded of the days of his youth, when
crowds came, as to a theatrical performance, to hear J. B.
Dumas speak. Dumas' pupil, now a master, in his turn
found a still greater crowd invading every corner. Amongst
the professors and students, such celebrities as Duruy,

1860—1864 107

Alexandre Dum.as senior, George Sand, Princess Mathilde,
were being pointed out. Around them, the inevitable
" smart " people who must see everything and be seen every-
where, without whom no function favoured by fashion
would be complete; in short what is known as the "Tout
Paris." But this " Tout Paris " was about to receive a novel
impression, probably a lasting one. The man who stood
before this fashionable audience was not one of those
speakers who attempt by an insinuating exordium to gain
the good graces of their hearers ; it was a grave-looking
man, his face full of quiet energy and reflective force. He
began in a deep, firm voice, evidently earnestly convinced
of the greatness of his mission as a teacher : ' ' Great pro-
blems are now being handled, keeping every thinking man in
suspense ; the unity or multiplicity of human races ; the
creation of man 1,000 years or 1,000 centuries ago, the
fixity of species, or the slow and progressive transformation
of one species into another ; the eternity of matter ; the idea
of a God unnecessary. Such are some of the questions that
humanity discusses nowadays."

He had now, he continued, entered upon a subject ac-
cessible to experimentation, and which he had made the object
of the strictest and most conscientious studies. Can matter
organize itself? Can living beings come into the world
without having been preceded by beings similar to them ? After
showing that the doctrine of spontaneous generation had
gradually lost ground, he explained how the invention of
the microscope had caused it to reappear at the end of the
seventeenth century , ' ' in the face of those beings , so numer-
ous, so varied, so strange in their shapes, the origin of which
was connected with the presence of all dead vegetable and
animal matter in a state of disorganization." He went on
to say how Pouchet had taken up this study, and to point
out the errors that this new partisan of an old doctrine had
committed, errors difficult to recognize at first. With perfect
clearness and simplicity, Pasteur explained how the dusts which
are suspended in air contain germs of inferior organized beings
and how a liquid preserved, by certain precautions, from the
contact of these germs can be kept indefinitely, giving his
audience a glimpse of his laboratory methods.

" Here," he said, "is an infusion of organic matter, as
limpid as distilled water, and extremely alterable. It has been

108 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

prepared to-day. To-morrow it will contain animalculse, little
infusories, or flakes of mouldiness.

" I place a portion of that infusion into a flask with a long
neck, like this one. Suppose I boil the liquid and leave it to
cool. After a few days, mouldiness or animalculae will develop
in the liquid. By boiling, I destroyed any germs contained in
the liquid or against the glass ; but that infusion being again
in contact with air, it becomes altered, as all infusions do.
Now suppose I repeat this experiment, but that, before boiling
tbe liquid, I draw (by means of an enameller's lamp) the neck
of the flask into a point, leaving, however, its extremity open.
This being done, I boil the liquid in the flask, and leave it to
cool. Now the liquid of this second flask will remain pure not
only two days, a month, a year, but three or four years — for
the experiment I am telling you about is already four years old,
and the liquid remains as limpid as distilled water. What dif-
ference is there, then, between those two vases? They contain
the same liquid, they both contain air, both are open ! Why
does one decay and the other remain pure? The only dif-
ference between them is this : in the first case, the dusts sus-
pended in air and their germs can fall into the neck of the
flask and arrive into contact with the liquid, where they find
appropriate food and develop; thence microscopic beings. In
the second flask, on the contrary, it is impossible, or at least
extremely difficult, unless air is violently shaken, that dusts
suspended in air should enter the vase ; they fall on its curved
neck. When air goes in and out of the vase through diffusions
or variations of temperature, the latter never being sudden, the
air comes in slowly enough to drop the dusts and germs that
it carries at the opening of the neck or in the first curves.

"This experiment is full of instruction; for this must be
noted, that everything in air save its dusts can easily enter the
vase and come into contact with the liquid. Imagine what you
choose in the air — electricity, magnetism, ozone, unknown
forces even, all can reach the infusion. Only one thing cannot
enter easily, and that is dust, suspended in air. And the proof
of this is that if I shake the vase violently two or three times,
in a few days it contains animalcule or mouldiness. Why?
because air has come in violently enough to carry dust with it.

" And, therefore, gentlemen, I could point to that liquid and
say to you, I have taken my drop of water from the immensity of
creation, and I have taken it full of the elements appropriated

1860—1864 109

to the development of inferior beings. And I wait, I watch,
I question it, begging it to recommence for me the beautiful
spectacle of the first creation. But it is dumb, dumb since
these experiments were begun several years ago ; it is dumb
because I have kept it from the only thing man cannot pro-
duce, from the germs which float in the air, from Life, for Life
is a germ and a germ is Life. Never will the doctrine of spon-
taneous generation recover from the mortal blow of this simple
experiment."

The public enthusiastically applauded these words, which
ended the lecture :

" No, there is now no circumstance known in which it can be
affirmed that microscopic beings came into the world without
germs, without parents similar to themselves. Those who
affirm it have been duped by illusions, by ill-conducted experi-
ments, spoilt by errors that they either did not perceive or did
not know how to avoid."

In the meanwhile, besides public lectures and new studies,
Pasteur succeeded in " administering " the Ecole Normal in
the most complete sense of the word. His influence was such
that students acquired not a taste but a passion for study ; he
directed each one in his own line, he awakened their instincts.
It was already through his wise inspiration that five ' ' Nor-
maliens agrege"s " should have the chance of the five curators'
places ; but his solicitude did not stop there. If some disap-
pointment befell some former pupil, still in that period of youth
which doubts nothing or nobody, he came vigorously to his
assistance ; he was the counsellor of the future. A few letters
will show how he understood his responsibility.

A Normalien, Paul Dalimier, received 1st at the agrdgation
of Physics in 1858, afterwards Natural History curator at the
Ecole, and who, having taken his doctor's degree, asked to be
sent to a Faculty, was ordered to go to the Lycee of Chaumont.

In the face of this almost disgrace he wrote a despairing
letter to Pasteur. He could do nothing more, he said, his career
was ruined. " My dear sir," answered Pasteur, " I much regret
that I could not see you before your departure for Chaumont.
But here is the advice which I feel will be useful to you. Do
not manifest your just displeasure ; but attract attention from
the very first by your zeal and talent. In a word, aggravate,
by your fine discharge of your new duties, the injustice which
has been committed. The discouragement expressed in your

110 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

last letter is not worthy of a man of science. Keep but three
objects before your eyes : your class, your pupils and the work
you have begun. . . . Do your duty to the best of your ability,
without troubling about the rest."

Pasteur undertook the rest himself. He went to the Ministry
to complain of the injustice and unfairness, from a general point
of view, of that nomination.

" Sir," answered the Chaumont exile, " I have received your
kind letter. My deep respect for every word of yours will
guarantee my intention to follow your advice. I have given
myself up entirely to my class. I have found here a Physics
cabinet in a deplorable state, and I have undertaken to re-
organise it."

He had not time to finish : justice was done, and Paul Dalimier
;vas made maitre des conferences at the Ecole Normale. He
died at twenty -eight.

The wish that masters and pupils should remain in touch
with each other after the three years at the Ecole Normale had
already in 1859 inspired Pasteur to write a report on the desir-
ableness of an annual report entitled, Scientific Annals of the
Ecole Normale.

The initiative of pregnant ideas often is traced back to
France. But, through want of tenacity, she allows those same
ideas to fall into decay and they are taken up by other nations,
transplanted, developed, until they come back unrecognized to
their mother country. Germany had seen the possibilities of
such a publication as Pasteur's projected Annals. Eenan wrote
about that time to the editors of the Revue Germanique, a
Review intended to draw France and Germany together : "In
France, nothing is made public until achieved and ripened.
In Germany, a work is given out provisionally, not as a teach-
ing, but as an incitement to think, as a ferment for the mind."

Pasteur felt all the power of that intellectual ferment. In
the volume entitled Centenary of the Ecole Normale, M. Gernez
has recalled Pasteur's enthusiasm when he spoke of those
Annals. Was it not for former pupils, away in the provinces,
a means of collaborating with their old masters and of keep-
ing in touch with Paris?

It was in June, 1864, that Pasteur presented the first
number of this publication to the Academic des Sciences. M.
Gernez, who was highly thought of by Pasteur, has not related
in the Centenary that the book opened with some of his own

1860—1864 111

researches on the rotatory power of certain liquids and their
steam.

At that same time, the heterogenists had at last placed them-
selves at the disposal of the Academic and were invited to meet
Pasteur before the Natural History Commission at M.
Chevreul's laboratory. "I affirm," said Pasteur, "that in
any place it is possible to take up from the ambient atmosphere
a determined volume of air containing neither egg nor spore
and producing no generation in putrescible solutions." The
Commission declared that, the whole contest bearing upon one
simple fact, one experiment only should take place. The
heterogenists wanted to recommence a whole series of experi-
ments, thus reopening the discussion. The Commission re-
fused, and the heterogenists, unwilling to concede the point,
retired from the field, repudiating the arbiters that they had
themselves chosen.

And yet Joly had written to the Academic, " If one only
of our flasks remains pure, we will loyally own our defeat."
A scientist who later became Permanent Secretary of the
Academic des Sciences, Jamin, wrote about this conflict :
' The heterogenists, however they may have coloured their
retreat, have condemned themselves. If they had been sure
of the fact — which they had solemnly engaged to prove or to
own themselves vanquished, — they would have insisted on
showing it, it would have been the triumph of their doctrine."
The heterogenists appealed to the public. A few days after
their defeat, Joly gave a lecture at the Faculty of Medicine.
He called the trial, as decided on by the Commission, a " circus
competition " ; he was applauded by those who saw other than
scientific questions in the matter. The problem was now
coming down from mountains and laboratories into the arena of
society discussions. If all comes from a germ , people said, whence
came the first germ? We must bow before that mystery,
said Pasteur; it is the question of the origin of all things, and
absolutely outside the domain of scientific research. But an
invincible curiosity exists amongst most men which cannot
admit that science should have the wisdom to content itself
with the vast space between the beginning of the world and
the unknown future. Many people transform a question of
fact into a question of faith. Though Pasteur had brought into
his researches a solely scientific preoccupation, many people
approved or blamed him as the defender of a religious cause.

112 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Vainly had he said, " There is here no question of religion,
philosophy, atheism, materialism, or spiritualism. I might
even add that they do not matter to me as a scientist. It is a
question of fact ; when I took it up I was as ready to be con-
vinced by experiments that spontaneous generation exists as
I am now persuaded that those who believe it are blind-
folded."

It might have been thought that Pasteur's arguments were
in support of a philosophical theory ! It seemed impossible
to those whose ideas came from an ardent faith, from the
influence of their surroundings, from personal pride or from
interested calculations to understand that a man should seek
truth for its own sake and with no other object than to pro-
claim it. Hostilities were opened, journalists kept up the fire.
A priest, the Abbe Moigno spoke of converting unbelievers
through the prbved non-existence of spontaneous generation.
The celebrated novelist, Edmond About, took up Pouchet's
cause with sparkling irony. " M. Pasteur preached at the
Sorbonne amidst a concert of applause which must have glad-
dened the angels."

Thus, among the papers and reviews of that time we can
follow the divers ideas brought out by these discussions.
Guizot, then almost eighty, touched on this problem with the
slightly haughty assurance of one conscious of having given
much thought to his beliefs and destiny. " Man has nofr been
formed through spontaneous generation, that is by a creative
and organizing force inherent in matter; scientific observa-
tion daily overturns that theory, by which, moreover, it is im-
possible to explain the first appearance upon the earth of man
in his complete state." And he praised " M. Pasteur, who
has brought into this question the light of his scrupulous
criticism."

Nisard was a wondering witness of what took place in the
small laboratory of the Ecole Normale. Ever preoccupied by
the relations between science and religion, he heard with some
surprise Pasteur saying modestly, " Kesearches on primary
causes are not in the domain of Science, which only recognizes
facts and phenomena which it can demonstrate."

Pasteur did not disinterest himself from the great problems
which he called the eternal subjects of men's solitary medita-
tions. But he did not admit the interference of religion with
science any more than that of science with religion.

1860—1864 113

His eagerness during a conflict was only equalled by his
absolute forgetfulness after the conflict was over. He
answered some one who, years later, reminded him of that-
past so full of attacks and praises, " A man of science should
think of what will be said of him in the following century, not
of the insults or the compliments of one day."*

Pasteur, anxious to regain lost time, hurried to return to his
studies on wine. " Might not the diseases of wines," he said
at the Academic des Sciences in January, 1864, "be caused
by organized ferments, microscopic vegetations, of which the
germs would develop when certain circumstances of tempera-
ture, of atmospheric variations, of exposure to air, would
favour their evolution or their introduction into wines?
I have indeed reached this result that the alterations of wines
are co-existent with the presence and multiplication of micro-
scopic vegetations." Acid wines, bitter wines, " ropy " wines,
sour wines, he had studied them all with a microscope, his
surest guide in recognizing the existence and form of the evil.

As he had more particularly endeavoured to remedy the cause
of the acidity which often ruins the Jura red or white wines
in the wood, the town of Arbois, proud of its celebrated rosy
and tawny wines, placed an impromptu laboratory at his.
disposal during the holidays of 1864 ; the expenses were all to
be covered by the town. " This spontaneous offer from a town
dear to me for so many reasons," answered Pasteur to the
Mayor and Town Council, " does too much honour to my
modest labours, and the way in which it is made covers me with
confusion." He refused it however, fearing that the services
he might render should not be proportionate to the generosity
of the Council. He preferred to camp out with his curators
in an old coffee room at the entrance of the town, and they
contented themselves with apparatus of the most primitive
description, generally made by some local tinker or shoeing
smith.

The problem consisted, in Pasteur's view, in opposing the
development of organized ferments or parasitic vegetations,
causes of the diseases of wines. After some fruitless endea- .
vours to destroy all vitality in the germs of these parasites,
he found that it was sufficient to keep the wine for a few
moments at a temperature of 50° C. to 60° C. " I have also '
ascertained that wine was never altered by that preliminary
operation, and as nothing prevents it afterwards from under-

i

114 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

going the gradual action of the oxygen in the air— the only
cause, as I think, of its improvement with age — it is evident
that this process offers every advantage."

.It seems as if that simple and practical means, applicable
to every quality of wine, now only had to be tried. But not so.
Every progress is opposed by prejudice, petty jealousies, in-
dolence even. A devoted obstinacy is required in order to
overcome this opposition. Pasteur's desire was that his
country should benefit by his discovery. An Englishman had
written to him : " People are astonished in France that the
sale of French wines should not have become more extended
here since the Commercial Treaties. The reason is simple
enough. At first we eagerly welcomed those wines, but we
soon had the sad experience that there was too much loss
occasioned by the diseases to which they are subject."

Pasteur was in the midst of those discussions, experimental
sittings, etc., when J. B. Dumas suddenly asked of him the
greatest of sacrifices, that of leaving the laboratory.

CHAPTER VI
J 1865—1870

AN epidemic was ruining in terrible proportions the industry
of the cultivation of silkworms. J. B. Dumas had been desired,
as Senator, to draw up a report on the wishes of over 3,500
proprietors in sericicultural departments, all begging the public
authorities to study the question of the causes of the pro-
tracted epidemic. Dumas was all the more preoccupied as
to the fate of gericiculture that he himself came from one of
the stricken departments. He was born on July 14, 1800,
in one of the back streets of the town of Alais, to which he
enjoyed returning as a celebrated scientist and a dignitary of
the Empire. He gave much attention to all the problems
which interested the national prosperity and considered that
the best judges in these matters were the men of science. He
well knew the conscientious tenacity — besides other character-
istics— which his pupil and friend brought into any under-
taking, and anxiously urged him to undertake this study.
'Your proposition," wrote Pasteur in a few hurried lines,
' ' throws me into a great perplexity ; it is indeed most flatter-
ing and the object is a high one, but it troubles and em-
barrasses me! Eemember, if you please, that I have never
even touched a silkworm. If I had some of your knowledge
on the subject I should not hesitate ; it may even come within
the range of my present studies. However, the recollection of
your many kindnesses to me would leave me bitter regrets if I
were to decline your pressing invitation. Do as you like with
me." On May 17, 1865, Dumas wrote : " I attach the greatest
value to seeing your attention fixed on the question which
interests my poor country; the distress is beyond anything
you can imagine."

Before his departure for Alais, Pasteur had read an essay
on the history of the silkworm, published by one of his col-

I 2

116 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

leagues, Quatrefages, born like Dumas in the Gard. Quatre-
fages attributed to an Empress of China the first knowledge
of the art of utilizing silk, more than 4,000 years ago. The
Chinese, in possession of the precious insect, had jealously
preserved the monopoly of its culture, even to the point of
making it a capital offence to take beyond the frontiers of the
Empire the eggs of the silkworm. A young princess, 2,000
years later, had the courage to infringe this law for love of
her betrothed, whom she was going to join in the centre of
Asia, and also through the almost equally strong desire to
continue her fairy-like occupation after her marriage.

Pasteur appreciated the pretty legend, but was more in-
terested in the history of the acclimatizing of the mulberry
tree. From Provence Louis XI took it to Touraine : Catherine
de Medici planted it in Orleanais. Henry IV had some mul-
berry trees planted in the park at Fontainebleau and in the
Tuileries where they succeeded admirably. He also en-
couraged a Treatise on the Gathering of Silk by Olivier de
Serres. This earliest agricultural writer in France was much
appreciated by the king, in spite of the opposition of Sully,
who did not believe in this new fortune for France. Docu-
mentary evidence is lacking as to the development of the silk
industry.

From 1700 to 1788, wrote Quatrefages, France produced
annually about 6,000,000 kilogrammes of cocoons. This was
decreased by one-half under the Kepublic; wool replaced silk
perhaps from necessity, perhaps from affectation.

Napoleon I restored that luxury. The sericicultural industry
prospered from the Imperial Epoch until the reign of Louis
Philippe, to such an extent as to reach in one year a total of
20,000,000 kilogrammes of cocoons, representing 100,000,000
francs. The name of Tree of Gold given to the mulberry, had
never been better deserved.

Suddenly all these riches fell away. A mysterious disease
was destroying the nurseries. "Eggs, worms, chrysalides,
moths, the disease may manifest itself in all the organs,"
wrote Dumas in his report to the Senate. "Whence does it
come? how is it contracted? No one knows. But its inva-
sion is recognized by little brown or black spots." It was
therefore called "corpuscle disease"; it was also designated
as " gattine " from the Italian gattino, kitten ; the sick worms
held up their heads and put out their hooked feet like cats about

1865—1870 117

to scratch. But of all those names, that of " p&brine "
adopted by Quatrefages was the most general. It came from
the patois word pdbrt (pepper). The spots on the diseased
worms were, in fact, rather like pepper grains.

The first symptoms had been noticed by some in 1845, by
others in 1847. But in 1849 it was a disaster. The South of
France was invaded. In 1853, seed had to be procured from
Lombardy. After one successful year the same disappoint-
ments recurred. Italy was attacked, also Spain and Austria.
Seed was procured from Greece, Turkey, the Caucasus, but
the evil was still on the increase; China itself was attacked,
fcnd, in 1864, it was only in Japan that healthy seed could be
found.

Every hypothesis was suggested, atmospheric conditions,
degeneration of the race of silkworms, disease of the mulberry
tree, etc. — books and treatises abounded, but in vain.

When Pasteur started for Alais (June 16, 1865), entrusted
with this scientific mission by the Minister of Agriculture, his
mind saw but that one point of interrogation, " What caused
these fatal spots?" On his arrival he sympathetically ques-
tioned the Alaisians. He received confused and contradictory
answers, indications of chimerical remedies; some cultivators
poured sulphur or charcoal powder on the worms, some mus-
tard meal or castor sugar ; ashes and soot were used, quinine
powders, etc. Some cultivators preferred liquids, and syringed
the mulberry leaves with wine, rum or absinthe. Fumiga-
tions of chlorine, of coal tar, were approved by some and
violently objected to by others. Pasteur, more desirous of
seeking the origin of the evil than of making a census of these
remedies, unceasingly questioned the nursery owners, who in-
variably answered that it was something like the plague or
cholera. Some worms languished on the frames in their earliest
days, others in the second stage only, some passed through the
third and fourth moultings, climbed the twig and spun their
cocoon. The chrysalis became a moth, but that diseased moth had
deformed antennae and withered legs, the wings seemed singed.
Eggs (technically called seed) from those moths were inevitably
unsuccessful the following year. Thus, in the same nursery,
in the course of the two months that a larva takes to become
a moth, the pebrine disease was alternately sudden or in-
sidious : it burst out or disappeared, it hid itself withifi the
chrysalis and reappeared in the moth or the eggs of a moth

118 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

which had seemed sound. The discouraged Alaisians thought
that nothing could overcome pebrine.

Pasteur did not admit such resignation. But he began by
one aspect only of the problem. He resolved to submit those
corpuscles of the silkworm which had been observed since 1849
to microscopical study. He settled down in a small magna-
nerie near Alais ; two series of worms were being cultivated.
The first set was full grown ; it came from some Japanese seed
guaranteed as sound, and had produced very fine cocoons. The
cultivator intended to keep the seed of the moths to compensate
himself for the failure of the second set, also of Japanese
origin, but not officially guaranteed. The worms of this second
series were sickly and did not feed properly. And yet these
worms, seen through the microscope, only exceptionally pre-
sented corpuscles ; whilst Pasteur was surprised to find some
in almost every moth or chrysalis from the prosperous nursery.
Was it then elsewhere than in the worms that the secret of
the pebrine was to be found?

Pasteur was interrupted in the midst of his experiments by
a sudden blow. Nine days after his arrival, a telegram called
him to Arbois : his father was very ill. He started, full of
anguish, remembering the sudden death of his mother before
he had had time to reach her, and that of Jeanne, his eldest
daughter, who had also died far away from him in the little
house at Arbois. His sad presentiment oppressed him during
the whole of the long journey, and was fully justified; he
arrived to find, already in his coffin, the father he so dearly
loved and whose name he had made an illustrious one.

In the evening, in the empty room above the tannery,
Pasteur wrote : "Dear Marie, dear children, the dear grand-
father is no more ; we have taken him this morning to his last
resting place, close to little Jeanne's. In the midst of my
grief I have felt thankful that our little girl had been buried
there. . . . Until the last moment I hoped I should see him
again, embrace him for the last time . . . but when I
arrived at the station I saw some of our cousins all in black,
coming from Salins ; it was only then that I understood that I
could but accompany him to the grave.

' ' He died on the day of your first communion , dear Cecile ;
those two memories will remain in your heart, my poor child.
I had a presentiment of it when that very morning, at the
hour when he was struck down, I was asking you to pray for

1865—1870 119

the grandfather at Arbois. Your prayers will have been accept-
able unto God, and perhaps the dear grandfather himself knew
of them and rejoiced with dear little Jeanne over Cecile's
piety.

"I have been thinking all day of the marks of affection I
have had from my father. For thirty years I have been his
constant care, I owe everything to him. When I was young
he kept me from bad company and instilled into me the habit
of working and the example of the most loyal and best-filled
life. He was far above his position both in mind and in char-
acter. . . . You did not know him, dearest Marie, at the
time when he and my mother were working so hard for the
children they loved, for me especially, whose books and school-
ing cost so much. . . . And the touching part of his affec-
tion for me is that it never was mixed with ambition. You
remember that he would have been pleased to see me the head-
master of Arbois College? He foresaw that advancement
would mean hard work, perhaps detrimental to my health.
And yet I am sure that some of the success in my scientific
career must have filled him with joy and pride ; his son ! his
name ! the child he had guided and cherished ! My dear
father, how thankful I am that I could give him some satis-
faction !

" Farewell, dearest Marie f dear children. We shall often
talk of the dear grandfather. How glad I am that he saw you
all again a short time ago, and that he lived to know little
Camille. I long to see you all, but must go back to Alais, for
my studies would be retarded by a year if I could not spend
a few days there now.

"I have some ideas on this disease, which is indeed a scourge
for all those southern departments. The one arrondissement
of Alais has lost an income of 120,000,000 francs during the
last fifteen years. M. Dumas is a million times right ; it must
be seen to, and I am going to continue my experiments. I am
writing to M. Nisard to have the admission examinations in my
absence, which can easily be done."

Nisard wrote to him (June 19) : " My dear friend, I heard
of your loss, and I sympathize most cordially with you. . . .
Take all the time necessary to you. You are away in the
service of science, probably of humanity. Everything will be
done according to your precise indications. I foresee no
difficulty . . . everything is going on well at the Ecole.

120 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

In spite of your reserve— which is a part of your talent — I see
that you are on the track, as M. Biot would have said, and
that you will have your prey. Your name will stand next to
that of Olivier de Serres in the annals of sericiculture."

On his return to Alais Pasteur went back to his observations
with his scientific ardour and his customary generous eagerness
to lighten the burden of others. He wrote in the introduction
to his Studies on Silkworm Disease the following heartfelt
lines —

" A traveller coming back to the Cevennes mountains after
an absence of fifteen years would be saddened to see the change
wrought in that countryside within such a short time. For-
merly he might have seen robust men breaking up the rock
to build terraces against the side and up to the summit of each
mountain; then planting mulberry trees on these terraces.
These men, in spite of their hard work, were then bright and
happy, for ease and contentment reigned in their homes.

" Now the mulberry plantations are abandoned, the ' golden
tree ' no longer enriches the country, faces once beaming with
health and good humour are now sad and drawn. Distress
and hunger have succeeded to comfort and happiness."

Pasteur thought with sorrow of the sufferings of the Ce*venol
populations. The scientific problem was narrowing itself
down. Faced by the contradictory facts that one successful
set of cocoons had produced corpuscled moths, while an ap-
parently unsuccessful set of worms showed neither corpuscles
nor spots, he had awaited the last period of these worms with
an impatient curiosity. He saw, amongst those which had
started spinning, some which as yet showed no spots and no
corpuscles. But corpuscles were abundant in the chrysalides,
those especially which were in full maturity, on the eve of be-
coming moths ; and none of the moths were free from them .
Perhaps the fact that the disease appeared in the chrysalis and
moth only explained the failures of succeeding series. " It
was a mistake," wrote Pasteur (June 26, 1865), "to look for
the symptom, the corpuscle, exclusively in the eggs or the
worms; either might carry in themselves the germ of the
disease, without presenting distinct and microscopically visible
corpuscles. The evil developed itself chiefly in the chrysalides
and the moths, it was there that it should chiefly be sought.
There should be an infallible means of procuring healthy seed
by having recourse to moths free from corpuscles.

1865—1870 121

This idea was like a searchlight flashed into the darkness.
Pasteur thus formulated his hypothesis: "Every moth con-
taining corpuscles must give birth to diseased seed. If a
moth only has a few corpuscles, its eggs will provide worms
without any, or which will only develop them towards the end
of their life. If the moth is much infected, the disease will
show itself in the earliest stages of the worm, either by
corpuscles or by other unhealthy symptoms."

Pasteur studied hundreds of moths under the microscope.
Nearly all, two or three couples excepted, were corpuscled, but
that restricted quantity was increased by a precious gift. Two
people, who had heard Pasteur ventilate his theories, brought
him five moths born of a local race of silkworms and nurtured
in the small neighbouring town of Anduze in the Turkish
fashion, i.e. without any of the usual precautions consisting in
keeping the worms in nurseries heated at an equal temperature.
Everything having been tried, this system had also had its
turn, without any appreciable success. By a fortunate cir-
cumstance, four out of those five moths were Wealthy.

Pasteur looked forward to the study in comparisons that
the following spring would bring when worms were hatched
both from the healthy and the diseased seed. In the Mean-
while, only a few of the Alaisians, including M. Pages, the
Mayor, and M. de Lachadenede, really felt any confidence in
these results. Most of the other silkworm cultivators were dis-
posed to criticize everything, without having the patience to
wait for results. They expressed much regret that the Govern-
ment should choose a " mere chemist " for those investigations
instead of some zoologist or silkworm cultivator. Pasteur only
said, "Have patience."

He returned to Paris, where fresh sorrow awaited him :
Camille, his youngest child, only two years old, was seriously
ill. He watched over her night after night, spending his days
at his task in the laboratory, and returning in the evening to
the bedside of his dying child. During that same period he
was asked for an article on Lavoisier by J. B. Dumas, who
had been requested by the Government to publish his works.

" No one," wrote Dumas to Pasteur — " has read Lavoisier
with more attention than you have ; no one can judge of him
better. . . . The chance which caused me to be born before
you has placed me in communication with surroundings and
with men in whom I have found the ideas and feelings which

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

have guided me in this work. But, had it been yours, 1
should have allowed no one else to be the first in drawing the
world's attention to it. It is from this motive, also from a
certain conformity of tastes and of principles which has long
made you dear to me, that I now ask you to give up a few
hours to Lavoisier."

"My dear and illustrious master," answered Pasteur (July
18, 1865), " in the face of your letter and its expressions of
affectionate confidence, I cannot refuse to submit to you a
paper which you must promise to throw away if it should not
be exactly what you want. I must also ask you to grant me
much time, partly on account of my inexperience, and partly
on account of the fatigue both mental and bodily imposed on
me by the illness of our dear child."

Dumas replied : " Dear friend and colleague, I thank you
for your kind acquiescence in Lavoisier's interests, which
might well be your own, for no one at this time represents
better than you do his spirit and method, — a method in which
reasoning had more share than anything else.

' ' The art of observation and that of experimentation are
very distinct. In the first case, the fact may either proceed
from logical reasons or be mere good fortune ; it is sufficient to
have some penetration and the sense of truth in order to profit
by it. But the art of experimentation leads from the first to
the last link of the chain, without hesitation and without a
blank, making successive use of Keason, which suggests an
alternative, and of Experience, which decides on it, until,
starting from a faint glimmer, the full blaze of light is reached.
Lavoisier made this art into a method, and you possess it to a
degree which always gives me a pleasure for which I am grate-
ful to you.

' Take your time. Lavoisier has waited seventy years ! It
is a century since his first results were produced ! What are
weeks and months?

" I feel for you with all my heart ! I know how heartrend-
ing are those moments by the deathbed of a suffering child. I
hope and trust this great sorrow will be spared you, as indeed
you deserve that it should be."

The promise made by Dumas to give to France an edition of
Lavoisier's works dated very far back. It was in May, 1836,
in one of his eloquent lectures at the College de France, that
Dumas had declared his intention of raising a scientific monu-

1865—1870 123

ment to the memory of this, perhaps the greatest of all French
scientists. He had hoped that a Bill would be passed by the
Government of Louis Philippe decreeing that this edition of
Lavoisier's works would be produced at the expense of the
State. But the usual obstacles and formalities came in the
way. Governments succeeded each other, and it was only in
1861 that Dumas obtained the decree he wished for and that
the book appeared.

Certainly Pasteur knew and admired as much as any one the
discoveries of Lavoisier. But, in the presence of the series of
labours accomplished, in spite of many other burdens, during
that life cut off in its prime by the Eevolutionary Tribunal
(1792), labours collated for the first time by Dumas, Pasteur
was filled with a new and vivid emotion. His logic in reason-
ing and his patience in observing nature had in no wise
diminished the impetuous generosity of his feelings ; a beautiful
book, a great discovery, a brilliant exploit or a humble act of
kindness would move him to tears. Concerning such a man as
Lavoisier, Pasteur's curiosity became a sort of worship. He
would have had the history of such a life spread everywhere.
"Though one discovery always surpasses another, and though
the chemical and physical knowledge accumulated since his
time has gone beyond all Lavoisier's dreams," wrote Pasteur,
" his work, like that of Newton and a few other rare spirits, will
remain ever young. Certain details will age, as do the fashions
of another time, but the foundation, the method, constitute
one of those great aspects of the human mind, the majesty
of which is only increased by years. ..."

Pasteur's article appeared in the Monitcur and was much
praised by the celebrated critic Sainte Beuve, whose literary
lectures were often attended by Pasteur, between 1857 and
1861. The chronological order that we are following in this
history of Pasteur's life allows us to follow the ideas and feel-
ings with which he lived his life of hard daily work combined
with daily devotion to others. Joys and sorrows can be
chronicled, thanks to the confidences of those who loved him.
His fame is indeed part of the future, but the tenderness which
he inspired revives the memories of the past.

In September, 1865, little Camille died. Pasteur took the
tiny coffin to Arbois and went back to his work. A. letter
written in November alludes to the depth of his grief.

It was a propos of a candidature to the Academic des

124 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Sciences, Sainte Beuve was asked to help that of a young
friend of his, Charles Eobin. Kobin occupied a professor's
chair specially created for him at the Facultt de Medecine ; he
had made a deep microscopical study of the tissues of living
bodies, of cellular life, of all which constitutes histology. He
was convinced that outside his own studies, numerous ques-
tions would fall more and more into the domain of experimenta-
tion, and he believed that the faith in spiritual things could
not " stand the struggle against the spirit of the times, wholly
turned to positive things.*'/ He did not, like Pasteur, under-
stand the clear distinction between the scientist on the one
hand and the man of sentiment on the other, each absolutely
independent^ Neither did he imitate the reserve of Claude
Bernard who did not allow himself to be pressed by any
urgent questioner into enrolment with either the believers or
the unbelievers, but answered : " When I am in my labora-
tory, I begin by shutting the door on materialism and on
spiritualism; I observe facts alone; I seek but the scientific
conditions under which life manifests itself." Eobin was a
disciple of Auguste Comte, and proclaimed himself a Positivist,
a word which for superficial people was the equivalent of
materialist. The same efforts which had succeeded in keeping
Littre" out of the Academic Fran£aise in 1863 were now
attempted in order to keep Robin out of the Academic des
Sciences in 1865.

Sainte Beuve, whilst studying medicine, had been a Posi-
tivist ; his quick and impressionable nature had then turned to
a mysticism which had inspired him to pen some fine verses.
He had now returned to his former philosophy, but kept an
open mind, however, criticism being for him not the art of
dictating, but of understanding, and he was absolutely averse
to irrelevant considerations when a candidature was in question.

The best means with Pasteur, who was no diplomat, was to

go straight to the point. Sainte Beuve therefore wrote to him :

' Dear Sir, will you allow me to be indiscreet enough to solicit

your influence in favour of M. Eobin, whose work I know you

appreciate ?

' M. Eobin does not perhaps belong to the same philo-
sophical school as you do ; but it seems to me— from an out-
sider's point of view— that he belongs to the same scientific
school. If he should differ essentially— whether in meta-
physics or otherwise— would it not be worthy of a great scientist

1865—1870 125

to take none but positive work into account? Nothing more,
nothing less.

' ' Forgive me ; I have much resented the injustice towards
you of certain newspapers, and I have sometimes asked myself
if there were not some simple means of showing up all that
nonsense, and of disproving those absurd and ill-intentioned
statements. If M. Bobin deserves to be of the Acade'mie why
should he not attain to it through you? . . .

" My sense of gratitude towards you for those four years
during which you have done me the honour of including such
a man as you are in my audience, also a feeling of friendship,
are carrying me too far. I intended to mention this to you the
other day at the Princess's ; she had wished me to do so, but
I feel bolder with a pen. . . ."

The Princess in question was Princess Mathilde. Her salon,
a rendezvous of men of letters, men of science and artists, was
a sort of second Academy which consoled Theophile Gautier
for not belonging to the other. Sainte Beuve prided himself
on being, so to speak, honorary secretary to this accomplished
and charming hostess.

Pasteur answered by return of post. " Sir and illustrious
colleague, I feel strongly inclined towards M.. Eobin, who
would represent a new scientific element at the Academy — the
microscope applied to the study of the human organism. I do
not trouble about his philosophical school save for the harm it
may do to his work. ... I confess frankly, however, that
I am not competent on the question of our philosophical
schools. Of M. Comte I have only read a few absurd passages ;
of M. Littre I only know the beautiful pages you were in-
spired to write by his rare knowledge and some of his domestic
virtues. (My philosophy is of the heart and not of the mind,
and I give myself up, for instance, to those feelings about
eternity which come naturally at the bedside of a cherished
child drawing its last breath. At those supreme moments,
there is something in the depths of our souls which tells us
that the world may be more than a mere combination of
phenomena proper to a mechanical equilibrium brought out
of the chaos of the elements simply through the gradual action
of the forces of matter. I admire them all, our philosophers !
We have experiments to straighten and modify our ideas, and
we constantly find that nature is other than we had imagined.
They, who are always guessing, how can they know! . . ."

126 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Sainte Beuve was probably not astonished at Pasteur's some-
what hasty epithet applied to Auguste Comte, whom he had
himself denned as " an obscure, abstruse, of ten diseased brain."
After Eobin's election he wrote to his "dear and learned col-
league " —

" I have not allowed myself to thank you for the letter, so
beautiful, if I may say so, so deep and so exalted in thought,
which you did me the honour of writing in answer to mine.
Nothing now forbids me to tell you how deeply I am struck
with your way of thinking and with your action in this
scientific matter."

That "something in the depths of our souls" of which
Pasteur spoke in his letter to Sainte Beuve, was often per-
ceived in his conversation ; absorbed as he was in his
daily task, he yet carried in himself a constant aspiration
towards the Ideal, a deep conviction of the reality of the
Infinite and a trustful acquiescence in the Mystery of the
universe.

During the last term of the year 1865, he turned from his
work for a time in order to study cholera. Coming from Egypt,
the scourge had lighted on Marseilles, then on Paris, where it
made in October more than two hundred victims per day ; it
was feared that the days of 1832 would be repeated, when the
deaths reached twenty-three per 1,000. Claude Bernard,
Pasteur, and Sainte Claire Deville went into the attics of the
Lariboisiere hospital, above a cholera ward.

'We had opened," said Pasteur, "one of the ventilators
communicating with the ward ; we had adapted to the opening
a glass tube surrounded by a refrigerating mixture, and we
drew the air of the ward into our tube-, so as to condense
into it as many as we could of the products of the air in the
ward."

Claude Bernard and Pasteur afterwards tried blood taken
from patients , and many other things ; they were associated in
those experiments, which gave no result. Henri Sainte Claire
Deville once said to Pasteur, " Studies of that sort require
much courage." 'What about duty?" said Pasteur simply,
in a tone, said Deville afterwards, worth many sermons. The
cholera did not last long ; by the end of the autumn all danger
had disappeared.

Napeoleon the Third loved science, and found in it a sense
of assured stability which politics did not offer him. He de-

1865—1870 127

sired Pasteur to come and spend a week at the Palace of
Compiegne.

The very first evening a grand reception took place. The
diplomatic world was represented by M. de Budberg, ambas-
sador of Eussia, and the Prussian ambassador, M. de Goltz.
Among the guests were : Dr. Longet, celebrated for his
researches and for his Treatise on Physiology, a most original
physician, whose one desire was to avoid patients and so have
more time for pure science; Jules Sandeau, the tender and
delicate novelist, with his somewhat heavy aspect of a captain
in the Garde Nationale ; Paul Baudry, the painter, then in the
flower of his youth and radiant success ; Paul Dubois, the
conscientious artist of the Chanteur Florentin exhibited that
very year; the architect, Viollet le Due, an habitue of the
palace. The Emperor drew Pasteur aside towards the fire-
place, and the scientist soon found himself instructing his
Sovereign, talking about ferments and molecular dissym-
metry.

Pasteur was congratulated by the courtiers on the favour shown
by this immediate confidential talk, and the Empress sent him
word that she wished him to talk with her also. Pasteur
remembered this conversation, an animated one, a little discon-
nected, chiefly about animalculae, infusories and fermems.
When the guests returned to the immense corridor into which
the rooms opened, each with the name of the guests on the
door, Pasteur wrote to Paris for his microscope and for some
samples of diseased wines.

The next morning a stag hunt was organized ; riders in hand-
some costumes, open carriages drawn by six horses and con-
taining guests , entered the forest ; a stag was soon brought to
bay by the hounds. In the evening, after dinner, there was
a torchlight procession in the great courtyard. Amid a burst
of trumpets, the footmen in state livery, standing in a circle,
held aloft the flaming torches. In the centre, a huntsman
held part of the carcase of the stag and waved it to and fro
before the greedy eyes of the hounds, who, eager to hurl
themselves upon it, and now restrained by a word, then let
loose, and again called back all trembling at their dis-
comfiture, were at length permitted to rush upon and devour
their prey.

The next day offered another item on the programme, a
visit to the castle of Pierrefonds, marvellously restored by

?
128 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Viollet le Due at the expense of the Imperial purse. Pasteur,
who, like the philosopher, might have said, " I am never bored
but when I am being entertained," made his arrangements
so that the day should not be entirely wasted. He made an
appointment for his return with the head butler, hoping to
find a few diseased wines in the Imperial cellar. That depart-
ment, however, was so well administered that he was only
able to find seven or eight suspicious-looking bottles. The tall
flunkeys, who scarcely realized the scientific interest offered
by a basketful of wine bottles, watched Pasteur more or less
ironically as he returned to his room , where he had the pleasure
of finding his microscope and case of instruments sent from the
Rue d'Ulm. He remained upstairs, absorbed as he would
have been in his laboratory, in the contemplation of a drop
of bitter wine revealing the tiny mycoderma which caused the
bitterness.

In the meanwhile some of the other guests were gathered
in the smoking room, smilingly awaiting the Empress's five
o'clock tea, whilst others were busy with the preparations
for the performance of Racine's Plaideurs, which Provost,
Regnier, Got, Delaunay, Coquelin, and Mademoiselle
Jouassain were going to act that very evening in the theatre
of the palace.

On the Sunday, at 4 p.m., he was received privately by their
Majesties, for their instruction and edification. He wrote
in a letter to a friend : "I went to the Emperor with my
microscope, my wine samples, and all my paraphernalia.
When I was announced, the Emperor came up to meet me
and asked me to come in. M. Conti, who was writing at a
table, rose to leave the room, but was invited to stay. Then
he fetched the Empress, and I began to show their Majesties
various objects under the microscope and to explain them;
it lasted a whole hour."

The Empress had been much interested, and wished that
her five o'clock friends — who were waiting in the room where
tea was served— should also acquire some notions of these
studies. She merrily took up the microscope, laughing at her
new occupation of laboratory attendant, and arrived thus
laden in the drawing-room, much to the surprise of her privi-
leged guests. Pasteur came in behind her, and gave a short
and simple account of a few general ideas and precise
discoveries.

1865—1870 129

In the same way, the preceding week, Le Verrier1 had
spoken of his planet, and Dr. Longet had given a lecture on
the circulation of the blood. That butterfly world of the
Court, taking a momentary interest in scientific things, did
not foresee that the smallest discovery made in the poor
laboratory of the Kue d'Ulm would leave a more lasting im-
pression than the fetes of the Tuileries of Fontainebleau and
of Compiegne.

In the course of their private interview, Napoleon and
Eugenie manifested some surprise that Pasteur should not
endeavour to turn his discoveries and their applications to a
source of legitimate profit. "In France/' he replied, "scien-
tists would consider that they lowered themselves by doing so."

He was convinced that a man of pure science would com-
plicate his life, the order of his thoughts, and risk paralysing
his inventive faculties, if he were to make money by his
discoveries. For instance, if he had followed up the industrial
results of his studies on vinegar, his time would have been
too much and too regularly occupied, and he would not have
been free for new researches.

"My mind is free," he said. "I am as full of ardour for
the new question of silkworm disease as I was in 1863, when
I took up the wine question."

What he most wished was to be able to watch the growth
of the silkworms from the very first day, and to pursue without
interruption this serious study in which the future of France
was interested. That, and the desire to have one day a
laboratory adequate to the magnitude of his works were his
only ambitions. On his return to Paris he obtained leave
to go back to Alais.

" My dear Kaulin," wrote Pasteur to his1 former pupil in
January, 1866. " I am again entrusted by the Minister of
Agriculture with a mission for the study of silkworm disease,
which will last at least five months, from February 1 to the
end of June. Would you care to join me?"

1 Le Verrier, a celebrated astronomer, at that time Director of the
Paris Observatory. His calculations led him to surmise the existence
of the planet Neptune, which was discovered accordingly. Adam, an
English astronomer, attained the same result, by the same means, at the
same time, each of the two scientists being in absolute ignorance of the
work of the other. Le Verrier was the first to publish his discovery.
[Trans.]

E

130 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Eaulin excused himself; he was then preparing, with his
accustomed slow conscientiousness, his doctor's thesis, a work
afterwards considered by competent judges to be a master-
piece.

"I must console myself," wrote Pasteur, expressing his
regrets, " by thinking that you will complete your excellent
thesis."

One of Kaulin's fellow students at the Ecole Normale,
M. Gernez, was now a professor at the College Louis le
Grand. His mind was eminently, congenial to Pasteur's.
Duruy, then Minister of Public Instruction, was ever anxious
to smooth down all difficulties in the path of science : he gave
a long leave of absence to M. Gernez, in order that he might
take Raulin's place. Another young Normalien, Maillot,
prepared to join the scientific party, much to his delight. The
three men left Paris at the beginning of February. They
began by spending a few days in an hotel at Alais, trying to
find a suitable house where they would set up their temporary
laboratory. After a week or two in a house within the town,
too far, to be convenient, from the restaurant where they
had their meals, Maillot discovered a lonely house at the foot
of the Mount of the Hermitage, a mountain once covered with
flourishing mulberry trees, but now abandoned, and growing
but a few olive trees.

This house, at Pont Gisquet, not quite a mile from Alais,
was large enough to hold Pasteur, his family and his pupils ; a
laboratory was soon arranged in an empty orangery.

"Then began a period of intense work," writes M. Gernez.
"Pasteur undertook a great number of trials, which he him-
self followed in their minutest details; he only required our
help over similar operations by which he tested his own. The
result was that above the fatigues of the day, easily borne by
us strong young men, he had to bear the additional burden
of special researches, importunate visitors, and an equally

importunate correspondence, chiefly dealing out criticisms
it

Madame Pasteur, who had been detained in Paris for her
children's education, set out for Alais with her two daughters.
Her mother being then on a visit to the rector of the Chambery
Academy, M. Zevort, she arranged to spend a day or two in
that town. But hardly had she arrived when her daughter
Cecile, then twelve years old, became ill with typhoid fever.

1865—1870 131

Madame Pasteur had the courage not to ask her husband to
leave his work and come to her; but her letters alarmed him,
and the anxious father gave up his studies for a few days and
arrived at Chambe'ry. The danger at that time seemed averted,
and he only remained three days at Chambery. C£cile, ap-
parently convalescent, had recovered her smile, that sweet, in-
definable smile which gave so much charm to her serious,
almost melancholy face. She smiled thus for the last time at
her little sister Marie-Louise, about the middle of May, lying
on a sofa by a sunny window.

On May 21, her doctor, Dr. Flesschutt, wrote to Pasteur :
" If the interest I take in the child were not sufficient to
stimulate my efforts, the mother's courage would keep up my
hopes and double my ardent desire for a happy issue." C£cile
died on May 23 after a sudden relapse. Pasteur only arrived
at Chambery in time to take to Arbois the remains of the little
girl, which were buried near those of his mother, of his two
other daughters, Jeanne and Camille, and of his father, Joseph
Pasteur. The little cemetery indeed represented a cup of
sorrows for Pasteur.

' Your father has returned from his sad journey to
Arbois," wrote Madame Pasteur from Chambe'ry to her son
who was at school in Paris. "I did think of going back to
you, but I could not leave your poor father to go back to Alais
alone after this great sorrow." Accompanied by her who
was his greatest comfort, and who gave him some of her own
courage, Pasteur came back to the Pont Gisquet and returned
to his work. M. Duclaux in his turn joined the hard-working
little party.

At the beginning of June, Duruy, with the solicitude of
a Minister who found time to be also a friend, wrote affection-
afely to Pasteur —

" You are leaving me quite in the dark, yet you know the
interest I take in your work. Where are you? and what are
you doing? Finding out something I feel certain. ..."

Pasteur answered, " Monsieur le Ministre, I hasten to thank
you for your kind reminder. My studies have been associated
with sorrow ; perhaps your charming little daughter, who
used to play sometimes at M. Le Verrier's, will remember
Cecile Pasteur among other little girls of her age that she
used to meet at the Observatoire. My dear child was coming
with her mother to spend the Easter holidays with me at Alais,

K 2

132 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

when, during a few days' stay at Chambery, she was seized
with an attack of typhoid fever, to which she succumbed
after two months of painful suffering. I was only able to be
with her for a few days, being kept here by my work, and
full of deceiving hopes for a happy issue from that terrible
disease.

"I am now wholly wrapped up in my studies, which alone
take my thoughts from my deep sorrow.

' ' Thanks to the facilities which you have put in my way ,
I have been able to collect a quantity of experimental observa-
tions, and I think I understand on many points this disease
which has been ruining the South for fifteen or twenty years.
I shall be able on my return to propose to the Commission of
Sericiculture a practical means of fighting the evil and sup-
pressing it in the course of a few years.

"I am arriving at this result that there is no silkworm
disease. There is but an exaggeration of a state of things
which has always existed, and it is not difficult, in my view, to
return to the former situation, even to improve on it. The
evil was sought for in the worm and even in the seed ; that was
something, but my observations prove that it develops chiefly
in the chrysalis, especially in the mature chrysalis, at the
moment of the moth's formation, on the eve of the function
of reproduction. The microscope then detects its presence
with certitude, even when the seed and the worm seem very
healthy. The practical result is this : you have a nursery full ; it
has been successful or it has not ; you wish to know whether to
smother the cocoons or whether to keep them for reproduction.
Nothing is simpler. You hasten the development of about 100
moths through an elevation of temperature, and you examine
these moths through the microscope, which will tell you what
to do.

" The sickly character is then so easy to detect that a woman
or a child can do it. If the cultivator should be a peasant,
without the material conditions required for this study, he can
do this : instead of throwing away the moths after they have
laid their eggs, he can bottle a good many of them in brandy
and send them to a testing office or to some experienced person
who will determine the value of the seed for the following
year."

The Japanese Government sent some cases of seed supposed
to be healthy to Napoleon III, who distributed them in the

1865—1870 133

silkworm growing departments. Pasteur, in the meanwhile,
was stating the results he had arrived at, and they were being
much criticized. In order to avoid the pebrine, which was
indeed the disease caused by the corpuscles so clearly visible
through the microscope, he averred that no seed should be
used that came from infected moths. In order to demonstrate
the infectious character of the pebrine he would give to some
worms meals of leaves previously contaminated by means of a
brush dipped in water containing corpuscles. The worms
absorbed the food, and the disease immediately appeared and
could be found in the chrysalides and moths from those worms.

" I hope I am in the right road — close to the goal, perhaps,
but I have not yet reached it," wrote Pasteur to his faithful
Chappuis ; ' ' and as long as the final proof is not acquired com-
plications and errors are to be feared. Next year, the growth
of the numerous eggs I have prepared will obviate my scruples,
and I shall be sure of the value of the preventive means I have
indicated. It is tiresome to have to wait a year before testing
observations already made ; but I have every hope of success."

While awaiting the renewal of the silkworm season, he was
busy editing his book on wine, full of joy at contributing to
the national riches through practical application of his observa-
tions. It was, in fact, sufficient to heat the wines by the
simple process already at that time known in Austria as
pasteurisation, to free them from all germs of disease and make
them suitable for keeping and for exportation. He did not
accord much attention to the talk of old gourmets who affirmed
that wines thus "mummified" could not mellow with age,
being convinced on the contrary that the most delicate wines
could only be improved by heating. "The ageing of wines,"
he said, " is due, not to fermentation, but to a slow oxidation
which is favoured by heat."

He alluded in his book to the interest taken by Napoleon III
in those researches which might be worth millions to France.
He also related how the Imperial solicitude had been awakened,
and acknowledged gratitude for this to General Pave", one of
the Emperor's aides de camp.

The General, on reading the proofs, declared that his name
must disappear. Pasteur regretfully gave in to his scruples,
but wrote the following words on the copy presented to General
Fave : "General, this book contains a serious omission — that
of your name : it would be an unpardonable one had it not been

134 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

made at your own request, according to your custom of keep-
ing your good works secret. Without you, these studies on
wine would not exist ; you have helped and encouraged them.
Leave me at least the satisfaction of writing that name on the
first page of this copy, of which I beg you to accept the
homage, while renewing the expression of my devoted grati-
tude."

Another incident gives us an instance of Pasteur's kindness
of heart. In the year 1866 Claude Bernard suffered from a
gastric disease so serious that his doctors, Eayer and Davaine,
had to admit their impotence. Bernard was obliged to leave
his laboratory and retire to his little house at St. Julien (near
Villef ranche) , his birthplace. But the charm of his recol-
lections of childhood was embittered by present sadness. His
mind full of projects, his life threatened in its prime, he had
the courage, a difficult thing to unselfish people, of resolutely
taking care of himself. But preoccupied solely with his own
diet, his own body now a subject for experiments, he became
a prey to a deep melancholia. Pasteur, knowing to what extent
moral influences react on the physique, had the idea of writing
a review of his friend's works, and published it in the Moniteur
Universel of November 7, 1866, under the following title :
Claude Bernard: the Importance of his Works, Teaching and
Method. He began thus: "Circumstances have recently
caused me to re-peruse the principal treatises which have
founded the reputation of our great physiologist, Claude
Bernard.

"I have derived from them so great a satisfaction, and my
admiration for his talent has been confirmed and increased to
such an extent that I cannot resist the somewhat rash desire
of communicating my impressions. ..."

Amongst Claude Bernard's discoveries, Pasteur chose that
which seemed to him most instructive, and which Claude
Bernard himself appreciated most: "When M. Bernard be-
came in 1854 a candidate for the Acad6mie des Sciences, his
discovery of the glycogenic functions of the liver was neither
the first nor the last among those which had already placed
him so high in the estimation of men of science; yet it was
by that one that he headed his list of the claims which could
recommend him to the suffrages of the illustrious body. That
preference on the part of the master decides me in mine."

Claude Bernard had begun by meditating deeply on the

1865—1870 135

disease known as diabetes and which is characterized, as every-
body knows, by a superabundance of sugar in the whole of
the organism, the urine often being laden with it. But how is
it, wondered Claude Bernard, that the quantity of sugar ex-
pelled by a diabetic patient can so far surpass that with which
he is provided by the starchy or sugary substances which form
part of his food ? How is it that the presence of sugary matter
in the blood and its expulsion through urine are never com-
pletely arrested, even when all sugary or starchy alimentation
is suppressed? Are there in the human organism sugar-pro-
ducing phenomena unknown to chemists and physiologists?
All the notions of science were contrary to that mode of think-
ing; it was affirmed that the vegetable kingdom only could
produce sugar, and it seemed an insane hypothesis to suppose
that the animal organism could fabricate any. Claude Bernard
dwelt upon it however, his principle in experimentation being
this : ' ' When you meet with a fact opposed to a prevailing
theory, you should adhere to the fact and abandon the theory,
even when the latter is supported by great authorities and
generally adopted."

This is what he imagined, summed up in a few words by
Pasteur —

" Meat is an aliment which cannot develop sugar by the
digestive process known to us. Now M. Bernard having fed
some carnivorous animals during a certain time exclusively
with meat, he assured himself, with his precise knowledge of
the most perfect means of investigation offered him by
chemistry, that the blood which enters the liver by the portal
vein and pours into it the nutritive substances prepared and
rendered soluble by digestion is absolutely devoid of sugar;
whilst the blood which issues from the liver by the hepatic
veins is always abundantly provided with it. ... M. Claude
Bernard has also thrown full light on the close connection
which exists between the secretion of sugar in the liver and the
influence of the nervous system. He has demonstrated, with
a rare sagacity, that by acting on some determined portion of
that system it was possible to suppress or exaggerate at will
the production of sugar. He has done more still ; he has dis-
covered within the liver the existence of an absolutely new
substance which is the natural source whence this organ draws
the sugar that it produces."

Pasteur, starting from this discovery of Claude Bernard's,

136 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

spoke of the growing close connection between medicine and
physiology. Then, with his constant anxiety to incite students
to enthusiasm, he recommended them to read the lectures de-
livered by Bernard at the College de France. Speaking of the
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine, Pasteur
wrote: "A long commentary would be necessary to present
this splendid work to the reader ; it is a monument raised to
honour the method which ha,s constituted Physical and
Chemical Science since Galileo and Newton, and which M.
Bernard is trying to introduce into physiology and pathology.
Nothing so complete, so profound, so luminous has ever been
written on the true principles of the difficult art of experimenta-
tion. . . . This book will exert an immense influence on medical
science, its teaching, its progress, its language even." Pasteur
took pleasure in adding to his own tribute praise from other
sources. He quoted, for instance, J. B. Dumas' answer to
Duruy , who asked him , ' ' What do you think of this great
physiologist? " " He is not a great physiologist ; he is Physi-
ology itself." "I have spoken of the man of science," con-
tinued Pasteur. " I might have spoken of the man in every-
day life, the colleague who has inspired so many with a solid
friendship, for I should seek in vain for a weak point in M.
Bernard; it is not to be found. His personal distinction, the
noble beauty of his physiognomy, his gentle kindliness attract
art first sight; he has no pedantry, none of a scientist's usual
faults, but an antique simplicity, a perfectly natural and un-
affected manner, while his conversation is deep and full of ideas.
. . ." Pasteur, after informing the public that the graver
symptoms of Bernard's disease had now disappeared, ended
thus: "May the publicity now given to these thoughts and
feelings cheer the illustrious patient in his enforced idleness,
and assure him of the joy with which his return will be wel-
comed by his friends and colleagues."

The very day after this article reached him (November 19,
1860) Bernard wrote to Pasteur: " My dear friend,— I re-
ceived yesterday the Moniteur containing the superb article
you have written about me. Your great praise indeed makes
me proud, though I feel I am yet very far from the goal I
would reach. If I return to health, as I now hope I may do, I
think I shall find it possible to pursue my work in a more
methodical order and with more complete means of demonstra-
tion, better indicating the general idea towards which my

1865—1870 137

various efforts converge. In the meanwhile it is a very
precious encouragement to me to be approved and praised by a
man such as you. Your works have given you a great name,
and have placed you in the first rank among experimentalists
of our time. The admiration which you profess for me is in-
deed reciprocated ; and we must have been born to understand
each other, for true science inspires us both with the same
passion and the same sentiments.

' ' Forgive me for not having answered your first letter ; but
I was really not equal to writing the notice you wanted. I
have deeply felt for you in your family sorrow; I have been
through the same trial, and I can well understand the suffer-
ings of a tender and delicate soul such as yours."

Henri Sainte Claire Deville, who was as warm-hearted as
he was witty, had, on his side, the ingenious idea of editing
an address of collective wishes for Claude Bernard, who
answered : "My dear friend, — You are evidently as clever in
inventing friendly surprises as in making great scientific dis-
coveries. It was indeed a most charming idea, and one for
which I am very grateful to you — that of sending me a collec-
tive letter from my friends. I shall carefully preserve that
letter : first, because the feelings it expresses are very dear to
me ; and also because it is a collection of illustrious autographs
which should go down to posterity. I beg you will transmit
my thanks to our friends and colleagues, E. Kenan, A. Maury,
F. Bavaisson and Bellaguet. Tell them how much I am
touched by their kind wishes and congratulations on my re-
covery. It is, alas, not yet a cure, but I hope I am on a fair
way to it.

" I have received the article Pasteur has written about me in
the Moniteur ; that article paralysed the vasomotor nerves of
my sympathetic system, and caused me to blush to the roots of
my hair. I was so amazed that I don't know what I wrote to
Pasteur; but I did not dare say to him that he had wrongly
exaggerated my merits. I know he believes all that he writes,
and I am happy and proud of his opinion, because it is that of a
scientist and experimentalist of the very first rank. Neverthe-
less, I cannot help thinking that he has seen me through
the prism of his kindly heart, and that I do not deserve such
excessive praise. I am more than thankful for all the marks
of esteem and friendship which are showered upon me. They
make me cling closer to life, and feel that I should be very

138 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

foolish not to take care of myself and continue to live amongst
those who love me, and who deserve my love for all the hap-
piness they give me. I intend to return to Paris some time
this month, and, in spite of your kind advice, I should like to
take up my College de France classes again this winter. I hope
to be allowed not to begin before January. But we shall talk
of all this in Paris. I remain your devoted and affectionate
friend."

To end this academic episode, we will quote from Joseph
Bertrand's letter of thanks to Pasteur, who had sent him the
article: ". . . The public will learn, among other things,
that the eminent members of the Academy admire and love
each other sometimes with no jealousy. This was rare in the
last century, and, if all followed your example, we should have
over our predecessors one superiority worth many another."

Thus Pasteur showed himself a man of sentiment as well
as a man of science; the circle of his affections was enlarg-
ing, as was the scope of his researches, but without any detri-
ment to the happy family life of his own intimate circle. That
little group of his family and close friends identified itself
absolutely with his work, his ideas and his hopes, each mem-
ber of it willingly subordinating his or her private interests to
the success of his investigations. He was at that time violently
attacked by his old adversaries as well as his new contradictors.
Pouchet announced everywhere that the question of spon-
taneous generation was being taken up again in England, in
Germany, in Italy and in America. Joly , Pouchet 's inseparable
friend, was about to make some personal studies and to write
some general considerations on the new silkworm campaign.
Pasteur, who had confidently said, "The year 1867 must be
the last to bear the complaints of silkworm cultivators ! " went
back to Alais in January, 1867. But, before leaving Paris,
Pasteur wrote out for himself a list of various improvements
and reforms which he desired to effect in the administration of
the Ecole Normale, showing that his interest in the great
school had by no means abated, in spite of his necessary
absence. He brought with him his wife and daughter, and
Messrs. Gernez and Maillot; M. Duclaux was to come later.
The worms hatched from the eggs of healthy moths and those
from diseased ones were growing more interesting every day ;
they were in every instance exactly what Pasteur had pro-
phesied they would be. But besides studying his own silk-

1865—1870 139

worms, he liked to see what was going on in neighbouring
magnaneries. A neighbour in the Pont Gisquet, a cultivator
of the name of Cardinal, had raised with great success a brood
originating from the famous Japanese seed. He was disap-
pointed, however, in the eggs produced by the moths, and
Pasteur's microscope revealed the fact that those moths were
all corpuscled, in spite of their healthy origin. Pasteur did
not suspect that origin, for the worms had shown health and
vigour through all their stages of growth, and seemed to have
issued from healthy parents. But Cardinal had raised another
brood, the produce of unsound seed, immediately above these
healthy worms. The excreta from this second brood could
fall on to the frames of those below them, and the healthy
worms had become contaminated. Pasteur demonstrated that
the pebrine contagion might take place in one or two different
ways : either from direct contact between the worms on the
same frame, or by the soiling of the food from the very in-
fectious excreta. The remedy for the pe" brine seemed now
found. "The corpuscle disease," said Pasteur, "is as easily
avoided as it is easily contracted." But when he thought he
had reached his goal a sudden difficulty rose in his way. Out
of sixteen broods of worms which he had raised, and which
presented an excellent appearance, the sixteenth perished
almost entirely immediately after the first moulting. " In a
brood of a hundred worms," wrote Pasteur, " I picked up fifteen
or twenty dead ones every day, black and rotting with extra-
ordinary rapidity. . . . They were soft and flaccid like an
empty bladder. I looked in vain for corpuscles ; there was not
a trace of them."

Pasteur was temporarily troubled and discouraged. But he
consulted the writings of former students of silkworm diseases,
and, when he discovered vibriones in those dead worms, he
did not doubt that he had under his eyes a well characterized
example of the flachery disease — a disease independent and
distinct from the pebrine. He wrote to Duruy, and acquainted
him with the results he had obtained and the obstacles he
encountered. Duruy wrote back on April 9, 1867—

" Thank you for your letter and the good news it contains.

"Not very far from you, at Avignon, a statue has been
erected to the Persian who imported into France the culti-
vation of madder ; what then will not be done for the rescuer
of two of our greatest industries ! Do not forget to inform me

140 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

when you have mastered the one or two lame facts which still
stand in the way. As a citizen, as head of the Universite,
and, if I may say so, as your friend, I wish I could follow
your experiments day by day.

" You know that I should like to found a special college at
Alais. Please watch for any useful information on that subject.
We will talk about it on your return.

" I am obliged to M. Gernez for his assiduous and intelligent
collaboration with you."

This letter from the great Minister is all the more interest-
ing that it is dated from the eve of the day when the law on
the reorganization of primary teaching was promulgated.

The introduction into the curriculum of historical and
geographical notions; the inauguration of 10,000 schools and
30,000 adult classes ; the transformation of certain flagging
classical colleges into technical training schools ; a constant
struggle to include the teaching of girls in Universite organiza-
tion ; reforms and improvements in general teaching ; the build-
ing of laboratories, etc., etc. — into the accomplishment of all
these projects Duruy carried his bold and methodical activity.
No one was more suited than he to the planning out of a
complete system of national education. He and Pasteur were
indeed fitted to understand each other, for each had in the same
degree those three forms of patriotism : love for the land,
memories for the past, and hero worship.

In May, 1867, Pasteur received at Alais the news that a
grand prize medal of the 1867 exhibition was conferred upon
him for his works on wines. He hastened to write to Dumas —

" My dear master, . . . Nothing has surprised me more—
or so agreeably, — than the news of this Exhibition prize medal,
which I was far from expecting. It is a new proof of your
kindness, for I feel sure that I have to thank you for originat-
ing such a favour. I shall do all I can to make myself worthy
of it by my perseverance in putting all difficulties aside from
the subject I am now engaged in, and in which the light is
growing brighter every day. If that flachery disease had not
come to complicate matters, everything would be well by now.
I cannot tell you how absolutely sure I now feel of my con-
clusions concerning the corpuscle disease. I could say a great
deal about the articles of Messrs. Bechamp, Estor and Bal-
biani, but I will follow your advice and answer nothing ..."

Dumas had been advising Pasteur not to waste his time by

1865—1870 141

answering his adversaries and contradictors. Pasteur's sys-
tem was making way ; ten microscopes were set up, here and
there , in the town of Alais ; most seed merchants were taking
up the examination of the dead moths, and the Pont-Gisquet
colony had samples brought in daily for inspection. " I have
already prevented many failures for next year," he wrote to
Dumas (June, 1867), " but I always beg as a favour that a little
of the condemned seed may be raised, so as to confirm the
exactness of my judgment."

His system was indeed quite simple ; at the moment when
the moths leave their cocoons and mate with each other, the
cultivator separates them and places each female on a little
square of linen where it lays its eggs. The moth is afterwards
pinned up in a corner of the same square of linen, where it
gradually dries up ; later on, in autumn or even in winter, the
withered moth is moistened in a little water, pounded in a
mortar, and the paste examined with a microscope. If the
least trace of corpuscles appears the linen is burnt, together
with the seed which would have perpetuated the disease.

Pasteur came back to Paris to receive his medal ; perhaps
his presence was not absolutely necesary, but he did not ques-
tion the summons he received. He always attached an absolute
meaning to words and to things, not being one of those who
accept titles and homage with an inward and ironical smile.

The pageant of that distribution of prizes was well worth
seeing, and July 1, 1867, is now remembered by many who
were children at that time. Paris afforded a beautiful spec-
tacle; the central avenue of the Tuileries garden, the Place
de la Concorde, the Avenue des Champs Elysees, were lined
along their full length by regiments of infantry, dragoons,
Imperial Guards, etc., etc., standing motionless in the bright
sunshine, waiting for the Emperor to pass. The Imperial
carriage, drawn by eight horses, escorted by the Cent-Gardes
in their pale blue uniform, and by the Lancers of the House-
hold, advanced in triumphant array. Napoleon III sat next
to the Empress, the Prince Imperial and Prince Napoleon
facing them. From the Palais de 1'Elysee, amidst equally
magnificent ceremonial, the Sultan Abdul- Aziz and his son
arrived ; then followed a procession of foreign princes : the
Crown Prince of Prussia, the Prince of Wales, Prince Humbert
of Italy, the Duke and Duchess of Aosta, the Grand Duchess
Marie of Russia, all of whom have since borne a part in

142 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

European politics. They entered the Palais de 1'Industrie and
sat around the throne. From the ground to the first floor an
immense stand was raised, affording seats for 17,000 persons.
The walls were decorated with eagles bearing olive branches,
symbolical of strength and peace. The Emperor in his speech
dwelt upon these hopes of peace, whilst the Empress in white
satin, wearing a diadem, and surrounded by white-robed prin-
cesses, brightly smiled at these happy omens.

On their names being called out, the candidates who had
won Grand Prizes, and those about to be promoted in the
Legion of Honour, went up one by one to the throne. Marshal
Vaillant handed each case to the Emperor, who himself gave
it to the recipient. This old Field-Marshal, with his rough
bronzed face, who had been a captain in the retreat from
Moscow and was now a Minister of Napoleon III, seemed a
natural and glorious link between the First and the Second
Empires. He was born at Dijon in humble circumstances,
of which he was somewhat proud, a very cultured soldier, in-
terested in scientific things, a member of the Institute. The
names of certain members of the Legion of Honour promoted
to a higher rank, such as Ge'rome and Meissonier, that of
Ferdinand de Lesseps, rewarded for the achievement of the
Suez Canal, excited great applause. Pasteur was called with-
out provoking an equal curiosity : his scientific discoveries, in
spite of their industrial applications, being as yet known but to
a few. " I was struck," writes an eye-witness, "with his
simplicity and gravity ; the seriousness of his life was visible in
his stern, almost sad eyes."

At the end of the ceremony, when the Imperial procession
left the Palais de 1'Industrie, an immense chorus, accompanied
by an orchestra, sang Domine salvum fac imperatorem.

On his return to his study in the Kue d'Ulm, Pasteur again
took up the management of the scientific studies of the Ecole
Normale. But an incident put an end to his directorship,
while bringing perturbation into the whole of the school.
Sainte Beuve was the indirect cause of this small revolution.
The Senate, of which he was a member, had had to examine
a protest from 102 inhabitants of St. Etienne against the in-
troduction into their popular libraries of the works of Voltaire,
J. J. Eousseau, Balzac, E. Eenan, and others. The' com-
mittee had approved this petition in terms which identified the
report with the petition itself. Sainte Beuve, too exclusively

1865—1870 143

literary in his tastes, and too radical in his opinions to be
popular in the Senate, rose violently against this absolute and
arbitrary judgment, forgetting everything but the jeopardy of
free opinions before the excessive and inquisitorial zeal of the
Senate. His speech was very unfavourably received, and one
of his colleagues, M. Lacaze, aged sixty-eight, challenged him
to a duel. Sainte Beuve, himself then sixty-three years old,
refused to enter into what he called "the summary jurisprud-
ence which consists in strangling a question and suppressing
a man within forty-eight hours."

The students of the Ecole Normale deputed one of their
number to congratulate Sainte Beuve on his speech, and wrote
the following letter —

"We have already thanked you for defending freedom of
thought when misjudged and attacked ; now that you have
again pleaded for it, we beg you to receive our renewed
thanks.

' ' We should be happy if the expression of our grateful
sympathy could console you for this injustice. Courage is in-
deed required to speak in the Senate in favour of the inde-
pendence and the rights of thought ; but the task is all the more
glorious for being more difficult. Addresses are now being
sent from everywhere ; you will forgive the students of the
Ecole Normale for having followed the general lead and having
sent their address to M. Sainte Beuve."

This letter was published in a newspaper. Etienne Arago
published it without remembering the University by-laws which
forbade every sort of political manifestation to the students.
It had given pleasure to Sainte Beuve, the pleasure that elderly
men take in the applause of youth ; but he soon became uneasy
at the results of this noisy publicity.

Nisard, the Director of the school, could not very well
tolerate this breach of discipline. In spite of the entreaties
of Sainte Beuve, the student who had signed the letter was
provisionally sent back to his family. His comrades revolted
at this and imperiously demanded his immediate restoration.
Pasteur attempted to pacify them by speaking to them, but
failed utterly ; his influence was very great over his own pupils ,
the students on the scientific side, but the others, the " lit-
teraires" were the most violent on this question, and he was
not diplomatic and conciliating enough to bring them round.
They rose in a body, marched to the door, and the whole

144 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

school was soon parading the streets. " Before such disorder,"
concluded the Moniteur, relating the incident (July 10), "the
authorities were obliged to order an immediate closure. The
school will be reconstituted and the classes will reopen on
October 15."

Both the literary and the political world were temporarily
agitated ; the Minister was interviewed. M. Thiers wrote to
Pasteur on July 10 : " My dear M. Pasteur, — I have been
talking with some members of the Left, and I am certain or
almost certain, that the Ecole Normale affair will be smoothed
over in the interest of the students. M. Jules Simon intends
to work in that direction; keep this information for yourself,
and do the best you can on your side."

At the idea that the Ecole was about to be reconstituted,
that is, that the three great chiefs, Nisard, Pasteur and
Jacquinet, would be changed, deep regret was manifested by
Pasteur's scientific students. One of them, named Didon, ex-
pressed it in these terms : " If your departure from the school
is not definitely settled, if it is yet possible to prevent it, all
the students of the Ecole will be only too happy to do every-
thing in their power. ... As for me, it is impossible to express
my gratitude towards you. No one has ever shown me so
much interest, and never in my life shall I forget what you
have done for me."

Pasteur's interest in young men, his desire to excite in them
scientific curiosity and enthusiasm, were now so well known
that Didon and several others who had successfully passed the
entrance examinations both for the Ecole Poly technique and
the Ecole Normale, had chosen to enter the latter in order to
be under him; by the Normaliens of the scientific section, he
was not only understood and admired, but beloved, almost
worshipped.

Sainte Beuve, who continued to be much troubled at the
consequences of his speech, wrote to the Minister of Public
Instruction in favour of the rusticated student. Duruy thought
so much of Sainte Beuve that the student, instead of being exiled
to some insignificant country school, was made professor of
seconde in the college of Sens. But it was specified that in the
future no letter should be written, no public responsibility
taken in the name of the Ecole without the authorization of
the Director.

Nisard left ; Dumas had just been made President of the

1865—1870 145

Monetary Commission , thus leaving vacant a place as Inspector-
General of Higher Education. Duruy, anxious to do Pasteur
justice, thought this post most suitable to him as it would allow
him to continue his researches. The decree was about to be
signed, when Balard, professor of chemistry at the Faculty of
Sciences, applied for the post. Pasteur wrote respectfully to
the Minister of Public Instruction (July 31) : ' ' Your Excel-
lency must know that twenty years ago, when I left the Ecole
Normale, I was made a curator, thanks to M. Balard, who was
then a professor at the Ecole Normale. A grateful pupil can-
not enter into competition with a revered master, especially
for a post where considerations of age and experience should
have great weight."

When Pasteur spoke of his masters, dead or living, Biot or
Senarmont, Dumas or Balard, it might indeed have been
thought that to them alone he owed it that he was what he
was. He was heard on this occasion, and Balard obtained the
appointment.

Nisard was succeeded by M. F. Bouillier, whose place as
Inspector-General of Secondary Education devolved on M.
Jacquinet. The directorship of scientific studies was given to
Pasteur's old and excellent friend, the faithful Bertin. After
teaching in Alsace for eighteen years, he had become mattre des
conferences at the Ecole Normale in 1866, and also assistant
of Kegnault at the College de France, It had only been by
dint of much persuasion that Pasteur had enticed him to Paris.
" What is the good?" said the unambitious Bertin ; " beer is
not so good in Paris as in Strasburg. . . . Pasteur does not
understand life ; he is a genius, that is all I " But, under this
apparent indolence, Bertin was possessed of the taste for and
the art of teaching; Pasteur knew this, and, when Bertin was
appointed, Pasteur's fears for the scientific future of his beloved
Ecole were abated. Duruy, much regretting the break of
Pasteur's connection with the great school, offered him the
post of maitre des conferences, besides the chair of chemistry
which Balard 's appointment had left vacant at the Sorbonne.
But Pasteur declined the tempting offer ; he knew the care and
trouble that his public lectures cost him, and felt that the two
posts would be beyond his strength ; if his time were taken up
by that double task it would be almost impossible for him to
pursue his private researches, which under no circumstances
would he abandon.

L

146 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

He carried his scruples so far as to give up his chemistry
professorship at the School of Fine Arts, where he had been
lecturing since 1863. He had endeavoured in his lessons to
draw the attention of his artist pupils, who came from so many
distant places, to the actual principles of Science. "Let us
always make application our object," he said, " but resting on
the stern and solid basis of scientific principles. Without
those principles, application is nothing more than a series of
recipes and constitutes what is called routine. Progress with
routine is possible, but desperately slow."

Another reason prevented him from accepting the post
offered him at the Ecole Normale ; this was that the tiny
pavilion which he had made his laboratory was much too small
and too inconvenient to accommodate the pupils he would have
to teach. The only suitable laboratory at the Ecole was that
of his friend, Henri Sainte Claire Deville, and Pasteur was
reluctant to invade it. He had a great affection for his bril-
liant colleague, who was indeed a particularly charming man,
still youthful in spite of his forty-nine summers, active, ener-
getic, witty. "I have no wit," Pasteur would say quite
simply. Deville was a great contrast to his two great friends,
Pasteur and Claude Bernard, with their grave meditative man-
ner. He enjoyed boarding at the Ecole and having his meals
at the students' table, where his gaiety brightened and amused
everybody, effacing the distance between masters and pupils and
yet never losing by this familiar attitude a particle of the
respect he inspired.

Sometimes, however, when preoccupied with the heavy ex-
penses of his laboratory, he would invite himself to lunch with
Duruy, from whom — as from the Emperor or any one else-
he usually succeeded in coaxing what he wanted. The general
state of things connected with higher education was at that
time most deplorable. The Sorbonne waa as Eichelieu had
left it— the Museum was sadly inadequate. At the College de
France, it was indeed impossible to call by the name of labora-
tory the narrow, damp and unhealthy cellars, which Claude
Bernard called " scientists' graves," and where he had con-
tracted the long illness from which he was only just recovering.

Duruy understood and deplored this penury, but his voice
was scarcely heard in cabinet councils, the other Ministers
being absorbed in politics. Pasteur, whose self-effacing modesty
disappeared when the interests of science were in question, pre-

1865—1870 147

sented to Napoleon, through the medium of his enlightened
aide de camp, General Pave*, the following letter, a most in-
teresting one, for, in it, possibilities of future discoveries are
hinted at, which later became accomplished facts.

" Sire, — My researches on fermentations and on microscopic
organisms have opened to physiological chemistry new roads,
the benefit of which is beginning to be felt both by agricul-
tural industries and by medical studies. But the field still to
be explored is immense. My great desire would be to explore
it with a new ardour, unrestrained by the insufficiency of
material means.

' ' I should wish to have a spacious laboratory , with one or
two outhouses attached to it, which I could make use of when
making experiments possibly injurious to health, such as might
be the scientific study of putrid and infectious diseases.

"How can researches be attempted on gangrene, virus or
inoculations, without a building suitable for the housing of
animals, either dead or alive? Butchers' meat in Europe
reaches an exorbitant price, in Buenos Ayres it is given away.
How, in a small and incomplete laboratory, can experiments
be made, and various processes tested, which would facilitate
its transport and preservation? The so-called 'splenic fever'
costs the Beauce1 about 4,000,000 francs annually ; it would be
indispensable to go and spend some weeks in the neighbour-
hood of Chartres during several consecutive summers, and make
minute observations.

" These researches and a thousand others which correspond
in my mind to the great act of transformation after death of
organic matter, and the compulsory return to the ground and
atmosphere of all which has once been living, are only com-
patible with the installation of a great laboratory. The time
has now come when experimental science should be freed from
its bonds . . ."

The Emperor wrote to Duruy the very next day, desiring
that Pasteur's wish should be acceded to. Duruy gladly
acquiesced and plans began to be drawn out. Pasteur, who
scarcely dared believe in these bright hopes, was consulted
about the situation, size, etc., of the future building, and

1 Ancient name of the high flat ground surrounding Chartres and
including parts of the Departments of Eure et Loir, Loir et Cher, Loiret
and Seine et Oise. These plains are very fertile, the soil being ex-
tremely rich, and produce cereals chiefly. [Trans.]

L 2

148 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

looked forward to obtaining the help of Kaulin, his former
pupil, when he had room enough to experiment on a larger
scale. The proposed site was part of the garden of the Ecole
Normale, where the pavilion already existing could be greatly
added to.

In the meanwhile Pasteur was interviewed by the Mayor
and the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Orleans,
who begged him to come to Orleans and give a public lecture
on the results of his studies on vinegar. He consented with
pleasure, ever willing to attempt awakening the interest of the
public in his beloved Science — " Science, which brings man
nearer to God."

It was on the Monday, November 11, at 7.30 p.m., that
Pasteur entered the lecture room at Orleans. A great many
vinegar manufacturers, some doctors, apothecaries, professors,
students, even ladies, had come to hear him. An account in
a contemporary local paper gives us a description of the young-
est member of the Academic des Sciences as he appeared
before the Orleans public. He is described as of a medium
height, his face pale, his eyes very bright through his glasses,
scrupulously neat in his dress, with a tiny Legion of Honour
rosette in his button hole.

He began his lecture with the following simple words : ' ' The
Mayor and the President of the Chamber of Commerce having
heard that I had studied the fermentation which produces
vinegar, have asked me to lay before the vinegar makers of
this town the results of my work. I have hastened to comply
with their request, fully sharing in the desire which instigated
it, that of being useful to an industry which is one of the
sources of the fortune of your city and of your department."

He tried to make them understand scientifically the well
known fact of the transformation of wine into vinegar. He
showed that all the work came from a little plant, a micro-
scopic fungus, the mycoderma aceti. After exhibiting an en-
larged picture of that mycoderma, Pasteur explained that the
least trace of that little vinegar-making plant, sown on the sur-
face of any alcoholic and slightly acid liquid, was sufficient to
produce a prodigious extension of it ; in summer or artificial
heat, said Pasteur, a surface of liquid of the same area as the
Orleans Lecture room could be covered in forty-eight hours.
The mycodermic veil is sometimes smooth and hardly visible,
sometimes wrinkled and a little greasy to the touch. The fatty

1865—1870 149

matter which accompanies the development of the plant keeps
it on the surface, air being necessary to the plant; it would
otherwise perish and the acetification would be arrested. Thus
floating, the mycoderma absorbs oxygen from the air and fixes
it on the alcohol, which becomes transformed into acetic acid.

Pasteur explained all the details in his clear powerful
voice. Why, in an open bottle, does wine left to itself become
vinegar? Because, thanks to the air, and to the mycoderma
aceti (which need never be sown, being ever mixed with the
invisible dusts in the air), the chemical transformation of wine
into vinegar can take place. Why does not a full, closed bottle
become acetified? Because the mycoderma cannot multiply in
the absence of air. Wine and air heated in the same vessel
will not become sour, the high temperature having killed the
germs of mycoderma aceti both in the wine itself and in the
dusts suspended in the air. But, if a vessel containing wine
previously heated is exposed to the free contact of o/dinary air,
the wine may become sour, for, though the germs in the wine
have been killed, other germs may fall into it from the air and
develop.

Finally, if pure alcoholized water does not become acetified,
though germs can drop into it from the air, it is because it
does not offer to those germs the food necessary to the plant
— food which is present in wine but not in alcoholized water.
But if a suitable aliment for the little plant is added to the
water, acetification takes place.

When the acetification is complete, the mycoderma, if not
submerged, continues to act, and, when not arrested in time,
its oxidating power becomes dangerous; having no more
alcohol to act upon, it ends by transforming acetic acid itself
into water and carbonic acid gas, and the work of death and
destruction is thus achieved.

Speaking of that last phase of the mycoderma aceti, he went
on to general laws — laws of the universe by which all that has
lived must disappear. "It is an absolute necessity that the
matter of which living beings are formed should return after
their death to the ground and to the atmosphere in the shape
of mineral or gaseous substances, such as steam, carbonic acid
gas, ammoniac gas or nitrogen — simple principles easily dis-
placed by movements of the atmosphere and in which life is
again enabled to seek the elements of its indefinite perpetuity.
It is chiefly through acts of fermentation and slow combustion

150 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

that this law of dissolution and return to a gaseous state is
accomplished."

Coming back to his special subject, he pointed out to vinegar
manufacturers the cause of certain failures and the danger of
certain errors.

It was imagined for instance that some microscopic beings,
anguillulse, of which Pasteur projected an enlarged wriggling
image on the screen, and which were to be found in the tubs of
some Orleans vinegar works, were of some practical utility.
Pasteur explained their injurious character : as they require air
to live, and as the mycoderma, in order to accomplish its work,
is equally dependent on oxygen, a struggle takes place between
the anguillulae and the mycoderma. If acetification is success-
ful, if the mycoderma spreads and invades everything, the
vanquished anguillulse are obliged to take refuge against the
sides of the barrel, from which their little living army watches
the least accidental break of the veil. Pasteur, armed with a
magnifying glass, had many times witnessed the struggle for
life which takes place between the little fungi and the tiny
animals, each fighting for the surface of the liquid. Some-
times, gathering themselves into masses, the anguillulae suc-
ceed in sinking a fragment of the mycodermic veil and victori-
ously destroying the action of the drowned plants.

Pasteur related all this in a vivid manner, evidently happy
that his long and delicate laboratory researches should now
pass into the domain of industry. He had been pleased to find
that some Orleans wine merchants heated wine according to
his advice in order to preserve it ; and he now informed them
that the temperature of 55° C. which killed germs and vegeta-
tions in wine could be applied with equal success to vinegar
after it was produced. The active germs of the mycoderma
aceti were thus arrested at the right moment, the anguillulse
were killed and the vinegar remained pure and unaltered.
"Nothing," concluded Pasteur, "is more agreeable to a man
who has made science his career than to increase the number
of discoveries, but his cup of joy is full when the result of his
observations is put to immediate practical use."

This year 1867 marks a specially interesting period in
Pasteur's life. At Alais he had shown himself an incomparable
observer, solely preoccupied with the silkworm disease, think-
ing, speaking of nothing else. He would rise long before any
one else so as to begin earlier the study of the experiments he

1865—1870 151

had started, and would give his thought and attention to some
detail for hours at a time. After this minute observation he
would suddenly display a marvellous ingenuity in varying tests,
foreseeing and avoiding causes of error, and at last, after so
many efforts, a clear and decisive experiment would come, as it
had done in the cases of spontaneous generation and of
ferments.

The contrasts in his mind had their parallel in his character :
this usually thoughtful, almost dreamy man, absorbed in one
idea, suddenly revealed himself a man of action if provoked by
some erroneous newspaper report or some illogical statement,
and especially when he heard of some unscrupulous silkworm
seed merchant sowing ruin in poor magnaneries for the sake of
a paltry gain. When, on his return to Paris, he found himself
mixed up with the small revolution in the Ecole Normale, he
was seen to efface himself modestly before his masters when
honours and titles came in question. Now he had interrupted
his researches in order to do a kindness to the people of Orleans,
who, practical as they were, and perhaps a little disdainful of
laboratory theories, had been surprised to find him as careful
of the smallest detail as they themselves were.

He was then in the full maturity of his forty -five years. His
great intuition, his imagination, which equalled any poet's,
often carried him to a summit whence an immense horizon lay
before him ; he would then suddenly doubt this imagination ,
resolutely, with a violent effort, force his mind to start again
along the path of experimental method, and, surely and slowly,
gathering proofs as he went, he would once more reach his
exalted and general ideas. This constant struggle within him-
self was almost dramatic; the words " Perseverance in Effort,"
which he often used in the form of advice to others, or as a
programme for his own work, seemed to bring something far
away, something infinite before his dreamy eyes.

At the end of the year, an obstacle almost arrested the great
experiments he contemplated. He heard that the promises
made to him were vanishing away, the necessary credit having
been refused for the building of the new laboratory. And this,
Pasteur sadly reflected, when millions and millions of francs
were being spent on the Opera house 1 Wounded in his feel-
ings, both as a scientist and a patriot, he prepared for the
Moniteur, then the official paper, an article destined to shake
the culpable indifference of public authorities.

152 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

". . . The boldest conceptions," he wrote, "the most
legitimate speculations can be embodied but from the day when
they are consecrated by observation and experiment. Labora-
tories and discoveries are correlative terms ; if you suppress
laboratories, Physical Science will become stricken with barren-
ness and death ; it will become mere powerless information in-
stead of a science of progress and futurity ; give it back its
laboratories, and life, fecundity and power will reappear. Away
from their laboratories, physicists and chemists are but dis-
armed soldiers on a battlefield.

' ' The deduction from these principles is evident : if the con-
quests useful to humanity touch your heart — if you remain
confounded before the marvels of electric telegraphy, of anaes-
thesia, of the daguerreotype and many other admirable dis-
coveries— if you are jealous of the share your country may boast
in these wonders— then, I implore you, take some interest in
those sacred dwellings meaningly described as laboratories.
Ask that they may be multiplied and completed. They are the
temples of the future, of riches and of comfort. There
humanity grows greater, better, stronger ; there she can learn
to read the works of Nature, works of progress and universal
harmony, while humanity's own works are too often those of
barbarism, of fanaticism and of destruction.

" Some nations have felt the wholesome breath of truth.
Eich and large laboratories have been growing in Germany for
the last thirty years, and many more are still being built; at
Berlin and at Bonn two palaces, worth four million francs each,
are being erected for chemical studies. St. Petersburg has
spent three and a half million francs on a Physiological Insti-
tute; England, America, Austria, Bavaria have made most
generous sacrifices. Italy too has made a start.

4 'And France?

'France has not yet begun. . . ." He mentioned the
sepulchre-like cellar where the great physiologist, Claude
Bernard, was obliged to live; " and where? " wrote Pasteur.
"In the very establishment which bears the name of the mother
country, the College de France ! " The laboratory of the Sor-
bonne was no better—a damp, dark room, one metre below the
level of the street. He went on, demonstrating that the pro-
vincial Faculties were as destitute as those of Paris. " Who
will believe me when I affirm that the budget of Public Instruc-
tion provides not a penny towards the progress of physical

1865—1870 15S

science in laboratories, that it is through a tolerated adminis-
trative fiction that some scientists, considered as professors,
are permitted to draw from the public treasury towards the
expenses of their own work, some of the allowance made to
them for teaching purposes."

The manuscript was sent to the Moniteur at the beginning
of January, 1868. It had lately been publishing mild articles
on Mussulman architecture, then on herring fishing in Norway.
The official whose business it was to read over the articles sent
to the paper literally jumped in his chair when he read this
fiery denunciation ; he declared those pages must be modified,
cut down ; the Administration could not be attacked in that
way, especially by one of its own functionaries! M. Dalloz,
the editor of the paper, knew that Pasteur would never consent
to any alterations ; he advised him to show the proofs to M.
Conti, Napoleon Ill's secretary.

" The article cannot appear in the Moniteur, but why not
publish it in booklet form?" wrote M. Conti to Pasteur
after having shown these revelations to the Emperor.
Napoleon, talking to Duruy the next day, January 9, showed
great concern at such a state of things. " Pasteur is right,"
said Duruy, "to expose such deficiencies; it is the best way
to have them remedied. Is it not deplorable, almost scan-
dalous, that the official world should be so indifferent on
questions of science? "

Duruy felt his combative instincts awakening. How many
times, in spite of his good humour and almost Roman intre-
pidity, he had asked himself whether he would ever succeed
in causing his ideas on higher education to prevail with his col-
leagues, the other Ministers, who, carried away by their daily
discussions, hardly seemed to realize that the true supremacy
of a nation does not reside in speeches, but in the silent and
tenacious work of a few men of science and of letters. Pasteur's
article entitled Science's Budget appeared first in the Revue
des GOUTS scientifiques , then as as pamphlet. Pasteur, not con-
tent with this, continued his campaign by impetuous speeches
whenever the opportunity offered. On March 10, he saw himself
nearing his goal, and wrote to Eaulin : " There is now a marked
movement in favour of Science; I think I shall succeed."

Six days later, on March 16, whilst the Court was celebrat-
ing the birthday of the Prince Imperial, Napoleon III, who,
on reading Pasteur's article, had expressed his intention of

154 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

consulting not only Pasteur, but also Milne-Edwards, Claude
Bernard, and Henri Sainte Claire Deville, asked the four
scientists to his study to meet Rouher, Marshal Vaillant and
Duruy, perhaps the three men of the Empire who were best
qualified to hear them. The Emperor in his slow, detached
manner, invited each of his guests to express his opinion on
the course to follow. All agreed in regretting that pure
science should be given up. When Eouher said that it was
not to be wondered at that the reign of applied science should
follow that of pure science, " But if the sources of applications
are dried up ! " interposed the Emperor hastily. Pasteur,
asked to express his opinion (he had brought with him notes
of what he wished to say), recalled the fact that the Natural
History Museum and the Ecole Polytechnique, which had had
so great a share in the scientific movement of the early part of
the century, were no longer in that heroic period. For the last
twenty years the industrial prosperity of France had induced
the cleverest Polytechnicians to desert higher studies and
theoretical science, though the source of all applications was to
be found in theory. The Ecole Polytechnique was obliged now
to recruit its teaching staff outside, chiefly among Normaliens.
What was to be done to train future scientists? This : to
maintain in Paris, during two or three years, five or six
graduates chosen from the best students of the large schools as
curators or preparation masters, doing at the Pjcole Polytech-
nique and other establishments what was done at the Ecole
Normale. Thanks to that special institution, science and
higher teaching would have a reserve of men who would be-
come an honour to their country. Next, and this was the
second point, no less important than the first, scientists should
be given resources better appropriated to the pursuit of their
work; as in Germany, for instance, where a scientist would
leave one university for another on the express condition that
a laboratory should be built for him, "a laboratory," said
Pasteur, " usually magnificent, not in its architecture (though
sometimes that is the case, a proof of the national pride in
scientific glory), but in the number and perfection of its
appliances. Besides," he added, " foreign scientists have their
private homes adjoining their laboratories and collections,"
indeed a most pressing inducement to work.

Pasteur did not suggest that a scientist should give up teach-
ing ; he recognized, on the contrary, that public teaching forces

1865—1870 155

him to embrace in succession every branch of the science he
teaches. " But let him not give too frequent or too varied
lectures! they paralyze the faculties," he said, being well
aware of the cost of preparing classes. He wished that towns
should be interested in the working and success of their scien-
tific establishments. The Universities of Paris, of Lyons, of
Strasburg, of Montpellier, of Lille, of Bordeaux, and of
Toulouse, forming as a whole the University of France, should
be connected to the neighbourhood which they honour in the
same way that German universities are connected with their
surroundings.

Pasteur had the greatest admiration for the German system :
popular instruction liberally provided, and, above it, an intel-
lectually independent higher teaching. Therefore, when the
University of Bonn resolved in that year, 1868, to offer him as
a great, homage the degree of M.D. on acount of his works
on micro-organisms, he was proud to see his researches rated
at their proper value by a neighbouring nation. He did not
then suspect the other side of German nature, the military
side, then very differently preoccupied. Those preoccupations
were pointed out to the French Government in a spirit of
prophecy, and with some patriotic anguish, by two French
officers, General Ducrot, commanding since 1865 the 6th Mili-
tary Division, whose headquarters were at Strasburg, and
Colonel Baron Stoffel, military attache" in Prussia since 1866.
Their warnings were so little heeded that some Court intrigues
were even then on foot to transfer General Ducrot from Stras-
burg to Bourges, so that he might no longer worry people with
his monomania of Prussian ambition.

On March 10, the evening of the day when the Emperor
decided upon making improvements, and when Duruy felt
assured, thanks to the promised allowances, that he could soon
offer to French professors "the necessary appliances with
which to compete with their rivals beyond the Khine," Pasteur
started for Alais, where his arrival was impatiently awaited,
both by partisans and adversaries of his experiments on silk-
worm disease. He would much have liked to give the results
of his work in his inaugural lecture at the Sorbonne. " But,"
he wrote to Duruy , ' ' these are but selfishly sentimental
reasons, which must be outweighed by the interest of my
researches."

On his arrival he found to his joy that those who had prac-

156 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

tised seeding according to his rigorous prescriptions had met
with complete success. Other silkworm cultivators, less well
advised, duped by the decoying appearances of certain broods,
had not taken the trouble to examine whether the moths were
corpuscled ; they were witnesses and victims of the failure
Pasteur had prophesied. He now looked upon pebrine as con-
quered; but flachery remained, more difficult to prevent, being
greatly dependent upon the accidents which traverse the life of
a silkworm. Some of those accidents happen in spite of all
precautions, such as a sudden change of temperature or a
stormy day ; but at least the leaves of the mulberry tree could be
carefully kept from fermentation, or from contamination by
dusts in the nurseries. Either of those two causes was suf-
ficient to provoke a fatal disorder in silkworms, the feeding of
which is so important that they increase to fifteen thousand
times their own weight during the first month of their life.
Accidental flachery could therefore be avoided by hygienic pre-
cautions. In order to prevent it from becoming hereditary,
Pasteur — who had pointed out that the micro-organism which
causes it develops at first in the intestinal canal of the worm
and then becomes localized in the digestive cavity of the chry-
salis— advised the following means of producing a healthy
strain of silkworms: "This means," writes M. Gernez,
Pasteur's assiduous collaborator in these studies, "does not
greatly complicate operations, and infallibly ensures healthy
seed. It consists in abstracting with the point of a scalpel a
small portion of the digestive cavity of a moth, then mixing
it with a little water and examining it with a microscope. If
the moths do not contain the characteristic micro-organism, the
strain they come from may unhesitatingly be considered as
suitable for seeding. The flachery micro-organism is as easily
recognized as the pebrine corpuscle."

The seed merchants, made uneasy by these discoveries which
so gravely jeopardized their industry, spread the most slan-
derous reports about them and made themselves the willing
echo of every imposture, however incredible. M. Laurent
wrote to his daughter, Madame Pasteur, in a letter dated from
Lyons (June 6) : " It is being reported here that the failure of
Pasteur's process has excited the population of your neighbour-
hood so much that he has had to flee from Alais, pursued by
infuriated inhabitants throwing stones after him." Some of
these legends lingered in the minds of ignorant people.

1865—1870 157

Important news came from Paris to Pasteur in July, and on
the 27th he was able to write to Eaulin : " The building of my
laboratory is going to be begun I the orders are given, and the
money found. I heard this two days ago from the Minister."
30,000 francs had been allowed for the work by the Minister
of Public Instruction, and an equal sum was promised by the
Minister of the Emperor's household. Duruy was preparing
at the same time a report on two projected decrees concerning
laboratories for teaching purposes and for research. "The
laboratory for research," wrote Duruy, " will not be useful to
the master alone, but more so even to the students, thus ensur-
ing the future progress of science. Students already pro-
vided with extensive theoretical knowledge will be initiated in
the teaching laboratories into the handling of instruments,
elementary manipulations, and what I may call classical prac-
tice ; this will gather them around eminent masters, from whom
they will learn the art of observation and methods of experi-
ment. ... It is with similar institutions that Germany has
succeeded in obtaining the great development of experimental
science which we are now watching with an anxious
sympathy."

Pasteur returned to Paris with his enthusiastic mind over-
flowing with plans of all kinds of research. He wanted to be
there when the builders began their work on the narrow space
in the Kue d'Ulm. He wrote to Eaulin on August 10, asking
his opinion as he would that of an architect ; then went on to
say, planning out his busy holidays : " I shall leave Paris on
the 16th with my wife and children to spend three weeks at
the seaside, at St. George's, near Bordeaux. If you were free
at the end of the month, or at the beginning 'of September, I
wish you could accompany me to Toulon, where experiments
on the heating of wines will be made by the Minister of the
Navy. Great quantities of heated and of non-heated wine are
to be sent to Gabon so as to test the process ; at present our
colonial crews have to drink mere vinegar. A commission of
very enlightened men is formed and has begun studies with
which it seems satisfied. . . . See if you can join me at Bor-
deaux, where I shall await a notice from the chairman of the
Commission, M. de Lapparent, director of naval construction
at the Ministry of Marine."

The Commission mentioned by Pasteur had been considering
for the last two years the expediency of applying the heating

158 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

process to wines destined for the fleet and to the colonies. A
first trial was made at Brest on the contents of a barrel of 500
litres, half of which was heated. ' Then the two wines were
sealed in different barrels and placed in the ship Jean Bart,
which remained away from the harbour for ten months.
When the vessel returned, the Commission noted the limpidity
and mellowness of the heated wine, adding in the official report
that the wine had acquired the attractive colour peculiar to
mature wines. The non-heated wine was equally limpid, but
it had an astringent, almost acid flavour. It was still fit to
drink, said the report, but it were better to consume it rapidly,
as it would soon be entirely spoilt. Identical results were
observed in some bottles of heated and non-heated wines at
Rochefort and Orleans.

M. de Lapparent now organized a decisive experiment, to
take place under Pasteur's superintendence. The frigate la
Sibylle started for a tour round the world with a complete cargo
of heated wine. Pasteur, who returned to Arbois for a short
rest before going back to Paris, wrote from there to his early
confidant, Chappuis (September 21, 1868) : "I am quite satis-
fied with my experiments at Toulon and with the success of the
Navy tests. We heated 650 hectolitres in two days; the
rapidity of this operation lends itself to quick and considerable
commissariat arrangements. Those 650 hectolitres will be
taken to the West Coast of Africa, together with 50 hectolitres
of the same wine non-heated. If the trial succeeds, that is to
say if the 650 hectolitres arrive and can be kept without altera-
tion, and if the 50 hectolitres become spoilt (I feel confident
after the experiments I have made that such will be the result) ,
the question will be settled, and, in the future, all the wine
for the Navy will be ensured against disease by a preliminary
heating. The expense will not be more than five centimes
per hectolitre. The result of these experiments will have a
great influence on the trade, ever cautious and afraid of innova-
tions. Yet we have seen, at Narbonne in particular, some
heating practised on a large scale by several merchants who
have spoken to me very favourably about it. The exportation
of our French wines will increase enormously, for at present
our ordinary table wines lend themselves to trade with England
and other countries beyond seas, but only by means of a strong
addition of alcohol, which raises their price and tampers with
their hygienic qualities."

1865—1870 159

The experiments were successful. Pasteur's life was now
over full. He returned to OPar,is at the beginning of October,
and threw himself into his work, his classes at the Sorbonne,
the organization of his laboratory, some further polemics on
the subject of silkworm disease, and projected experiments for
the following year. This accumulation of mental work
brought about extreme cerebral tension.

As soon as he saw M. Gernez, he spoke to him of the coming
campaign of sericiculture , of his desire to reduce his adver-
saries to silence by heaping proof upon proof. Nothing could
relieve him from that absorbing preoccupation, not even the
gaiety of Bertin, who, living on the same floor at the Ecole
Normale, often used to come in after dinner and try to amuse
him.

On Monday, October 19, Pasteur, though suffering from a
strange tingling sensation of the left side, had a great desire ;
to go and read to the Academic des Sciences a treatise by Salim- y^
beni, an Italian, who, having studied and verified Pasteur's
results, declared that the best means of regenerating the cul-
ture of silkworms was due to the French scientist. This
treatise, the diploma of the Bonn University, the Kumford
medal offered by the English, all those testimonials from neigh-
bouring nations were infinitely agreeable to Pasteur, who was
proud to lay such homage before the shrine of France. On
that day, October 19, 1868,. a date which became a bitter
memory to his family and friends — in spite of an alarming
shivering fit which had caused him to lie down immediately
after lunch instead of working as usual— he insisted on going
to the Academy sitting at half past two.

Mme. Pasteur, vaguely uneasy, made a pretext of some shop-
ping beyond the Quai Conti and accompanied him as far as the
vestibule of the Institute. As she was turning back, she met
Balard, who was coming up with the quick step of a young
man, stopped him and asked him to walk back with Pasteur,
and not to leave him before reaching his own door, though
indeed it seemed a curious exchange of parts to ask Balard at
sixty years of age to watch over Pasteur still so young. Pasteur
read Salimbeni's paper in his usual steady voice, remained
until the end of the sitting and walked back with Balard and
Sainte Claire Deville. He dined very lightly and went to bed
at nine o'clock ; he had hardly got into bed when he felt him-
self attacked by the strange symptoms of the afternoon. He

160 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

tried to speak, but in vain ; after a few moments he was able to
call for assistance. Mme. Pasteur sent at once for Dr.
Godelier, an intimate friend of the family, an army surgeon,
Clinical Professor at the Ecole du Val-de-Grace l ; and Pasteur,
paralysed one moment and free again the next, explained his
own symptoms during the intervals of the dark struggle which
endangered his life.

The cerebral haemorrhage gradually brought about absence
of movement along the entire left side. When the next morn-
ing Dr. Noel Gueneau de Mussy, going his regulation round of
the Ecole Normale students, came into his room and said, so as
not to alarm him, "I heard you were unwell, and thought I
would come to see you," Pasteur smiled the sad smile of a
patient with no illusions. Drs. Godelier and Gueneau de
Mussy decided to call Dr. Andral in consultation, and went to
fetch him at three o'clock at the Acade'mie de Medecine. Some-
what disconcerted by the singular character of this attack of
hemiplegia, Andral prescribed the application of sixteen leeches
behind the ears; blood flowed abundantly, and Dr. Godelier
wrote in the evening bulletin (Tuesday): "Speech clearer,
some movements of the paralysed limbs ; intelligence perfect."
Later, at ten o'clock: "Complains of his paralysed arm."
" It is like lead ; if it could only be cut off ! " groaned Pasteur.
About 2 a.m. Mme Pasteur thought all hope was gone. The
hastily written bulletin reads thus: "Intense cold, anxious
agitation, features depressed, eyes languid." The sleep which
followed was as the sleep of death.

At dawn Pasteur awoke from this drowsiness. " Mental
faculties still absolutely intact," wrote M. Godelier at 12.30
on Wednesday, October 21. " The cerebral lesion, whatever
it may be, is not worse; there is an evident pause." Two
hours later the words, " Mind active," were followed by the
startling statement, " Would willingly talk science."

While these periods of calm, agitation, renewed hopes, and
despair were succeeding each other in the course of those
thirty-six hours, Pasteur's friends hastened to his bedside. He
said to Henri Sainte Claire Deville, one of the first to come :
' ' I am sorry to die ; I wanted to do much more for my
country." Sainte Claire Deville, trying to hide his grief under

1 Val-de-Grdce. A handsome monument of the seventeenth century,
now a military hospital. [Trans.]

1865—1870 161

apparent confidence, answered, "Never fear; you will recover,
you will make many more marvellous discoveries, you will live
happy days ; I am your senior, you will survive me. Promise
me that you will pronounce my funeral oration. ... I wish you
would; you would say nice things of me," he added between
tears and smiles.

Bertin, Gernez, Duclaux, Raulin, Didon, then a curator at
the Ecole Normale, Professor Auguste Lamy, the geologist
Marcou (the two latter being Franche-comte' friends), all
claimed the privilege of helping Mme. Pasteur and M. Godelier
in nursing one who inspired them all, not merely with an
admiring and devoted affection, but with a feeling of tenderness
amounting almost to a cult.

A private letter from a cousin, Mme. Cribier, gives an idea
of those dark days (October 26, 1868) : "The news is rather
good this morning; the patient was able to sleep for a few
hours last night, which he had not yet done. He had been so
restless all day that M. Godelier felt uneasy about him and
ordered complete silence in the whole flat ; it was only in the
study which is farthest away from the bedroom, and which has
padded doors, that one was allowed to talk. That room is full
from morning till night. All scientific Paris comes to inquire
anxiously after the patient ; intimate friends take it in turns to
watch by him. Dumas, the great chemist, was affectionately
insisting on taking his turn yesterday. Every morning the
Emperor and Empress send a footman for news, which M.
Godelier gives him in a sealed envelope. In fact, every mark
of sympathy is given to poor Marie, and I hope that the worst
may be spared her in spite of the alarming beginning. His
mind seems so absolutely untouched, and he is still so young,
that with rest and care he might yet be able to do some work.
His stroke is accompanied by symptoms which are now occu-
pying the attention of the whole Academy of Medicine.
Paralysis always comes abruptly, whilst for M. Pasteur, it came
in little successive fits, twenty or thirty perhaps, and was
only complete at the end of twenty-four hours, which com-
pletely disconcerted the doctors who watched him, and delayed
their having recourse to an active treatment. It seems that
this fact is observed for the first time, and is puzzling the
whole Faculty."

M. Pasteur's mind remained clear, luminous, dominating
his prostrate body ; he was evidently afraid that he should die

M

162 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

before having thoroughly settled the question of silkworm
diseases. " One night that I was alone with him," relates M.
Gernez, who hardly left his bedside during that terrible week,
" after endeavouring in vain to distract his thoughts, I despair-
ingly gave up the attempt and allowed him to express the ideas
which were on his mind ; finding, to my surprise, that they had
his accustomed clearness and conciseness, I wrote what he dic-
tated without altering a word, and the next day I brought to
his illustrious colleague, Dumas — who hardly credited his
senses — the memorandum which appeared in the report of the
Academic on October 26, 1868, a week after the stroke which
nearly killed him ! It was a note on a very ingenious process
for discovering in the earlier tests those eggs which are pre-
disposed to flachery.

The members of the Academy were much cheered by the
reading of this note, which seemed to bring Pasteur back into
their midst.

The building of the laboratory had been begun, and hoard-
ings erected around the site. Pasteur, from his bed, asked
day by day, " How are they getting on? " But his wife and
daughter, going to the window of the dining-room which over-
looked the Ecole Normale garden, only brought him back
vague answers, for, as a matter of fact, the workmen had dis-
appeared from the very first day of Pasteur's illness. All that
could be seen was a solitary labourer wheeling a barrow aim-
lesly about, probably under the orders of some official who
feared to alarm the patient.

As Pasteur was not expected to recover, the trouble and
expense were deemed unnecessary. Pasteur soon became
aware of this, and one day that General Fav£ had come to see
him he gave vent to some bitter feelings as to this cautious
interruption of the building works, saying that it would have
been simpler and more straightforward to state from the begin-
ning that the work was suspended in the expectation of a
probable demise.

Napoleon was informed of this excess of zeal, not only by
General Fav6, but by Sainte Claire Deville, who was a guest
at Compiegne at the beginning of November, 1868. He wrote
to the Minister of Public Instruction —

" My dear M. Duruy,— I have heard that— unknown to you
probably— the men who were working at M. Pasteur's labora-
tory were kept away from the very day he became ill ; he has

1865—1870 163

been much affected by this circumstance, which seemed to
point to his non-recovery. I beg you will issue orders that the
work begun should be continued. Believe in my sincere
friendship . — Napoleon . ' '

Duruy immediately sent on this note to M. du Mesnil, whose
somewhat long title was that of ' ' Chief of the Division of
Academic Administration of Scientific Establishments and of
Higher Education." M. du Mesnil evidently repudiated the
charge for himself or for his Minister, for he wrote in a large
hand, on the very margin of the Imperial autograph —

" M. Duruy gave no orders and had to give none. It is at
his solicitation that the works were undertaken, but it is the
Direction of Civic Buildings alone which can have interrupted
them ; the fact should be verified."

M. de Cardaillac, head of the Direction of Civic Buildings,
made an inquiry and the building was resumed.

It was only on November 30 that Pasteur left his bed for
the first time and spent an hour in his armchair. He clearly
analyzed to himself his melancholy condition, stricken down
as he was by hemiplegia in his forty-sixth year ; but having
noticed that his remarks saddened his wife and daughter, he
spoke no more about his illness, and only expressed his anxiety
not to be a trouble, a burden, he said, to his wife, his son and
daughter, and the devoted friends who helped to watch him at
night.

In the daytime each offered to read to him. General Fave~,
whose active and inquiring mind was ever on the alert, brought
him on one of his almost daily visits an ideal sick man's book,
easy to read and offering food for meditation. It was the trans-
lation of an English book called Self -Help,1 and it consisted in
a series of biographies, histories of lives illustrating the power
of courage, devotion or intelligence. The author, glad to ex-
pound a discovery, to describe a masterpiece, to relate noble
enterprises, to dwell upon the prodigies which energy can
achieve, had succeeded in making a homogeneous whole of
these unconnected narratives, a sort of homage to Will-
power.

Pasteur agreed with the English writer in thinking that the

supremacy of a nation resides in "the sum total of private

virtues, activities and energy." His thoughts rose higher still ;

men of science could wish for a greater glory than that of con-

1 By Dr. Smiles. [Trans.]

M 2

164 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

tributing to the fame and fortune of their country, they might
aspire to originating vast benefits to the whole of humanity.

It was indeed a sad and a sublime spectacle, that of the
contrast between that ardent, soaring soul and that patient
helpless body. It was probably when thinking of those
biographies — some of them too succinct, to his mind, Jenner's
for instance— that Pasteur wrote: "From the life of men
whose passage is marked by a trace of durable light, let us
piously gather up every word, every incident likely to make
known the incentives of their great soul, for the education of
posterity." He looked upon the cult of great men as a great
principle of national education, and believed that children, as
soon as they could read, should be made acquainted with the
heroic or benevolent souls of great men. In his pious patriotism
he saw a secret ,of strength and of hope for a nation in its
reverence for the memories of the great, a sacred and intimate
bond between the visible and the invisible worlds. His soul
was deeply religious. During his illness — a time when the
things of this world assume their real proportions — his mind
rose far beyond this earth. The Infinite appeared to him as it
did to Pascal, and with the same rapture ; he was less attracted
by Pascal, when, proud and disdainful, he exposes man's weak-
ness for humiliation's sake, than when he declares that " Man
is produced but for Infinity," and "he finds constant instruc-
tion in progress." Pasteur believed in material_^progress as
well as in moral improvement; he invariably marked in the
books he was reading — Pascal, Nicole and others — those pas-
sages which were both consoling and exalting.

In one of his favourite books, Of the Knowledge of God and
of Self, he much appreciated the passage where Bossuet ascribes
to human nature " the idea of an infinite wisdom, of an abso-
lute power, of an infallible rectitude, in one word, the idea
of perfection." Another phrase in the same book seemed to
him applicable to experimental method as well as to the conduct
of life : '" The greatest aberration of the mind consists in
believing a thing because it is desirable."

With December, joy began to return to the Ecole Normale :
the laboratory was progressing and seemed an embodiment of
renewed hopes of further work. M. Godelier's little bulletins
now ran: "General condition most satisfactory. Excellent
morale ; the progress evidenced daily by the return of action in
the paralysed muscles inspires the patient with great confidence.

1865—1870 165

He is planning out his future sericiculture campaign, receives
many callers without too much fatigue, converses brightly and
often dictates letters."

One visit was a great pleasure to Pasteur — that of the
Minister, his cordial friend, Duruy, who brought him good
news of the future of Higher Education. The augmented
credit which was granted in the 1869 budget would make it
possible to rebuild other laboratories besides that 'of the Ecole
Normale, and also to jcrqate in 'other j)lacei new centres of
study and research .\ After gp'rnany efforts and struggles, it
was at last possible^tb foresee fee Say 'when chemistry, physics'-, '
physiology, natural history ^tnd mathematics would each have
an independent depanmerft^fe^a "great province, which 'should
be called the Practical School of Higher Studies. There
would be no constraint, no hard and fas^ ruj^s.* no^^rl^ulurn;
but that of free study : young men who were attracted to
pure science, and others who preferred practical application,
would find a congenial career before them as well as those
who desired to give themselves up to teaching. It can well
be imagined with what delight Pasteur heard these good
tidings.

The bulletins continued to be favourable : " (December 15) :
Progress slow but sure : he has walked from his bed to his
armchair with some assistance. (December 22) : he has gone
into the dining-room for dinner, leaning on a chair. (29th) :
he has walked a few steps without support."

Pasteur saw in his convalescence but the returning means
of working, and declared himself ready to start again for the
neighbourhood^ of Alais at once, intead of taking the few
months' rest he was advised to have.

He urged that, after certain moths and chrysalides, had been
examined through a microscope, complete certainty would be
acquired as to the condition of their seed, and that perfect
seed would therefore become accessible to all tradesmen both
great and small ; would it not be absurd and culpable to let
reasons of personal health interfere with saving so many poor
people from ruin?

His family had to give way, and on January 18, exactly
three months after his paralytic stroke, he was taken to the
Gare de Lyon by his wife and daughter and M. Gernez. He
then travelled, lying on the cushions of a coupt carriage, as far
as Alais, and drove from Alais to St. Hippolyte le Fort, where

166 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

tests were being made on forced silkworms by the agricultural
society of Lie Vigan.

The house he came into was cold and badly arranged. M.
Gernez improvised a laboratory, with the assistance of Maillot
and Kaulin, who had followed their master down. From his
sofa or from his bed, Pasteur directed certain experiments on
the forced specimens. M. Gernez writes : " The operations,
of which we watched the phases through the microscope, fully
justified his anticipations ; and he rejoiced that he had not
given up the game." In the world of the Institute his de-
parture was blamed by some and praised by others ; but
Pasteur merely considered that one man's life is worthless if
not useful to others.

Dumas wrote to him early in February : " My dear friend
and colleague, — I have been thinking of you so much ! I
dread fatigue for you, and wish I could spare it you, whilst
hoping that you may successfully achieve your great and
patriotic undertaking. I have hesitated to write to you for
fear you should feel obliged to answer. However, I should
like to have direct news of you, as detailed as possible, and,
besides that, I should be much obliged if you could send me a
line to enlighten me on the two following points —

11 1. When are you going back to Alais? And when will
your Alais broods be near enough to their time to be most
interesting to visit ?

" 2. What should I say to people who beg for healthy seed
as if my pockets were full of it? I tell them it is too late;
but if you could tell me a means of satisfying them, I should
be pleased, particularly in the case of General Eandon and
M. Husson. The Marshal (Vaillant) is full of solicitude for
you, and we never meet but our whole conversation turns upon
you. With me, it is natural. With him less so, perhaps, but
anyhow, he thinks of you as much as is possible, and this gives
me a great deal of pleasure. . . . Please present to Madame
Pasteur our united compliments and wishes. We wish the
South could have the virtues of Achilles' lance— of healing the
wounds it has caused. — Yours affectionately."

Pasteur was reduced to complete helplessness through hav-
ing slipped and fallen on the stone floor of his uncomfortable
house, and was obliged to dictate the following letter—

' My dear master,— I thank you for thinking of the poor
invalid. I am very much in the same condition as when I

1865—1870 167

left Paris, my progress having been retarded by a fall on my
left side. Fortunately, I sustained no fracture, but only
bruises, which were naturally painful and very slow to dis-
appear.

" There are now no remaining traces of that accident, and
I am as I was three weeks ago. The improvement in the move-
ments of the leg and arm appears to have begun again, but
with excessive slowness. I am about to have recourse to elec-
tricity, under the advice and instructions of Dr. God61ier, by
means of a small Kuhmkorff apparatus which he has kindly
sent me. My brain is still very weak.

" This is how my days are spent : in the morning my three
young friends come to see me, and I arrange the day's work.
I get up at twelve, after having my breakfast in bed, and
having had the newspaper read to me. If fine, I then spend
an hour or two in the little garden of this house. Usually, if
I am feeling pretty well, I dictate to my dear wife a page,
or more frequently half a page, of a little book I am preparing,
and in which I intend to give a short account of the whole of
my observations. Before dinner, which I have alone with my
wife and my little girl in order to avoid the fatigue of conver-
sation, my young collaborators bring me a report of their work.
About seven or half past, I always feel terribly tired and in-
clined to sleep twelve consecutive hours ; but I invariably wake
at midnight, not to sleep again until towards morning, when
I doze again for an hour or two. What makes me hope for an
ultimate cure is the fact that my appetite keeps good, and that
those short hours of sleep appear to be sufficient. You see that
on the whole I am doing nothing rash, being moreover rigor-
ously watched by my wife and little daughter. The latter
pitilessly takes books, pens, papers and pencils away from me
with a perseverance which causes me joy and despair.

"It is because I know your affection for your pupils that I
venture to give you so many details. I will now answer the
other questions in your letter.

' ' I shall be at Alais from April 1 ; that will be the time
when they will begin hatching seed for the industrial cam-
paign, which will consequently be concluded about May 20 at
the latest. Seeding will take place during June, more or less
early according to departments. It is indeed very late to
obtain seed, especially indigenous seed prepared according to
my process. I had foreseen that I should receive demands at

168 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

the last moment, and that I should do well to put by a few
ounces; but, about three weeks ago, our energetic Minister
wrote to ask me for some seed to distribute to schoolmasters,
and I promised him what I had. However I will take some
from his share and send you several lots of five grammes. The
director of a most interesting Austrian establishment has also
ordered two ounces, saying he is convinced of the excellence
of my method. His establishment is a most interesting ex-
perimental magnanerie , founded in a handsome Illyrian pro-
perty. Lastly, I have also promised two ounces to M. le
Comte de Casabianca. One of my young men is going out to
his place in Corsica to do the seeding.

"I was much touched by what you tell me of Marshal
Vaillant's kind interest in my health, and also by his kind
thought in informing me of the encouragement given to my
studies by the Society of Agriculture. I wish the cultivators
of your South had a little of his scientific and methodical
spirit.

" Madame Pasteur joins with me in sending you and your
family, dear master, the expression of my gratitude and affec-
tionate devotion."

The normal season for the culture of silkworms was now
aproaching, and Pasteur was impatient to accumulate the
proofs which would vouch for the safety of his method ; this
had been somewhat doubted by the members of the Lyons
Silks Commission, who possessed an experimental nursery.
Most of those gentlemen averred that too much confidence
should not be placed in the micrographs. "Our Commis-
sion," thus ran their report of the preceding year, "con-
siders the examination of corpuscles as a useful indication
which should be consulted, but of which the results cannot
be presented as a fact from which absolute consequences can
be deducted."

" They are absolute," answered Pasteur, who did not admit
reservations on a point which he considered as invulnerable.

On March 22, 1869, the Commission asked Pasteur for a
little guaranteed healthy seed. Pasteur not only sent them
this, but also sample lots, of which he thus predicted the future
fate : —

1. One lot of healthy seed, which would succeed ;

2. One lot of seed, which would perish exclusively from the
corpuscle disease known as pebrine or gattine ;

1865—1870 169

3. One lot of seed, which would perish exclusively from the
flachery disease ;

4. One lot of seeds, which would perish partly from cor-
puscle disease and partly from flachery.

"It seems to me," added Pasteur, "that the comparison
between the results of those different lots will do more to
enlighten the Commission on the certainty of the principles
I have established than could a mere sample of healthy seed.

' ' I desire that this letter should be sent to the Commission
at its next meeting, and put down in the minutes."

The Commission accepted with pleasure these unexpected
surprise boxes.

About the same time one of his assistants, Maillot, started
for Corsica at M. de Casablanca's request. He took with him
six lots of healthy seed to Vescovato, a few miles from Bastia.

The rest of the colony returned to the Pont Gisquet, near
Alais, that mulberry-planted retreat, where, according to
Pasteur, everything was conducive to work. Pasteur now
looked forward to his definitive victory, and, full of confidence,
organized his pupils' missions. M. Duclaux, who was coming
to the Pont Gisquet to watch the normal broods, would after-
wards go into the Cevennes to verify the seedings made on
the selection system. M. Gernez was to note the results of
some seedings made by Pasteur himself the preceding year at
M. Eaibaud-Lange's, at Paillerols, near Digne (Basses Alpes).
Eaulin alone would remain at the Pont Gisquet to study some
points of detail concerning the flachery disease. So many
results ought surely to reduce contradictors to silence !

" My dear friend and colleague," wrote Dumas to Pasteur,
' ' I need not tell you with what anxiety we are watching the
progress of your precious health and of your silkworm cam-
paign. I shall certainly be at Alais at the end of the week, and
I shall see, under your kind direction, all that may furnish me
with the means of guiding public opinion. You have quacks
to fight and envy to conquer, probably a hopeless task; the
best is to march right through them, Truth leading the way.
It is not likely that they will be converted or reduced to
silence."

Whilst these expeditions were being planned, a letter from
M. Gressier, the Minister of Agriculture, arrived very inoppor-
tunely. M. Gressier was better versed in sub rosd ministerial
combinations than in seeding processes, and he asked Pasteur

170 THE LIVE OF PASTEUR

to examine three lots of seeds sent to him by a Mademoiselle
Amat, of Brives-la-Gaillarde, who was celebrated in the de-
partment of the Correze for her good management of silk-
worms. This magnanarclle, having had some successful re-
sults, was begging his Excellency to accord to those humble
seeds his particular consideration, and to have them developed
with every possible care.

At the same time she was sending samples of the same seeds
to various places in the Gard, the Bouches du Rhone, etc., etc.

M. Gressier (April 20) asked Pasteur to examine them and
to give him a detailed report. Pasteur answered four days
afterwards in terms which were certainly not softened by the
usual administrative precautions —

" Monsieur le Ministre, . . . these three sorts of seed are
worthless. If they are developed, even in very small nurseries,
they will in every instance succumb to corpuscle disease. If
my seeding process had been employed, it would not have re-
quired ten minutes to discover that Mademoiselle Amat's
cocoons, though excellent for spinning purposes, were abso-
lutely unfit for reproduction. My seeding process gives the
means of recognizing those broods which are suitable for seed,
whilst opposing the production of the infected eggs which year
by year flood the silkworm cultivating departments.

"I shall be much obliged, Monsieur le Ministre, if you will
kindly inform the Prefect of the Correze of the forecasts which
I now impart to you, and if you will ask him to report to you
the results of Mademoiselle Amat's three lots.

" For my part, I feel so sure of what I now affirm, that I
shall not even trouble to test, by hatching them, the samples
which you have sent me. I have thrown them into the
river. ..."

J. B. Dumas had come to Alais, Messrs. Gernez and
Duclaux now returned from their expeditions. In two hundred
broods, each of one or two ounces of seed, coming from three
different sources and hatched in various localities, not one
failure was recorded. The Lyons Commission, which had
made a note of Pasteur's bold prognosis, found it absolutely
correct ; the excellence of the method was acknowledged by all
who had conscientiously tried it. Now that the scourge was
really conquered, Pasteur imagined that all he had to do was
to set up a table of the results sent to him. But, from the
south of France and from Corsica, jealousies were beginning

1865—1870 171

their work of undermining ; pseudo-scientists in their vanity
proclaimed that everything was illusory that was outside their
own affirmations, and the seed merchants, willing to ruin
everybody rather than jeopardize their miserable interests,
"did not hesitate (we are quoting M. Gernez) to perpetrate
the most odious falsehoods."

Instead of being annoyed, saddened, often indignant as he
was, Pasteur would have done more wisely to look back upon
the history of most great discoveries and of the initial difficul-
ties which beset them. But he could not look upon such things
philosophically ; stupidity astonished him and he could not
easily bring himself to believe in bad faith. His friends in
Alais society, M. de Lachadenede, M. Despeyroux, professor
of chemistry, might have reminded him, in their evening con-
versations, of the difficulties ever encountered in the service of
mankind. The prejudice against potatoes, for instance, had
lasted three hundred years. When they were brought over
from Peru in the fifteenth century, it was asserted that they
caused leprosy ; in the seventeenth century, that accusation was
recognized to be absurd, but it was said that they caused fever.
One century later, in 1771, the Besancon Academy of Medicine
having opened a competition for the answer to the following
question of general interest : " What plants can be used to
supplement other foods in times of famine?" a military
apothecary, named Parmentier, competed and proved victori-
ously that the potato was quite harmless. After that, he began
a propagandist campaign in favour of potatoes. But prejudice
still subsisted in spite of his experimental fields and of the
dinners in the menu of which potatoes held a large place.
Louis XVI had then an inspiration worthy of Henry IV ; he
appeared in public, wearing in his buttonhole Parmentier 's
little mauve flower, and thus glorified it in the eyes of the
Court and of the crowd.

But such comparisons had no weight with Pasteur ; he was
henceforth sure of his method and longed to see it adopted,
unable to understand why there should be further discussions
now that the silkworm industry was saved and the bread of
so many poor families assured. He was learning to know all
the bitterness of sterile polemics, and the obstacles placed one
by one in the way of those who attempt to give humanity any-
thing new and useful. Fortunately he had what so many
men of research have lacked, the active and zealous collabora-

172 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

tion of pupils imbued with his principles, and the rarer and
priceless blessing of a Home life mingling with his laboratory
life. His wife and his daughter, a mere child, shared his serici-
culture labours; they had become magnanarelles equal to the
most capable in Alais. Another privilege was the advocacy of
some champions quite unknown to him. Those who loved
science and who understood that it would now become, thanks
to Pasteur, an important factor in agricultural and sericicul-
tural matters hailed his achievements with joy. For instance,
a letter was published on July 8, 1869, in the Journal of Prac-
tical Agriculture by a cultivator who had obtained excellent
results by applying Pasteur's method ; the letter concluded as
follows : " We should be obliged, if, through the columns of
your paper, you would express to M. Pasteur our feelings of
gratitude for his laborious and valuable researches. We firmly
hope that he will one day reap the fruit of his arduous labours,
and be amply compensated for the passionate attacks of which
he is now the object."

"Monsieur Pasteur," once said the Mayor of Alais, Dr.
Pages, "if what you are showing me becomes verified in
current. practice, nothing can repay you for your work, but the
town of Alais will raise a golden statue to you."

Marshal Vaillant began to take more and more interest in
this question, which was not darkened, in his eyes at least,
by the dust of polemics. The old soldier, always scrupulously
punctual at the meetings of the Institute and of the Imperial
and Central Society of Agriculture, had amused himself by
organizing a little silkworm nursery on the Pasteur system, in
his own study, in the very centre of Paris. These experi-
ments, in the Imperial palace might have reminded an erudite
reader of Olivier de Serres' Thedtre d' Agriculture of the time
when the said Olivier de Serres planted mulberry trees in the
Tuileries gardens at Henry IV's request, and when, according
to the old agricultural writer, a house was arranged at the end
of the gardens "accommodated with all things necessary as
well for the 'feeding of the worms as for the preparation of
silk."

The Marshal, though calling himself the most modest of
sericicultors , had been able to appreciate the safety of a method
which produced the same results in Paris as at the Pont
Gisquet ; the octogenarian veteran dwelt with complacency on
the splendid condition of his silkworms in all their phases from

1865—1870 173

the minute worm hatched from the seed-like egg to the
splendid cocoon of white or yellow silk.

It occurred to Vaillant to suggest a decisive experiment in
favour of Pasteur and of the silkworm industry. The Prince
Imperial owned in Illyria, about six leagues from Trieste, a
property called Villa Vicentina. One of Napoleon's sisters.
Elisa Bonaparte, had lived peacefully there after the fall of the
first Empire, and had left it to her daughter, Princess Baciocchi,
who bequeathed it to the Prince Imperial, with the rest of her
fortune. Vines and mulberry trees grew plentifully on that
vast domain, but the produce of cocoons was nil, pe"brine and
flachery having devastated the place. Marshal Vaillant,
Minister of the Emperor's Household, desired to render the
princely property once again productive and, at the same time,
to give his colleague of the Institute an opportunity of ' ' de-
finitely silencing the opposition created by ignorance and
jealousy." In a letter dated October 9, he requested Pasteur
to send out 900 ounces of seed to Villa Vicentina, a large quan-
tity, for one ounce produced, on an average, thirty kilogrammes
of cocoons. Six days later the Marshal wrote to M. Tisserand,
the director of the Crown agricultural establishments, who
knew Villa Vicentina : " I have suggested to the Emperor that
M. Pasteur should be offered a lodging at Villa Vicentina ; the
Emperor acquiesces in the most gracious manner. Tell me
whether that is possible."

M. Tisserand, heartily applauding the Marshal's excellent
idea, described the domain and the dwelling house, Villa Elisa,
a white Italian two-storied house, situated amongst lawns and
trees in a park of sixty hectares. " It would indeed be well,"
continued M. Tisserand, "that M. Pasteur should find peace,
rest, and a return of the health he has so valiantly compromised
in his devotion to his country, in the midst of the lands which
will be the first to profit by the fruit of his splendid discoveries
and where his name will be blessed before long."

Pasteur started three weeks later with his family; the long
journey had to be taken in short stages, the state of his health
still being very precarious. He stopped at Alais on the way, in
order to fetch the selected seed, and on November 25, at 9
p.m., he reached Villa Vicentina. The fifty tenants of the
domain did not suspect that the new arrival would bring back
with him the prosperity of former years. Eaulin, the " tem-
porizer," joined his master a few weeks later.

174 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

This was a period not of rest, but of a great calm, with
regular work under a pure sky. Whilst waiting for hatching
time, Pasteur continued to dictate to his wife the book he had
mentioned to J. B. Dumas in a letter from St, Hippolyte le Fort.
But the projected little book was changing its shape and grow-
ing into a two- volume work full of facts and documents. It
was ready to publish by April, 1870.

When the moment for hatching the seed had arrived , Pasteur
distributed twenty-five ounces among the tenants and kept
twenty-five ounces for himself. An incident disturbed these
days of work : a steward, who had by him an old box of
Japanese seed, sold this suspicious seed with the rest. The
idea that confiding peasants had thus been swindled sent
Pasteur beside himself; in his violent anger he sent for this
steward, overwhelmed him with reproaches and forbade him
ever to show his face before him again.

"The Marshal," wrote Dumas to Pasteur, "has told me
of the swindles you have come across and which have upset
you so much. Do not worry unreasonably ; if I were you I
would merely insert a line in a local paper : ' M. Pasteur is
only answerable for the seeds he himself sells to cultivators.' '
Those cultivators soon were duly edified. The results of the
seeding process were represented by a harvest of cocoons which
brought in, after all expenses were paid, a profit of 22,000
francs, the first profit earned by the property for ten years.
This was indeed an Imperial present from Pasteur ; the
Emperor was amazed and delighted.

The Government then desired to do for Pasteur what had
been done for Dumas and Claude Bernard, that is, give him a
seat in the Senate. His most decided partisan was the com-
petitor that several political personages suggested against him :
Henri Sainte Claire Deville. Deville wrote to Mme. Pasteur
in June : " You must know that if Pasteur becomes a Senator,
and Pasteur alone, you understand — for they cannot elect two
chemists at once ! — it will be a triumph for your friend — a
triumph and an unmixed pleasure."

The projected decree was one of eighteen then in prepara-
tion. The final list— the last under the Emipre — where Emile
Augier was to represent French literature was postponed from
day to day.

Pasteur left Villa Vicentina on July 6, taking with him the
gratitude of the people whose good genius he had been for

1865—1870 175

nearly eight months. In northern Italy, as well as in Austria,
his process of cellular seeding was now applied with success.

Before returning to France he went to Vienna and then to
Munich : he desired to talk with the German chemist, Liebig,
the most determined of his adversaries. He thought it im-
possible that Liebig's ideas on fermentation should not have
been shaken and altered in the last thirteen years. Liebig
could not still be affirming that the presence of decomposing
animal or vegetable matter should be necessary to fermenta-
tion ! That theory had been destroyed by a simple and decisive
experiment of Pasteur's : he had sown a trace of yeast in water
containing but sugar and mineral crystallized salts, and had
seen this yeast multiply itself and produce a regular alcoholic
fermentation.

Since all nitrogenized organic matter (constituting the fer-
ment, according to Liebig) was absent, Pasteur considered that
he thus proved the life of the ferment and the absence of any
action from albuminoid matter in a stage of decomposition.
The death phenomenon now appeared as a life phenomenon.
How could Liebig deny the independent existence of ferments
in their infinite littleness and their power of destroying and
transforming everything? What did he think of all these new
ideas? would he still write, as in 1845 : " As to the opinion
which explains putrefaction of animal substances by the
presence of microscopic animalculae , it may be compared to that
of a child who would explain the rapidity of the Rhine current
by attributing it to the violent movement of the numerous mill
wheels of Mayence? "

Since that ingeniously fallacious paragraph, many results had
come to light. Perhaps Liebig, who in 1851 hailed J. B.
Dumas as a master, had now come to Dumas' point of view
respecting the fruitfulness of the Pastorian theory. That theory
was extended to diseases ; the infinitely small appeared as dis-
organizers of living tissues. The part played by the corpuscles
in the contagious and hereditary pebrine led to many reflec-
tions orjTlibe "contagious and hereditary element of human
diseases. Bteh the long-postponed transmission of certain
diseases was becoming clearer now that, within the vibrio of
flachery, other corpuscles were found, germs of the flachery
disease, ready to break out from one year to another.

To convince Liebig, to bring him to acknowledge the
triumph of those ideas with the pleasure of a true savant, such

176 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

was Pasteur's desire when he entered Liebig's laboratory. The
tall old man, in a long frock coat, received him with kindly
courtesy ; but when Pasteur, who was eager to come to the
object of his visit, tried to approach the delicate subject,
Liebig, without losing his amenity, refused all discussion,
alleging indisposition. Pasteur did not insist, but promised
himself that he would return to the charge.

CHAPTEE VII
1870—1872

PASTEUE, on his return, spent forty-eight hours in Strasburg,
which was for him full of memories of his laborious days at the
Faculty of that town, between 1848 and 1854, at a time when
rivalry already existed between France and Germany, a generous
rivalry of moral and intellectual effort. He then heard for the
first time of the threatening war; all his hopes of progress
founded on peace, through scientific discoveries, began to
crumble away, and his disappointment was embittered by the
recollection of many illusions.

Never was more cruel rebuff given to the generous efforts of
a policy of sentiment : after having laid the foundation of the
independence and unity of Italy, France had sympathized
with Germany's desire for unity, and few of the counsellors, or
even the adversaries of the Empire, would not have defended
this idea, which was supposed to lead to civilization. During
that period of anxious waiting (beginning of July, 1870), when
the most alarming news was daily published in Strasburg, it
did not occur to any one to look back upon quotations from
papers only a few years old, though in that very town a
pamphlet might have been found, written by Edmond About
in 1860, and containing the following words —

"Let Germany become united! France has no dearer or
more ardent desire, for she loves the German nation with a
disinterested friendship. France is not alarmed at seeing the
formation of an Italian nation of 26,000,000 men in the South:
she need not fear to see 32,000,000 Germans found a great
people on the Eastern frontier."

Proud to be first to proclaim the rights of nations ; influenced
by mingled feelings of kindliness, trustfulness, optimism and a
certain vanity of disinterestedness, France, who loves to be
loved, imagined that the world would be grateful for her

ft

178 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

international sociability, and that her smiles were sufficient to
maintain peace and joy in Europe.

Far from being alarmed by certain symptoms in her neigh-
bours, she voluntarily closed her eyes to the manoeuvres of the
Prussian troops, her ears to the roar of the artillery practice
constantly heard across her eastern frontier ; in 1863 patrols of
German cavalry had come as far as Wissemburg. But people
thought that Germany was "playing soldiers." Duruy, who
shared at that time the general delusion, wrote in some
traveller's notes published in 1864: "We have had your
German Rhine, and though you have garnished it with
bristling fortresses and cannon turning France-wards, we do
not wish to have it again, ... for the time for conquests is
past. Conquests shall only now be made with the free consent
of nations. Too much blood has been poured into the Rhine !
What an immense people would arise if they who were struck
down by the sword along its banks could be restored to life ! "

After the thunderclap of Sadowa, the French Government,
believing, in its infatuation, that it was entitled to a share of
gratitude and security, asked for the land along the Rhine as
far as Mayence ; this territorial aggrandizement might have
compensated for Prussia's redoubtable conquests. The refusal
was not long in coming. The Rhenish provinces immediately
swarmed with Prussian troops. The Emperor, awaking from
his dream, hesitating to make war, sent another proposition
to Prussia : that the Rhenish provinces should become a buffer
State. The same haughty answer was returned. France then
hoped for the cession of Luxemburg, a hope all the more
natural in that the populations of Luxemburg were willing to
vote for annexation to France, and such a policy would have
been in accordance with the rights of nations. But this request,
apparently entertained at first by Prussia, was presently ham-
pered by intrigues which caused its rejection. Duped; not even
treated as an arbiter, but merely as a contemptible wit-
ness, France dazzled herself for a moment with the brilliant
Exhibition of 1867. But it was a last and splendid
flash ; the word which is the bane of nations and of
sovereigns, " to-morrow," was on the lips of the ageing Em-
peror. The reform in the French army, which should have
been bold and immediate, was postponed and afterwards begun
jerkily and unmethodically. Prussia however affected to be
alarmed. Then irritation at having been duped, the evidence

1870—1872 179

of a growing peril, a lingering hope in the military fortune of
France — everything conspired to give an incident, provoked
by Prussia, the proportions of a casus belli. But, in spite of
so many grievances, people did not yet believe in this sudden
return to barbarism. The Imperial policy had indeed been
blindly inconsistent ; after opening a wide prospect of unity
before the German people it had been thought possible to say
"No further than the Main," as if the impetuous force of a
popular movement could be arrested after once being started.
France suddenly opened her eyes to her danger and to the
failure of her policy. But if a noble sentiment of generosity
had been mingled with the desire to increase her territory with-
out shedding a drop of blood, she had had the honour of being
in the vanguard of progress. Were great ideas of peace and
human brotherhood about to be engulfed in a war which would
throw Europe into an era of violence and brutality?

Pasteur, profoundly saddened, could not bear to realize that
his ideal of the peaceful and beneficent destiny of France was
about to vanish ; he left Strasburg — never to return to it — a
prey to the most sombre thoughts.

When he returned to Paris, he met Sainte Claire Deville,
who had come back from a scientific mission in Germany, and
who had for the first time lost his brightness and optimism.
The war appeared to him absolutely disastrous. He had seen
the Prussian army, redoubtable in its skilful organization,
closing along the frontier ; the invasion was certain , and there
was nothing to stay it. Everything was lacking in France,
even in arsenals like Strasburg. At Toul, on the second line of
fortifications, so little attention was paid to defence that the
Government had thought that the place could be used as a
d6pot for the infantry and cavalry reserves, who could await
there the order for crossing the Ehine.

" Ah I my lads, my poor lads ! " said Sainte Claire Deville to
his Ecole Normale students, "it is all up with us ! " And
he was seen, between two experiments, wiping his eyes with
the corner of his laboratory apron.

The students, with the ordinary confidence of youth, could
not believe that an invasion should be so imminent. How-
ever, in spite of the privilege which frees Normaliens from any
military service in exchange for a ten years' engagement at
the University, they put patriotic duty above any future
University appointments, and entered the ranks as private

N 2

180 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

soldiers. Those who had been favoured by being immediately
incorporated in a battalion of chasseurs d pied the depot of
which was at Vincennes, spent their last evening — their vigil
as they called it — in the drawing-room of the sub-director of
the Ecole, Bertin. Sainte Claire Deville and Pasteur were
there, also Duruy, whose three sons had enlisted. Pasteur's
son, aged eighteen, was also on the eve of his departure.

Every one of the students at the Ecole Normale enlisted,
some as chasseurs a pied, some in a line regiment, others with
the marines, in the artillery, even with the franc tireurs.
Pasteur wished to be enrolled in the garde nationale with Duruy
and Bertin, but he had to be reminded that a half -paralysed
man was unfit for service. After the departure of all the
students, the Ecole Normale fell into the silence of deserted
houses. M. Bouillier, the director, and Bertin decided to turn
it into an ambulance, a sort of home for the Normaliens who
were stationed in various quarters of Paris.

Pasteur, unable to serve his country except by his scientific
researches, had the firm intention of continuing his work ; but
he was overwhelmed by the reverses which fell upon France,
the idea of the bloodshed and of his invaded country oppressed
him like a monomania.

"Do not stay in Paris/' Bertin said to him, echoed by Dr.
Godelier. "You have no right to stay; you would be a use-
less mouth during the siege," he added, almost cheerfully,
earnestly desiring to see his friend out of harm's way. Pasteur
allowed himself to be persuaded, and started for Arbois on
September 5, his heart aching for the sorrows of France.

Some notes and letters enable us to follow him there, in
the daily detail of his life, amongst his books, his plans of
future work, and now and then his outbursts of passionate
grief. He tried to return to the books he loved, to feel over
again the attraction of "all that is great and beautiful" to
quote a favourite phrase. He read at that time Laplace's
Exposition du Systeme du Monde, and even copied out some
fragments, general ideas, concurring with his own. The vision
of a Galileo or a Newton rising through a series of inductions
from "particular phenomena to others more far-reaching, and
from those to the general laws of Nature," on this earth,
"itself so small a part of the solar system, and disappearing
entirely in the immensity of the heavens, of which that system
is but an unimportant corner,"— that vision enveloped Pasteur

1870—1872 181

with the twofold feeling with which every man must be im-
bued : humility before the Great Mystery, and admiration for
those who, raising a corner of the veil, prove that genius is
divinely inspired. Such reading helped Pasteur through the
sad time of anxious waiting, and he would repeat as in brighter
days, " Labor emus."

But sometimes, when he was sitting quietly with his wife
and daughter, the trumpet call would sound, with which the
Arbois crier preceded the proclaiming of news. Then every-
thing was forgotten, the universal order of things of no account,
and Pasteur's anguished soul would concentrate itself on that
imperceptible corner of the universe, France, his suffering
country. He would go downstairs, mix with groups standing
on the little bridge across the Cuisance, listen breathlessly to
the official communication, and sadly go back to the room where
the memories of his father only emphasized the painful contrast
with the present time. In the most prominent place hung
a large medallion of General Bonaparte, by the Franc-Comtoifr
Huguenin, the habit of authority visible in the thin energetic
face ; then a larger effigy in bronzed plaster of Napoleon in
profile, in a very simple uniform; by the mantelpiece a litho-
graph of the little King of Rome with his curly head ; on the
bookshelves, well within reach, books on the Great Epoch,
read over and over again by the old soldier who had died in the
humble room which still reflected some of the Imperial glory.

That glory, that legend had enveloped the childhood and
youth of Pasteur, who, as he advanced in life, still pjeserved
the same enthusiasm. His imagination pictured the Emperor,
calm in the midst of battles, or reviewing his troops sur-
rounded by an escort of field marshals, entering as a sovereign
a capital not his own, then overwhelmed by numbers at
Waterloo, and finally condemned to exile and inactivity, and
dying in a long drawn agony. Glorious or lugubrious, those
visions came back to him with poignant insistency in those
days of September, 1870. What was Waterloo compared to
Sedan ! The departure for St. Helena had the grandeur of the
end of an epic ; it seemed almost enviable by the side of that
last episode of the Second Empire, when Napoleon III, van-
quished, spared by the death which he wooed, left Sedan by
the Donchery road to enter the cottage where Bismarck was to
inform him of the rendezvous given by the King of Prussia.

The Emperor had now but a shadow of power, having made

182 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

the Empress Eegent before he left Paris ; it was therefore not
the sword of France, but -his own, that he was about to sur-
render. But he thought he might hope that the King of
Prussia would show clemency to the French army and people,
having many times declared that he made war on the Emperor
and not on France.

"Can it be credited," said Bismarck, speaking afterwards
of that interview, "that he actually believed in our gener-
osity 1 " The chancellor added, speaking of that somewhat
protracted t£te-a-tete, " I felt as I used to in my youth, when
my partner in a cotillon was a girl to whom I did not quite
know what to say, and whom nobody would fetch away for a
turn!"

Napoleon III and the King of Prussia met in the Chateau of
Bellevue, in the neighbourhood of Sedan, opposite a peninsula
henceforth known by the sad name of "Camp of Misery."
The Emperor looked for the last time upon his 83,000 soldiers,
disarmed, starving, waiting in the mud for the Prussian escort
which was to convey them as prisoners far beyond the Khine.
Wilhelm did not even pronounce the word peace.

Jules Favre, taking possession on September 6 of the depart-
ment of Foreign Affairs, recalled to the diplomatic agents the
fall of the Empire and the words of the King of Prussia ; then
in an unaccustomed outburst of eloquence exclaimed : " Does
the King of Prussia wish to continue an impious struggle which
will be as fatal to him as to us? Does he wish to give to the
world in the nineteenth century the cruel spectacle of two
nations destroying each other and forgetful of human feelings,
of reason and of science , heaping up ruin and death ? Let him
then assume the responsibility before the world and before
posterity 1 ' ' And then followed the celebrated phrase with
which he has been violently and iniquitously reproached, and
which expressed the unanimous sentiment of France : ' ' We
will not concede one inch of our territory nor a stone of ouf
fortifications."

Bismarck refused the interview Jules Favre asked of him
(September 10), under the pretext that the new Government
was irregular. The enemy was coming nearer and nearer to
Paris. The French city was resolved to resist ; thousands upon
thousands of oxen were being corralled in the Bois de Boulogne ;
poor people from the suburbs were coming to take refuge in the
city. On the Place de la Concorde, the statue which repre-

1870—1872 183

sents the city of Strasburg was covered with flowers and flags,
and seemed to incarnate the idea of the Patrie itself.

Articles and letters came to Arbois in that early Septem-
ber, bringing an echo of the sorrows of Paris. Pasteur was
then reading the works of General Foy, wherein he found
thoughts in accordance with his own, occasionally copying out
such passages as the following : " Eight and Might struggle
for the world ; Eight, which constitutes and preserves Society ;
Might, which overcomes nations and bleeds them to death."

General Foy fought for France during twenty-five years,
and, writing in 1820, recalled with a patriotic shudder the
horrors of foreign invasions. Long after peace was signed, by
a chance meeting in a street in Paris, General Foy found
himself face to face with Wellington. The sight -was so odious
to him that he spoke of this meeting in the Chambre with an
accent of sorrowful humiliation which breathed the sadness of
Waterloo over the whole assembly. Pasteur could well under-
stand the long continued vibration of that suffering chord, he,
who never afterwards could speak without a thrill of sorrow of
that war which Germany, in defiance of humanity, was inexcus-
ably pursuing.

It was the fourth time in less than a hundred years that a
Prussian invasion overflowed into France. But instead of
42,000 Prussians, scattered in 1792 over the sacred soil of the
Patrie — Pasteur pronounced the word with the faith and ten-
derness of a true son of France — there were now 518,000 men
to fight 285,000 French.

The thought that they had been armed in secret for the
conquest of neighbouring lands, the memory of France's
optimism until that diplomatic incident, invented so that
France might stumble over it, and the inaction of Europe,
inspired Pasteur with reflections which he confided to his
pupil Eaulin. " What folly, what blindness," he wrote
(September 17), "there are in the inertia of Austria, Eussia,
England I What ignorance in our army leaders of the
respective forces of the two nations ! We savants were in-
deed right when we deplored the poverty of the department of
Public Instruction ! The real cause of our misfortunes lies
there. It is not with impunity — as it will one day be recognized,
too late — that a great nation is allowed to lose its intellectual
standard. But, as you say, if we rise again from those disas-
ters, we shall again see our statesmen lose themselves in endless

184 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

discussions on forms of government and abstract political ques-
tions instead of going to the root of the matter. We are paying
the penalty of fifty years' forgetfulness of science, of its con-
ditions of development, of its immense influence on the destiny
of a great people, and of all that might have assisted the
diffusion of light. ... I cannot go on, all this hurts me. I
try to put away all such memories, and also the sight of our
terrible distress, in which it seems that a desperate resistance
is the only hope we have left. I wish that France may fight to
her last man, to her last fortress. I wish that the war may
be prolonged until the winter, when, the elements aiding us,
all these Vandals may perish of cold and distress. Every one
of my future works will bear on its title page the words :
' Hatred to Prussia. Revenge ! revenge ! '

There is a passage in the Psalms where the captives of
Israel, led to Babylonian rivers, weep at the memory of
Jerusalem. After swearing never to forget their country, they
wish their enemies every misfortune, and hurl this last impre-
cation at Babylon: "Blessed shall he be that taketh thy
children and throweth them against the stones."1 One of the
most Christlike souls of our time, Henri Perreyve, speaking
of Poland, of vanquished and oppressed nations, quoted this
Psalm and exclaimed : "0 Anger, man's Anger, how difficult
it is to drive thee out of man's heart ! and how irresistible are
the flames kindled by the insolence of injustice ! ' ' Those
flames were kindled in the soul of Pasteur, full as it was of
human tenderness, and they burst out in that sobbing cry of
despair.

On that 17th of September, the day before Paris was invested,
Jules Favre made another attempt to obtain peace. He pub-
lished an account of that interview which took place at the
Chateau of Ferrieres, near Meaux ; this printed account reached
every town in France, and was read with grief and anger.

Jules Favre had deluded himself into thinking that vic-
torious Prussia would limit its demands to a war indemnity,
probably a formidable one. But Bismarck, besides the in-
demnity, intended to take a portion of French soil, and claimed
Strasburg first of all. "It is the key of the house; I must
have it." And with Strasburg he wanted the whole Depart-
ment of the Haut-Rhin, that of the Bas-Rhin, Metz, and a
part of the Department of Moselle. Jules Favre, character-

1 Ps. cxxxvii. 9.

1870—1872 185

istically French, exhausted his eloquence in putting sentiment
into politics, spoke of European rights, of the right of the
people to dispose of themselves, tried to bring out the fact that
a brutal annexation was in direct opposition to the progress of
civilization. "I know very well," said Bismarck, "that they
(meaning the Alsatians and Lorrainers) do not want us ; they
will give us a deal of trouble, but we must annex them." In
the event of a future war Prussia was to have the advantage.
All this was said with an authoritative courtesy, an insolent
tranquillity, through which contempt for men was visible, evi-
dently the best means of governing them in Bismarck's eyes.
As Jules Favre was pleading the cause of .heroic Strasburg,
whose long resistance was the admiration of Paris, " Strasburg
will now fall into our hands," said Bismarck coldly; "it is
but a question for engineers ; therefore I request that the
garrison should surrender as prisoners of war."

Jules Favre "leapt in his grief" — the words are his — but
King Wilhelm exacted this condition. Jules Favre, almost
breaking down, turning away to hide the tears that welled into
his eyes, ended the interview with these words : "It is an inde-
finite struggle between two nations who should go hand in hand. ' '

Traces of this patriotic anguish are to be found in one of
Pasteur's notebooks, as well as a circular addressed by Jules
Favre to the diplomatic representatives in answer to certain
points disputed by Bismarck. Pasteur admiringly took note
of the following passage : " I know not what destinies Fate
has in store for us. But I do feel most deeply that if I had to
choose between the present situation of France and that of
Prussia, I should decide for the former. Better far our suffer-
ings, our perils, our sacrifices, than the cruel and inflexible
ambition of our foe."

"We must preserve hope until the end," wrote Pasteur
after reading the above, " say nothing to discourage each other,
and wish ardently for a prolonged struggle. Let us think of
hopeful things; Bazaine may save us." . . . How many
French hearts were sharing that hope at the very time when
Bazaine was preparing to betray Metz, his troops and his flag !

" Should we not cry : ' Happy are the dead 1 ' " wrote Pasteur
a few days after the news burst upon France of that army lost
without being allowed to fight, of that city of Metz, the
strongest in France , surrendered without a struggle !

Through all Pasteur's anxieties about the war, certain obser-

186 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

vations, certain projected experiments resounded in his mind
like the hours that a clock strikes, unheeded but not unheard,
in a house visited by death. He could not put them away from
him, they were part of his very life.

Any sort of laboratory work was difficult for him in the
tanner's house, which had remained the joint property of him-
self and his sister. His brother-in-law had continued Joseph
Pasteur's trade. Pasteur applied his spirit of observation to
everything around him, and took the opportunity of studying
the fermentation of tan. He would ask endless questions,
trying to discover the scientific reason of every process and
every routine. Whilst his sister was making bread he would
study the raising of the crust, the influence of air in the knead-
ing of the dough, and his imagination rising as usual from a
minor point to the greatest problems, he began to seek for a
means of increasing the nutritive powers of bread, and con-
sequently of lowering its price.

The Salut Public of December 20 contained a notice on that
very subject, which Pasteur transcribed. The Central Com-
mission of Hygiene which included among its members Salnte
Claire Deville, Wurtz, Bouchardat and Trelat, had tried, when
dealing with this question of bread (a vital one during the
siege), to prove to the Parisians that bread is the more whole-
some for containing a little bran. " With what emotion,"
wrote Pasteur, "I have just read all those names dear to
science, greater now before their fellow-citizens and before
posterity. Why could I not share their sufferings and
their dangers ! ' ' He would have added ' ' and their work ' '
if some of the Academic des Sciences reports had reached him.

The history of the Academy during the war is worthy of
brief mention. Moreover it was too deeply interesting to
Pasteur, too constantly in his thoughts, not to be considered
as forming part of his biography.

During the first period, the Academy, imagining, like the
rest of France, that there was no doubt of a favourable issue
of the war, continued its purely scientific task. When the
first defeats were announced, the habitual communications
ceased, and the Academy, unable to think of anything but the
war, held sittings of three-quarters of an hour or even less.

One of the correspondents of the Institute, the surgeon
Sedillot, who was in Alsace at the head of an ambulance corps,
and who himself performed as many as fifteen amputations in

1870—1873 187

one day, addressed two noteworthy letters to the President of
the Academy. Those letters mark a date in the history of
surgery, and show how restricted was then in France the
share of some of Pasteur's ideas at the very time when in
other countries they were adopted and followed. Lister, the
celebrated English surgeon, having, he said, meditated on
Pasteur's theory of germs, and proclaimed himself his fol-
lower, convinced that complications and infection of wounds
were caused by their giving access to living organisms and in-
fectious germs, elements of trouble, often of death, had already
in 1867 inaugurated a method of treatment. He attempted the
destruction of germs floating in air by means of a vaporizer
filled with a carbolic solution, then isolated and preserved the
wound from the contact of the air. Sponges, drainage tubes,
etc., were subjected to minute precautions; in one word, he
created antisepsis. Four months before the war he had pro-
pounded the principles which should guide surgeons, but it
occurred to no one in France, in the first battles, to apply the
new method. "The horrible mortality amongst the wounded
in battle," writes Sedillot, "calls for the attention of all the
friends of science and humanity. The surgeon's art, hesitat-
ing and disconcerted, pursues a doctrine whose rules seem to
flee before research. . . . Places where there are wounded are
recognizable by the fetor of suppuration and gangrene."

Hundreds and thousands of wounded, their faces pale, but
full of hope and desire to live, succumbed between the eighth
and tenth day to gangrene and erysipelas. Those failures
of the surgery of the past are plain to us now that the doctrine
of germs has explained everything; but, at that time, such an
avowal of impotence before the mysterious contagium sui
generis, whicht, the doctors averred, eluded all research, and
such awful statistics of mortality embittered the anguish of
defeat.

The Academy then attempted to take a share in the national
co-operation by making a special study of any subject which
interested the public health and defence. A sitting on methods
of steering balloons was succeeded by another on various means
of preserving meat during the siege. Then came an anxious
inquiry into modes of alimentation of infants. At the end of
October there were but 20,000 litres of milk per day to be pro-
cured in the whole of Paris, and the healthy were implored to
abstain from it. It was a question of life and death for young

188 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

children, and already many little coffins were daily to be seen
on the road to the cemetery.

Thus visions of death amongst soldiers in their prime and
children in their infancy hung over the Academy meeting hall.
It was at one of those mournful sittings, on a dark autumn
afternoon, that Chevreul, an octogenarian member of the Insti-
tute, who, like Pasteur, had believed in civilization and in the
binding together of nations through science, art and letters,
looking at the sacks of earth piled outside the windows to save
the library from the bursting shells, exclaimed in loud desolate
tones —

"And yet we are in the nineteenth century, and a few
months ago the French did not even think of a war which
has put their capital into a state of siege and traced around its
walls a desert zone where he who sowed does not reap ! And
there are public universities where they teach the Beautiful,
the True, and the Eight."

" Might goes before Eight/' Bismarck said. A German
journalist invented another phrase which went the round of
Europe : "the psychological moment for bombardment." On
January 5, one of the first Prussian shells sank into the garden
of the Ecole Normale ; another burst in the very ambulance
of the Ecole. Bertin, the sub-director, rushed through the
suffocating smoke and ascertained that none of the patients was
hurt ; he found the breech between two beds. The miserable
patients dragged themselves downstairs to the lecture rooms
on the ground floor, not a much safer refuge.

From the heights of Chatillon the enemy's batteries were
bombarding all the left bank of the Seine, the Prussians, re-
gardless of the white flags bearing the red cross of Geneva, were
aiming at the Val-de-Grace and the Pantheon. "Where is
the Germany of our dreams?" wrote Paul de St. Victor on
January 9, " the Germany of the poets? Between her and
France an abyss of hatred has opened, a Ehine of blood and
tears that no peace can ever bridge over."

On that same date, Chevreul read the following declaration
to the Academy of Science —

The Garden of Medicinal Plants, founded in Paris
by an edict of King Louis XIII,

dated January, 1826,
Converted into the Museum of Natural History

1870—1872 189

by a decree of the Convention on June 10, 1793,

was Bombarded,

under the reign of Wilhelm I King of

Prussia, Count von Bismarck, Chancellor,

by the Prussian army, during the night

of January 8-9, 1871.

It had until then been respected by all parties

and all powers, national or

foreign.

Pasteur, on reading this protest, regretted more than ever
that he had not been there to sign it. It then occurred to him
that he too might give vent to the proud plaint of the van-
quished from his little house at Arbois. He remembered with
a sudden bitterness the diploma he had received from the Uni-
versity of Bonn. Many years had passed since the time in
the First Empire when one of the 110 French Departments had
been that of Ehine and Moselle, with Coblentz as its prefecture
and Bonn and Zimmern as sous -prefectures. When, in 1815,
Prussia's iron hand seized again those Rhenish provinces which
had become so French at heart, the Prussian king and his
ministers hit upon the highly politic idea of founding a Univer-
sity on the picturesque banks of the Rhine, thus morally con-
quering the people after reducing them by force. That
University had been a great success and had become most
prosperous. The Strasburg Faculty under the Second Empire,
with its few professors and its general penury, seemed very
poor compared to the Bonn University, with its fifty-three
professors and its vast laboratories of chemistry, physics and
medicine, and even a museum of antiquities. Pasteur and
Duruy had often exchanged remarks on that subject. But that
rivalry between the two Faculties was of a noble nature, ani-
mated as it was by the great feeling that science is superior to
national distinctions. King Wilhelm had once said, " Prussia's
conquests must be of the moral kind," and Pasteur had not
thought of any other conquests.

When in 1868 the University of Bonn conferred upon him
the diploma of Doctor of Medicine, saying that "by his very
penetrating experiments , he had much contributed to the know-
ledge of the history of the generation of micro-organisms, and
had happily advanced the progress of the science of fermenta-
tions," he had been much pleased at this acknowledgment of

190 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

the future opened to medical studies by his work, and he was
proud to show the Degree he had received.

"Now," he wrote (January 18, 1871), to the Head of the
Faculty of Medicine, after recalling his former sentiments,
' ' now the sight of that parchment is odious to me , and I feel
offended at seeing my name, with the qualification of Virum
clarissimum that you have given it, placed under a name which
is henceforth an object of execration to my country, that of
Rex Gulielmus.

"While highly asseverating my profound respect for you,
Sir, and for the celebrated professors who have affixed their
signatures to the decision of the members of your Order, I
am called upon by my conscience to ask you to efface my
name from the archives of your Faculty, and to take back
that diploma, as a sign of the indignation inspired in a French
scientist by the barbarity and hypocrisy of him who, in order
to satisfy his criminal pride, persists in the massacre of two
great nations." Pasteur's protest ended with these words —

" Written at Arbois (Jura) on January 18, 1871, after read-
ing the mark of infamy inscribed on the forehead of your King
by the illustrious director of the Museum of Natural History
M. Chevreul."

" This letter will not have much weight with a people whose
principles differ so totally from those that inspire us," said
Pasteur, " but it will at least echo the indignation of French
scientists."

He made a collection of stories, of episodes, and letters,
which fell in his way ; amongst other things we find an open
letter from General Chanzy to the commandant of the Prussian
troops at Vendome, denouncing the insults, outrages, and in-
excusable violence of the Prussians towards the inhabitants of
St. Calais, who had shown great kindness to the enemy's sick
and wounded.

"You respond by insolence, destruction and pillage 'to the
generosity with which we treat your prisoners and wounded.
I indignantly protest, in the name of humanity and of the
rights of men, which you trample under foot."

Pasteur also gathered up tales of bravery, of heroism, and of
resignation — that form of heroism so often illustrated by women
— during the terrible siege of Paris. And, from all those things,
arose the psychology of war in its two aspects : in the invading
army a spirit of conquest carried to oppression, and even apart

1870—1872 191

from the thrilling moments of battle, giving to hatred and
cruelty a cold-blooded sanction of discipline ; in the vanquished
nation, an irrepressible revolt, an intoxication of sacrifice.
Those who have not seen war do not know what love of the
mother country means.

France was the more loved that she was more oppressed ;
she inspired her true sons with an infinite tenderness. Sully-
Prudhomme, the poet of pensive youth, renouncing his love for
Humanity in general, promised himself that he would hence-
forth devote his life to the exclusive love of France. A greater
poet than he, Victor Hugo, wrote at that time the first part
of his Annee Terrible, with its mingled devotion and despair.

The death of Henri Kegnault was one of the sad episodes of
the war. This brilliant young painter — he was only twenty-
seven years of age — enlisted as a garde nationale, though
exempt by law from any military service through being a
laureate of the prix de Rome.1 He did his duty valiantly, and
on January 19, at the last sortie attempted by the Parisians, at
Buzenval, the last Prussian shot struck him in the forehead.
The Acade"mie des Sciences, at its sitting of January 23, ren-
dered homage to him whose coffin enclosed such dazzling
prospects and some of the glory of France. The very heart of
Paris was touched, and a great sadness was felt at the funeral
procession of the great artist who seemed an ideal type of all
the youth and talent so heroically sacrificed — and all in vain—
for the surrender of Paris had just been officially announced.

Regnault's father, the celebrated physicist, a member of the
Institute, was at Geneva when he received this terrible blow.
Another grief — not however comparable to the despair of a
bereaved parent— befell him — an instance of the odious side of
war, not in its horrors, its pools of blood and burnt dwellings,
but in its premeditated cruelty. Eegnault had left his labora-
tory utensils in his rooms at the Sevres porcelain manufactory,
of which he -was the manager. Everything was apparently
left in the same place, not a window was broken, no locks
forced; but a Prussian, evidently an expert, had been there.
"Nothing seemed changed," writes J. B. Dumas, "in that
abode of science, and yet everything was destroyed; the glass
tubes of barometers, thermometers, etc., were broken; scales

1 Prix de Rome. A competition takes place every year amongst the
students of the Ecole des Beaux Arts for this prize; the successful com-
petitor is sent to Rome for a year at the expense of the Ecole. [Trans.]

192 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

and other similar instruments had been carefully knocked out of
shape with a hammer." In a corner was a heap of ashes ; they
were the registers, notes, manuscripts, all Eegnault's work of
the last ten years. "Such cruelty," exclaimed J. B. Dumas,
" is unexampled in history. The Koman soldier who butchered
Archimedes in the heat of the onslaught may be excused — he
did not know him ; but with what sacrilegious meanness could
such a work of destruction as this be accomplished 1 ! ! "

On the very day when the Academic des Sciences was con-
doling with Henri Eegnault's sorrowing father, Pasteur,
anxious at having had no news of his son, who had been fight-
ing before Hericourt, determined to go and look for him in the
ranks of the Eastern Army Corps. By Poligny and Lons-le-
Saulnier, the roads were full of stragglers from the various
regiments left several days behind, their route completely lost,
who begged for bread as they marched, barely covered by the
tattered remnants of their uniforms. The main body of the
army was on the way to Besancon, a sad procession of French
soldiers, hanging their heads under the cold grey sky and tramp-
ing painfully in the snow.

Bourbaki, the general-in-chief, a hero of African battlefields,
was becoming more and more unnerved by the combinations
of this war. Whilst the Minister, in a dispatch from Bordeaux,
had ordered him to move back towards Dole, to prevent the
taking of Dijon, then to hurry to Nevers or Joigny, where
20,000 men would be ready to be incorporated, Bourbaki, over-
whelmed by the lamentable spectacle under his eyes, could see
no resource for his corps but a last line of retreat, Pontarlier.

It was among that stream of soldiers that Pasteur attempted
to find his son. His old friend and neighbour, Jules Vercel,
saw him start, accompanied by his wife and daughter, on Tues-
day, January 24, in a half broken down old carriage, the last
that was left in the town. After journeying for some hours
in the snow, the sad travellers spent the night in a little way-
side inn near Montrond ; the old carriage with its freight of
travelling boxes stood on the roadside like a gipsy's caravan.
The next morning they went on through a pine forest where the
deep silence was unbroken save by the falling masses of snow
from the spreading branches. They slept at Censeau, the next
day at Chaff ois, and it was only on the Friday that they reached
Pontarlier, by roads made almost impracticable by the snow,
the carriage now a mere wreck.

1870—1872 193

The town was full of soldiers, some crouching round fires in
the street, others stepping across their dead horses and begging
for a little straw to lie on. Many had taken refuge in the
church and were lying on the steps of the altar ; a few were
attempting to bandage their frozen feet, threatened with
gangrene.

Suddenly the news spread that the general-in-chief, Bour-
baki, had shot himself through the brain. This did not excite
much surprise. He had telegraphed two days before to the
Minister of War : " You cannot have an idea of the sufferings
that the army has endured since the beginning of December.
It is martyrdom to be in command at such a time," he added
despairingly.

' ' The retreat from Moscow cannot have been worse than
this," said Pasteur to a staff officer, Commandant Bourboulon,
a nephew of Sainte Claire Deville, whom he met in the midst
of those horrors and who could give him no information as to
his son's battalion of Chasseurs. " All that I can tell you,"
said a soldier anxiously questioned by Mme. Pasteur, " is that
out of the 1,200 men of that battalion there are but 300 left."
As she was questioning another, a soldier who was passing
stopped : " Sergeant Pasteur? Yes, he is alive ; I slept by him
last night at Chaff ois. He has remained behind ; he is ill. You
might meet him on the road towards Chaffois."

The Pasteurs started again on the road followed the day
before. They had barely passed the Pontarlier gate when a
rough cart came by. A soldier muffled in his great coat, his
hands resting on the edge of the cart, started with surprise.
He hurried down, and the family embraced without a word, so
great was their emotion.

The capitulation of starving Paris and the proposed armistice
are historical events still present ifeythe memory of men who
were then beginning to learn the meaning of defeat. The
armistice, which Jules Favre thought would be applied with-
out restriction to all the army corps, was interpreted by Bis-
marck in a peculiar way. He and Jules Favre between them
had drawn up a protocol in general terms ; it had been under-
stood in those preliminary confabulations that, before drawing
up the limits of the neutral zone applicable to the Eastern Army
Corps, some missing information would be awaited, the respec-
tive positions of the belligerents being unknown. The in-
formation did not come, and Jules Favre in his imprudent

o

194 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

trustfulness supposed that the delimitation would be done on the
spot by the officers in command. When he heard that the
Prussian troops were continuing their march eastwards, he com-
plained to Bismarck, who answered that " the incident cannot
have compromised the Eastern Army Corps, as it already was
completely routed when the armistice was signed." This cal-
culated reserve on Bismarck's part was eminently character-
istic of his moral physiognomy, and this encounter between the
two Ministers proved once again the inferiority — when great
interests are at stake — of emotional men to hard-hearted business
men ; however it must be acknowledged that Bismarck's state-
ment was founded on fact. The Eastern Corps could have
fought no more ; its way was blocked. Without food, without
clothes, in many cases without arms, nothing remained to the
unfortunate soldiers but the refuge offered by Switzerland.

Pasteur went to Geneva with his son, who, after recovering
from the illness caused by fatigue and privation, succeeded in
getting back to France to rejoin his regiment in the early days
of February. Pasteur then went on to Lyons and stayed there
with his brother-in-law, M. Lou*, Dean of the Lyons Faculty
of Science. He intended to go back to Paris, but a letter from
Bertin dated February 18 advised him to wait. "This is the
present state of the Ecole : south wing : pulled down ; will be
built up again ; workmen expected. Third year dormitory :
ambulance occupied by eight students. Science dormitory and
drawing classroom : ambulance again, forty patients. Ground
floor classroom : 120 artillery-men. Pasteur laboratory : 210
gardes nationaux, refugees from Issy. You had better wait."
Bertin added, with his indomitable good humour, speaking of
the bombardment : ' ' The first day I did not go out , but I took
my bearings and found the formula : in leaving the school, walk
close along the houses on my left ; on coming back, keep close
to them on my right ; with that I went out as usual. The
population of Paris has shown magnificent resignation and
patience. ... In order to have our revenge, everything will
have to be rebuilt from the top to the bottom, the top
especially."

Pasteur also thought that reforms should begin from the top.
He prepared a paper dated from Lyons, and entitled "Why
France found no superior men in the hours of peril." Amongst
the mistakes committed, one in particular had been before his
mind for twenty years, ever since he left the Ecole Normals :

1870—1872 195

" The forgetf illness, disdain even, that France had had foi
great intellectual men, especially in the realm of exact science."
This seemed the more sad to him that things had been very
different at the end of the eighteenth century. Pasteur enu-
merated the services rendered by science to his threatened
country. If in 1792 France was able to face danger on all
sides, it was because Lavoisier, Fourcroy, Guy ton de Morveau,
Chaptal, Berthollet, etc., discovered new means of extracting
saltpetre and manufacturing gunpowder ; because Monge found
a method of founding cannon with great rapidity ; and because
the chemist Clouet invented a quick system of manufacturing
steel. Science, in the service of patriotism, made a victorious
army of a perturbed nation. If Marat, with his slanderous
and injurious insinuations, had not turned from their course the
feelings of the mob, Lavoisier never would have perished on the
scaffold. The day after his execution, Lagrange said : "One
moment was enough for his head to fall, and 200 years may
not suffice to produce such another." Monge and Berthollet,
also denounced by Marat, nearly shared the same fate : "In
a week's time we shall be arrested, tried, condemned and
executed," said Berthollet placidly to Monge, who answered
with equal composure, thinking only of the country's defence,
" All I know is that my gun factories are working admirably."

Bonaparte, from the first, made of science what he would
have made of everything — a means of reigning. When he
started for Egypt, he desired to have with him a staff of
scientists, and Monge and Berthollet undertook to organize
that distinguished company. Later, when Bonaparte became
Napoleon I, he showed, in the intervals between his wars, so
much respect for the place due to science as to proclaim the
effacement of national rivalry when scientific discoveries were
in question. Pasteur, when studying this side of the Imperial
character, found in some pages by Arago on Monge that, after
Waterloo, Napoleon, in a conversation he had with Monge at
the Elysee, said, "Condemned now to command armies no
longer, I can see but Science with which to occupy my mind
and my soul ..."

Alluding to the scientific supremacy of France during the
early part of the nineteenth century , Pasteur wrote : ' ' All
the other nations acknowledged our superiority, though each
could take pride in some great men : Berzelius in Sweden,
Davy in England, Volta in Italy, other eminent men in Ger-

o 2

196 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

many and Switzerland ; but in no country were they as numer-
ous as in France ..." He added these regretful lines : '* A
victim of her political instability, France has done nothing tc
keep up, to propagate and to develop the progress of science
in our country ; she has merely obeyed a given impulse ; she has
lived on her past, thinking herself great by the scientific dis-
coveries to which she owed her material prosperity, but not per-
ceiving that she was imprudently allowing the sources of those
discoveries to become dry, whilst neighbouring nations, stimu-
lated by her past example, were diverting for their own benefit
the course of those springs, rendering them fruitful by their
works, their efforts and their sacrifices.

"Whilst Germany was multiplying her universities, estab-
lishing between them the most salutary emulation, bestowing
honours and consideration on the masters and doctors, creating
vast laboratories amply supplied with the most perfect instru-
ments, France, enervated by revolutions, ever vainly seeking
for the best form of government, was giving but careless atten-
tion to her establishments for higher education . . .

"The cultivation of science in its highest expression is
perhaps even more necessary to the moral condition than to the
material prosperity of a nation.

_-.J-'~€freat discoveries — the manifestations of thought in Art,
in Science and in Letters, in a word the disinterested exercise
of the mind in every direction and the centres of instruction
from which it radiates, introduce into the whole of Society that
philosophical or scientific spirit, that spirit of discernment,
which submits everything to severe reasoning, condemns
ignorance and scatters errors and prejudices. They raise the
intellectual level and the moral sense, and through them the
Divine idea itself is spread abroad and intensified."

At the very time when Pasteur was preoccupied with the
desire of directing the public mind towards the principles of
truth, justice and sovereign harmony, Sainte Claire Deville,
speaking of the Academy, expressed similar ideas, proclaim-
ing that France had been vanquished by science and that it was
now time to free scientific bodies from the tyranny of red tape.
Why should not the Academy become the centre of all measures
relating to science, independently of government offices or
officials?

J. B. Dumas took part in the discussion opened by Sainte
Claire Deville, and agreed with his suggestions. He might

1870—1872 197

have said more, however, on a subject which he often took
up in private : the utility of pure science in daily experience.
With his own special gift of generalization, he could have ex-
pounded the progress of all kinds due to the workers who, by
their perseverance in resolving difficult problems, have brought
about so many precious and unexpected results. Few men in
France realized at that time that laboratories could be the
vestibule of farms, factories, etc. ; it was indeed a noble task,
that of proving that science was intended to lighten the burden
of humanity, not merely to be applied to devastation, carnage,
and hatred.

Pasteur was in the midst of these philosophical reflections
when he received the following answrer from the principal of
the Faculty of Medicine of Bonn :

"Sir, the undersigned, now Principal of the Faculty of
Medicine of Bonn, is requested to answer the insult which you
have dared to offer to the German nation in the sacred person
of its august Emperor, King Wilhelm of Prussia, by sending
you the expression of its entire contempt." — DR. MAURICE
NAUMANN.

"P.S. — Desiring to keep its papers free from taint, the
Faculty herewith returns your screed."

Pasteur's reply contained the following : " I have the honour
of informing you, Mr. Principal/ that there are times when
the expression of contempt in a Prussian mouth is equivalent
for a true Frenchman to that of Virum clarissimum which you
once publicly conferred upon me."

After invoking in favour of Alsace-Lorraine, Truth, of
Justice, and the laws of humanity, Pasteur added in a post-
script—

"And now, Mr. Principal, after reading over both your
letter and mine, I sorrow in my heart to think that men who
like yourself and myself have spent a lifetime in the pursuit of
truth and progress, should address each other in such a fashion,
founded on my part on such actions. This is but one of the
results of the character your Emperor has given to this war.
You speak to me of taint. Mr. Principal, taint will rest, you
may be assured, until far-distant ages, on the memory of those
who began the bombardment of Paris when capitulation by
famine was inevitable, and who continued this act of savagery
after it had become evident to all men that it would not advance
by one hour the surrender of the heroic city."

198 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Whilst Pasteur thus felt those simple and strong impressions
as a soldier or the man in the street might do, the -creative
power of his nature was urging him to great and useful achieve-
ments. He wrote from Lyons in March to M. Duclaux—

"My head is full of splendid projects; the war sent my
brain to grass, but I now feel ready for further work. Per-
haps I am deluding myself ; anyhow I will try. . . . Oh ! why
am I not rich, a millionaire? I would say to you, to Eaulin,
to Gernez, to Van Tieghem, etc., come, we will transform the
world by our discoveries. How fortunate you are to be young
and strong ! Why can I not begin a new life of study and
work ! Unhappy France, beloved country, if I could only
assist in raising thee from thy disasters ! ' '

A few days later, in a letter to Kaulin, this desire for devoted
work was again expressed almost feverishly. He could fore-
see, in the dim distance, secret affinities between apparently
dissimilar things. He had at that time returned to the re-
searches which had absorbed his youth (because those studies
were less materially difficult to organize) , and he could perceive
laws and connections between the facts he had observed and
those of the existence of which he felt assured.

"I have begun here some experiments in crystallization
which will open a great prospect if they should lead to positive
results. You know that I believe that there is a cosmic dis-
symmetric influence which presides constantly and naturally
over the molecular organization of principles immediately essen-
tial to life ; and that, in consequence of this, the species of the
three kingdoms, by their structure, by their form, by the dis-
position of their tissues, have a definite relation to the move-
ments of the universe. For many of those species, if not for
all, the sun is the primum movens of nutrition ; but I believe in
another influence which would affect the whole organization,
for it would be the cause of the molecular dissymmetry proper
to the chemical components of life. I want to be able by ex-
periment to grasp a few indications as to the nature of this
great cosmic dissymmetrical influence. It must, it may be
electricity, magnetism. . . . And, as one should always proceed
from the simple to the complex, I am now trying to crystallize
double racemate of soda and ammonia under the influence of a
spiral solenoid.

" I have various other forms of experiment to attempt. If
one of them should succeed, we shall have work for the rest of

1870—1872 199

our lives, and in one of the greatest subjects man could ap-
proach, for I should not despair of arriving by this means at a
very deep, unexpected and extraordinary modification of the
animal and vegetable species.

11 Good-bye, my dear Kaulin. Let us endeavour to distract
our thoughts from human turpitudes by the disinterested search
after truth."

In a little notebook where he jotted down some intended ex-
periments we find evidence of those glimpses of divination in a
few summary lines : " Show that life is in the germ, that it has
been but in a state of transmission since the origin of creation.
That the germ possesses possibilities of development, either of
intelligence and will, or — and in the same way — of physical
organs. Compare these possibilities with those possessed by
the germ of chemical species which is in the chemical molecule.
The possibilities of development in the germ of the chemical
molecule consist in crystallization, in its form, in its physical
and chemical properties. Those properties are in power in the
germ of the molecule in the same way as the organs and tissues
of animals and plants are in their respective germs. Add :
nothing is more curious than to carry the comparison of living
species with mineral species into the study of the wounds of
either, and of their healing by means of nutrition — a nutrition
coming from within in living beings, and from without through
the medium of crystallization in the others. Here detail
facts. ..."

In that same notebook, Pasteur, after writing down the fol-
lowing heading, "Letter to prepare on the species in connection
with molecular dissymmetry," added, " I could write that letter
to Bernard. I should say that being deprived of a laboratory
by the present state of France, I am going to give him the pre-
conceived ideas that I shall try to experiment upon when better
times come. There is no peril in expressing ideas a priori,
when they are taken as such, and can be gradually modified,
perhaps even completely transformed, according to the result
of the observation of facts."

He once compared those preconceived ideas with searchlights
guiding the experimentalist, saying that they only became
dangerous when they became fixed ideas.

Civil war had now come, showing, as Kenan said, "a sore
under the sore, an abyss below the abyss." What were the
hopes and projects of Pasteur and of Sainte Claire Deville now

200 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

that the very existence of the divided country was jeopardized
under the eyes of the Prussians? The world of letters and of
science, helpless amidst such disorders, had dispersed; Saint
Claire Deville was at Gex, Dumas at Geneva. Some were
wondering whether lectures could not be organized in Switzer-
land and in Belgium as they had been under the Empire, thus
spreading abroad the influence of French thought. Examples
might be quoted of men who had served the glory of their
country in other lands, such as Descartes, who took refuge in
Holland in order to continue his philosophic meditations.
Pasteur might have been tempted to do likewise. Already,
before the end of the war, an Italian professor of chemistry,
Signor Chiozza, who had applied Pasteur's methods to silk-
worms in the neighbourhood of Villa Vicentina, got the Italian
Government to offer him a laboratory and the direction of a
silkworm establishment. Pasteur refused, and a deputy of
Pisa, Signor Toscanelli, hearing of this, obtained for Pasteur
the offer of what was better still — a professor's chair of
Chemistry applied to Agriculture at Pisa ; this would give
every facility for work and all laboratory resources. " Pisa,"
Signor Chiozza said, " is a quiet town, a sort of Latin quarter
in the middle of the country, where professors and students
form the greater part of the population. I think you would be
received with the greatest cordiality and quite exceptional con-
sideration ... I fear that black days of prolonged agitation
are in store for France."

Pasteur's health and work were indeed valuable to the whole
world, and Signor Chiozza's proposition seemed simple and
rational. Pasteur was much divided in his mind : his first
impulse was to renew his refusal. He thought but of his van-
quished country, and did not wish to forsake it. But was it to
his country's real interests that he should remain a helpless
spectator of so many disasters? Was it not better to carry
French teaching abroad, to try and provoke in young Italian
students enthusiasm for French scientists, French achieve-
ments? He might still serve his beloved country in that quiet
retreat, amidst all those facilities for continuous work. He
thought of writing to Eaulin, who had relations in Italy, and
who might follow his master. Finally, he was offered very
great personal advantages, a high salary — and this determined
his refusal, for, as he wrote to Signor Chiozza, "I should feel
that I deserved a deserter's penalty if I sought, away from my

1870—1872 201

country in distress, a material situation better than it can
offer me."

" Nevertheless allow me to tell you, Sir (he wrote to Signor
Toscanelli, refusing his offer), in all sincerity, that the memory
of your offer will remain in the annals of my family as a title
of nobility, as a proof of Italy's sympathy for France, as a
token of the esteem accorded to my work. And as far as you,
M. le Depute, are concerned it will remain in my eyes a
brilliant proof of the way in which public men in Italy regard
science and its grandeur."

And now what was Pasteur to do — he who could not live
away from a laboratory? In April, 1871, he could neither go
back to Paris and the Commune nor to Arbois, now trans-
formed into a Prussian depot. It seemed, indeed, from the
letters he received that his fellow citizens were now destined
but to feed and serve a victorious foe, whose exactions were all
the more rigorous that the invasion of the town on January 25
had been preceded by an attempt at resistance on the part of the
inhabitants. On that morning, a few French soldiers who were
seeking their regiments and a handful of franc tireurs had
posted themselves among the vines. About ten o'clock a first
shot sounded in the distance ; in a turn of the sinuous Besan£on
road, when the Prussian vanguard had appeared, a Zouave —
who the day before was begging from door to door, shaking with
ague, and who had taken* refuge in the village of Montigny,
two kilometres from Arbois — had in despair fired his last
cartridge. A squad of Prussians left the road and rushed to-
wards the smoke of the gun. The soldier was seized, shot
down on the spot, and mutilated with bayonets. Whilst the
main column continued their advance towards the town, de-
tachments explored the vines on either side of the road, shoot-
ing here and there. An old man who, with a courageous
indifference, was working in his vineyard was shot down at his
work. A little pastrycook's boy, nicknamed Biscuit by the
Arboisians, who, led by curiosity, had come down from the
upper town to the big poplar trees at the entrance of Arbois,
suddenly staggered, struck by a Prussian bullet. He was just
able to creep back to the first house, his eyes already dimmed by
death.

Those were but the chances of war, but other crueller
episodes thrilled Pasteur to the very depths of his soul. Such
things are lost in history, just as a little blood spilt disappears

202 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

in a river, but, for the witnesses and contemporaries of the
facts, the trace of blood remains. An incident will help the
reader to understand the lasting indignation the war excited
in Pasteur.

One of the Prussian sergeants, who, after the shot fired at
Montigny^ were leading small detachments of soldiers, thought
that a house on the outskirts of Arbois, in the faubourg of
Verreux, looked as if it might shelter franc tireurs. He
directed his men towards it and the house was soon reached.

It was now twelve o'clock, all fighting had ceased, and the
first Prussians who had arrived were masters of the town.
Others were arriving from various directions ; a heavy silence
reigned over the town. The mayor, M. Lefort, led by a
Prussian officer who covered him with a revolver whenever he
addressed him, was treated as a hostage responsible for abso-
lute submission. Every door in the small Town Hall was opened
in succession in order to see that there were no arms hidden.
The mayor was each time made to pass first, so that he should
receive the shot in case of a surprise. In the library, three
flags, which General Delort had brought back from the Ehine
campaign when he was a captain in the cavalry and given to
his native town, were torn down and the general's bust over-
turned.

The sergeant, violently entering the suspected house with
his men , found a whole family peacefully sitting down to their
dinner — the husband, wife, a son of nineteen, and two young
daughters. The invaders made no search nor asked any ques-
tions of those poor people, who had probably done nothing worse
than to offer a few glasses of wine to French soldiers as they
passed. The sergeant did not even ask the name of the master
of the house (Antoine Ducret, aged fifty-nine), but seized him
by his coat and ordered his men to seize the son too. The
woman, who rushed to the door in her endeavour to prevent her
husband and her son from being thus taken from her, was
violently flung to the end of the room, her trembling daughters
crouching around her as they listened to the heavy Prussian
boots going down the wooden stairs. There is a public drinking
fountain not far from the house ; Ducret was taken there and
placed against a wall. He understood, and cried out, " Spare
my son ! ! " " What do you say? " said the sergeant to the
boy. "I will stay with my father," he answered simply. The
father, struck by two bullets at close range, fell at the feet of

1870—1872 203

his son, who was shot down immediately afterwards. The two
corpses, afterwards mutilated with bayonets, remained lying
by the water side ; the neighbours succeeded in preventing the
mother and her two daughters from leaving their house until
the bodies had been placed in a coffin. On the tombs of Antoine
and Charles Ducret the equivocal inscription was placed " Fell
at Arbois, January 25, 1871, under Prussian fire." For the
honour of humanity, a German officer, having heard these de-
tails, offered the life of the sergeant to Ducret 's widow; but
she entertained no thoughts of revenge. "His death would
not give them back to me," she said.

Pasteur could not become resigned to the humiliation of
France, and, tearing his thoughts from the nightmare of the
war and the Commune, he dwelt continually on the efforts
that would be necessary to carry out the great task of raising
the country once again to its proper rank. In his mind it was
the duty of every one to say, " In what way can I be useful? "
Each man should strive not so much to play a great part as to
give the best of his ability. He had no patience with those
who doubt everything in order to have an excuse for doing
nothing.

He had indeed known dark moments of doubt and mis-
givings, as even the greatest minds must do, but notwith-
standing these periods of discouragement he was convinced that
science and peace will ultimately triumph over ignorance and
war. In spite of recent events, the bitter conditions of peace
which tore unwilling Alsace and part of Lorraine away from
France, the heavy tax of gold and of blood weighing down future
generations, the sad visions of young men in their prime cut
down on the battlefield or breathing their last in hospitals all to
no apparent purpose ; in spite of all these sad memories he was
persuaded that thinkers would gradually awaken in the nations
ideas of justice and of concord.

He had now for nine years been following with a passionate
interest some work begun in his own laboratory by Eaulin, his
first curator. Some of the letters he wrote to Eaulin during
those nine years give us a faint idea of the master that Pasteur
was. It had been with great regret that Raulin had left the
laboratory in obedience to the then laws of the University in
order to take up active work at the Brest college, and Pasteur's
letters (December, 1862) brought him joy and encouragement :
" Keep up your courage, do not allow the idleness of pro-

j

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

vincial life to disturb you. Teach your pupils to the very best
of your ability and give up your leisure to experiments ; this
was M. Biot's advice to myself." When in July, 1863, he
began to fear that Eaulin might allow imagination to lead him
astray in his work, he repeatedly advised him to state
nothing that could not be proved : "Be very strict in
your deductions"; then, apparently, loth to damp the young
man's ardour : "I have the greatest confidence in your judg-
ment; do not take too much heed of my observations."

In 1863 Pasteur asked Kaulin to come with him, Gernez and
Duclaux, to Arbois for some studies on wines, etc., but Eaulin,
absorbed in the investigations he had undertaken , refused ; in
1865 he refused to come to Alais, still being completely wrapt
up in the same work. Pasteur sympathized heartily with his
pupil's perseverance, and, when Eaulin was at last able to
announce to his master the results so long sought after, Pasteur
hurried to Caen, where Eaulin was now professor of Physics,
and returned full of enthusiasm. His modesty in all that con-
cerned himself now giving way to delighted pride, he spoke of
Eaulin's discoveries to every one. Yet they concerned an
apparently unimportant subject — a microscopical fungus, a
simple mucor, whose spores, mingled with atmospheric germs,
develop on bread moistened with vinegar or on a slice of lemon ;
yet no precious plant ever inspired more care or solicitude than
that aspergillus niger, as it is called. Eaulin, inspired by
Pasteur's studies on cultures in an artificial medium, that is, a
medium exclusively composed of defined chemical substances,
resolved to find for this plant a typical medium capable of giving
its maximum development to the aspergillus niger. Some of
his comrades looked upon this as upon a sort of laboratory
amusement; but Eaulin, ever a man of one idea, looked upon
the culture of microscopic vegetation as a step towards a greater
knowledge of vegetable physiology, leading to the development
of artificial manure production, and from that to the rational
nutrition of the human organisms. He started from the condi-
tions indicated by Pasteur for the development of mucedinse in
general and in particular for a mucor which has some points of
resemblance with the aspergillus niger, the penicillium glau-
cum, which spreads a bluish tint over mouldy bread, jam, and
soft cheeses. Eaulin began by placing pure spores of asper-
gillus niger on the surface of a saucer containing everything

1870—1872 205

that seemed necessary to their perfect growth, in a stove heated
to a temperature of 20° C. ; but in spite of every care, after
forty days had passed, the tiny fungus was languishing and
unhealthy. A temperature of 30° did not seem more successful ;
and when the stove was heated to above 38° the result was the
same. At 35°, with a moist and changing atmosphere, the re-
sult was favourable — very fortunately for Eaulin, for the
principal of the college, an economically minded man, did not
approve of burning so much gas for such a tiny fungus and with
such poor results. This want of sympathy excited Raulin's
solemn wrath and caused him to meditate dark projects of
revenge, such as ignoring his enemy in the street on some future
occasion. In the meanwhile he continued his slow and careful
experiments. He succeeded at last in composing a liquid, tech-
nically called Raulin's liquid, in which the aspergillus niger
grew and flourished within six or even three days. Eleven sub-
stances were necessary : water, candied sugar, tartaric acid,
nitrate of ammonia, phosphate of ammonia, carbonate of
potash, carbonate of magnesia, sulphate of ammonia, sulphate
of zinc, sulphate of iron, and silicate of potash. He now
studied the part played by each of those elements, varying his
quantities, taking away one substance and adding another, and
obtained some very curious results. For instance, the asper-
gillus was extraordinarily sensitive to the action of zinc ; if
the quantity of zinc was reduced by a few milligrams the vegeta-
tion decreased by one-tenth. Other elements were pernicious ;
if Raulin added to his liquid Tinriinro of nitrate of silver, the
growth of the fungus ceased. Moreover, if he placed the liquid
in a silver goblet instead of a china saucer, the vegetation did
not even begin, " though," writes M. Duclaux, analysing this
fine work of his fellow student, "it is almost impossible to
chemically detect any dissolution of the silver into the liquid.
But the fungus proves it by dying."

In this thesis, now a classic, which only appeared in 1870,
Raulin enumerated with joyful gratitude all that he owed to his
illustrious master — general views, principles and methods, sug-
gestive ideas, advice and encouragement — saying that Pasteur
had shown him the road on which he had travelled so far.
Pasteur, touched by his pupil's affection, wrote to thank him,
saying : ' ' You credit me with too much ; it is enough for me
that your work should be known as having been begun in my

206 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

laboratory, and in a direction the fruitfulness of which I was
perhaps the first to point out. I had only conceived hopes, and
you bring us solid realities."

In April, 1871, Pasteur, preoccupied with the future, and
ambitious for those who might come after him, wrote to Claude
Bernard : ' ' Allow me to submit to you an idea which has
occurred to me, that of conferring on my dear pupil and friend
Baulin the Experimental Physiology prize, for his splendid
work on the nutriment of mucors, or rather of a mucor, the ex-
cellence of which work has not escaped you. I doubt if you can
find anything better. I must tell you that this idea occurred
to me whilst reading your admirable report on the progress of
General Physiology in France. If therefore my suggestion
seems to you acceptable, you will have sown the germ of it in
my mind ; if you disapprove of it I shall make you partly
responsible.'*

Claude Bernard hastened to reply : " You may depend upon
my support for your pupil M. Raulin. It will be for me both
a pleasure and a duty to support such excellent work and to
glorify the method of the master who inspired it."
. In his letter to Claude Bernard, Pasteur had added these
words : "I have made up my mind to go and spend a few
months at Koyat with my family, so as to be near my dear
Duclaux. We shall raise a few grammes of silkworm seed."

M. Duclaux was then professor of chemistry at the Faculty
of Clermont Ferrand, a short distance from Eoyat, and Pasteur
intended to walk every day to the laboratory of his former pupil.
But M. Duclaux did not countenance this plan ; he meant to
entertain his master and his master's family in his own house,
25, Hue Montlosier, where he could even have one room
arranged as a silkworm nursery. He succeeded in persuading
Pasteur, and they organized a delightful home life which re-
called the days at Pont Gisquet before the war.

Pasteur was seeking the means of making his seed-selecting
process applicable to small private nurseries as well as to large
industrial establishments. The only difficulty was the cost of
the indispensable microscope ; but Pasteur thought that each
village might possess its microscope, and that the village school-
master might be entrusted with the examination of the moths.

In a letter written in April, 1871, to M. Bellotti, of the
Milan Civic Museum, Pasteur, after describing in a few lines
the simple process he had taken five years to study, added —

1870—1872 207

" If I dared to quote myself, I would recall those words from
my book —

' If I were a silkworm cultivator I never would raise seed
from worms I had not observed during the last days of their life,
so as to satisfy myself as to their vigour and agility just before
spinning. The seed chosen should be that which comes from
worms who climbed the twigs with agility, who showed no
mortality from flachery between the fourth moulting and climb-
ing time, and whose freedom from corpuscles will have been
demonstrated by the microscope. If that is done, any one with
the slightest knowledge of silkworm culture will succeed in
every case.' '

Italy and Austria vied with each other in adopting the seed
selected by the Pasteur system. But it was only when Pasteur
was on the eve of receiving from the Austrian Government the
great prize offered in 1868 to "whoever should discover a pre-
ventive and curative remedy against pebrine " that French
sericicultors began to be convinced. The French character
offers this strange contrast, that France is often willing to risk
her fortune and her blood for causes which may be unworthy,
whilst at another moment, in everyday life, she shrinks at the
least innovation before accepting a benefit originated on her
own soil. The French often wait until other nations have
adopted and approved a French discovery before venturing to
adopt it in their turn.

Pasteur did not stop to look back and delight in his success,
but hastened to turn his mind to another kind of study. His
choice of a subject was influenced by patriotic motives.
Germany was incontestably superior to France in the manufac-
ture of beer, and he conceived the thought of making France a
successful rival in that respect; in order to enable himself to
do so, he undertook to study the scientific mechanism of beer
manufacture.

There was a brewery at Chamalieres, between Clermont and
Roy at. Pasteur began by visiting it with eager curiosity,
inquiring into the minutest details, endeavouring to find out
the why and the wherefore of every process, and receiving
vague answers with much astonishment. M. Kuhn, the
Chamalieres brewer, did not know much more about beer than
did his fellow brewers in general. Very little was known at
that time about the way it was produced ; when brewers re-
ceived complaints from their customers, they procured yeast

208 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

from a fresh source. In a book of reference which was then
much in use, entitled Alimentary Substances: the Means of
Improving and Preserving them, and of Recognizing their
Alterations, six pages were given up to beer by the author, M.
Payee, a member of the Institute. He merely showed that
germinated barley, called malt, was diluted, then heated and
mixed with hops, thus forming beer-wort, which was sub-
mitted, when cold, to alcoholic fermentation through the yeast
added to the above liquid. M. Payen conceded to beer some
nutritive properties, but added, a little disdainfully, " Beer,
perhaps on account of the pungent smell of hops, does not seem
endowed with stimulating properties as agreeable, or as likely
to inspire such bright and cheerful ideas, as the sweet and
varied aroma of the good wines of France."

In a paragraph on the alterations of beer — " spontaneous
alterations " — M. Payen said that it was chiefly during the
summer that beer became altered. "It becomes acid, and
even noticeably putrid, and ceases to be fit to drink."

Pasteur's hopes of making French beer capable of competing
with German beer were much strengthened by faith in his own
method. He had, by experimental proof, destroyed the theory
of spontaneous generation ; he had shown that chance has no
share in fermentations ; the animated nature and the specific
characteristics of those ferments, the methods of culture in
appropriate media, were so many scientific points gained. The
difficulties which remained to be solved were the question of
pure yeast and the search for the causes of alteration which
make beer thick, acid, sour, slimy or putrid. Pasteur thought
that these alterations were probably due to the development of
germs in the air, in the water, or on the surface of the numerous
utensils used in a brewery.

As he advanced further and further into that domain of the
infinitely small which he had discovered, whether the subject
was wine, vinegar, or silkworms— this last study already open-
ing before him glimpses of light on human pathology— new and
unexpected visions rose before his sight.

Pasteur had formerly demonstrated that if a putrescible
liquid, such as beef broth for instance, after being previously
boiled, is kept in a vessel with a long curved neck, the air only
reaching it after having deposited its germs in the curves of the
neck, does not alter it in any way. He now desired to invent
an apparatus which would protect the wort against external

1870—1872 209

dusts, against the microscopic germs ever ready to interfere
with the course of proper fermentation by the introduction of
other noxious ferments. It was necessary to prove that beer
remains unalterable whenever it does not contain the organisms
which cause its diseases. Many technical difficulties were in
the way, but the brewers of Chamalieres tried in the most
obliging manner to facilitate things for him.

This exchange of services between science and industry was
in accordance with Pasteur's plan ; though he had been
prophesying for fourteen years the greafr progress which would
result from an alliance between laboratories and factories, the
idea was hardly understood at that time. Yet the manufac-
turers of Lille and Orleans, the wine merchants and the silk-
worm cultivators of the South of France, and of Austria and
Italy, might well have been called as enthusiastic witnesses to
the advantages of such a collaboration.

Pasteur, happy to make the fortune of others, intended to
organize, against the danger of alterations in beer, some experi-
ments which would give to that industry solid notions resting on
a scientific basis. " Dear master," wrote he to J. B. Dumas
on August 4, 1871, from Clerniont, " I have asked the brewer
to send you twelve bottles of my beer. ... I hope you will find
it compares favourably even with the excellent beer of Paris
cafes." There was a postscript to this letter, proving once
more Pasteur's solicitude for his pupils. " A thousand thanks
for your kind welcome of Eaulin's work ; Bernard's support has
also been promised him. The Academy could not find a better
recipient for the prize. It is quite exceptional work."

Pasteur, ever full of praises for his pupil, also found excuses
for him. In spite of M. Duclaux's pressing request, Eaulin
had again found reasons to refuse an invitation to come to
Auvergne for a few days. " I regret very much that you did
not come to see us," wrote Pasteur to Eaulin, "especially on
account of the beer. . . . Tell me what you think of doing.
When are you coming to Paris for good? I shall want you to
help me to arrange my laboratory, where everything, as you
know, has still to be done; it must be put into working order
as soon as possible."

Pasteur would have liked Eaulin to come with him to London
in September, 1871, before settling down in Paris.

The Chamalieresi brewery was no longer sufficient for
Pasteur ; he wished to see one of those great English breweries

P

210 ^ I THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

which produce in one year more than 100,000 hectolitres of beer.
The great French savant was most courteously received by the
managers of one of the most important breweries in London,
who offered to show him round the works where 250 men were
employed. But Pasteur asked for a little of the barm of the
porter which was flowing into a trough from the cask. He
examined that yeast with a microscope, and soon recognized
a noxious ferment which he drew on a piece of paper and
showed to the bystanders, saying, " This porter must leave
much to be desired," to the astonished managers, who had
not expected this sudden criticism. Pasteur added that surely
the defect must have been betrayed by a bad taste, perhaps
already complained of by some customers. Thereupon the
managers owned that that very morning some fresh yeast had
had to be procured from another brewery. Pasteur asked to
see the new yeast, and found it incomparably purer, but such
was not the case with the barm of the other products then in
fermentation — ale and pale ale.

By degrees, samples of every kind of beer on the premises
were brought to Pasteur and put under the microscope. He
detected marked beginnings of disease in some, in others merely
a trace, but a threatening one. The various foremen were sent
for; this scientific visit seemed like a police inquiry. The
owner of the brewery, who had been fetched, was obliged to
register, one after another, these experimental demonstrations.
It was only human to show a little surprise , perhaps a little im-
patience of wounded feeling. But it was impossible to mistake
the authority of the French scientist's words : " Every marked
alteration in the quality of the beer coincides with the develop-
ment of micro-organisms foreign to the nature of true beer
yeast." It would have been interesting to a psychologist to
study in the expression of Pasteur's hearers those shades of
curiosity, doubt, and approbation, which ended in the
thoroughly English conclusion that there was profit to be made
out of this object lesson.

Pasteur afterwards remembered with a smile the answers
he received, rather vague at first, then clearer, and, finally—
interest and confidence now obtained — the confession that
there was in a corner of the brewery a quantity of spoilt beer,
which had gone wrong only a fortnight after it was made, and
was not drinkable. "I examined it with a microscope," said
Pasfceur, "and could not at first detect any ferments of

1870—1872

disease ; but guessing that it might have become clear through
a long rest, the ferments now inert having dropped to the
bottom of the reservoirs, I examined the deposit at the bottom
of the reservoirs. It was entirely composed of filaments of
disease unmixed with the least globule of alcoholic yeast.
The complementary fermentation of that beer had therefore
been exclusively a morbid fermentation."

When he visited the same brewery again, a week later, he
found that not only had a microscope been procured imme-
diately, but the yeast of all the beer then being brewed had been
changed.

Pasteur was happy to offer to the English, who like to call
themselves practical men, a proof of the usefulness of dis-
interested science, persuaded as he was that the moral debt
incurred to a French scientist would in some measure revert
to France herself. "We must make some friends for our
beloved France," he would say. And if in the course of con-
versation an Englishman gave expression to any doubt con-
cerning the future of the country, Pasteur, his grave and
powerful face full of energy, would answer that every French-
man, after the horrible storm which had raged for so many
months, was valiantly returning to his daily task, whether
great or humble, each one thinking of retrieving the national
fall.

Every morning, as he left his hotel to go to the various
breweries which he was now privileged to visit in their smallest
details, he observed this English people, knowing the value of
time, seeing its own interests in all things, consistent in its
ideas and in its efforts, respectful of established institutions and
hierarchy ; and he thought with regret how his own country-
men lacked these qualities. But if the French are rightly
taxed with a feverish love of change, should not justice be
rendered to that generous side of the French character, so
gifted, capable of so much, and which finds in self-sacrifice
the secret of energy, for whom hatred is a real suffering?
" Let us work ! " Pasteur's favourite phrase ever ended those
philosophical discussions.

He wanted to do two years* work in one, regardless of
health and strength. Beyond the diseases of beer, avoidable
since they come from outside, he foresaw the application of
the doctrine of exterior germs to other diseases. But he did
not allow his imagination to run away with him, and resolutely

p 2

212 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

fixed his mind on his present object, which was the application
of science to the brewing industry.

"The interest of those visits to English breweries," wrote
Pasteur to Raulin, " and of the information I am able to col-
lect (I hear that I ought to consider this as a great favour)
causes me to regret very much that you should be in want of
rest, for I am sure you would have been charmed to acquire
so much instruction de visu. Why should you not come for
a day or two if your health permits? Do as you like about
that, but in any case prepare for immediate work on my
return. We need not wait for the new laboratory; we can
settle down in the old one and in a Paris brewery."

When Pasteur returned to Paris, Bertin, who had not seen
him since the recent historic events, welcomed him with a
radiant delight. School friendships are like those favourite
books which always open at the page we prefer ; time has nd
hold on certain affections; ever new, ever young, they never
show signs of age. Bertin 's love was very precious to Pasteur,
though the two friends were as different from each other as
possible. Pasteur, ever preoccupied, seemed to justify the
Englishman who said that genius consists in an infinite
capacity for taking pains ; whilst Bertin , with his merry eyes ,
was the very image of a smiling philosopher. In spite of his
position as sub-director, which he most conscientiously filled.
he was not afraid to whistle or to sing popular songs as he
went along the passages of the Ecole Normale. He came
round to Pasteur's rooms almost every evening, bringing with
him joy, lightness of heart, and a rest and relaxation for the
mind, brightening up his friend by his amusing way of look-
ing at things in general, and — at that time — beer in particular.

Whilst Pasteur saw but pure yeast, and thought but of spores
of disease, ferments, and parasitic invasions, Bertin would
dilate on certain cafe's in the Latin quarter, where, without
regard to great scientific principles, experts could be asked
to pronounce between the beer on the premises and laboratory
beer, harmless and almost agreeable, but lacking in the refine-
ment of taste of which Bertin, who had spent many years in
Strasburg, was a competent judge. Pasteur, accustomed to
an absolutely infallible method, like that which he had in-
vented for the seeding of silkworms, heard Bertin say to him,
"First of all, give me a good bock, you can talk learnedly
afterwards." Pasteur acknowledged, however, the improve-

1870—1872 213

ments obtained by certain brewers, who, thanks to the ex-
perience of years, knew how to choose yeast which gave a
particular taste, and also how to employ preventive measures
against accidental and pernicious ferments (such as the use of
ice, or of hops in a larger quantity). But, though laughing
at Bertin's jokes, Pasteur was convinced that great progress in
the brewer's art would date from his studies.

He was now going through a series of experiments, buying
at Bertin's much praised cafe's samples of various famous beers
— Strasburg, Nancy, Vienna, Burton's, etc. After letting the
samples rest for fwenty-four hours he decanted them and
sowed one drop of the deposit in vessels full of pure wort,
which he placed in a temperature of 20° C. After fifteen or
eighteen days he studied and tasted the yeasts formed in the
wort, and found them all to contain ferments of diseases. He
sowed some pure yeast in some other vessels, with the same
precautions, and all the beers of this series remained pure from
strange ferments and free from bad taste ; they had merely
become flat.

He was eagerly seeking the means of judging how his labora-
tory tests would work in practice. He spent some time at
Tantonville, in Lorraine, visiting an immense brewery, of
which the owners were the brothers Tourtel. Though very
carefully kept, the brewery was yet not quite clean enough to
satisfy him. It is true that he was more than difficult to
please in that respect; a small detail of his everyday life
revealed this constant preoccupation. He never used a plate
or a glass without examining them minutely and wiping them
carefully; no microscopic speck of dust escaped his short-
sighted eyes. Whether at home or with strangers he in-
variably went through this preliminary exercise, in spite of
the anxious astonishment of his hostess, who usually feared
that some negligence had occurred, until Pasteur, noticing her
slight dismay, assured her that this was but an inveterate
scientist's habit. If he carried such minute care into daily
life, we can imagine how strict was his examination of scien-
tific things and of brewery tanks.

After those studies at Tantonville with his curator, M.
Grenet, Pasteur laid down three great principles —

1. Every alteration either of the wort or of the beer itself
depends on the development of micro-organisms which are
ferments of diseases.

214 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

2. These germs of ferments are brought by the air, by the
ingredients, or by the apparatus used in breweries.

3. Whenever beer contains no living germs it is unalterable.
When once those principles were formulated and proved

they were to triumph over all professional uncertainties. And
in the same way that wines could be preserved from various
causes of alteration by heating, bottled beer could escape the
development of disease ferments by being brought to a tem-
perature of 50° to 55°. The application of this process gave
rise to the new word " pasteurized " beer, a neologism which
soon became current in technical language.

Pasteur foresaw the distant consequences of these studies,
and wrote in his book on beer —

( ' When we see beer and wine subjected to deep alterations
because they hare given refuge to micro-organisms invisibly
introduced and now swarming within them, it is impossible
not to be pursued by the thought that similar facts may, must,
take place in animals and in man. But if we are inclined to
believe that it is so because we think it likely and possible,
let us endeavour to remember, before we affirm it, that the
greatest disorder of the mind is to allow the will to direct
the belief."

This shows us once more the strange duality of this inspired
man, who associated in his person the faith of an apostle with
the inquiring patience of a scientist.

He was often disturbed by tiresome discussions from the
researches to which he would gladly have given his whole
time. The heterogenists had not surrendered ; they would
not admit that alterable organic liquids could be indefinitely
preserved from putrefaction and fermentation when in contact
with air freed from dusts.

Pouchet, the most celebrated of them, who considered that
part of a scientist's duty consists in vulgarizing his discoveries,
was preparing for the New Year, 1872, a book called The
Universe: the Infinitely Great and the Infinitely Small. He
enthusiastically recalled the spectacle revealed at the end of
the seventeenth century by the microscope, which he com-
pared to a sixth sense. He praised the discoveries made in
1838 by Ehrenberg on the prodigious activity of infusories,
but he never mentioned Pasteur's name, leaving entirely on
one side the immense work accomplished by the infinitely
small and ever active agents of putrefaction and fermentation.

1870—1872 215

He owned that " a few microzoa did fly about here and there,"
but he called the theory of germs a "ridiculous fiction."

At the same time Liebig, who, since the interview in July,
1870, had had time to recover his health, published a long
treatise disputing certain facts put forward by Pasteur.

Pasteur had declared that, in the process of vinegar-making
known as the German process, the chips of beech- wood placed
in the barrels were but supports for the mycoderma aceti.
Liebig, after having, he said, consulted at Munich the chief
of one of the largest vinegar factories, who did not believe in
the presence of the mycoderma, affirmed that he himself had'
not seen a trace of the fungus on chips which had been used
in that factory for twenty-five years.

In order to bring this debate to a conclusion Pasteur sug-
gested a very simple experiment, which was to dry some of
those chips rapidly in a stove and to send them to Paris, where
a commission, selected from the members of the Academie
des Sciences, would decide on this conflict. Pasteur under-
took to demonstrate to the Commission the presence of the
mycoderma on the surface of the chips. Or another means
might be used : the Munich vinegar maker would be asked
to scald one of his barrels with boiling water and then to make
use of it again. "According to Liebig's theory," said
Pasteur, "that barrel should work as before, but I affirm that
no vinegar will form in it for a long time, not until new myco-
derma have grown on the surface of the chips." In effect,
the boiling water would destroy the little fungus. With the
usual clear directness which increased the interest of the
public in this scientific discussion, Pasteur formulated once
more his complete theory of acetification : " The principle is
very simple : whenever wine is transformed into vinegar, it is
by the action of the layer of mycoderma aceti developed on its
surface." Liebig, however, refused the suggested test.

Immediately after that episode a fresh adversary, M. Fr£my,
a member of the Academie des Sciences, began with Pasteur
a discussion, which was destined to be a long one, on the
question of the origin of ferments. M. Fremy alluded to
the fact that he had given many years to that subject, having
published a notice on lactic fermentation as far back as 1841,
" at a time," he said, "when our learned colleague— M.
Pasteur— was barely entering into science." . . . "In the pro-
duction of wine," said M. Fremy, "it is the juice of the fruit

216 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

itself, which, put in contact with air, gives birth to grains of
yeast by the transformation of albuminous matter, whilst
M. Pasteur declares that the grains of yeast are produced by
germs." According to M. Fremy, ferments did not come from
atmospheric dusts, but were created by organic bodies. And,
inventing for his own use the new word hemiorganism, M.
Fre"my explained the word and the action by saying that there
are some hemiorganized bodies which, by reason of the vital
force with which they are endowed, go through successive
decompositions and give birth to new derivatives ; thus are
ferments engendered.

Another colleague, M. Tre'cul, a botanist and a genuine
truth-seeking savant, arose in his turn. He said he had wit-
nessed a whole transformation of microscopic species each into
the other, and in support of this theory he invoked the names
of the three inseparables — Pouchet, Musset and Joly. Him-
self a heterogenist, he had in 1867 given a definition to which
he willingly alluded : ' ' Heterogenesis is a natural operation
by which life, on the point of abandoning an organized body,
concentrates its action on some particles of that body and
forms thereof beings quite different from that of the sub-
stance which has been borrowed."

Old arguments and renewed negations were brought forward ,
and Pasteur knew well that this was but a reappearance of the
old quarrel ; he therefore answered by going straight to the
point. At the Academie des Sciences, on December 26, 1871,
he addressed M. Trecul in these words: "I can assure our
learned colleague that he might have found in the treatises I
have published decisive answers to most of the questions he has
raised. I am really surprised to see him tackle the question
of so-called spontaneous generation, without having more at
his disposal than doubtful facts and incomplete observations.
My astonishment was not less than at our last sitting, when
M. Fre"my entered upon the same debate with nothing to pro-
duce but superannuated opinions and not one new positive
fact."

In his passion for truth and his desire to be convincing
Pasteur threw out this challenge : "Would M. Fremy confess
fois error if I were to demonstrate to him that the natural juice
of the grape, exposed to the contact of air, deprived of its
germs, can neither ferment nor give birth to organized
yeasts?" This interpellation was perhaps more violent than

1870—1872 217

was usual in the meetings of the solemn Academy, but scientific
truth was in question. And Pasteur, recognizing the old
arguments under M. Fremy's hemiorganism and M. Trecul's
transformations, referred his two contradictors to the experi-
ments by which he had proved that alterable liquids, such as
blood or urine, could be exposed to the contact of air deprived
of its germs without undergoing the least fermentation or putre-
faction. Had not this fact been the basis on which JLosJgr had
founded ' ' his marvellous surgical method ' ' ? And in the bit-
terness given to his speech by his irritation against error, the
epithet ' ' marvellous ' ' burst out with a visible delight in ren-
dering homage to Lister.

Pasteur, then in full possession of all the qualities of his
genius, was feeling the sort of fever known to great scientists,
great artists, great writers : the ardent desire of finding, of
discovering something he could leave to posterity. Inter-
rupted by these belated contradictors when he wanted to be
going forward, he only restrained his impatience with difficulty.

His old master, Balard, appealed to him in the Academic
itself (January 22, 1872), in the name of their old friendship, to
disregard the attacks of his adversaries, instead of wasting his
time and his strength in trying to convince them. He reminded
him of all he had achieved, of the benefits he had brought to
the industries of wine, beer, vinegar, silkworms, etc., and
alluded to the possibility foreseen by Pasteur himself of pre-
serving mankind from some of the mysterious diseases which
were perhaps due to germs in atmospheric air. He ended by
urging him to continue his studies peacefully in the laboratory
built for him, and to continue the scientific education of young
pupils who might one day become worthy successors of Van
Tieghem, Duclaux, Gernez, Eaulin, etc. . . . thus forming a
whole generation of young scientists instructed in Pasteur's
school.

M. Duclaux wrote to him in the same sense : "I see very
well what you may lose in that fruitless struggle — your rest,
your time and your health ; I try in vain to see any possible
advantage."

But nothing stopped him; neither Balard's public advice,
his pupils' letters, even J. B. Dumas' imploring looks. He
could not keep himself from replying. Sometimes he regretted
his somewhat sharp language, though — in his own words —
he never associated it with feelings of hostility towards his

218 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

contradictors as long as he believed in their good faith ; what
he wanted was that truth should have the last word. ' What
you lack, M. Fremy, is familiarity with a microscope, and you,
M. Tre"cul, are not accustomed to laboratories!", " M.
Fremy is always trying to displace the question," said Pasteur,
ten months after M. Balard's appeal.

Whilst M. Fremy disputed, discussed, and filled the
Academic with his objections, M. Tre*cul, whose life was some-
what misanthropical and whose usually sad and distrustful
face was seen nowhere but at the Institute, insisted slowly,
in a mournful voice, on certain transformations of divers cells
or spores from one into the other. Pasteur declared that those
ideas of transformation were erroneous; but — and there lay
the interest of the debate— there was one of those transforma-
tions that Pasteur himself had once believed possible : that of
the mycoderma vini, or wine flower, into an alcoholic ferment
under certain conditions of existence.

A modification in the life of the mycoderma when submerged
had led him to believe in a transformation of the mycoderma
cells into yeast cells. It was on this question, which had been
left in suspense, that the debate with Trecul came to an end,
leaving to the witnesses of it a most vivid memory of Pasteur's
personality — inflexible when he held his proofs, full of scruples
and reserve when seeking those proofs, and accepting no per-
sonal praise if scientific truth was not recognized and honoured
before everything else.

On November 11 Pasteur said : " Four months ago doubts
suddenly appeared in my mind as to the truth of the fact in
question, and which M. Tre*cul still looks upon as indisputable.
... In order to disperse those doubts I have instituted the
most numerous and varied experiments and I have not suc-
ceeded through those four months in satisfying myself by irre-
fragable proofs ; I still have my doubts. Let this example
show to M. Trecul how difficult it is to conclude definitely in
such delicate studies."

Pasteur studied the scientific point for a long time, for he
never abandoned a subject, but was ever ready to begin again
after a failure. He modified the disposition of his first tests,
and by the use of special vessels and slightly complicated
apparatus succeeded in eliminating the only imaginable cause
of error— the possible fall, during the manipulations, of exterior
germs, that is, the fortuitous sowing of yeast cells. After that

1870—1872 219

he saw no more yeast and no more active alcoholic fermenta-
tion ; he had therefore formerly been the dupe of a delusion.
In his Studies on Beer Pasteur tells of his error and its rectifi-
cation : "At a time when ideas on the transformations of
species are so readily adopted, perhaps because they dispense
with rigorous experimentation, it is somewhat interesting to
consider that in the course of my researches on microscopic
plants in a state of purity I once had occasion to believe in the
transformation of one organism into another, the transforma-
tion of the mycoderma vini or cerevisiae into yeast, and that
this time I was in error ; I had not avoided the cause of illusion
which my confirmed confidence in the theory of germs had so
often led me to discover in the observations of others/'

"The notion of species," writes M. Duclaux, who was nar-
rowly associated with those experiments, " was saved for the
present from the attacks directed against it, and it has not been
seriously contested since, at least not on that ground."

Some failures are blessings in disguise. When discovering
his mistake, Pasteur directed his attention to a strange
phenomenon. We find in his book on beer — a sort of labora-
tory diary — the following details on his observation of the
growth of some mycoderma seed which he had just scattered
over some sweetened wine or beer- wort in small china saucers.

" When the cells or articles of the mycoderma vini are in
full germinating and propagating activity in contact with air
on a sweetened substratum, they live at the expense of trlat
sugar and other subjacent materials absolutely like the animals
who also utilize the oxygen in the air while freeing carbonic
acid gas, consuming this and that, and correlatively increasing,
regenerating themselves and creating new materials.

"Under those conditions not only does the mycoderma vini
form no alcohol appreciable by analysis, but if alcohol exists
in the subjacent liquid the mycoderma reduces it to water and
carbonic acid gas by the fixation of the oxygen in the air."
Pasteur, having submerged the mycoderma and studied it to
see how it would accommodate itself to the new conditions
offered to it, and whether it would die like an animal
asphyxiated by the sudden deprivation of oxygen, saw that life
was continued in the submerged cells, slow, difficult, of a short
duration, but undoubtedly life, and that this life was accom-
panied by alcoholic fermentation. This time fermentation was
due to the fungus itself. The mycoderma, originally an

220 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

aerobia— that is, a being to the life and development of which
air was necessary — became, after being submerged, an
anaerobia, that is, a creature living without air in the depths of
the liquid, and behaving after the manner of ferments.

This extended the notions on aerobise and anaerobise which
Pasteur had formerly discovered whilst making researches con-
cerning the vibrio which is the butyric ferment, and those
vibriones which are entrusted with the special fermentation
known as putrefaction. Between the aerobise who require air
to live and the anaerobiae which perish when exposed to air,
there was a class of organisms capable of living for a time
outside the influence of air. No one had thought of studying
the mouldiness which develops so easily when in contact with
air; Pasteur was curious to see what became of it when sub-
mitted like the mycoderma to that unexpected regime. He saw
the penicillium, the aspergillus, the mucor-mucedo take the
character of ferments when living without air, or with a quan-
tity of air too small to surround their organs as completely as
was necessary to their aerobia-plant life. The mucor, when
submerged and thus forced to become an anaerobia, offers bud-
ding cells, and there again it seemed as if they were yeast
globules. "But," said Pasteur, "this change of form merely
corresponds to a change of function, it is but a self -adapta-
tion to the new life of an anaerobia.'* And then, generalizing
again and seeking for laws under the accumulation of isolated
facts, he thought it probable that ferments had, "but in a
higher degree, a character common to most mucors if not to all,
and probably possessed more or less by all living cells, viz., to
be alternately aerobic or anaerobic, according to conditions of
environment."

Fermentation, therefore, no longer appeared as an isolated
and mysterious act ; it was a general phenomenon, subordinate
however to the small number of substances capable of a de-
composition accompanied by a production of heat and of being
used for the alimentation of inferior beings outside the presence
and action of air. Pasteur put the whole theory into this
concise formula, " Fermentation is life without air."

"It will be seen," wrote M. Duclaux, "to what heights
he had raised the debate ; by changing the mode of interpreta-
tion of known facts he brought out a new theory."

But this new theory raised a chorus of controversy. Pasteur
held to his proofs ; he recalled what he had published concern-

1870—1872

ing the typical ferment, the yeast of beer, an article inserted in
the reports of the Academic des Sciences for 1861, and entitled,
The Influence of Oxygen on the Development of Yeast and on
Alcoholic Fermentation. In this article Pasteur, a propos of
the chemical action connected with vegetable life, explained in
the most interesting manner the two modes of life of the yeast
of beer.

1. The yeast, placed in some sweet liquid in contact with air,
assimilates oxygen gas and develops abundantly; under those
conditions, it practically works for itself only, the production
of alcohol is insignificant, and the proportion between the
weight of sugar absorbed and that of the yeast is infinitesimal.
2. But, in its second mode of life, if yeast is made to act upon
sugar without the action of atmospheric air, it can no longer
freely assimilate oxygen gas, and is reduced to abstracting
oxygen from the fermentescible matter. ,

" It seems therefore natural," wrote Pasteur, " to admit that
when yeast is a ferment, acting out of the reach of atmospheric
air", it takes oxygen from sugar, that being the origin of its
fermentative character." It is possible to put the fermenta-
tive power of yeast through divers degrees of intensity by intro-
ducing free oxygen in variable quantities.

After comparing the yeast of beer to an ordinary plant,
Pasteur added that ' ' the analogy would be complete if ordinary
plants had an affinity for oxygen so strong as to breathe, by
withdrawing that element from unstable components, in which
case they would act as ferments on those substances." He sug-
gested that it might be possible to meet with conditions which
would allow certain inferior plants to live away from atmo-
spheric air in the presence of sugar, and to provoke fermenta-
tion of that substance after the manner of beer yeast.

He was already at that time scattering germs of ideas, with
the intention of taking them up later on and experimenting on
them, or, if time should fail him, willingly offering them to any
attentive scientist. These studies on beer had brought him
back to his former studies, to his great delight.

' What a sacrifice I made for you," he could not help saying
to Dumas, with a mixture of affection and deference, and
some modesty, for he apparently forgot the immense service
rendered to sericiculture , " when I gave up my studies on
ferments for five whole years in order to study silkworms III"

No doubt a great deal of time was also wasted by the endless

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

discussions entered into by his scientific adversaries ; but
those discussions certainly brought out and evidenced many
guiding facts which are now undisputed, as for instance the
following — 1. Ferments are living beings. 2. There is a
special ferment corresponding to each kind of fermentation.
3. Ferments are not born spontaneously.

Liebig and his partisans had looked upon fermentation as a
phenomenon of death ; they had thought that beer yeast, and
in general all animal and vegetable matter in a state of putre-
faction, extended to other bodies its own state of decomposition.

Pasteur, on the contrary, had seen in fermentation a
phenomenon correlative with life ; he had provoked the com-
plete fermentation of a sweet liquid which contained mineral
substances only, by introducing into it a trace of yeast, which,
instead of dying, lived, flourished and developed.

To those who, believing in spontaneous generation, saw in
fermentations but a question of chance, Pasteur by a series of
experimental proofs had shown the origin of their delusion by
indicating the door open to germs coming from outside. He
had moreover taught the method of pure cultures. Finally,
in those recent renewals of old quarrels on the transformations
into each other of microscopic species, Pasteur, obliged by the
mycoderma vini to study closely its alleged transformation,
which he had himself believed possible, had thrown ample
light on the only dark spot of his luminous domain.

"It is enough to think," writes M. Duclaux concerning that
long discussion, "we have but to remember that those who
denied the specific nature of the germ would now deny the
specific nature of disease, in order to understand the darkness
in which such opinions would have confined microbian
pathology ; it was therefore important that they should be
uprooted from every mind."

CHAPTEK VIII

1873—1877

PASTEUR had glimpses of another world beyond the
phenomena of fermentation — the world of virus ferments.
Two centuries earlier, an English physicist, Eobert 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, con-
cerning 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 midst of
the struggle on spontaneous generation, a medical man named
De*clat, who declared that Pasteur's experiments were " the
glory of our century and the salvation of future generations,"
gave a lecture on " The Infinitesimally Small and their Bole
in the World." " After the lecture," relates Dr. D^clat him-
self, " M. Pasteur, whom I only knew by name, came to me,
and, after the usual compliments, condemned the inductions
I had drawn from his experiments. ' The arguments/ he said,
4 by which you support 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 vinegar

224 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

makers, silkworm 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 consistent
logic of his mind, showing him as it did the possibility of
realizing in the future Eobert 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 revealed this great factor in his char-
acter 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 application of methods
derived from his discoveries, of which he foresaw the immense
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.

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 chymiaster , some said— who was poaching on the
preserves of others. The distrust felt by the physicians in the
chemists was of a long standing. In the Traite de Th6rapeu-
tique, published in 1855 by Trousseau and Pidoux, we find
this passage : ' ' When a chemist has seen the chemical condi-
tions 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 trying 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
physiological fact and a pathological fact there is the same dif-
ference as between a mineral and a vegetable" ; and : "It is

1873—1877 225

not within the power of physiology 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 appreciated the possibilities opened
by each of his discoveries.

Pasteur, with the simplicity which contrasted with his extra-
ordinary powers, supposed that, if he were armed with
diplomas, he would have greater authority to direct Medicine
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 pre-
vent and to determine its cause. An unexpected offer went
some way towards filling what he considered as a blank. At
the beginning 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 M£ricourt, Brochin, Lh£ritier,
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 revolu-
tionary 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 under which many feelings were hidden, " that, when a

a

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 Bernard trouble
to wonder what So-and-so might think? He had the con-
sciousness 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
Acad&nie de M^decine the faith which inspired him, Claude
Bernard remembered the refractory state of mind of those who ,
at the time of his first lectures on experimental physiology
applied to medicine, affirmed that "physiology 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
fin organ to understand its functions." Mery, 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 inside. There are
indeed in tissues and organs physico-chemical phenomena for
which anatomy cannot account.

Claude Bernard was convinced that Medicine would gradually
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
of 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; but, instead of being guided by them, most doctors
continued to advance majestically in the midst of darkness.
Whenever murderous diseases, scourges of humanity, were in
question, long French or Latin words were put forward, such
as " Epidemic genius," fatum, quid ignotum quid divinum, etc.
Medical constitution was also a useful word, elastic and applic-
able to anything.

When the Vale de Grace physician, Villemin — a modest,
gentle-voiced man, who, under his quiet exterior, hid a veritable

1873—1877 227

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 medicine,
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 spontaneity of the organism, he
exclaimed in some much applauded speeches : " Tuberculosis !
but that is the common 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
multiple at the same time, bringing the same final conclusion,
the necrobiotic and infecting destruction of the plasmatic tissue
of an organ by a number of roads which the hygienist 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 im-
mobilizes medicine." These phrases were reproduced by the
medical press.

The bacillus of tuberculosis had not been discovered by Vil-
lemin ; it was only found and isolated much later, in 1882, by
Dr. Koch ; but Villemin suspected the existence of a virus. In
order to demonstrate the infectious nature of tuberculosis, he
experimented on animals, multiplying 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 tuberculous. Pidoux answered these precise
facts by declaring that Villemin was fascinated by inoculation,
adding ironically, " Then all we doctors have to do is to set
out nets to catch the sporules cf 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 genera-
tion? " Let us believe, until the contrary is proved, that we
are right, we partisans of the common etiology of phthiiis, par-
tisans of the spontaneous tuberculous degeneration of the

Q 2

228 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 parasites 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 multi-
plication 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
animated virus to many doctors ? They answered experimental
proofs by oratorical arguments.

At the very time when Pasteur took his seat at the Academy
of Medicine , Davaine was being violently attacked ; his experi-
ments 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 Acade'mie de Me"decine of
what he called "laboratory surgery, 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 brought
out in a circumspect, modest and reserved manner, 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 bacterial And, ironically, far from realizing the
truth of his sarcastic prophecy, he exclaimed, " Typhoid fever,
bacterization ! Hospital miasma, bacterization I "

Every one had a word to say. Dr. Piorry, an octogenarian,
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 under-
gone varied and numerous modifications": and he now im-

1873—1877

agined that one of the principal causes of fatal accidents due
to septicaemia after surgical operations was the imperfect ven-
tilation of hospital wards. It was enough, he thought, that
putrid odours should not be perceptible, for the rate of mor-
tality to be decreased.

It was then affirmed that putrid infection was not an or-
ganized ferment, that inferior organisms had in themselves
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 practitioner's last lectures at the
Hotel Dieu, wherein he predicted a future for Pasteur's works :

4 ' 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 organism at a given moment and under
determined circumstances, manifest themselves by divers pro-
ducts. So will the variolous ferment produce variolic fer-
mentation, giving birth to thousands of pustules, and likewise
the virus of glanders, that of sheep pox, etc. . . .

"Other viruses appear to act locally, but, nevertheless, they
ultimately modify the whole organism, as do gangrene, ma-
lignant pustula, contagious erysipelas, etc. May it not be
supposed, under such circumstances, that the ferment or or-
ganized matter of those viruses can be carried about by the
lancet, the atmosphere or the linen bandages?"

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,
it is because it contains germs of organized ferments. " The
correlation is certain, indisputable, between the disease 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.

230 THE IJFE OF PASTEUR

A few months later, on November 17, 1873, he read to the
Academy a paper containing further developments of his prin-
ciples. " 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 or-
ganisms 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 the black-
board the diagram of an apparatus which only communicated
with the outer air by means of tubes fulfilling the office of
the sinuous necks of the glass vessels he had used for his
experiments on so-called spontaneous generation. 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 transforma-
tion 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 clear results have cost me many sleepless nights before
presenting themselves before me in the precise form I have
now given them."

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

In December, 1873, at a sitting of the Academy, he pre-
sented M. Trecul with a few little flagons, in which he had
sown some pure seed of penicillium 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. Trecul has finished the little task which I am
soliciting of his devotion to the knowledge of truth," con-
tinued Pasteur, "I shall give him the elements of a 'similar
work on the mycoderma vim; in other words, I shall bring to
M. Tre"cul some absolutely pure mycoderma vini with which
he can reproduce his former experiments and recognize the
exactness 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 contra-
dictors have been peculiarly unlucky in taking the occasion

1873—1877 231

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 o'n beer, entirely founded as it
is on the discovery and knowledge of some microscopic beings,
has it not followed my studies on vinegar, on the mycoderma
aceti and on the new process of acetification which I have in-
vented? Has not that work been followed by my studies on
the causes of wine diseases and the means of preventing them,
still founded on the discovery and knowledge of non-spontane-
ous microscopic beings? Have not these last researches been
followed by the discovery of means to prevent the silkworm
disease, equally deducted from the study of non-spontaneous
microscopic beings?

' ' Are not all the researches I have pursued for seventeen
years, at the cost of many efforts, the product of the same
ideas, the same principles, pushed by incessant toil into con-
sequences ever new? The best proof that an observer is in
the right track lies in the uninterrupted fruitfulness of his
work."

This fruitfulness was evidenced, not only 'by Pasteur's per-
sonal labours, but by those he inspired and encouraged. Thus,
in that same period, M. Gay on, a former student of the Ecole
Normale, whom he had chosen as curator, started on some
researches on the alteration of eggs. He stated that when
an egg is stale, rotten, this is due to the presence and multi-
plication of infmitesimally small beings; the germs of those
organisms and the organisms themselves come from the ovi-
duct of the hen and penetrate even into the points where the
shell membrane and the albumen are formed. ' ' The result
is," concluded M. Gay on, "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 eggs of
one hen, for the organisms to be observed on the oviduct rise
to variable heights."

If the organisms which alter the eggs and cause them to
rot "were formed," said Pasteur, "by the spontaneous self-

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

organization of the matter within the egg into those small
beings, all eggs should putrefy equally, whereas they do not."
At the end of M. Gay on 's thesis — which had not taken so
long as Kaulin's to prepare, only three years — we find the
following conclusion : ' ' Putrefaction in eggs is correlative with
the development and multiplication of beings which are bac-
teria when in contact with air and vibriones when away from
the contact of air. Eggs, from 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, criticizing the
doctrine of spontaneous generation, he had mentioned, among
the organisms produced by urine in putrefaction, the exist-
ence of a torulacea in very small-grained chaplets. A physician,
Dr. Traube, in 1864, had demonstrated that Pasteur was right
in thinking that ammoniacal fermentation was due to this
torulacea, whose properties were afterwards studied with in-
finite 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 prov-
ing that boracic acid impeded the development of that am-
moniacal 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 letter 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 of 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 altera-
tion 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, in-
herent in those liquids, and depending on their nature and
composition— the cause of those diseases is not interioir but
exterior, then would indeed be defeated the doctrine of men

1873—1877 233

like Pidoux, who a propos of diseases, said : " Disease is in
us, of us, by us," and who, a propos of small-pox, even said
that he was not certain that it could only proceed from inocula-
tion and contagion.

Though the majority of physicians and surgeons considered
that it was waste of time to listen to " a mere chemist," there
was a small group of young men, undergraduates, who, in their
thirst for knowledge, assembled at the Acad^mie de Me"decine
every Tuesday, hoping that Pasteur 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
Academic sittings, feeling that they were on the eve of some
great revelations. He was a clinical assistant of Dr. B^hier's,
and, busy as he was with medical analysis, he was going over
Pasteur's experiments on fermentations for his own edifica-
tion. He was delighted with the sureness of the Pastorian
methods, and was impatient to continue the struggle now begun.
Enthusiasm was evinced in his brilliant 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 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 young 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 progress. 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 different things spread over a very simple

234 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 opera-
tion ; the lancing of an abscess 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 progress of skill and the precious discovery
of anaesthesia. The patient, his will and consciousness sus-
pended, 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 super-
vened 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
thought better, about forty years ago, to discourage and even
to prohibit a certain operation, then recently invented and prac-
tised 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 opera-
tion, the Assistance Publique x 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 neigh-
bouring 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.

1 Assistance Publique, official organization of the charitable works
supported by the State. [Trans.]

1873—1877 235

Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, surgery had
positively retrograded ; the mortality after operations was in-
finitely less in the preceding centuries, because antisepsis was
practised unknowingly, though 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 uncover-
ing 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 sur-
geon Larrey, under the first Empire, by hot oil, hot brandy,
and unfrequent dressings. But, under the influence of
Broussais, the theory of inflammation caused a retrogression
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 L£on 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 dressings. But
though he obtained such satisfactory results as to lower, in
his wards at the Hopital Cochin, the average of mortality
after amputations to twenty-four per cent., his colleagues
were very far from suspecting that the first secret for prevent-
ing 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, ^he
wounds of all the patients were suppurating, a horrible fetor
pervaded the place, and infectious septicaemia was everywhere.
" 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 surgeon." M.
Landouzy also recalled the words of M. Denonvilliers, a sur-
geon of the Charit^ Hospital, whom he calls "a splendid

236 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

operator. ... a virtuoso, and a dilettante in the art of operat-
ing," who said to his pupils : " When an amputation seems
necessary, think ten times about it, for too often, when we
decide upon an operation, we sign the patient's death-war-
rant." Another surgeon, who must have been profoundly
discouraged in spite of his youthful energy, M. Verneuil, ex-
claimed : " There were no longer any precise indications, any
rational provisions; nothing was successful, neither abstention,
conservation, restricted or radical mutilation, early or post-
poned extraction of the bullets, dressings rare or frequent,
emollient or excitant, dry or moist, with or without drainage ;
we tried everything in vain 1 " During the siege of Paris, in
the Grand Hotel, which had been turned into an ambulance,
N^laton, 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
Guerin— (who to his intense irritation was so often confounded
with another surgeon, his namesake and opponent, Jules
Gue"rin) — that "the cause of purulent infection may perhaps
be due to the germs or ferments discovered by Pasteur to
exist in the air." Alphonse Gue"rin saw> in malarial fever,
emanations of putrefied vegetable 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 impreg-
nating linen bandages which remained applied to the wounds.
In my despair — ever seeking some means of preventing these
terrible complications — I bethought 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 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 mias-
matic 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 con-

1878— 1877 237

ceived the idea of cotton-wool dressings, and I had the satis-
faction 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 Guerin 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. Louis Hospital to the wounded of the Commune from
March till June, 1871. Other surgeons learnt with amaze-
ment that, out of thirty-four patients treated in that way,
nineteen had survived operation. Dr. Beclus, 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 consequence 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 precau-
tions were not even thought of in those days ; charpie, odious
charpie, was left lying about on hospital and ambulance
tables, in contact with dirty vessels. It had, therefore, been
sufficient to institute careful washing of the wounds, and es-
pecially to reduce the frequency of dressings, and so diminish
the chances of infection to obtain — thanks to a reform inspired
by Pasteur's labours — this precious and unexpected remedy
to fatalities subsequent to operations. In 1873, Alphonse
Guerin, now a surgeon at the Hotel Dieu, submitted to Pasteui
all the facts which had taken place at the hospital St. Louis
where surgery was more " active," he said, than at the
Hotel Dieu; he asked him to come and see his cotton-wool
dressings, and Pasteur gladly hastened to accept the invita-
tion. It was with much pleasure that Pasteur entered upon
this new period of visits to hospitals and practical discussions
with his colleagues of the Academic de M&lecine. 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 reproduced in
the original—

238 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

" My dear Sir — allow me to beg your acceptance of a pam-
phlet, 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 fermentative 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 Memoire sur la fermentation appeUe
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 per-
fection.

" Allow me to take this opportunity to tender you my most
cordial thanks for having, by your brilliant researches, de-
monstrated to me the truth of the germ theory of putrefaction,
and thus furnished me with the principle upon which alone
the antiseptic system can be carried out. 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 surgery 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 resin, paraffin and carbolic, maintained an antiseptic atmo-
sphere around the wound. Such was —in its main lines —
Lister's method.

1873—1877 239

A medical student, M. Just Lucas-Championniere — who
later on became an exponent in France 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 medecine et de chirurgie pratique what were those
first principles of defence against gangrene — " extreme and
minute care in the dressing of wounds." But his isolated voice
was not heard ; neither was any notice taken of a celebrated lec-
ture given by Lister at the beginning of 1870 on the penetrating
of germs into a purulent centre 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 scientifiques . But the heads of the pro-
fession in France had at that time absolute confidence in them-
selves, and nobody took any interest in the rumour of success
attained by the antiseptic method. Yet, between 1867 and
1869, thirty-four of Lister's patients out of forty had survived
after amputation. It is impossible on reading of this not to feel
an immense sadness at the thought of the hundreds and /
thousands of young men who perished in ambulances and hospi-;
tals 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'd
minute precautions in the dressing of wounds," writes a com-
petent judge, Dr. Auguste Eeaudin, 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 1860 , had proposed
the use of weak carbolic solution for the treatment of open
wounds, and that the same had been prescribed by Dr. D£clat
in 1861, and also by Maisonneuve, Demarquay and others.
The fact that should have been proclaimed was that Lister

240 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 Academie de Me*decine 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 by 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 Hotel 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 Guerin'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 Guerin, the pus exhaled a repugnant odour, and was found
to swarm with vibriones. Pasteur in a sitting of the Academie
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 wool should be heated to a very high
temperature. He also suggested the following experiment :
' ' In order to demonstrate 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 wounds I would
apply a cotton-wool dressing with every possible precaution ;
on the other, on the contrary, I would cultivate, so to speak,
micro-organisms abstracted from a strange sore, and offering,
more or less, a septic character.

" Finally, I should like to cut open a wound on an animal

1873—1877 241

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 atmosphere around
the wound, and having recourse to no dressing 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 precautions
of cleanliness and the destroying of infectious germs. Himself
a great investigator of new ideas, he intended to compel his
colleagues at the Academic de Medecine to include the patho-
genic share of the infinitesimally small among matters de-
manding 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 discus-
sion he recalled the experiments he had made fifteen years
before, describing how — in a liquid composed of mineral
elements, apart from the contact of atmospheric air and
previously raised to ebullition — vibriones could be sown and
subsequently seen to flourish 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
relegated 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, Fr£my, Tr£cul, and B^champ. Who would now
dare to affirm that fermentations are contact phenomena,
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 makieg flowery speeches. He
mutih applauded, and his exhortation taker in good part.

B

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

His colleagues also probably sympathized with his irritation
in hearing a member of the assembly, M. Poggiale, formerly
apothecary in chief to the Val de Grace, give a somewhat
sceptical dissertation on such a subject as spontaneous genera-
tion, 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 courage, perse-
verance 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."

' What I " cried Pasteur, wrathful whenever those great
questions were thoughtlessly tackled, " what 1 I have been for
twenty years engaged in one subject and I am not to have an
opinion 1 and the right of verifying, sifting, and disputing the
facts is to belong to him who does nothing to become en-
lightened but merely to read our works more or less attentively,
his feet on his study fender 1 1 1

1 ' 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 sentimental 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 gene-
ration 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 conditions for it to produce life spontaneously? Have
I not practised on those organic materia which are most
favourable, according to all accounts, to the genesis of spon-
taneity, such as blood, urine, and grape juice? How is it
that you do not see the essential diilerence between my op-

1873—1877 243

ponents 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, affirming as I do
that there are no spontaneous fermentations, I am bound
to eliminate every cause of error, every perturbing influence,
I can maintain my results only by means of most irreproach-
able 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 unexplained facts in
connection with fermentation, he answered by thus apostro-
phizing 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 efforts 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 them. 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 here to proclaim it with
the legitimate pride of an inventor conscious of having made
a great discovery, and I would 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

R 2

244 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 observa-
tion, experimentation and reasoning, and the man of senti-
ment, 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 tresspass 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 Littr<§, that
it was a mistaken waste of time to endeavour to penetrate
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 scientific re-
search, he could not understand certain givers of easy explana-
tions 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 immortality 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 effort is wasted," he said, giving thus a
most virile lesson of philosophy to those inferior minds who
only see immediate 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 Universe,
have the prescience of an Ideal, of a God, he considered that

1873—1877 245

" the greatness of human actions can be measured by the inspi-
rations 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 dis-
cussion so as to manifest his repugnance for vainglorious
negations 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
innnitesimally 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 account of his colleague's
work, wrote, " To the signal services rendered by M. Pasteur
to science and to our country, it was but fair that a signal re-
compense should be given : the National Assembly has under-
taken 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 Deputies, and Gay Lussac, before the Chamber
of Peers, had otained 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 re-
porting on the projected law tending to offer a national
recompense to Pasteur, wrote quoting those precedents :

" Such an assurance of gratitude, given by a nation to men
who have made it richer and more illustrious, honours it at
least as much as it does them. ..." Paul Bert continued
by enumerating Pasteur's discoveries, and spoke of the millions
Pasteur had assured to France, " without retaining the least
share of them for himself." In sericiculture 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

246 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 proposes that you should
honour this admirable combination of theoretical and practical
study by a national recompense ; your Commission unani-
mously approves of this proposition.

* ' The suggested recompense consists in a life annuity of
12,000 francs, which is the approximate amount of the salary
of the Sorbonne professorship, which M. Pasteur's ill health
has compelled him to give up. It is indeed small when com-
pared with the value of the services rendered, and your
Commission much regrets that the state of our finances does
not allow us to increase that amount. But the Commission
agrees with its learned chairman (M. Mares) ' that the eco-
nomic 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 gratitude 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 Kector
of the Grenoble Academy. The value of the recompense
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
Claire Deville."

" 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
close of a great chapter, perhaps even the last chapter of the
book of his life, gave him, in their well-meaning ignorance,

1873—1877 247

some advice which highly irritated him : they advised him to
rest. It is true that his cerebral haemorrhage had left him
with a certain degree 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 for-
bid 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 con-
fidante of every experiment.

Everything was subordinate to the laboratory ; Pasteur
never accepted an invitation to those large social gatherings
which are a tax laid by those who have nothing to do on the
time of those who are busy, especially if they be celebrated.
Pasteur's name, known throughout the world, was never men-
tioned in fashionable journals ; he did not even go to theatres.
In the evening, after dinner, 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 morning, whether he had had a
good night or a bad one, he resumed his work in the laboratory.

That regular life , preserving its even tenor through so many
polemics and discussions, was momentarily perturbed by

248 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

politics in January, 1876. Pasteur, who, in his extra-
ordinary, almost disconcerting modesty, believed that a medi-
cal diploma would have facilitated his scientific revolution,
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 experi-
mental trial of the Eepublic. If honoured with the suffrages
of his countrymen, he would "represent in the Senate, Science
in all its purity, dignity and independence." Two Jura
newspapers, of different opinions, agreed in regretting 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 —
who acted as his secretary during that electoral campaign and
accompanied him to Lons-le-SaTilnier,, 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 Carnot. of Fourcroy, of Guy ton de Mor-
veau, of Berthollet, 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 recon-
noitring balloons and of perfecting telegraphy.

The senatorial electors numbered 650. Jules Grevy came
to Lons-le-Saulnier to support the candidature of MM. Taini-
sier 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 of 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

1873—1877 249

at the Institute," he added, insisting on the Senate's political
attributes. Grevy's intervention in favour of his two candi-
dates was decisive. M. Taraisier 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
expressing 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
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 G&n&ral, the Minister of
Public Instruction pronounced a speech, of which Pasteur pre-
served the text, underlining with his own hand the following
passages : " Soon, I hope, we shall see the Schools of Medicine
and of Pharmacy reconstructed ; the College de France pro-
vided with new laboratories; the Faculty of Medicine trans-
ferred and enlarged, and the ancient Sorbonne 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 sup-
ported 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 sericiculture was
gathered at Milan ; there were delegates from Kussia, Austria,

250 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Italy and France, and Pasteur represented France. He was
acoompanied by his former pupils, his associates in his silk-
worm studies, Duclaux and Eaulin, both of whom had become
professors at the Lyons Faculty of Sciences, and Maillot, who
was then manager of the silkworm establishment of Mont-
pellier. The members of the Congress had been previously
informed of the programme of questions, and each intending
speaker was armed with facts and observations. The open
discussions allowed Duclaux, Kaulin and Maillot to demon-
strate 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 delegates 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 congress being ended,
we are staying at Signer 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 organization of a second test following the
first.

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

Signor Susani was looking forward to producing for that one
year 30,000 ounces of seed. In the presence of the prodigious
activity of this veritable factory- -where , besides the microscope

1873—1877 251

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 microscopes, cleansing the slides,
etc. ; in fact, doing those various delicate but simple operations
which had formerly been pronounced 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, presiding 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 Sericiculture 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 my-
self 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 by two
propositions. First, that Science is of no nationality ; and
secondly, in apparent, but only in apparent, contradiction, that
Science is the highest personification of nationality. 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 Cornalia. . . . 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.

252 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

We, who are here present, do not forget that the first sericieul-
ture 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 spec-
tacle 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."

The tender and delicate side of this powerful spirit was thus
once again apparent in this deference to his master in the midst
of acclamations, 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 child-
like 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. Dumas had
known and appreciated him for thirty years ; Lister had pro-
claimed his gratitude ; Tyndall — an indefatigable excursionist,
who loved to survey wide horizons, and who in his celebrated
classes was wont to make use of comparisons with altitudes
and heights and everything which opens a clear and vast out-
look— had a great admiration for the wide development of Pas-
teur's work. Now, Pasteur's experiments had been strongly
attacked by a young English physician, 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 Tyndall to Pas-
teur, " 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

1873—1877 263

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, I think, many of the fal-
lacies 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 consider-
ably shaken.

" In taking up these investigations, I have had the oppor-
tunity 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 investiga-
tions 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 epi-
demic 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 immor-
tality. 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' s ! 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 experimental
method." The discussion was destined to last for months.
In general (according to J. B. Dumas' calculation) " at the end
of ten years, judgment on a great thing is usually formed; it
is by then an accomplished fact, an 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 Medi-
cine; it was now being revived in England, and Bastian pro-

254 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

posed 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 without 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 degree 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 neutralized
by a solution of potash heated to a temperature of 120° 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 110° 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 was — during the course
of that protracted discussion — studied by Pasteur with the assist-
ance of M. Joubert, Professor of Physics at the College Kollin.
Such germs were to be found even in the distilled water of labo-
ratories ; 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 re-
cipient. 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 subtilis,
which offer a great resistance to the action of heat. Those
spores do not develop in notably acid liquids, but the liquid hav-
ing 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 of which had been put through a flame. After

1873—1877 255

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 discus-
sion with Bastian that it was discovered how it was that — at
the time of the celebrated discussions on spontaneous genera-
tion— the heterogenists , Pouchet, Joly, and Musset, operating
as Pasteur did, but in a different medium, obtained results ap-
parently contradictory to Pasteur's. If their flasks, filled with
a decoction of hay, almost constantly showed germs, whilst Pas-
teur's, full of yeast water, were always 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 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 micro-
scopic 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 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 ad-
vised them to pass through a flame all the instruments they
used, had become a current practice in the laboratory ; the least

256 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR .

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.

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 phy-
sicians 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 thera-
peutic point of view, the fate of the physician and surgeon
depends upon the adoption of the one or the other of these two
doctrines."

CHAPTEE IX
1877—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, Dauphine and Auvergne, paid a formidable yearly
tribute to this mysterious scourge. In the Beauce, for in-
stance, 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 dis-
tended, and the least rent in the skin gave issue to a flow of
black, thick and viscid blood, hence the name of anthrax given
to the disease. It was also called splenic fever, because
necropsy showed that the spleen had assumed enormous dimen-
sions ; if that were opened, it presented a black and liquid pulp.
In some places the disease assumed a character of extreme viru-
lence ; in the one district of Novgorod, in Kussia, 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

258 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 "little 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 Bayer 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, a 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 recog-
nized the presence of those little transparent and motionless rods
which he called bacteridia (a diminutive of bacterium, or rod-
shaped vibriones). It might- be thought that the cause of the
evil 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 Grace, 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. Jail-
lard 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 alleged that the disease they had
inoculated was not anthrax. Then Jaillard and Leplat ob-
tained a little diseased sheep's blood from M. Boutet, a
veterinary surgeon at Chartres, and tried that instead of cow's

1877—1879 259

L>lood. The result was identical : death ensued, but no bac-
teridia. Were there then two diseases?

Others made observations in their turn. It occurred to a
young German physician, Dr. Koch, who in 1876 was begin-
ning 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 comparisons, said at a scien-
tific 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 connection with silkworm diseases, the
mode of reproduction of the vibriones of flachery, had seen
them divide into spores similar to shining corpuscles ; he had
demonstrated that those spores, like seeds of plants, could re-
vive 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 guinea-pigs, rabbits and mice, pro-
voked 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 Societd de Biologic that it was
' ' possible to destroy the bacillus anthracis in a drop of blood by
compressed oxygen, to inoculate what remained, and to re-
produce the disease and death without any trace of the bac-
teridium. . . . Bacteridia," he added, " are therefore neither
the cause nor the necessary effect of splenic fever, which must
be due to a virus."

Pasteur tackled the subject. A little drop of the blood of 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 house-

s 2

260 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

hold 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,
fcangled like a skein ; the culture medium being highly favour-
able, 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, multi-
plied 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 bacteridium 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, it
seems that carded cotton has been mixed with the broth."

M. Chamberland, a pupil who became intimately associated
with this work on anthrax , has defined as follows what Pasteur
had now achieved : " By his admirable process of culture out-
side organism, Pasteur shows that the rods which exist in the
blood, and for which he has preserved the name of bacteridia

1877—1879 261

given them by Davaine, are living beings capable of being in-
definitely reproduced in appropriate liquids, after the manner
of a plant multiplied by successive cuttings. The bacterium
docs not reproduce itself only under the filamentous form, but
also through spores or germs, after the manner of many plants
which present two modes of reproduction, by cuttings and by
seeds." The first point was therefore settled. The ground
suspected and indicated by Davaine was now part of the domain
of science, and preserved from any new attacks.

Yet Jaillard and Leplat's experiments remained to be ex-
plained : 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 condi-
tions of Jaillard and Leplat, who had received, during the
height of the summer, 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 awaiting him : that
of a sheep which had been dead sixteen hours, that of a horse
whose death dated from the preceding 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
diseased 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 bac-
teridia ; that of the cow and of the horse brought a rapid death
with no bacteridia.

Henceforth what had happened in Jaillard and Leplat's ex-
periments, and in the ' incomplete and uncertain experiments
of Davaine, became simple 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.

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 asphyxiated, for its
blood, taken from the deeper veins, to become violently viru-
lent within sixteen hoars. M. Signol thought he had seen
motionless bacteridia similar to the bacillus anthracis ; but those
bacteridia, he said, were incapable of multiplying in the inocu-
lated animals. Yet the blood was so very virulent that animals
rapidly succumbed in a manner analogous to death by splenic
fever. A Commission 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 veterinary surgeon in France who had a seat at the
Institute. The latter was a tall, handsome man, with a some-
what 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 a,s 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 experi-
ment, 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 putrefac-
tion. 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 cul-

1877—1879 263

tures 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, cultivat-
ing those bacteridia and those vibriones with at least as much
care as a Dutchman might give to rare tulips, Pasteur succeeded
in parting the bacillus anthracis and the septic vibrio when
they were temporarily associated. In a culture 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 re-
mained 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 nor
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 Socie'te de Biologie and proclaimed his mistake, acting in
this as a loyal Frenchman, Pasteur said.

In spite of this testimony, and notwithstanding the admira-
tion 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 Academic de Medecine on typhoid fever, some masters
of medical oratory violently attacked the germ theory, pro
claiming the spontaneity of living Organism. Typhoid fever
they said, is engendered by ourselves within ourselves. Whilsi
Pasteur was convinced that the day would come— and that
was indeed the supreme goal of his life work — when contagiotfj
and virulent diseases would be effaced from the preoccupation^,
mournings and anxieties of humanity, and when the infmfte-
simally small, known, isolated and studied, would at last be
vanquished, his ideas were called Utopian dream*

264 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 reconstitute these hostile surroundings
in order to appreciate the efforts of will required of Pasteur to
enable him to triumph 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.

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 faith-
less man, who would seem to have been shaken by M.
Colin 's reading at the Academic 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

1877—1879 265

notice, read by yourself, last Monday, at the Academic 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 Academic 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
presumption if I had the boldness to speak without being
armed for struggle and for victory ! 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 — I should even say suppressed — because it hindered
his theory, the important experiment of the successive cul-
tures 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 ex-
periment 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 for-
ward. In a private letter to his old Arbois school-fellow, Jules
Vercel, he wrote (February 11, 1878) : " 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 assurance from a mix-

266 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

ture of ignorance and 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. Sedillot, whose open and critical mind had kept him
from becoming like the old men described by Sainte Beuve as
stopping their watch at a 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 surgeon. It will
be remembered that he had written from the Hagueneau
ambulance to the Academic des Sciences — of which he was a
corresponding 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. Eeal progress lay there. Sedillot 's
concluding paragraph deserves to be handed down as a com-
ment 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, Sedillot 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
Sedillot's eyes, the advantage of being short and of having a
general signification. He however felt some scruple before
using it, and consulted Littr£ who replied on February 26,

1877—1879 26*7

1878 : "Dear colleague and friend, microbe and microbia are
very good words. To designate the animalculae I should give
the preference to microbe, because, as you say, it is short, and
because it leaves microbia, a feminine 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 infinitesimally
small animal. Littre" gave a second testimonial to the word
microbe —

" It is true," he wrote to Sedillot, "that fuxpo/3io<; and
paxpofftos probably mean 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 /3<o?, life, piovv, to live,
/3tov5, living, the root of which may very well figure under the
form of bi, bia with the sense living, in aerobia, anaerobia 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 Se'dillot's prophetic words at the
Acade"mie des Sciences, he had heard very different language
at the Academic de Medecine. Colin of Alfort, from the iso-
lated corner where he indulged in Ibis misanthropy, 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 Academic to nominate a Com-
mission of Arbitration.

" I desire expressly that M. Colin should be urged to demon-
strate what he states to be the fact, for his assertion implies
another, which is that an organic matter, containing 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 ! "

Colin 's antagonism to Pasteur was such that he contra-
dicted him in ever}^ 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

268 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 discus-
sions. " 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
begun experimenting again,' said M. Colin ; ' in a few days I
will bring you a hen suffering 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 impos-
sible 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 had
promised in order to show that our colleague's contradiction of
our observations on charbon had never been very serious."

Colin, after speaking about several other things, ended by
saying : " 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 surprised 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
Academic de Medecine, 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

1877—1879 269

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 refrac-
tory to charbon, it had occurred to them to see whether that
singular and hitherto mysterious preservation did not have its
cause in the temperature of a hen's body, " higher by several
degrees 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 experi-
ment. In order to lower the temperature of an inoculated
hen's body, it was kept for some time in a bath, 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 sus-
ceptible 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 forthcoming,
even at the Academy, who would accuse the prolonged 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 com-
parative result more convincing ; it had not been subjected to
the bath treatment. "You can see how healthy it is," said
Pasteur ; "'it is therefore impossible to doubt that the white
hen died of charbon; besides, the fact is proved by the bac-
teridia 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 labora-
tory. 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
cottpn wool and placed in a temperature of 35° C. The bac-

270 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

teridia 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-
ture of hens) to 38° G. was sufficient to cause a receptive con-
dition ; the hen , brought down by immersion to the tempera-
ture of rabbits or guinea-pigs, became a victim like them.

Between Sedillot's enthusiasm and Colin 's perpetual contra-
diction, 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. Lereboullet, an editor of the Weekly Gazette of Medi-
cine and Surgery, who wrote in an account of the Academic de
Me"decine meeting that " those facts throw a new light on the
theory of the genesis and development 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 con-
cerning the etiology of virulent diseases."

But even to those who admired Pasteur as much as did M.
Lereboullet, it did not seem that such an important part should
immediately 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 Academic de Medecine, and that
the surgeon, Leon Le Fort, did not admit the germ theory in
its entirety. M. Le Fort recognized " 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. Sedillot," added M. Lereboullet,
" 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."

This was a mild way of putting it ; M. Le Fort's words were,
" That theory, in its applications to clinical surgery, is abso-
lutely inacceptable." For him, the original purulent infection,
though coming from the wound, was born under the influence
of general and local phenomena within the patient, and not
outside him. He believed that the economy had the power,
under various influences, to produce purulent infection. A

1877—1879 27J

septic poison was created, born spontaneously, which was after-
wards 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, u, purulent in-
fection was spontaneously produced and developed. And, in
order to put his teaching into forcible words, M. Le Fort
declared to the Academic de Medecine : "I believe in the
interiority of the principle of purulent infection in certain
patients ; that is why I oppose the extension to surgery of the
germ theory which proclaims 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 colla-
boration of Messrs. Joubert and Chamberland. "

His impatience was so great that he formulated then and
there some headings for the lecture he was preparing, proposi-
tions on septicaemia 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 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 exor-
dium : "All Sciences gain by mutual support. When, subse-
quently to my early communications on fermentations, in 1857-
1858, it was admitted that ferments, properly so called, are liv-
ing beings ; that germs of microscopical organisms abound on
the surface of all objects in the atmosphere and in water ; that
the hypothesis of spontaneous generation is a chimera; that
wines, beer, vinegar, blood, urine and all the liquids of the
economy are preserved from then: common changes when in
contact with pure air— Medicine and Surgery cast their eyes
towards these new lights. A French physician, M. Davairie,

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

made a first successful application of those principles to medi-
cine in 1863."

Pasteur himself, elected to the Academic des Sciences as a
mineralogist, proved by the concatenation of his studies within
the last thirty years that Science was indeed one and all em-
bracing. 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 yester-
day's researches on the etiology of Charbon to those he now
pursued on septicaemia. He hastily glanced back on his suc-
cessful 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 cul-
tivating 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. ..."

He then expounded, in the most masterly manner : (1) 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 foregoing, 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 of 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 recon-
ciled with the germ theory? How can blood exposed to air
become septic through the dusts contained in air? All is dark.

1877—1879 273

obscure and open to dispute when the cause of the phenomet)a
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 them, and
they continue for a time to multiply by division ; they after-
wards produce germs or spores, the filiform vibriones 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 of 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 pro-
duced within the bodies of men or of animals and originating
diseases afterwards propagated under identical shapes ; all those
opinions fatal to medical progress and which are engendered
by the gratuitous hypotheses of the spontaneous generation
of albuminoid-ferment materia, of hemiorganism, of arche-
biosis, and many other conceptions not founded on observa-
tion."

Pasteur recommended the following experiment to surgeons.
After cutting a fissure into a leg 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 con-
ditions 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 :
41 The water, the sponge, the charpie with which you wash or
dress a wound, lay on its surface germs which, as you see, have
an extreme facility of propagating within the tissues, and which

T

274 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

would infallibly bring about the death of the patients within
a very short time if life in their limbs did not oppose the multi-
plication of germs. But how often, alas, is that vital resistance
powerless 1 how often do the patient's constitution, his weak-
ness, his moral condition, the unhealthy dressings, oppose but
an insufficient barrier to the invasion of the Innnitesimally
Small with which you have covered the injured part ! 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 sur-
face 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 frame (an easy thing to do with a little practice),
I would only make use of charpie, bandages, and sponges which
had previously been raised to a heat of 130° C. to 150° C. ; I
would only employ water which had been heated to a tempera-
ture of 110° C. 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 of 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 trans-
form Surgery, Medicine and Hygiene. How many human
lives have since then been saved by the dual development of
that one method 1 The defence against microbes afforded by
the substances which kill them or arrest their development,
such as carbolic acid, sublimate, iodoform, salol, etc., etc., con-
stitutes antisepsis', then the other progress, born of the first,
the obstacle opposed to the arrival of the microbes and germs
by complete disinfection, absolute cleanliness of the instru-
ments and hands, of all which is to come into contact with the
paient ; 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 sericiculture 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 sur-
gical wards, and a new era inaugurated.

A presentiment of the future deliverance of Humanity from

1877—1879 275

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 throwing
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
Ge'ne'ral 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 unexpectedly in a
flock, and of seeking for curative and preventive means of
opposing the evil. Thirty-six years earlier, the learned
veterinary surgeon, Delafond, had been sent to seek, particu-
larly 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 between the reason-
ing 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 mis-
sion of "going to study that malady on the spot, to seek for
its causes, and to 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 cor-
relation 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 con-

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276 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

nected with Delafond'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 filaments, and compared them to a
"very remarkable mycelium." "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.

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 enume-
rated the causes which contributed, according to him, to pro-
duce 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 veterinary 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 caused 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 migra-
tion of the tainted flock seemed the only remedy, but it was
difficult in practice and offered danger to other flocks, as car-
cases 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 maintained
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

1877—1879 277

new discussion was started to hinder him. He had certainly
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 meeting, "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 microscopic examination shall be made by him-
self, 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 persons
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 con-
sidered 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 scrupu-
lously exact than any one else in the presentations 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.

"On the other hand, I have come amongst you with a pro-
gramme 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.

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

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

278 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

The Academy decided that the necropsy and miscroscopic
examination of the dead hen which Pasteur was to bring to
Colin should take place in the presence of a Commission com-
posed 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 bad
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 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 excellent 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 labora-
tory, 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 pro-
ceed 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.

1877—1879 279

" 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 Academician who had joined the
members of the Commission was showing him a number of
the Revue 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 time
at St. Julien, near Villefranche, had begun some experiments
on fermentations. He had continued them on his return to
Paris, alone, in the study which was above his laboratory at
the College 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, enig-
matical sentences, with no comment or experimental demon-
stration, 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 . . ."

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 affec-
tionately 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 made the same
weary answer two 0? three days before his death. When he
succumbed, on February 10, 1878, Paul Bert, M. d'Arsonval
and M. Dastre thought it their duty to ascertain whether their

280 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 1st to the
20th of October, 1877 ; 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 programme.
" 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 Academic de Medecine,
hurried back to his laboratory and read with avidity those last
notes of Claude Bernard. Were they a precious find, explain-
ing 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 revelations, weakening and
discrediting the results I thought I had definitely established? "

His reading reassured him on that point, but saddened 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 experimental com-
mentary? 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 incomplete or defective.

1877—1879 281

" As for me, personally," wrote Pasteur in the first pages
of his Critical Examination of a Posthumous Work of Claude
Bernard on Fermentation, "I found myself cruelly puzzled;
had I the right to consider Claude Bernard's MS. as the expres-
sion 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 con-
clusions 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 pro-
gramme 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 experi-
ments 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 meet-
ings. " It seems to me almost impossible," he said, " and I
wonder that those who are publishing these notes have not per-
ceived that it is a very delicate thing to take upon oneself, with
no authorization from the author, the making public of private
notebooks 1 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 of
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

282 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

not take from his notes the most expressly formulated pro-
positions without reminding ourselves that all that was but a
project, and that he meant to go once again through the experi-
ments he had already made."

Pasteur 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,"
lie 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 with-
out allowing himself to be delayed by mere control experi-
ments. Others considered these notes as the expression of
Claude Bernard's thought. "That opinion," said Pasteur —
man of sentiment as he was — "that opinion, however, does
not explain the enigma of his silence towards me. But why
should I look for that explanation elsewhere than in my inti-
mate 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 inter-
ested 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 on
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." There-
fore " germs of yeast do not yet exist on green grapes." ' We
are," he added, "at an epoch in the year when, by reason of

1877—1879 283

the lateness of vegetation 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 hermeti-
cally closed glass houses, I shall have in October during the
vintage some vines bearing ripe grapes without the exterior
germs of wine yeast. 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 col-
leagues who are still able to believe in the spontaneous genera-
tion 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 bunches 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 bunches 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. Koux,
the young man who was so desirous of taking part in the work
at the laboratory. He and M. Chamberland were to 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. Eoux has told of those days in a paper on
Pasteur's Medical Work:

" Our guide was M. Boutet, who had unrivalled knowledge

284 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

of the splenic fever country, and we sometimes met M. Tous-
saint, 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 splendour of the August sunshine;
then necropsies took place in M. Kabourdin's knacker's yard
or in the farmyards. In the afternoon, we edited our experi-
ment 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 Hotel de France ; we drove off to
St. Germain, where M. Maunoury 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 Pasteur 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 careful 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 beginning 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 shepherds, who on account of their solitary life,
give their whole attention to their flocks and often become
sagacious observers."

When again at Arbois, on September 17, Pasteur began 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 labora-
tory, 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

1877—1879 285

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 spon-
taneous splenic fever. It was also to be concluded therefrom
that the evil begins 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
ct Loir, which must be full of anthrax germs, — particularly 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 pos-
sible introduction of the germs of the disease.

" It would also be necessary," wrote Pasteur, "to avoid all
probable diffusion of charbon germs through the carcases of
animals dying of that disease, for it is likely that the depart-
ment 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 con-
tagion."

After finishing this report, Pasteur went to his little vine-
yard on the Besancon road, where he met with a disappoint-
ment ; 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 September and in
October, those bunches that were swathed in cotton wool as
well as those which had remained free under the glass ; there
was a great difference of colour between 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° C. ; not one, on the contrary, of the numerous tubes of
grapes swathed in cotton wool entered into alcoholic fermenta-
tion, neither did any of the tubes containing grapes ripened
free under glass. It was the experiment described in my
Studies on Beer. On the following days I repeated these

286 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

experiments with the same results.'* He went on to another
experiment. He cut some of the swathed bunches and hung
them to the vines grown in the open air, thinking that those
bunches — exactly similar to those which he had found in-
capable of fermentation — would thus get covered with the
germs of alcoholic ferments, as did the bunches grown in the
open air and their wood. After that, the bunches taken from
under the glass and submitted to the usual regime would fer-
ment 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 Academic 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
coupe 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. Eoux,
"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 fermentation," said M.
Berthelot, "a soluble alcoholic ferment may be produced,
which perhaps consumes itself as its production goes on."

M. Roux had seen Pasteur try to "extract the soluble alco-
holic 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 that his
efforts were vain. In a communication to the Acade"mie 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 GO
called, or of the formation of alcohol by means of sugar, inde-

1877—1879 287

pendently 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 spontaneous
origin.

41 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 Examination of a Posthumous
Work of Claude Bernard on Fermentations, his painful feelings
in opposing a friend who was no more were so clearly evidenced
that Sainte Claire Deville wrote to him (June 9, 1879) : "My
dear Pasteur, I read a few passages of your new book yester-
day to a small party of professors and savants. 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 Academic Francaise 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 —

1 What meditations are induced by those results ! It is
impossible not to observe that, the further we penetrate into the

288 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

experimental study of germs, the more we perceive sudden
lights and clear ideas on the knowledge of the causes of con-
tagious diseases ! Is it not worthy of attention 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 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 Ber-
nard'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 furuncles.
Pasteur, whose proverb was " Seek the microbe," asked him-
self whether the pus of furuncles might not nave an organism,
which, carried to and fro, — for it may be said that a furuncle
never comes alone — would explain the centre of inflammation
and the recurrence of the furuncles. After abstracting — 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

1877—1879 289

culture vessel. The same was observed on a man whom Dr.
Maurice Eaynaud, interested in those researches on furuncles,
had sent to the laboratory, and afterwards on a female patient
of the Lariboisiere Hospital, whose back was covered with
furuncles. Later on, Pasteur, taken by Dr. Lannelongue to
the Trousseau Hospital, where a little girl was about to be
operated on for that disease of the bones and marrow called
osteomyelitis, gathered a few drops of pus from the inside and
the outside of the bone, and again found 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. Koux. "It was to the Hopital Cochin
or to the Maternite' 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 extieme, and he
suffered morally and physically from the pains of others; the
cut of the bistoury 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 profound 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 Hos-
pital, between April 1 and May 10, 1856, 64 fatalities had taken
place out of 347 confinements. The hospital had to be closed,
and the survivors took refuge at the Lariboisiere Hospital,
where they nearly all succumbed, pursued, it was thought, by
the epidemic.

Dr. Tarnier, a student residing at the Maternite* during that
disastrous time, related afterwards how the ignorance of the
causes of puerperal fever was such that he was sometimes called

U

290 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 Academic de Me"de-
cine lasted four months, and hypotheses of all kinds were
brought forward. Trousseau alone showed some prescience of
the future by noticing an analogy between infectious surgical
accidents and infectious puerperal accidents ; the idea of a fer-
ment even occurred to him. Years passed ; women of the lower
classes looked upon the Maternite as the vestibule of death.
In 1864, 310 deaths occurred out of 1,350 confinement cases;
in 1865, the hospital had to be closed. Works of cleansing a,nd
improvements gave rise to a hope that the ' ' epidemic genius ' '
might be driven away. " But, at the very beginning of 1866,"
wrote Dr. Trelat, then surgeon -in-chief at the Maternite", "the
sanitary condition seemed perturbed, the mortality rose in
January, and in February we were overwhelmed." Twenty-
eight deaths had occurred out of 103 cases.

Trelat 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.
Le'on Le Fort about that time , ' ' puerperal fever develops in a
recently delivered woman; she becomes a centre of infection,
and, if that infection is freely exercised, the epidemic is con-
stituted."

Tarnier, who took Treat's place at the Maternite", 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.

In 1874, Dr. Budin, then walking the hospitals, had noted in
Edinburgh the improvement due to antisepsis, thanks to Lister.
Three or four years later, in 1877 and 1878, after having seen
that, in the various maternity hospitals of Holland, Germany,
Austria, Russia and Denmark, antisepsis was practised with
success, he brought his impressions with him to Paris. Tarnier
hastened to employ carbolic acid at the Maternite with excel-
lent results, and his assistant, M. Bar, tried sublimate. While
that new period of victory over fatal cases was beginning,
Pasteur came to the Academic de Medecine, having found, in

1877—1879 291

certain puerperal infections, a microbe in the shape of a chain
or chaplet, which lent itself very well to culture.

" Pasteur," wrote M. Koux, " does not hesitate to declare
that that microscopic organism is the most frequent cause of
infection in recently delivered women. One day, in a discus-
sion on puerperal fever at the Academy, one of his most weighty
colleagues was eloquently enlarging upon the causes of epi-
demics in lying-in hospitals ; Pasteur interrupted him from his
place. ' None of those things cause the epidemic ; it is the
nursing and medical staff who carry the microbe from an in-
fected 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 ! ' 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 stupe-
faction into which he would send the students and doctors in
hospitals, when, with an assurance and simplicity almost dis-
concerting 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 sterilizing stove."

Pasteur was not satisfied with offering advice and criticism,
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 affirmed 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 prognosis."

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 infection and pro-
pagators of death through forgetfulness ! and before the theory
of germs and the all powerfulness of microbes could be put

u 2

292 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

under a full light & propos of that discussion on puerperal
fever I

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-born infants.

"I shvill force them to see; they will have to see!" he
repeated vith 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 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 Academic des Sciences,
but by the general public, whose attention was beginning to be
awakened. A professor at the Nancy Faculty, M. Feltz, had
announced to the Acade'mie des Sciences in March, 1879, 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 articulated, 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 lepto-
thrix 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 desired 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 labora-
tory of M. Feltz, who was thus able to observe them with par-
ticular attention until their death.

''After carefully examining the blood of the three animals
after their death, I was unable," said M. Feltz, " to detect the

1877--1879 293

least difference ; not only the blood , but the internal organs ,
and notably the spleen, were affected 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 leptothrix 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
Academic 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 com-
pletely." 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 intercourse 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 symptoms of grave puerperal fever."

At the time when that convincing episode was taking place,
other experiments equally precise were being undertaken con-
cerning 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 contaminated purposely, fourteen months
before, by pouring 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 ; those 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.

294 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

For it was sufficient that some infected blood should have
remained on the ground, 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! "It is with
deep sorrow," said Pasteur at the Academie de Me'decine on
November 11, 1873, "that 1 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, how-
ever, by this circumstance — that Medicine and Surgery are, I
think, going through a crisis, a transition. There are two oppo-
site currents, that of the old and that of the new-born doctrine ;
the first, still followed by innumerable partisans, rests on the
belief in the spontaneity of transmissible diseases ; the second
is the 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 Littre*'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 Littre*, " 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 Littre 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-"

1877—1879 295

" 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 sig-
nificant spirit of Littre's words. Such was then the state of
Science in 1836, and those ideas on the etiology of great epi-
demics were those of one of the most advanced and penetrating
minds of the time. I would observe, contrarily to Littre"'s
opinion, that nothing proves the spontaneity of great epi-
demics ! As we have lately seen the phylloxera, imported from
America, invade Europe, so it might be that the causes of
great pests were originated, 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: "Nowadays,
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 Littre"'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 conse-
quence to him.

The power of his mind, the radiating gifts that he possessed,
were such that his own people were more and more interested

296 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

in the laboratory, every one trying day by day to penetrate fur-
ther 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 experi-
ments. 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,

CHAPTEE X
1880—1882.

A NEW microbe now became the object of the same studies
of culture and inoculation as the bacillus anthracis. Eeaders
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 the 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 con-
taining 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 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 neutralized 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 fav-

298 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

curable 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 organism 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
110° C. to 115° 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 commonly 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 locomotion. 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 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 suc-
cessfully 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 suffering from this disease is powerless, stag-
gering, its wings droop and its bristling feathers give it the
shape of a ball ; an irresistible somnolence overpowers it. If
its eyes are made to open, it seems to awake from a deep sleep,

1880—1882 299

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 sud-
denly 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 sup-
posing that it had its origin in the guinea-pigs, all of them in
good health. How many mysteries in the history of con-
tagions will one day be solved as simply as this 111"

A chance, such as happens to those who have the genius of 'N
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 surprise 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 pheno-

300 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

menon, " if you take each of these attenuated cultures as a
starting-point for successive and uninterrupted cultures, 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 indisposition, 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 movement 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 done. He
felt that nothing could arrest the course of his doctrine, of
which he said— ' ' The breath of Truth is carrying 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 pre-
conceived ideas only stimulated him to further researches; but,

1880—1882 301

when he was once started on a road, he distrusted each step
and only progressed 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 days later by
another death ; the dread disease had then invaded and devoured
the whole village, going from house to house like an inextin-
guishable 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 relations had abandoned their sick
and dying among the unburied dead, with 20° C. of frost! !
The neighbouring villages were contaminated; but, thanks to
the Eussian 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 de-
populated 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 to
the formidable 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. Eochard, in a report to the Acade*mie de
Me"decine, 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 Pasteur (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

802 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 for-
merly, of the correlation which exists between those fermenta-
tions 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
» jplague patient, one coujd succeed in discovering the micro-
\ organism, and then in finding for that microbe an appropriate
culture medium , it would be- advisable to inoculate with it ani-
mals of various kinds, perhaps monkeys for preference, and to
look for the lesions capable of "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 isolating the
organism, there is nothing to indicate a priori to the experi-
mentalist 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 con-
clude 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 anaerobic,
of the microbe should be present to the mind.

' ' The sterility 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 circum-
stance 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, imme-
diately after sowing the blood or humour 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 temperature, 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

1880—1882 SOS

an interest in laboratory research, he sent to his friend Nisard
the number of the Bulletin of the Academie de Medecine
which contained a first communication on chicken-cholera, and
also his paper on the plague.

" Head 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.

4 ' To-day at the Institute , and to-morrow at the Acad6mie de
Medecine, I shall give a new lecture.

' ' Do repeat to me every criticism you hear ; I much prefer
them to praise, barren unless encouragement is wan ted , 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 effort made by my ignorance to follow
your ideas, and dazzled with the beauty of your discoveries on
the principal point, and the number of secondary 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 preoccupying Pasteur.
Did the splenic germs return to the surface of the soil, and
how? One day, in one of his habitual excursions with Messrs.
Koux and Chamberland to the farm of St. Germain, near
Chartres, he suddenly perceived an answer to that enigma.
In a field recently harvested, he 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 sub-

804- THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

terranean 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, un-
expected but quite simple, due to the germ theory. He wasted
no time in dreaming of the possibilities opened by that precon-
ceived 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 pos-
sible 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. Villemin 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.

t-¥r

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 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 light 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 Academie des
Sciences and to the Academie de Medecine 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 humus, produces thicker growth,

1880—1882 305

and in so doing risk their lives, for they become infected, some-
what in the same manner as in the experiments when their
forage was poisoned with a few drops of splenio 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, burying-grounds should be chosen in sandy
or chalky soils, poor, dry, and unsuitable to the life of earth-
worms."

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. Sometimes facts
had to be checked which had been over-hastily announced by
rash experimentalists. Thus M. BOUX went, towards the end
of the month of July, to an isolated property near Nancy, called
Bqis le Due Farrn, 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 alleged to be
contaminated ; the absolute isolation of the herd seemed to
exclude all idea of contagion. After collecting water and
earth from various points on the estate M. Roux had returned
to the laboratory 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 sur-
face of pits, he had had a little enclosure traced out and
surrounded by fin 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
beginning 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 diffi-
cult times, when modest ease even did not reign in our home,
carried the heavy burden of the day and devoted herself to the

X

306 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

little ones of whom I was one. I am now the only survivor of
my paternal and maternal families. "

In the first days of August, Toussaint, the young professor
of the Toulouse Veterinary School, declared that he had suc-
ceeded in vaccinating sheep against splenic fever. One process
of vaccination (which consisted in collecting the blood of an
animal affected 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 preserving the animal. Toussaint then had
recourse to heat to kill the bacteridia : "I raised," he said,
"the defibrinated 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 assist-
ants. Bouley, who thought that the goal was reached, did not
hide from himself the difficulties of interpretation of the alleged
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 J 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 extraordinary 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.
prolonged for ten minutes was not sufficient to kill the bac-
teridia in the blood ; they were but weakened and retarded in
their development ; even after fifteen minutes' exposure to
the heat, 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

1880—1882 307

M. Nocard wanted to sacrifice one in order to proceed to
immediate necropsy ; Bouley apprehended 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 weakening 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 vac-
cine 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 harmless, had acquired in the lapse of twelve days before
it was tried at Alfort, a< greater intensity, because the bac-
teridium, numbed for a time by carbolic acid, had had time to
awaken and to swarm, 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, Pasteur wrote rather a severe note on
the subject. His insisting on scrupulous accuracy in experi-
ment 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
communication out of consideration for Toussaint.

One of the sheep folded over splenic-fever pits had died on
August 25, its body, full of bacteridia, proving once more the
error of those who believed in the spontaneity of transmissible
diseases. Pasteur informed J. B." Dumas of this, and at the

x 2

308 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

same time expressed his opinion on the Toussaint fact. This
letter was read at the Academic des Sciences.

"Allow me, before I finish, to tell you another secret. I
have hastened, again with the assistance of Messrs. Chamber-
land 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 affirms as existing between acute
septicaemia and chicken-cholera ; those two diseases differ
absolutely."

Bouley was touched by this temperate language after all
the verifying experiments made at the Ecole Norrnale 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 M. Toussaint the care of checking 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
thus 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 affections — the great fact of
vaccination remaining isolated and unexplained — 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 experi-
mentation," he said, "the identity of the variola virus with
the vaccine virus has never been demonstrated." When Jules
Guerin— a born fighter, still desirous at the age of eighty to
measure himself successfully with Pasteur — declared that
" human vaccine is the product of animal variola (cow pox and

1880—1882 309

horse pox) inoculated into man and humanised by its successive
transmissions on man," Pasteur answered ironically that he
might as well say, " Vaccine is — vaccine."

Those who were accustomed to speak to Pasteur with absolute
sincerity advised 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 owned to Pasteur?
Why be surprised that certain minds, deeply disturbed in their
habits, their principles, their influence, should feel some diffi-
culty, 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
education ?

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
insinuations, 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 pronouncing the word
small-pox, is mere equivocation, done on purpose to avoid the
real point of the debate." Becoming excited by Guerin's
antagonism, Pasteur turned some of Guerin's operating pro-
cesses into ridicule with such effect that Gue"rin started from
his place and rushed at him. The fiery octogenarian was
stopped by Baron Larrey ; the sitting was suspended in con-
fusion. The following day, Gue"rin sent two seconds to ask for
reparation by arms from Pasteur. Pasteur referred them to
M. Beclard, Permanent Secretary to the Academic de Medicine,
and M. Bergeron, its Annual Secretary, who were jointly
responsible for the Official Bulletin of the Academy. "I am
ready," said Pasteur, " having no right to act otherwise, to
modify whatever the editors may consider as going beyond the
rights of criticism and legitimate defence."

In deference to the opinion of Messrs. Beclard and Bergeron,
Pasteur consented to terminate the quarrel by writing to the
chairman of the Academy that he had no intention of offending

310 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

a colleague, and that in all discussions of that kind, he never
thought of anything but to defend the exactitude of his own
work.

The Journal de la Medecine et de la Chimie, edited by M.
Lucas-Championniere, said a propos of this very reasonable
letter — " We, for our part, admire the meekness of M. Pasteur,
who is so1 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 opposi-
tion from some quarrelsome individuals, ever inclined to con-
tradict 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 experi-
mentation. . . . Indeed, M. Pasteur's expression of equivo-
cation seemed to us moderate 1 ' '

How many such futile incidents, such vain quarrels, traverse
the life of a great man! Later on, we only see glory,
apotheosis, and the statues in public places; the derm-gods
seemed to have marched in triumph towards a grateful pos-
terity. But how many obstacles and oppositions 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."

1880—1882 311

His method, as opposed to vague conceptions and a priori f
speculations, went on fortifying itself day by day. Artificial \
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 indiffer-
ent 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 bac-
teridium before the formation of spores. What may now be
explained in a few words demanded long weeks of trials, tests
and counter tests.

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

"At that extreme temperature," explains M. Chamberland,
"the bacteridia yet live and reproduce themselves, but they
never give any germs. Thenceforth, when trying the viru-
lence of the phials after six, eight, ten or fifteen days, we have
found exactly the same phenomena as for chicken-cholera.
After eight days, for instance, our culture, 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 cultivated in a tempera-
ture of 30° C. to 35° C., at which temperature 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, fav-
ourable to its activity, it becomes once again apt to produce
spores. But those spores born of weakened bacteridia, will

312 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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."

He desired to wait a little longer before proclaiming it. Yet
the cause of the evil was revealed, the mode of propagation
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 Agricultors, when it
decided, on February 21, 1881, to offer to Pasteur a medal of
honour. J. B. Dumas, detained at the Academic 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 passionate devotion to truth and to our
country."

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

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

On that Monday, February 28, Pasteur made his celebrated
communication 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-born guinea-pig.

"If we then go from one new-born 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

1880—1882 313

within the economy — becomes gradually 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 them-
selves ; the bacteridium has returned to its original virulence.
We may affirm , 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 inde-
finitely 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 Pasteur 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 various
reasons ; some desired to see a brilliant demonstration of the
truth ; others whispered their hopes of a signal failure. The
promoter of one very large experiment was a Melun veterinary
surgeon, M. Eossignol.

In the Veterinary Press, of which M. Eossignol 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 dis-
covery on charbon vaccine, wherein he expressed himself as
follows : " Will you have some microbe ? There is some
everywhere. Microbiolatry is the fashion, it reigns undis-
puted; it is a doctrine which must not even be discussed,

314 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

especially when its Pontiff, the learned M. Pasteur, has
pronounced the sacramental words, I have spoken. The
microbe alone is and shall be the characteristic of a disease ;
that is understood and settled ; henceforth the germ theory
must have precedence of pure cliniqs ; the Microbe alone is true ,
and Pasteur is its prophet."

At the end of March, M. Eossignol began a campaign,
begging for subscriptions, pointing out how much the cultiva-
tors of the Brie — whose cattle suffered almost as much as that
of the Beauce — were interested in the question. The dis-
covery, if it were genuine, should not remain confined to the
Ecole Normale laboratory, or monopolized by the privileged
public of the Acade'mie des Sciences, who had no use for it.
M. Eossignol 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 prac-
titioners 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 con-
fined some twenty years hence in a model laboratory assiduously
cultivating numberless races, sub-races, varieties and sub-
varieties of microbes.

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. Eossignol 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 Eochette, was requested to
approach Pasteur and to invite him to organize public experi-
ments on the preventive vaccination of charbon in the districts
of Melun, Fontainebleau and Provins.

" The noise which those experiments will necessarily cause,"
wrote M. Eossignol, "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 Eochette was a typical old French gentleman ;
his whole person was an ideal of old-time distinction and
courtesy. Well up to date in all agricultural progress, and
justly priding himself, with the ease of a great landowner, that
he made of agriculture an art and a science, he could speak in

1880—1882 315

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, Pasteur 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 Depart-
ment of Seine et Marne, but in the whole agricultural world.
This programme was so decidedly affirmative that some one said
to Pasteur, with a little anxiety: ;<You remember what
Marshal Gouyion St. Cyr said of Napoleon, that ' he liked
hazardous games 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 labora-
tory on fourteen sheep will succeed just as well at Melun on
fifty."

This programme left him no retreat. The Melun Agricul-
tural 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 unvaccinated 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 to 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

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

charbon germs brought to the surface by earthworms, and that
they would die of splenic 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 Eochette having expressed a desire that cows should
be included in the programme, 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 experi-
ments were to begin 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 confidence, 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 adver-
saries 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 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 Generaux, agricultors, physicians, apothecaries, and
especially veterinary surgeons. Most of these last were full of
scepticism — as was remarked by M. Thierry, who represented
the Veterinary Society of the Yonne, and one of his colleagues,
M. Biot, of Pont-sur- Yonne. They were exchanging jokes and

1880—1882 317

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, pro-
ceeded 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 their 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 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 tfcem 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 pro-
digious labours.

An appointment was made for the second inoculation. In
the interval — on May 6, 7, 8 and 9 — Messrs. Chamberland and
Eoux 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 begin with it would have caused a mor-
tality of 50 per 100.

*' On Tuesday, May 31," wrote Pasteur to his son-in-law,

S18 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

" 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 inocula-
tion at Pouilly le Fort, Mme. Pasteur wrote to her daughter,
" One of the laboratory dogs seems to be sickening for hydro-
phobia ; 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 preoccupa-
tions 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' incuba-
tion only. The disease manifested itself on the fourteenth day,
and this morning the same dog was used for the trephining of a
fresh dog, which was done by Eoux 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 delegates will go to the
south of France to study the ' rouget ' of swine, which ordin-
arily 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. Eoux,
" at a simple operation such as a subcutaneous inoculation, and
even then, if the animal screamed at all, Pasteur was imme-
diately filled with compassion, and tried to comfort and
encourage the victim, in a way which would have seemed

1880—1882 319

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 experiment 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 difficulty, he began pitying the
dog. ' Poor thing ! His brain is no doubt injured, he must
be paralysed ! ' I did not 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 investigat-
ing 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 lessening his scruples for future
trephining."

As the day was approaching for the last experiments at
Pouilly le Fort, excitement was increasing in the veterinary
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 experi-
ments, met Colin on the road to Maisons-Alfort. " Our con-
versation " — M. Biot dictated the relation of this episode to
M. Thierry, his colleague, also very sceptical and expecting the
Tarpeian Eock — "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 inocu-
lated 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
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 ;

320 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

' ' No doubt Colin is a man of some value , and he has cleverly
taken advantage of his position of Chief of the Anatomy depart-
ment 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,
Claude 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 ! "
But Biot refused to believe in Colin 's hostility and only credited
him with scruples on the question of experimental physiology.
Colin did not doubt M. Pasteur's bona 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
fixed for June 2 at the same 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 fiasco. 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 impatiently counted the hours of the two
following days.

On June 4, Messrs. Chamberland and Eoux 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 unvac-
cinated sheep were getting worse and worse. " In all of

1880—1882

them," noted M. Rossignol, " breathlessness is at its maxi-
mum ; the heaving of the sides is now and then inter-
rupted 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 considered
one sheep as lost. By a sudden reaction, Pasteur, who had
drawn up such a bold programme, leaving no margin for the
unexpected, and who the day before seemed 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 experi-
mental 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 awaiting
the telegram 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 telegram Pasteur's face lighted up; his
joy was deep, and he desired to share it immediately with his
absent children. Before starting for Melun, he wrote them this
letter :

322 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

" Jtme2, 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 inocu-
lated 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 will be dead ; eighteen
were already dead this morning, and the others dying. As to
the vaccinated ones, they are all well ; the telegram ends by
the words ' stunning success ' ; it is from the veterinary surgeon,
M. Bossignol.

"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 surgeons who were present, ' Did I not read in a
newspaper, signed by you, a propos of the virulent little
organism of saliva, " There ! one more microbe ; when there are
100 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 that I ' Joy reigns in the laboratory and in the house.
Rejoice, my dear children."

When Pasteur arrived, at two o'clock in the afternoon, at
the farmyard of Pouilly le Fort, accompanied by his young

1880—1882 323

collaborators, a murmur of applause arose, which soon became
loud acclamation, bursting from all lips. Delegates 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 un vaccinated sheep
were lying side by side ; two others were breathing t'heir last ;
the last survivors of the sacrificed 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. Eossignol, in one of
those loyal impulses which honour human nature, disowned
with perfect sincerity his first hasty judgment ; Bouley con-
gratulated 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 appeared impossible.
After having witnessed these experiments, Bouley had thought
it a duty to proclaim his error at the Academic de Medecine.
and to render a public homage to Davaine. " That, I think,"
he said, "is the line of conduct which should always be
observed ; we honour ourselves by acknowledging our mistaken
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 June,"
he said, "for the experiment to be complete, and the proof
decisive."

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

Pasteur was accompanied back to the station by an enthu-
siastic crowd, saluting him— with a luxury of epithets con-
trasting with former ironies — as the immortal author of the
magnificent discovery of splenic fever vaccination, and it was

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

decided that the farm of Pouilly le Fort would henceforth bear
the name of Clos 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 con-
firmed; 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 communicate to the
Academic des Sciences on Monday, and on Tuesday to the
Academic de Me*decine."

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

" Lyons, June 5, 1881. 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 having suf-
ficiently impregnated my mind with your spirit, as long as the
event — which has just been realized in a manner so rigorously
in conformity with your predictions — was still in the future, I
could not keep myself from feeling 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 pining,
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

1880—1882 325

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 Academic des Sciences, he was able to
state as follows his results and their practical consequences :
' ' We now possess virus vaccines of charbon , capable of pre-
serving 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 of being generalized, since it has
been the means of discovering 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 Agri-
cultural 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 supporting 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

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

of perfect simplicity, so modest that he did 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 recog-
nized 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 recognizing 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 Koux," he wrote to
his son-in-law on June 26 ;" only at that price will I accept the
Grand Cross. They are taking such trouble ! Yesterday they
went to a place fifteen kilometres from Senlis, to vaccinate ten
cows and 250 sheep. On Thursday we vaccinated 300 sheep at
Vincennes. On Sunday they were near Coulommiers. On
Friday we are going to Pithiviers. What I chiefly wish is that
the discovery should be consecrated by an exceptional distinc-
tion 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 Academie des Sciences, and who
had never ceased to show the greatest interest in the progress
due to the experimental method, entered the 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
JRoux 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

1880—1882 327

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 affectionate 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 began 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 superfluous 1 Thy sympathetic counten-
ance, 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 interrogated
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 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, Fouqu6, Grandeau, Hautefeuille, Gernez,
Lechartier. Then, showing that, in Sainte Claire Deville,
the man equalled the scientist :

1 ' Shall I now say what thou wert in private life ? Again ,
how superfluous ! 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 ! See
their sorrow.

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

" Oh ! I implore thee, do not now look down upon thy weep-
ing wife and afflicted sons : thou wouldst regret this life too

328 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

much 1 Wait for them rather in those divine regions of know-
ledge 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 Peclet's tomb. The emotions
of savants are all the deeper that they are not enfeebled, as in
so many writers or speakers, by the constant use of words
which end by wearing out the feelings.

Little groups slowly walking away from a country church-
yard seem to take with them some of the sadness they have
been feeling, but the departure from a Paris cemetery gives a
very different impression. Life immediately 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 preventive vaccina-
tions 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 neigh-
bouring farm , was brought into the field selected for the experi-
ments. After making a post-mortem examination 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

1880—1882 329

latter were already 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 crowning with that distinction the great-
ness 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 agriculture.

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

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 Presi-

330 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

dent of the Congress, Sir James Paget, with his grave, kindly
smile.

A few moments later, the Prince of Wales entered, accom-
panying 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.

11 1 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 distinguished 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 Rene 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 gathering of
about twenty-five or thirty guests in the drawing-room. Sir
James presented me to the Prince of Wales, to 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 of course room for nothing but courtesy under
such circumstances, 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 conquests were made over
disease and death. Of what glory might one day dream this
Prince, who became Frederic III !

His tall and commanding stature, the highest position in the
Prussian army conferred on him by his father, King William,
in a solemn letter dated from Versailles, October, 1870— every-
thing seemed to combine in making a warlike man of this
powerful-looking prince. And yet was it not said in France

1880—1882 331

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 civiliza-
tion? . . . Fate had already marked this Prince, only fifty
years old, for an approaching death. In his great sufferings,
before the inexorable death which was suffocating him, he was
heroically patient. His long agony began at San Eemo,
amongst the roses and sunshine ; he was an Emperor for 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 to conclude 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

332 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

London that I have made known to you the vaccination of
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 a 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 ! "

"Pasteur was the greatest success of the Congress," wrote
the correspondent of the Journal des Debats, Dr. Daremberg,
glad as a Frenchman and as a physician to hear the unanimous
hurrahs which greeted the delegate of France. " When M.
Pasteur spoke, when his name was mentioned, a thunder of
applause rose from all benches, from all nations. An indefatig-
able worker, a sagacious seeker, a precise and brilliant experi-
mentalist, 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 anti-vaccinators 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 importance and utility of vivisection for the
progress of medicine." But to this just argument, the interna-
tional leagues for the protection of animals — very powerful,
like everything that is founded on a sentiment which may be
exalted — had answered by combative phrases. The physio-
logical laboratories were compared to chambers of torture.
It seemed as if, through caprice or cruelty, quite uselessly at
any rate, this and that man of 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

1880—1882

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 sufficient 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 expose" 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 Eeichstag
in that same year, 1881, to pass a law punishing cruelty to
animals under pretext of scientific research, by imprison-
ment, varying between five weeks and two years, and de-
privation 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 laboratories of the
Faculties.

1 ' 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? . . .

1 ' 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 innumerable

334 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

lecture halls the most fallacious judgments on the work of
scientists.

Pasteur might have brought him, to support his statements
relative to certain deviations of ideas and sentiments, number-
less 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 pathological
science if Physiology is not progressing, and 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 — a 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 physiologist, when moved by the
thought of making a discovery useful to Medicine, and conse-
quently 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 shoot-
ing, and experiments on live animals. Magendie had to show
him out.

Three years later, Claude Bernard, in his turn, was taxed

1880—1882 335

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 to the stomach. M. Pelouze,
the chemist, had a laboratory in the Rue Dauphine ; he offered
it to Claude Bernard. A stray dog 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
men that the Police Commissary of the Medicine School Dis-
trict 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 Com-
missariat 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 astonishment, 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
affirmatively, adding that I was delighted to see my cannula,
which I thought I had lost. This confession, far from satisfy-
ing 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
dog to experiment on it.

" I explained that I had not stolen his dog, but that I had
bought it of some individuals who sold dogs 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 involun-
tary cause of the grief occasioned in his household by the mis-
adventure to the dog, but that the 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, promising

336 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 future pro-
tection. 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 pro-
tection 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 College 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 lamenta-
tions 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
circulation ; Pecquet and Aselli, the lymphatic vessels ; Haller,
muscular irritability; Bell and Magendie, the nervous func-
tions, and all that has been learnt since the extension of that
method of vivisection , which is the only experimental method ;
in biology, all that is known on digestion, circulation, the
liver, the sympathetic system, the bones, Development — 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 College de France : " It is to experi-
mentation 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

1880—1882 337

Darwin on vivisection, for the anti-vivisectionist propaganda
was spreading on every side. Darwin, who, like Pasteur, 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 : " On the other hand,
I know that physiology can make no progress if experiments
on living animals are suppressed, and I have an intimate con-
viction that to retard the progress of physiology is to commit
a crime against humanity. . . . Unless one is absolutely igno-
rant 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 following
on experiments made by Virchow and others on living
animals ! "

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 associat-
ing with pure research and perpetual care for Truth a deep
feeling of compassion for all suffering 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 efforts.
He was proud of his discoveries, but not vain of the effect they
produced; he said in a private letter: "The Temps again

338 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

refers, in a London letter, to my speech at the Congress. Whal
an unexpected success ! "

Having heard that yellow fever had just been brought intc
the Gironde, at the Pauillac lazaretto by the vessel Conde from
Senegal, 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, " 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 newspapers ;
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 Senegalese negroes on that ship. We have been near
another large steamboat, and yet another; their health is
equally good. . . .

" The most afflicted ship is the Conde, 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 lazaretto. ..."

No experiment could be attempted — the patients were con-
valescent. "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 lazaretto.
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 lazaretto, where I will arrange
things in consequence. 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 Hotel
Richelieu, in the Avenues of Tourny. The library is opened
to roe at all hours : I am there even now, alone and very com-

1880— 1882 339

fortably seated, surrounded with more Littre than I can
possibly get through."

For some months, several members of the Academic
Francaise — 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 Littre\ 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 Littre" to the memory of his father, a sergeant-major in the
Marines under the Eevolution.

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

In spite of Pasteur's interest in studying Littre* 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 wrere 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

Z 2

340 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

came, to be shut up with the patients in the lazaretto. Pasteur
wrote on December 25 to Mine. 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 pass-
ing 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.

" 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 ! "

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.

CHAPTEB XI

1882—1884

->

PASTEUR was in the midst of some new experiments when he
heard that the date of the election to the Academic Franchise
was fixed for December 8. Certain candidates spent half their
time in fiacres, paying 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 Academie Francaise. 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 Academic, 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 consent-
ing to become one of us." He agreed with M. Grandeau, who
wrote to Pasteur that " when Claude Bernard and Pasteur con-
sent 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 interested him more
and more ; to work in the midst of family intimacy had evidently
been Littre's ideal of happiness.

Few people, beyond Littre'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

342 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Littre* was almost sixty years old, was only interrupted twice :
in 1861, when Auguste Comte's widow asked Littre for a
biography of the founder of positive philosophy; and in 1870,
when the life of France was compromised and arrested during
long months.

Littre*, 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 ! "

A crucifix, hanging in the room where Littre fs 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 sufferings and difficulties of human life, 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 pontiff and Littre the prophet. This
scientific conception of the world affirms nothing, denies
nothing, beyond what is visible and easily demonstrated. It
suggests altruism, a " subordination of personality 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 won-
dered 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

1882—1884 343

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 forces itself upon us and yet is incom-
prehensible. When this notion seizes upon our understand-
ing, we can but kneel. ... I see everywhere the inevitable
expression of the Infinite in the world; through it, the super-
natural 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, 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.'1

At that time, when triumphant Positivism was inspiring
many leaders of men , the very man who might have given him-
self up to what he called " the enchantment of Science " pro-
claimed the Mystery of the universe ; with his intellectual
humility, Pasteur bowed before a Power v 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 Littre". " Often
have I fancied him seated by his wife, as in a picture of early
Christian times : he, looking down upon earth, full of com-
passion 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

344 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 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, respectfully call-
ing on his master, than like a savant affectionately visiting a
colleague.

Dumas received Pasteur in a little private study adjoining
the fine drawing-room where he was accustomed to dispense
an elegant hospitality. Pasteur drew a stool up to a table and
began 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 countenance. His smile, at most times pru-
dently 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
confession 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 establishment. 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 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 Besancon College when, in their youthful fervour, they
read together Andre Ch^nier's and Lamartine's verses.
Eighteen years later, Pasteur had not missed one of Sainte

1882—1884 345

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 corner of his
mind to give to literature, but that corner 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 most 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—

11 At this moment when presenting myself before this illus-
trious 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 honour^-so to speak, an impersonal one—
which you have bestowed upon me."

The Permanent Secretary, Camille Doucet, well versed in
the usages of the Institute, and preoccupied with the effect pro-
duced, thought that the public would not believe in such self-
effacement, 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
inadequacy 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 speak,
an impersonal one ; he saw in his election less a particular dis-
tinction than a homage rendered to Science in general.

A reception at the Academic Francaise is like a sensational

346 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 Eenan to welcome him.

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

" Your cenaculum is only reached at the age of Ecclesiastes,
a delightful age of serene cheerfulness, when 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 abso-
lute 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 state-
ments, and was ever ready to deny when others affirmed, 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 tang ere, 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 Per-
manent 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 Academician, wearing across his breast
the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour. In a clear, grave
voice, he began 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 composi-
tion, no struggle after effect, only a homage to the man, fol-
lowed almost immediately by a confession of dissent on

1882—1884. 347

philosophic questions. He was listened to with attentive
emotion, and when he showed the error of Positivism in
attempting to do away with the idea of the Infinite, and pro-
claimed 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
startling 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. Eenan, visibly enjoying
the presidential chair, smiled at the audience with complex
feelings, understood by some who were his assiduous readers.
Eespect 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 Academic, and, at the same time, in
the opportunity for a light and ironical answer to Pasteur's
beliefs — all these sensations were perceptible in Kenan'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 Moliere ; something which
gives sublimity to the poet, depth to the philosopher, fascina-
tion to the orator, divination to the scientist.

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

348 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 indifference.
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 horny hands and careworn brows.'*

He then commenced a courteous controversy. Whilst
Pasteur, with his vision of the Infinite, showed himself as
religious as Newton, Eenan, 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 Kenan
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 to dust.
Beliefs, political ideas, his ideal of European civilization, all
had fallen to the ground. After his separation from the
Church, he had turned to historical science ; Germany had
appeared to him, as once to Madame de Stael 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, carrying the world along
the road of progress through reason." But that German
facade 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

1882—1884 349

made him regard as almost imperceptible the number of men
capable of understanding his philosophical elevation. Pasteur
had bared his soul ; Eenan 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, accord-
ing to your own comparison, to fit two gloves one into the
other. And yet both gloves are equally necessary ; they com-
plete 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."

Kenan handled the French language, "this old and admir-
able 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 capabilities, to the following
imprecation against death: "Death, according to a thought
admired by M. Littre*, 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 deceit-
ful 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 disappears
from view at the supreme hour when we look for it. Nature's
object has been attained; a powerful effort has been realized,
and then, with characteristic carelessness, the enchantress
abandons us and leaves us to the hooting birds of the night."

Eenan, save in one little sentence in his answer to Pasteur—
1 ' 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

350 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 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 Aca-
demie Frangaise brought him a manifestation of applause
in the provinces. The town of Aubenas in the Ardeche
was erecting a statue to Olivier de Serres, and desired to asso-
ciate 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
effigy on it, in commemoration of one of the greatest services
ever rendered by Science to Agriculture."

But amidst this paean 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 peri-
pneumonia of horned cattle. The veterinary surgeon,
Kossignol, had just been speaking on this subject to the meet-
ing. Pasteur, who had recently been asked by the Committee
of Epizootic Diseases to inquire into the mortality often caused
by the inoculation of the peripneumonia 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
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 virus being extremely

1882—1884 351

violent, so much so in fact that the local irritation sometimes
went BO 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
Medecine Veterinaire a paper indicating the following means
of preserving the virus in a state of 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 tem-
perature. 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 inoculate 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 remained 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 of 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 reignecE
everywhere, and the music of the bands was almost drowned
by the acclamations of the people. At the meeting of the
Agricultural Society, Pasteur was offered a medal with his
own effigy, and a work of art representing genii around a cup,
their hands full of cocoons. A little microscope — that micro-
scope 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 inter-
vention conjured away the scourge which threatened us; in
you we hail our benefactor."

Pasteur, effacing his own personality as he had done at the
Academic, 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, aoid in the hours of difficulty

352 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

which are inherent to protracted efforts, the thought of France
upheld ray courage. I associated her greatness with the great-
ness 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 respond-
ing to the suggestions of a kind and illustrious friend, I left
Paris to study in a neighbouring Department the scourge which
was decimating your magnaneries. For five years I struggled
to obtain some knowledge of the evil and the means of pre-
venting it; and, after having found it, I still had to struggle
to implant in other minds the convictions I had acquired.

11 All that is past and gone now, and I can speak of it with
moderation. I am not often credited with that 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 : Per vias rectas. 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 agri-
culture 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 efforts understood and celebrated in an impulse
of sympathy which will remain in my memory and in that of
my family as a glorious recollection."

Pasteur was not allowed to return at once to his laboratory.
The agricultors and veterinary surgeons of Nimes, who had

1882—1884 353

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-
owners and breeders, hitherto powerless to arrest the progress
of the disease which he had now vanquished. Whilst a com-
memoration 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 every-
thing 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 experi-
ments for the next morning at eight o'clock. After inoculating
all the animals with the charbon virus, Pasteur announced that
those which had been vaccinated 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 Herault Central Society of Agriculture, 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 professors and students who had hurried from
all the neighbouring 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 questions, and his answers
to the objectors swept away the last shred of resistance.

" We must not," said the Vice-President of the Agricultural
Society, M. Vialla, "encroach further on the time of M.

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354 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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! Why not for phylloxera as well?" And, while
regretting 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 Sericiculture , 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 11, at nine o'clock in the morning, he was again at
Nimes to meet the physicians, veterinary surgeons, 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 charac-
teristic 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 ! " 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 still
than that which came from this or that district, the Academic
des Sciences resolved to organize a general movement of
Scientific Societies. It was decided to present him with a
medal, engraved by Alphee Dubois, and bearing on one side
Pasteur's profile and on the other the inscription : "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, Daubree, 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

1882—1884 355

very first, your 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 Acade*mie des Sciences is proud of your
work ; France ranks you amongst its glories.

' ' At this time , when marks of public gratitude are flowing
towards you from every quarter, the homage which we have
come to offer 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 likeness of your features.

" May you, my dear Pasteur, long live to enjoy your fame,
and to contemplate the rich and abundant fruit of your work.
Science, agriculture, 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 taught 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 expres-
sion of that testimony, very excessive, I think, of the esteem
of my masters, who have become my friends. And what you

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356 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 Academic 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 influence 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 born, 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
Provost, 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, Berthollet, 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 imbibing their
methods. " On 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 dazzling
career of sixty years begun.

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

1882—1884 357

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 indisputable,
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 Kecord 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 dis-
covered it. The experiments by which hens contracted splenic
fever under a lowered temperature after inoculation signified
nothing. The share of the earthworms in the propagation of
charbon, the inoculation into guinea-pigs of the germs found
in the little cylinders produced by those worms followed by
the death of the guinea-pigs, all this they said was pointless and
laughable. They even contested the preserving influence of
vaccination.

Whilst these things were being said and written, the Veter-
inary 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 com-
mission nominated by the German Government. It was con-
stituted by the Minister of Agriculture and Forests, and
Virchow was one of the members of it. A former student of
the Ecole Normale — who, after leaving the school first on
the list of competitors for the agregation 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 Hygieno,

358 THE LIFE OF -PASTEUR

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 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 Besancon road at five o'clock every afternoon. After
spending Hie 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 question 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 hand-
writing 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 audience
of a congress, but also by tourists, who take an interest 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 conciliation, 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 offering 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 con-
versation. 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
reflected indomitable energy ; if he had not been slightly lame,
and if his left hand had not been a little stiff, 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 impos-
'ng aocent of authority. He was visibly ready to meet his

1882—1884 359

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 impassive eyes behind his gold spectacles.

Pasteur analysed all the work he had done with the collabora-
tion of MM. Chamberland, Koux, 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
France and elsewhere with some obstinate contradictors.
. . . Allow me to choose amongst them the one whose per-
sonal merit gives him the greatest claims to our attention, I
mean Dr Koch, of Berlin."

Pasteur then summed up the various criticisms which had
appeared in the Eecord 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 con-
tradictors. 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 recognized 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 full of a violent passion, the passion of trnth • when \
truth had triumphed, he preserved not the least bitterness of
former struggles.

360 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 develop-
ing and sown into other flasks ; lastly the culture liquid had to
be inoculated into swine. Death supervened with 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 Bollene, Pasteur started, accompanied
by his nephew, Adrien Loir, and M. Thuillier. The three
arrived at Bollene 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 corner they sleep, in
order to give us two bedrooms, mine and another 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 everywhere, some
dying, some dead, at Bollene 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 morning we shall attempt vaccination at a

1882—1884 361

M. de Ballincourt's, who has lost all his pigs, and who has
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 pe" brine, 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 Ardeche."

On the 17th, the day was taken up by the inoculation of some
pigs on the estate of M. de la Gardette, a few kilometres from
Bollene. In the evening, a former State Councillor, 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. Experiments were being carried out
—he had hastened to have an experimental pigsty erected near
M. Maucuer's house — 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 your-
self and our children. I embrace you all most affectionately.

" 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
would transcribe it for the laboratory and for Kene."

862 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

" Our researches " — thus ran the report to the Academy —
4< 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 animal's 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 from the latter
by its physiological properties; it kills rabbits and sheep, but
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 spontaneous cases. It is
most deadly to the white, so-called improved, race, that which
is most sought after by pork-breeders.

"III. 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 bacteri-
dium of splenic fever. Dr. Klein's microbe is very different
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 inoculating in
in a benignant form, after which the animal has proved refrac-
tory to the mortal disease.

" V. Though we consider that further control experiments
are necessary, we have already great eonfidence 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 charm-
ing ; one cannot help getting fond of them."

The next day Pasteur wrote to his son : "Everything has
gone off well, and we much hope, Thuillier and I, that pre-
ventive vaccination of this evil can be established in a practical

1882 — 1884 363

fashion. It would be a great boon in pork-breeding 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 ;
it rages in England and in Germany. This year, it has
desolated the C6tes-du-Nord, the Poitou, and the departments
of the Khone Valley. I sent to M. Dumas yesterday a resumi
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 contradictions of his opponents,

Koch's reply arrived soon after the Bollene episode. The
German scientist had modified his views to a certain extent ;
instead of denying the attenuation of virus as in 1881, 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 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 earthworms'
action in the etiology of anthrax. ' You are mistaken, Sir,"
replied Pasteur. " You are again preparing for yourself a

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

vexing change of opinion." And he concluded 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 Academic de Me"decine. A new treatment of typhoid
fever was under discussion.

In 1870, M. Gl£nard, 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 pro-
duced numerous cures. M. Glenard, on his return to Lyons,
remembering with confidence this method of which he had seen
the excellent results, persuaded the physician of the Croix
Kousse hospital, where he resided, to attempt the same treat-
ment. This was done for ten years, and nearly all the Lyons
practitioners became convinced that Brand's method was
efficacious. M. Glenard 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, com-
posed of civil and military physicians, and the discussion was
opened.

The oratorical display which had struck Pasteur when he
first came to the Acade"mie de Me"decine was much to the fore
on that occasion ; the merely curious hearers of that discussion
had an opportunity of enjoying medical eloquence, besides
acquiring information on the new treatment 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 added, amidst great applause, that it was time " to offer
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 attacking

1882—1884 365

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, inter-
vened, and said that new attempts should not be discouraged
by sneers. Without pronouncing on the merits of the cold-bath
method, which he had not tried, he looked beyond this dis-
cussion, indicating the road which theoretically 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 pre-
venting the aggressions of that agent or of annihilating the
effects of that aggression, "to produce, relatively to typhoid
fever, the effect determined by salicylate of soda in acute rheu-
matism of the articulations."

Beyond the restricted audience, allowed a few seats in t£e
Academic de Medecine, the general public itself was taking an
interest in this prolonged debate. The very high death rate
in the army clue 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 compassionate
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
might be called a fourth kingdom in nature, that of microbia.
In a statement read at the Academic de Medecine, he formu-
lated in broad lines the role of the infinitesimally small and
their activity in producing the phenomena of fermentations and
diseases. He showed by the parallel works of Pasteur on the

366 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

one hand, and M. Chauveau on the other, that contagion is the
function of a living element. " It is especially," said Bouley,
4 ' 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 ! ! And M. Pasteur has made
that dream into a reality !!!..."

The debate widened, typhoid fever became a mere incident.
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 applica-
tions 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 pathological
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."

A newspaper having repeated this last sentence, a professor
of the Faculty of Medicine, M. Cornil, 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. Cornil, " 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 vac-
cination failures, and incompletely reported experiments, say-

1882—1884 367

ing, 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 melee 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 a 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 discoveries 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."

Bouley then went on to refute the arguments of M. Peter,
epitomized the history t 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 con-
cluded 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 physician, 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

368 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 ; the blood inoculated
was septic as well as full of charbon."

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 maintained 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 interpre-
tation. " 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 Sciences
to judge of the Turin incident and to put an end to this agita-
tion, 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 moment of death in each case shall

1882—1884 369

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 occa-
sions, arises, not as you say, from 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 experiments.

" 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, physicians or
veterinary surgeons, who may have been present at the experi-
ments ; 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. Chamberland
and Koux, who waited for him after the meetings, " 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 Acade"mie 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
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. Fauvel, 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 himself 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

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370 THE LIFE 'OF PASTEUR

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 Hotel 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 ! ! !

He went on to oppose the false idea that each science should
restrict itself within its own limitations. " What do I, a phy-
sician, 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 ! 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 ques-
tion of the etiology 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!"'

Amazed that sarcasm should be levelled against new studies
which opened such wide horizons, he denounced the flippancy

1882—1884 371

with which a professor of the Faculty of Medicine allowed him-
self to speak of vaccinations by attenuated virus.

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

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

"They cannot get out of this dilemma," said Pasteur;
"either they knew my 1877 notes, unravelling the contra-
dictory 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 inocu-
lated some guinea-pigs, by choice, and then tried some cultures
in a vacuum to compare them with cultures in contact with
air. Why will they not receive me? A meeting between
truth-seeking men would be the most natural thing in the
world ! "

Still hoping to persuade his adversaries to meet him at Turin
and be convinced, Pasteur wrote to them. "Paris, 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 demonstrate 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 hours after death, you
committed a grave scientific mistake.

"Instead of answering yes or no, instead of saying to mo
' Come to Turin,' or ' Do not come,' you ask me, in a manu-

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87* THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

script letter of seventeen pages, to send you from Paris, in writ-
ing, preliminary explanations of all that I should have to
demonstrate in Turin.

" Keally, 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.

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

M. Eoux began to prepare an interesting curriculum of
experiments to be carried out at Turin. But the Turin pro-
fessors 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 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
ottering from a land which would henceforth owe its fortune to

1882—1884 373

him. He allowed himself to be persuaded, and arrived, accom-
panied 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 understand-
ing the scientific and humanitarian 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 has 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. Pie thought but of acquiring know-
ledge, 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 neglected," 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 1" ^ . .
41 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 service to
medicine. Thirty-two of them assembled to drink his health.
The head physician 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, physiology 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 precursor of the medicine of the future, a bene-
factor 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 achieve-
ments, within those thirty-five years, of that great man whose
perseverance equalled his penetration. Then came the manu-
facturers, the sericicultors , and the agricultors, who owed their

374 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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, trie 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 1 per 1,000. And, in conse-
quence of the principles established by Pasteur, hygiene was
growing, developing, and at last taking its proper place in the
public view. So much progress accomplished had brought
Pasteur a daily growing acknowledgment 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 of charity.

The Government of the Eepublic remembered that England
had voted two national rewards to Jenner, one in 1802 and one
in 1807, 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. pen-
sion accorded to Pasteur in 1874 as a national recompense, 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 Easpail, 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 recognizing the share attributed by F. V. Easpail 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 Easpail ; but generalizations were considered

1882—1884 375

as out of proportion 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 parasites in the humours
of virulent diseases. . . . Such hypotheses can be considered
but as a sort of intuition. '*

"Hypotheses," said Pasteur, "come into our laboratories
in armfuls ; they fill our registers with projected experiments,
they stimulate us to research— and that is all." One thing
only counted for him : experimental verification.

Paul Bert, in his very complete report, quoted Huxley's
words to the Eoyal 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 theo-
retical point of view and yet more important from a practical
point of view, had come to strike the world of Science with
astonishment and admiration." Kecapitulating Pasteur's
works, he said —

"They may be classed in three series, constituting three
great discoveries.

" The first one may be formulated thus : Each fermentation
is produced by the development of a special microbe.

" The second one may be given this formula : Each infec-
tious 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 vaccine.

"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.

" 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, 4iave
succeeded, by means of the guidance it afforded, in effecting
almost completely the disappearance of erysipelas and of the

376 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 preser-
vation 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. Everything 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 thing ! ! "

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 promised to be
present at a double ceremony.

On that national holiday, a statue of Peace was to be
inaugurated, and a memorial plate placed on the house where
Pasteur was born; truly a harmonious association of ideas.
The prefect of the Jura evidently felt it when, while unveiling
the statue in the presence of Pasteur, he said : " This is
Peace, who has inspired Genius and the great services it has
rendered." The official procession, followed by popular accla-
mation, went on to the narrow Hue des Tanneurs. When
Pasteur, who had not seen his native place since his child-
hood, 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 for all Dolois
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 commemorates the fact that in this little
house, in this little street, was born, on December 27, 1822,

1882—1884 377

he who was to become one of the greatest scientists of this cen-
tury 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 accord-
ing to me a 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 Municipal Council against such a hasty
resolution ?

" But after protesting, gentlemen, against the brilliant testi-
mony of 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 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 every-
thing. 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 1 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 thank you, gentlemen, for the opportunity of saying
aloud what I have thought for sixty years. I thank you for
this fete and for your welcome, and I thank the town of Dole,

378 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 recognized you, and you
appeared under quite a new light to those who may have
misjudged your heart by knowing of you only 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 acknow-
ledged successors.

A few cases of cholera had occurred at Damietta in the month
of June. The English declared that it was J)ut 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 22nd there were five hundred deaths 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 Alex-
andria. " Since the last epidemic in 1865," he said, " science
has made great progress on the subject of transmissible 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 ravages which are generally
mortal. All the symptoms 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

1882—1884 379

the preoccupations of science is to inquire into the primary
cause of the scourge. Now the present state of knowledge
demands that attention should be drawn to the possible exist-
ence within the blood, or within some organ, of a micro-
organism 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 Committee 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 place at the Committee of
Hygiene, M. Eoux immediately offered 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. Nocard, both of whom had been authorised to work in the
laboratory, asked permission to accompany M. Koux. 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 short
holidays, made him hesitate. But the thought of duty over-
came 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 time when
the papers spoke of a French commission to study cholera,
his elder sister, who loved him with an almost motherly tender-
ness, said to him suddenly, " You are not going to Egypt,
Louis ? swear that you are not 1 " "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

380 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 begun. It
was a great thing from the point of view of the search after a
pathogenic micro-organism as well as from the anatomo-patho-
logical 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 of cholera? The most varied
modes of culture were attempted in vain. The same negative
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 Commis-
sion took up some researches on cattle plague. Suddenly a
telegram from M. Koux informed Pasteur that Thuillier had
succumbed to an attack of cholera.

" I have just heard the news of a great misfortune," wrote
Pasteur to J. B. Dumas on September 19; " M. Thuillier
died yesterday at Alexandria of cholera. I have telegraphed
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 happened?
Had he neglected 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 breedings.

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 tele-

1882—1884 381

graph has told you of the terrible misfortune which has
befallen us."

M. Eoux then proceeded to relate in detail the symptoms
presented by the unfortunate young man, who, after going to
bed at ten o'clock, apparently in perfect health, had suddenly
been taken ill about three o'clock in the morning of Saturday,
September 15. At eight o'clock, all the horrible symptoms
of the most violent form of cholera were apparent, and his
friends gave him up for lost. They continued their desperate
endeavours however, assisted by the whole staff of French and
Italian doctors.

"By dint of all our strength, all our energy, we protracted
the struggle until seven o'clock on Wednesday morning, the
19th. The asphyxia, which had then lasted twenty-four hours,
was stronger than our efforts.

" 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 the 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 corner of the pall. We embalmed our
comrade's body ; he lies in a sealed zinc coffin. All formalities
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 !
The recital of the sad event which happened so quickly would
take pages. This blow is altogether incomprehensible. It was

382 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

more than a fortnight since we had seen a single case of
cholera ; we were beginning to study cattle-plague.

" Of us all, Thuillier was the one who took most precautions ;
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 ! Want of time forces me to close this letter. Pray
believe in our respectful affection."

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 vaccination for swine-fever. He
began by recalling Thuillier 's worth :

' ' Thuillier entered my laboratory after taking the first rank
at the Physical Science Agr^gation competition at the Ecolc
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 Biology
Society a summary statement of the studies of the Cholera Com-
mission, 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 of
future research."

The cholera bacillus was put in evidence , later on, by Dr. Koch,
who had already suspected it during his researches in Egypt.

Glory, which had been seen in the battlefield at the beginning
of the nineteenth century, now seemed to elect to dwell in the

1882—1884 383

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 physician.
" 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 pre-
dicting failure to his studies on hydrophobia. This problem was
complicated by the fact that Pasteur was trying in vain to dis-
cover and isolate the specific microbe.

He was endeavouring to evade that difficulty ; the idea pur-
sued 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 condition in the subjects bitten."

At the beginning of the year 1884, J. B. Dumas enjoyed
following from a distance Pasteur's readings at the Academic
des Sciences. His failing health and advancing age (he was
more than eighty years old) had forced him to spend the winter
in the South of France. On January 26, 1884, he wrote to
Pasteur for the last time , a propos of a book l 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 a sincere admirer of your happy
efforts, 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 Secre-

1 La Vie d'un Savant, by the author of the present work. [Trans.]

384 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

tary 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 tercentenary of the
celebrated Scotch University. The "Institut de France,"
invited to take part in these celebrations, had selected represen-
tatives from each of the five Academies : the Academie
Francaise was sending M. Caro ; the Academy of Sciences,
Pasteur and de Lesseps ; the Academy of Moral Sciences, M.
Greard; the Academy of Inscriptions and Letters, M. Perrot ;
and the Academy of Fine Arts, M. Eugene Guillaume. The
College de France 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 to follow to the grave the incom-
parable 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 colleagues,
M. M6zieres, 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 of France. Pasteur
went, hoping that he would have an opportunity of speaking of
Dumas to the Edinburgh 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 admirers, Mr. Younger, an
Edinburgh brewer, as a token of gratitude for his discoveries in
the manufacture of beer. He and his wife and children wel-
comed 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 Kev. Kobert Flint, mounting that pulpit from which the
impetuous John Knox, Calvin's friend and disciple, had

1882—1884 385

breathed forth his violent fanaticism, preached to the immense
assembly with a full consciousness of the importance of his dis-
course. 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 organized a dramatic perform-
ance, the members of the orchestra, even, being undergraduates.

The French delegates took 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 fortune to voluntary contributions, reveal-
ing 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
free 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 degrees
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 solemn proclamation of the University degrees took place
on Thursday, April 17. 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 rilled the
immense hall where the Synod of the Presbyterian Church holds
its meetings. The Chancellor and the Eector of the University
were seated on a platform with a large number of professors ;
those who were about to receive honorary degrees 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 cheer-

c a

386 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

ing those savants who had had most influence on their studies.
When Pasteur's name was pronounced, a great silence ensued ;
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 Virchow ; 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 pos-
sibility 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 fra-
ternity between nations. After having read a telegram from
the Queen, congratulating the University and welcoming the
guests, a toast was drunk to the Queen and to the Eoyal Family,
and a few words spoken by the representative of the Emperor of
Brazil. Pasteur then rose to speak :

" My Lord Chancellor, 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 Con-
gress 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 Kobert
Flint, addressing the Edinburgh University from the pulpit of
St. Giles, exclaimed, 'Kemember the past and look to the
future,' all the delegates, 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.

" Amongst the illustrious delegates 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 represen-
tative of the French spirit and the best part of French glory.
France is ready to applaud whenever a source of light appears in

1882—1884 387

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. B. Dumas, a celebrated member of all your
Academies, and only a few years ago an eloquent panegyrist of
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 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 with-
out 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 should 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 #609, 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 Eeid and
Dugald Stewart said, addressing young men in the preface of
one of his works : —

388 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

1 Whatever career you may embrace, look up to an exalted
goal; worship great men and great things.'

" Great things ! You have 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 asso-
ciated with your every thought, that is still not enough. Try
to bring into everything you undertake the spirit of scientific
method, founded on the immortal works of Galileo, Descartes
and Newton.

"You especially, medical students of this celebrated Univer-
sity 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 principles, Scotland owes
such men as Brewster, Thomson and Lister."

The speaker who had to respond on behalf of the students
to the foreign delegates expressed himself thus, directly address-
ing 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.

" Bepresentatives of France, we beg you to tell your great
country that we are following with admiration the great reforms
now being introduced into every branch of your education,
reforms which we look upon as tokens of a beneficent rivalry and
of a more and more cordial intercouse — for misunderstandings
result from ignorance, a darkness lightened by the work of
scientists."

The next morning, at ten o'clock, crowds gathered on the
station platform with waving handkerchiefs. People were
showing each other a great Edinburgh daily paper, in which
Pasteur's speech 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 offers to the Edinburgh University a donation of
£500."

Livingstone's daughter, Mrs. Bruce, on whom Pasteur had
called the preceding day, came to the station a few moments

1882—1884 389

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."

, V

s

CHAPTEK XII

1884—1885

AMIDST the various researches undertaken in his laboratory,
one study was placed by Pasteur above every other, one mystery
constantly haunted his mind — that of hydrophobia. When' he
was received at the Academic Fransaise, Eenan, 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 of 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 1880, 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, he had written that vivisection
threw no light on that disease , the laws of which were ' ' impene-
trable to science until now." It now occurred to him that,
perhaps, the investigators in the laboratory of the Ecole Nor-
male might be more successful than he had been in his kennels
in the Eue Fontaine-au-Eoi.

One of the two dogs he sent was suffering 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 anything hel3 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 regarding this disease,
its seat, its causes, and its remedy. Three things seemed posi-
tive : firstly, that the rabic virus was contained in the saliva of
the mad animals; secondly, that it was communicated through

1884—1885 391

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, Pasteur was advised by
Professor Lannelongue that a five-year-old child, bitten on the
face a month before, had just been admitted into the Hopital
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, injected 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.

Pasteur 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-organism; he had
cultivated this organism 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 ig-
norant of the connection there may be between this new disease
and hydrophobia." It was indeed a singular thing that the
deadly issue of this disease should occur so early, when the
incubation 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 studying
this saliva microbe and its special virulence with his usual

392 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

patience, soon applied to it with success the method of attenua-
tion 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
principle of rabies had its seat, that precautions against saliva
were the only ones taken at post-mortem examinations — dis-
covered 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
complications of all sorts, may intervene before the develop-
ment of the rabic virus. Hydrophobia migjit evidently be
developed by the inoculation of saliva, but it could not be con-
fidently asserted that it would. Pasteur had made endless
efforts to inoculate rabies to rabbits solely through the saliva
of a mad dog ; 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 dog, so as to obtain it directly , two of Bourrel's
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^ihe result of an experiment was being
anxiously awaited. I Evidently the saliva was not a sure agent
for experiments, and if more knowledge was to betobtained,
some other means had to be found of obtaining it. J

Magendie and Kenault 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. "\Ve must try other experiments," he said, with his
usual indefatigable perseverance.

1884—1885

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 system can
almost be observed in its every stage," writes M. Koux,
Pasteur's daily associate in these researches, which he after-
wards 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 fortu-
nate 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.
Dubou£ (of Pan), who had, however, 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 fhe cerebellum or of
the medulla oblongata of rabid dogs."

Pasteur was about to prove that it was possible to succeed
by operating in a special manner, according to a rigorous tech-
nique, unknown in other laboratories. When the post-mortem
examination of a mad dog had revealed no characteristic lesion,
the brain was uncovered, and the surface of the 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 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 (lying ready on
the operating board) had been purified in boiling water

Most of the anir als who received this inoculation under the

394 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

skin succumbed to hydrophobia ; that virulent matter was there-
fore more successful than the saliva, which was a great result
obtained.

" The seat of the rabic virus," wrote Pasteur, " is therefore
not in the saliva only : the brain -contains it in a degree of
virulence at least equal to that of the saliva of rabid animals."
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
the 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 pre-
pared virus, which lay in readiness in a Pravaz syringe. The
wound was washed with carbolic and the skin stitched to-
gether, the whole thing lasting but a few minutes. The
dog, on returning to consciousness, seemed quite the same
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 con-
tracted surely and swiftly. Trephinings were again performed
on chloroformed animals — Pasteur had a great horror of useless
sufferings, and always insisted on anaesthesia. In every case,
characteristic hydrophobia occurred after inoculation on the
brain. The main lines of this complicated question were begin-
ning to be traceable ; but other obstacles were in the way.
Pasteur could not apply the method he had hitherto used, i.e.
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

1884—1885 895

artificial medium, let us try the brain of living rabbits; it
would indeed be an experimental feat! "

As soon as a trephined and inoculated rabbit died paralyzed,
a little of his rabic medulla was inoculated to another; each
inoculation succeeded another, and the time of incubation be-
came 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 incubation ;
he now wished to decrease the degrees 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 desiccation 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 dogs. The next day they were inoculated with
medulla which had been desiccating 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 bothy

Having at last obtained this refractory condition, Pasteur was
anxious that his results should be verified by a Commission.
The Minister of Public Instruction acceded to this desire, and
a Commission was constituted in May, 1884, composed of
Messrs. Beclard, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Paul Bert,
Bouley, Villemin. Vulpian, and Tisserand, Director of the

396 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Agriculture Office. The Commission immediately set to work ;
a rabid dog having succumbed at Alfort on June 1, its carcase
was brought to the laboratory of the Ecole Normale, and a frag-
ment of the medulla oblongata was mixed with some sterilized
broth. Two dogs, declared by Pasteur to be refractory to
rabies, 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
dogs 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
bites; 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 of which was 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 Commission pro-
ceeded 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 10th, Bourrel telegraphed the arrival of another
rabid dog, and the same operations were gone through.

" 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 suspicions for a day or two. On the morning of the

1884—1885 397

10th, 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 wew indeed in the biting stage of rabies. Fortunately a
lingering fidelity had prevented him from attacking his
master. . . .

" This morning the rabic condition is beginning to appear
on one of the new dogs trephined on June 1, 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 dog
which developed rabies within the exact time indicated by
Pasteur, the two rabbits on whom inoculation had been per-
formed 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, particularly 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 1 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 sub-
mitted to control-experiments which were continued until
August. The dogs which Pasteur declared to be refractory
underwent all the various tests made with rabic virus; bites,
injections into the veins, trephining, everything 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 Eue Fontaine-au-Koi. 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

398 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 Instruc-
tion 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 terrified at the
thought of rabid dogs, however securely bound, in their peace-
ful neighbourhood.

Another piece of ground was then suggested to Pasteur, near
St. Cloud, in the Park of Villeneuve 1'Etang. Originally 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 International
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 learn-
ing French for the last three years, the better to entertain
the French delegates. Pasteur's son, then secretary of the
French Legation at Copenhagen, had often spoken to his
father with appreciative admiration of those Northerners, who

1884—1885

hide deep enthusiasm under apparent calmness, almost
coldness. ^

The opening meeting took place on August 10 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
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 Germany, 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 great-
ness 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, regardless
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

400 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 against 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 unknown 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 par-
takes 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 demonstra-
tion of the fact that the rabic virus invades the nervous centres,
the culture of the virus within living animals, the attenua-
tion 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 pos-
sibility of obtaining in this way all the degrees of virulence,
and finally the acquired certainty of having obtained a pre-
ventive vaccine against canine hydrophobia.

"Enthusiastic applause," wrote the reporter of the Journal
des Debats, "greeted the conclusion of the indefatigable
worker. ' '

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 sericiculture, but to that of the manufacture 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

1884—1885 401

one of the most important in the world ; at least 200,000 hecto-
litres 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, physiology, and beer-manu-
facture, 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 of Pasteur — the deep
thoughtful far-away look in his eyes, a somewhat stern expres-
sion 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 entertained 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.

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 Eussia 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 declama-
tory 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

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402 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 holi-
day. 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, running 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 sing her last
song, her hands full of flowers. Evidently this place was but
an imaginary scenery given by Shakespeare to the drama
which stands like a point of interrogation 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 Copen-
hagen 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 experiments
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 Kue d'Ulm,
had gladly given up his holidays and remained in Paris with
the faithful Eugene Viala. This excellent assistant had come

1884—1885 403

to Paris from Alais in 1871, at the request of Pasteur, who
knew his family. Viala was then only twelve years old and
could barely read and write. Pasteur 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 M. Koux ;
he was ultimately entrusted with all the trephining 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 hydro-
phobia. 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 telegram : ' Surgeon Symonds,
Oxford, England. Operation on man still impossible. No
possibility at present of sending attenuated virus.* See MM.
Bourrel and Be*raud, 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 cannot 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 treatment). Mind you keep
notes of every new experiment undertaken, and write to me
every other day at least."

Pasteur pondered on the means of extinguishing hydrophobia
or of merely diminishing its frequency. Could dogs be vacci-
nated ? There are 100,000 dogs in Paris, about 2,500,000
more in the provinces : vaccination necessitates several pre-
ventive 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, where were rabbits to be found in sufficient
number for the vaccine emulsions?

Optional vaccination did not seem more practicable ; it could

D D 2

404 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 hydro-
phobia 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.

" SIRE — 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 unani-
mous 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 pro-
gress. I consider, however, that it will take me nearly two
years more to bring them to a happy issue. . . .

1 ' 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 reading at the
Academy of Sciences. I fear too much that a failure might
compromise the future, and I want first to accumulate success-
ful cases on animals. Things in that direction are going very
well indeed ; I already have several examples of dogs made
refractory after a rabietic 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
remains 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 power-
ful 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

1884—1885 405

for his execution, to choose between certain death and an
experiment which would consist in several preventive inocula-
tions 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 commuted 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.

41 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
regarding the bacillus to which Dr. Koch attributes the causa-
tion 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 remedies 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
Rio Janeiro, notwithstanding my age and the state of my
health, in order to undertake such studies on the prophylaxis
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 him-
self 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 Pilatre 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, 1783, he organized an ascent at the Muette
which lasted twenty minutes.

In England, in the eighteenth century, before Jenner's dis-
covery, successful attempts had been made at the direct
inoculation of small-pox. In some historical and medical
Researches on 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

406 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

criminals condemned to death ; they were all saved, and the
Boyal 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 modern 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 G arches with the idea of
resisting in their turn the installation of Pasteur's kennels at
Villeneuve 1'Etang. 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 townspeople.

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 1'Etang, but only dogs made
refractory to rabies. Not having enough room in my labora-
tory, 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 ! 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 1'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 accom-
modation for sixty dogs was arranged behind a double barrier
of wire netting.

1884—1885 407

The subject of hydrophobia goes back to the remotest
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, recom-
mended the livers of mad dogs as a cure ; it was not a suc-
cessful 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 miraculous 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 Koux.

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 Eoux did not allude in his paper to certain tenacious and
cruel prejudices, which had caused several hydrophobic persons,
or persons merely suspected of hydroprobia, to be killed like
wild beasts, shot, poisoned, strangled, or suffocated.

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 them. A girl, bitten by a
mad dog and taken to the Hotel 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 Government to enact a
Bill in the following terms : "It is forbidden, under pain of

408 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

death, to strangle, suffocate, bleed to death, or in any other way
murder individuals suffering from rabies, hydrophobia, or any
disease causing fits, convulsions, furious and dangerous mad-
ness ; all necessary precautions against them being taken by
families or public authorities."

In 1819, newspapers related the death of an unfortunate
hydrophobe, smothered between two mattresses; it was said a
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, 1831) 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 were
eight victims in the immediate neighbourhood. Nicole was
saved. For years 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 !

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 treat-
ment 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

1884—1885 409

gunpowder over the wound and setting a match to it, he recom-
mended caustics, such as nitric acid, sulphuric acid, hydro-
chloric acid, potassa fusa, butter of antimony, corrosive sub-
limate, 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 ID
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 of cases,
this disease proceeds from contagion; out of 1,000 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 pre-
judices, 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 should 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 letters.
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
my dogs down at Villeneuve 1'Etang. I also have some new
experiments on rabies on hand which will take some months.

410 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

I am demonstrating this year that dogs can be vaccinated, or
made refractory to rabies after they have been bitten by mad
dogs.

' ' 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 Kabies Commission were
resumed on March 10; they are now being carried out, and
the Commission has already held six sittings ; the seventh will
take place to-day.

" 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 inoculations 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 untoward incident has occurred up to now ; and
if all continues equally well, the Commission's second report
will be as favorable 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 1'Etang was ready for the
reception of sixty dogs. Fifty of them, already made refrac-
tory to bites or rabic inoculation, were successively accommo-
dated 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, which had hung for a
fortnight in a phial, and of which the virulence was extin-
guished, after which further inoculations 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

1884—1885 411

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 affectionate,
others vicious and growling, some confiding, some shrinking,
as if the recollection of chloroform and the laboratory was dis-
agreeable 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 neigh-
bouring dogs' cemetery at Bagatelle, founded by Sir Eichard
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 necessary that he
should come to spend two or three days at Villeneuve 1'Etang.
The official architect thought of repairing part of the little
palace of Villeneuve, which was 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-commis-
sioned 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—

4 ' 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 pos-
sibility of treating a man after a bite with no fear of accidents.

" I have never had so many subjects of experiment on hand—

412 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

sixty dogs at Villeneuve 1'Etang, forty at Eollin, ten at Fregis',
fifteen at Bourrel's, and I deplore having no more kennels at
my disposal.

' What do you say of the Eue Pasteur in the large city of
Lille? The news has given me very great pleasure."

What Pasteur briefly called " Eollin " in this letter was the
former Lycte 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 refractory to
rabies by preventive inoculations ; the second in preventing
the onset of rabies in dogs bitten or subjected to inoculation.

CHAPTER XIII
1885—1888

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 Academie Francaise, 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 experiments 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 considered
rabic may be accompanied by a substance which, by impregnat-
ing the nervous system, would make it unsuitable 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.

11 1 have just met Chamberland in the Eue 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.

" Acadfanie Franqaise, Thursday, January 29, 1885."

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.

414 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

On 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 covering his
face with his hands. A bricklayer, seeing the scene from a
distance, arrived, and succeeded in beating the dog off with an
iron bar; he picked up the boy, covered with blood and saliva.
The dog went back to his master, Theodore 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 physician, but who would be the best judge of what could
be done in such a serious case. Theodore Vone, anxious on
his own and on the child's account, decided to come also.

Pasteur reassured him ; his clothes had wiped off the dog's
saliva, and his shirt-sleeve was intact. He might safely go
back to Alsace, and he promptly did so.

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 acuteness. 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 Babies Commission
had been constituted, Pasteur had formed a growing esteem
for the great judgment of Vulpian, who, in his lectures 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 scientist : he was

1885—1888 415

absolutely straightforward, and of a discreet and active kind-
ness. 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 treat-
ment? added the professor, usually so reserved. Was there
any other efficacious treatment against hydrophobia? 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, vlf 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.

This was also the opinion of Dr. Grancher, whom Pasteur
consulted. M. Grancher worked at the laboratory ; he and
Dr. Straus might claim to be the two first French physicians
who took up the study of bacteriology ; these novel studies
fascinated him, and he was drawn to Pasteur by the deepest
admiration and by a strong affection, 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 perform-
ing the first inoculation immediately ; the substance chosen
was fourteen days old and had quite lost its virulence : it was
to be followed by further inoculations gradually 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 Eollin College, and the liUle 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 11 :" the child sleeps well, has a good appetite, and the
inoculated matter is absorbed into the system from one day

416 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 and 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 and his mother back-
to Meissengott (near Schlestadt) in any case on August 1,
giving these good people detailed instruction as to the observa-
tions 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 ! The boy continues in perfect
health."

Eenewed hopes were expressed in the following letter from
Pasteur —

"My dear Kene", 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, gradu-
ally 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 16. 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 hydrophobia, like
the dying child he had seen at the Hopital Trousseau in 1880.
Vainly his experimental genius assured him that the virus of
that most terrible of diseases 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 sufferings and anxieties of others was
for the nonce centred in " the dear lad."

The treatment lasted ten days ; Meister was inoculated

1885-rl888 417

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 11 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
country place in Burgundy, but without however finding much
restfulness in the beautiful peaceful scenery; he lived in con-
stant 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 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 to-morrow since he was
bitten. "/

On August 20, six weeks before the new elections of Deputies,
Leon Say, Pasteur's colleague at the Academic Franchise,
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
Leon 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 investigations. But

E B

418 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

politics frighten me and I have already refused a candidature
in the Jura and a seat in the Senate in the course of tbis 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 which 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./'

Whilst many political speeches were being prepared, Pasteur
was thinking over a literary speech. He had been requested by
the Academie Francaise to welcome Joseph Bertrand, elected
in place of J. B. Dumas — the eulogium of a scientist, spoken
by one scientist, himself welcomed by another scientist. This
was an unusual programme for the Academie Fran9aise, perhaps
too unusual in the eyes of Pasteur, who did not think himself
worthy of speaking in the name of the Academie. Such was
his modesty ; he forgot that amongst the savants who had been
members of the Academie, several, such as Fontenelle, Cuvier,
J. B. Dumas, etc. , had published immortal 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 Academie des
Sciences.

Bertrand 's election had been simple and easy, like everything
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 His-
tory so that he might look at the pictures. He took the volume

1885—1888 419

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 child-
hood : ' ' At ten years old you were already celebrated , and it was
prophesied that you would pass at the head of the list into the
Ecole Polytechnique and become a member of the Academy of
Sciences? 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 pro-
pounded 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 india-
rubber balls are usually an important interest, Bertrand walked
merrily to the Jardin des Plantes 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 ks
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 teach-
ing 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. Dis-
couraged by this ruin of ten years' work, he had given way to a
tendency to writing slight popular articles, of high literary
merit, instead of continuing his deeper scientific work. His
eulogy 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 oppor-
tunity of speaking again of J. B. Dumas' influence on himself,
of his admirable scientific discoveries, and of his political duties,

E E 2

420 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

andertaken 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 childhood,
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 attempt-
ing to force his way in, M. Eoux was amused at seeing
Pasteur — vexed at being disturbed and anxious not to pain the
visitor — come out to say imploringly, " Oh ! not now, please !
I am too busy ! ' '

"When Chamberland and I," writes Dr. Eoux, "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 offended."

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, beg-
ging for advice, recommendations, interviews, etc.

"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 writh 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 lan-
guage ; 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 wras consulted also on many other subjects — virus, silk-
worms, rabies, cholera, swine-fever, etc. ; many took him for a
physician. Whilst telling them of their mistake, he yet did
everything 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 the memory of

1885—1888 421

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, and,
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 treat-
ment of hydrophobia after a bite. The Mayors of Villers-Farlay,
in the Jura, wrote to him that, on October 14, a shepherd had
been cruelly bitten by a rabid dog.

Six little shepherd boys 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 chil-
dren, 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 confronted the infuriated animal,
who flew at him and seized his left hand. Jupille, wrestling
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 under water for several minutes.
Death being now certain, and all danger removed from his com-
rades, 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

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

a victim of his own courage unless the new treatment inter-
vened. The answer came immediately : Pasteur declared that,
after five years' study, he had succeeded in making dogs refrac-
tory to rabies, even six or eight days after being bitten ; that
he had only once yet applied his method to a human being, bat
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 profession.

"Hydrophobia, that dread disease against which all thera-
peutic 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 hydrophobia can infallibly be pre-
vented 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 constant success of this treat-
ment 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 oppor-

1885—1888 423

tunity of benefiting by this great discovery, which will 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 under the impression 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 acknowledging 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 committing further injury to
bystanders, . . . such an act of bravery deserves to be
rewarded. I therefore have the honour of begging the
Academic des Sciences to recommend to the Academic
Fran^aise 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 pro-
gress realized by the discovery of an efficacious means of pre-
ventive 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
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 public
meeting of the five Academies, had proclaimed his enthusiasm
for the discovery of the vaccination of anthrax. But on hear-
ing 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 sus-
tained 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 Academie

424 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

de Medecine the next day to enjoy the echo of the great sitting
of the Academic 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 transformed
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 Eugene 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, their tubular openings closed by plugs of
cotton-wool. Each flask contained a rabic marrow, hanging
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 opera-
tions personally.

In the large hall of the laboratory, Pasteur's collaborators,
Messrs. Chamberland and Roux, carried on investigations into
contagious diseases under 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 popular, translated (for
he knew the English, German, Italian, Hungarian and Spanish
languages, and was awaiting a favourable opportunity of learn-
ing Russian) the letters which arrived from all parts of the

1885—1888 425

world ; he also entertained 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 found Pasteur listen-
ing 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 physician and do not desire to
be one. Never speak to me of your dogma of morbid spon-
taneity. 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
smilingly 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 register, 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, help-
ing those who were poor and illiterate to find suitable lodgings
in the great capital. Children especially 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 severely 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 of 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, dis-
couraged 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 compassion for the
father and mother, begging him to try and save their child.

After the treatment was over, Louise Pelletier had returned
to school, when fits of breathlessness appeared, 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 2, there was a

426 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 funeral, 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 between 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 ! " he said. And as he came down
the staircase, he burst into tears.

He was obliged, a few days later, to preside at the reception
of Joseph Bertrand at the Academic Francaise ; 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 des Debats, wrote,
" M. Pasteur ended his speech amidst a torrent of applause,
he received a veritable ovation. He seemed unaccountably
moved. How can M. Pasteur, who has received every mark
of admiration, every supreme honour, whose name is conse-
crated by universal renown, still be touched by anything 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.

A telegram from New York having announced that four
children, bitten by rabid dogs, were starting for Paris, many
adversaries who had heard of Louise Pelletier's death were say-
ing 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 subscription 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 insignificant prick, could not help saying,
"Is this all we have come such a long journey for?" The

1885—1888 427

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 found 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 teachers, and
of your father and mother. Kemember me to M. Perrot, the
Mayor of Villers-Farlay. Perhaps, without him, you 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 under his care ; his kind-
ness 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 understood, 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
Academic Fran^aise, Edouard Herv<§, who looked upon journal-
ism as a great responsibility and as a school of mutual re-
spect between adversaries. He was bringing to Pasteur, from
the Comte de Laubespin, a generous philanthropist, a sum of
40,000 fr. destined to meet the expenses necessitated by the
organization of the hydrophobia treatment. Pasteur, when

428 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

questioned by Heive", answered that his intention was to found
a model establishment in Paris, supported by donations and
international 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 propor-
tion often was greater still : whilst Joseph Meister was under
Pasteur's care, five persons were bitten by a rabid dog on the
Pan tin Eoad, near Paris, and every one of them succumbed to
hydrophobia.

Pasteur, instead of referring to Bouley 's statistics, preferred
to adopt those of M. Leblanc, a veterinary surgeon and a
member of the Academy of Medicine, who had for a long time
been head of the sanitary department of the Prefecture de Police.
These statistics only gave a proportion of deaths of 16 per 100,
and had been carefully and accurately kept.

On March 1, he was able to affirm, 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 established.

"It is advisable to create a vaccinal institute against
hydrophobia."

The Academy of Sciences 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 Institut Pasteur. A sub-
scription 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 Perseveranza, which had opened a
subscription, collected 6,000 fr. in its first list. The Journal
d' Alsace headed a propaganda in favour of this work, " sprung
from Science and Charity." It reminded its readers that
Pasteur had occupied a professor's chair in the former brilliant

1885—1888 429

Faculty of Science of Strasburg, and that his first inocula-
tion was made on an Alsatian boy, Joseph Meister. The
newspaper intended to send the subscriptions 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 nineteen
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 off, his face was one gaping wound.
Another, the youngest of them, had had the skin of his forehead
torn off by the wolf's 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 Hotel 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
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 morn-
ing 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 touloupes
and fur caps, with their wounds bandaged, and joined without a
word the motley groups awaiting treatment at the laboratory —
an English family, a Basque peasant, a Hungarian in his
national costume, etc., etc.

• • . • -L •

430 . THE LIFE OF PASTEUR, . .

In the evening, the dumb and resigned band of mujiks came
again to the laboratory door. They seemed led by Fate, heed-
less of the struggle between life and death of which they were
the prize. " Pasteur " 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 fort-
night 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 prevailed concerning the hap-
less Eussians, 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 confidence 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 generali-
ties : each individual appealed to his -heart. As he passed
through the wards at the Hotel Dieu, each patient in his bed
inspired him with dee£> 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 Eussians 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 Eussians 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 Eussia, 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 Pagct was the president of it, and the other members
^were : — Dr. Lauder-Brunton, Mr. Fleming, Sir Joseph Lister,
Dr. Quain, Sir Henry Eoscoe, Professor Burdon Sanderson, and

I

1885—1888 ' . 431

Mr. Victor Horsley, secretary. The resume 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 protectig healthy animals from ulterior
bites from rabid animals, or of preventing the onset of rabies in
animals already bitten, by means of vaccinal inoculations.

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 begun 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 Trocadero 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 con-
ducted his Ave Maria, turned round after the closing bars, and,
in an impulse of heartfelt enthusiasm, kissed both his hands to
the savant.

In the evening at a banquet, Pasteur thanked his colleagues
and the organizers of this incomparable performance. ' Was
it not," he said, "a touching sight, that of those immortal
composers, those great charmers of fortunate humanity coming
to the assistance of those who wish to study and to serve suffer-
ing humanity? 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."

432 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

A few days later, the subscription from Alsace-Lorraine
brought in 43 ,000 f r . Pasteur received it with grateful emotion ,
and was pleased and touched to find the name of little Joseph
Meister among the list of private subscribers. 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 try-
ing 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, answering 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 Vauquelin,
where a few temporary buildings had been erected to facilitate
the treatment of hydrophobia, close to the rabbit hutches, hen-
coops, and dog kennels which occupied the yard of the old
College Rollin. The patients under treatment walked about
cheerfully amidst these surroundings, 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 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.

1885—1888 433

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 1, 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 treatment. He read
a paper on the subject to the Academy of Sciences on Novembei
2, 1886. Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, who was in the chair,
said to him , ' ' All great discoveries have gone through a time of
trial. May your health withstand the troubles and difficulties
in your way."

Pasteur'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. Eaphael 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

F F

THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Avignon contrasted with the foggy 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. Duclaux was then thinking of starting a
monthly periodical entitled Annals of the Pasteur Institute.
Pasteur, writing to him on December 27, 1887, to express his
approbation, suggested various experiments to be attempted.
He attributed the, action of the preventive inoculations to a
vaccinal matter associated with the rabic microbe. Pasteur had
thought at first that the first development 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 biologists, 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. Kepairs 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 ! "

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 inter-
vened , declaring that the alleged fact was ' ' devoid of any scien-
tific character." A week later, MM. Grancher and Brouardel
bore the brunt of the discussion. Grancher, Pasteur's repre-
sentative on this occasion, disproved certain allegations, and

1885—1888 435

added : " The medical men who have been chosen by M.
Pasteur to assist him in his work have not hesitated to practise
the antirabic inoculation on themselves, as a safeguard against
an accidental inoculation of the virus which they are constantly
handling. What greater proof can they give of their bona fide
convictions?" He showed that the mortality amongst the
cases treated remained below 1 per 100. " M. Pasteur will
soon publish foreign statistics from Samara, Moscow, St.
Petersburg, Odessa, Warsaw and Vienna : they are all abso-
lutely 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 Acade'mie de Me*decine) , said , a 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 continue to stand on heights too great
to ba reached by its sullen waves." Pasteur was much dis-
turbed by the noise of these discussions ; every post increased his
f everishness , and he spoke every morning of returning to Paris
to answer his opponents.

It was a pitiful thing to note on his worn ^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.

Vulpian, in a statement to the Acad£mie des Sciences, con-
stituted himself Pasteur's champion. Pasteur indeed was saft
from attacks in that centre, but certain low slanderers who
attended the public meetings of the Acade'mie continued to
accuse Pasteur of concealing the failures of his method. Vulpian
— who was furiously angry at such an insinuation against ' ' a
man like M. Pasteur, whose good faith, loyalty and scientific
integrity should be an example to his adversaries as they are to

F F 2

436 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 Sciences 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 Pasteur at the same time, " All your admirers
hope that those interested attacks will merely excite your con-
tempt. Fine weather is no doubt reigning at Bordighera : you
must take advantage of 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 always 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 beautiful woman, in mourning robes, and recognized
the Empress Eugenie. .

Shortly afterwards, he received a visit from Prince Napoleon,
who dragged his haughty ennui from town to town. He pre-
sented himself at the Villa Bischoffsheim under the name of
Count Moncalieri, coming, he said, to greet his colleague of the
Institute. Eabies formed the subject of their conversation.
The next day, Pasteur called on the Prince, in his common-
place hotel rooms, a mere temporary resting place for the exiled
Bonaparte, whose mysterious, uncompleted destiny was made
more enigmatical 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 pass-
ing in an underground tunnel; houses began to rock and

1885—1888 437

ominous cracks were heard. This first shock lasted more than
a minute, during which the sense of solidity disappeared alto-
gether, to be succeeded by a feeling of absolute, hopeless, impo-
tence. No doubt, in every household, families gathered
together, with a sudden yearning not to be divided. Pasteur's
wife, children and grandchildren had barely had time to come
to him when another shock took place, more terrible than the
first; everything seemed about to be engulfed in an abyss.
Never had morning 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 vibration of the
ground which continued after the second shock, and of which
Pasteur observed the effect on glass windows with much interest.
Pasteur and his family dove off to 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 moun-
tain 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 that the danger would cease on the
other side of the frontier.

" We have resolved to go to Arbois," wrote 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 surrounded him with an
anxious solicitude.

At the beginning of July, Pasteur received the report pre-
sented to the House of Commons by the English Commission
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 was founded, but they
had not been satisfied with their experimental researches in Mr.
Horsley's laboratory, and had carried out a long and minute
inquiry in France. After noting on Pasteur's registers the
names of ninety persons treated, who had come from the same

438 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 com-
pared with that of vaccination against small-pox. It would be
difficult to overestimate the utility of this discovery, 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 and
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 Hydro-
phobia 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 counsels 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. Pasteur's experi-
mental genius, is one of the finest discoveries 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

1885—1888 439

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 unconditionally,
and Pasteur accepted. He was elected on July 18. 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 promising, — pupils worthy of French science ; and,
on the other hand, in following attentively the work incited
a ad encouraged by this Academy.

" Our only consolation, as we feel our own strength failing
us, is to feel that we may help those who come after us to do
more and to do better 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, Sun-
day morning, after writing a letter in his room, he tried to speak
to Mme. Pasteur and could not pronounce a word ; his tongue
was paralyzed. 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 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 somewhat difficult, and his
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 physiognomy. A luminous profile,
painted by Hefner ten years before, brings out the powerful

440 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

harmony of the forehead. In 1886, Bonnat painted, for the
brewer 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, begged 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 savant 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 contain-
ing a fragment of rabic marrow, the expression in his eyes
entirely concentrated on the scientific problem.

During the year 1888, Pasteur, after spending the morning
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 yards 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 facade, 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 hydro-
phobia, a centre 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 transferred to
the Pasteur Institute, where Dr. Koux would also give a course
of lectures on technical microbia. The " service " of vaccina-
tions 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. Metchnikoff's
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 Eepublic to come and
inaugurate the Institute. "I shall certainly not fail to do so,"
answered Carnot; " your Institute is a credit to France."

On November 14, politicians, colleagues, friends, collabora-
tors, pupils assembled in the large library of the new Institute.
Pasteur had the pleasure of seeing before him, in the first rank,

1885—1888 441

Duruy and Jules Simon ; it was a great day for these former
Ministers of Public Instruction. Like them, Pasteur had all
his life been deeply interested in higher education. " If that
teaching is but for a small number," he said, "it is with this
small number, this elite that the prosperity, glory and
supremacy of a nation rest."

Joseph Bertrand, chairman of the Institute Committee, know-
ing 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 them-
selves 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 vaccina-
tion of those diseases, have been for biological chemistry, for
the veterinary art and for medicine, not a regular progress, but
a complete revolution. Now, revolutions, even those imposed
by scientific demonstration, 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 implacability
of his dialectics and the absolute form he sometimes gives to his
thought."

Going on to the most recently acquired results, M. Grancher
stated that the mortality amongst persons treated after bites
from rabid dogs remained under 1 per 100.

"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

442 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 beginning, that Academies 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 ren-
dered 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 ! Keversing 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, which Pasteur and Messrs. Chamberland and
Boux 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 inaugurat-
ing." 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 began by a rapid summary of what France 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 —

1885—1888 443

"And when the day came that, foreseeing the future which
would be opened by the discovery of the attenuation of virus, I
appealed to my country, so that we should be allowed, through
the strength and impulse of private initiative, to build labora-
tories to be devoted, not only to the prophylactic treatment of
hydrophobia, but also to the study of virulent and contagious
diseases — on that day again, Prance 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! 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
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 thinking 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 collaborators, 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

444 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 in this
world. If I might be allowed, M. le President, 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 wrest-
ling 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 other, a
law of peace, work and health, ever evolving new means of
delivering man from the scourges which beset him.

11 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 instru-
ments 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 preserve thousands of soldiers. Which of those
two laws will ultimately prevail, God alone knows. But we
may assert that French Science will have tried, by obeying the
law of Humanity , to extend the frontiers of Life. ' '

CHAPTEE XIV
1889—1895

IN this Institute, which Pasteur entered ill and weary, he con-
templated with joy those large laboratories, which would enable
his pupils to work with ease and to attract around them investi-
gators 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. Differing 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'Hoff, 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 privilege of hearing
Pasteur speak of his early researches," writes M. Chamberland,
in an article in the Revue Scientifique, "we have seen the
revival in him of a smouldering fire, and we have thought that
his countenance showed a vague regret at having forsaken them.
Who can now say what discoveries he might have made in that
direction? " "One day," said Dr. Hericourt— who spent the
summer near Villeneuve 1'Etang, 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 regret, might have looked back
with calm pride on the progress he had made in other directions.

446 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

In what obscurity were fermentation and infection enveloped
before his time, and with what light he had penetrated them !
When he had discoyered the all-powerful role of the infinite-
simally 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. I)ight was being thrown on preventive measures.

M. Henri Monod, Director of Hygiene and Public Charities,
one day 'quoted , a propos of sanitary measures , these words of
the great English Minister, Disraeli —

' ' Public health is the foundation upon which rest the happi-
ness of the people and the power of the State. Take the moat
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."

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
inauguration of the new Sorbonne. At the sight of the. won-
derful facilities for work offered by this palace, he remeriibered
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

1889—1895 447

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 p6brine.
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 ill-health,
he went from his rooms to the Hydrophobia Clinic, arriving
there long before the patients. He superintended the prepara-
tion 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 ! " 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 Trance, it was in
November that the Medical and Surgical Section of the
Academy of Sciences constituted a Subscription Committee to
offer Pasteur an affectionate homage. Eoty, the celebrated
engraver, wag desired to finish a medal he had already begun,
representing Pasteur in profile, a skull cap on his broad fore-
head, 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. Eoty 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

448 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

and foreign delegates from Scientific Societies, the members
of the Institute, and the Professors of Faculties. In the
amphitheatre were the deputations from the Ecoles Normale,
Poly technique, Centrale, of Pharmacy, Veterinaires , and of
Agriculture — deep masses of students. People pointed out
to each other Pasteur's pupils, Messrs. Duclaux, Boux,
Chamber land, Metchnikoff, in their places; M. Perdrix, a
former Normalien, now an Agregd-preparateur ; M. Edouard
Calmette, a former student of the Ecole Centrale, 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 Bue d'Ulm. The first gallery was full
of those who had subscribed towards the presentation about
to be made to Pasteur. In the second gallery, boys from
lycSes crowned the immense assembly with a youthful garland.

At half past 10 o'clock, whilst the band of the Kepublican
Guard played a triumphal march, Pasteur entered, leaning
on the arm of the President of the Bepublic. Carnot led him
to a little table, whereon the addresses from the various dele-
gates 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 Bepublic stood,
in their uniform, the official delegates of the five Academies
which form the Institut de France. The Academy of Medi-
cine 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, after 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 1 The day will
come when another Lucretius will sing, in a new poem on
Nature, the immortal Master whose genius engendered 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 of his country,
dividing his life between the stern enjoyment of scientific
research and the sweet communion of family intercourse ;
going from the laboratory to his hearth, finding 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

1889—1895 449

so many struggles might have exhausted his ardour, arrested
his perseverance, and enervated 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 commemorative medal of
this great day.

Joseph Bertrand said that the same science, wide, accurate,
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. Daubr^e, 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, President
of the Paris 'Municipal Council, the various delegates pre-
sented 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 offerings,
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-certificate and a photo-
graph of the house in which he was born. The sight of his
father's signature at the end of the certificate 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 1 . . ."

The last word of homage was pronounced by M. Devise,

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450 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

President of the Students' Association, who said to Pasteur,
4 ' 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 President de la Kepublique, your presence
transforms an intimate fete 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 mag-
nificence, 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 obstacles and difficulties of all kinds.

' Very few years 'ago, before the public authorities and
the town councils had endowed science with splendid dwell-
ings, 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 photo-
graph 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 representatives 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 phenomena! 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, delegates from foreign nations, who have come
from so far to give to France a proof of sympathy, you bring

1889—1895 451

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 suffering 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
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?' 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 ! ' ' resounded throughout the
building. The President of the Eepublic 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 fete, 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 fruitful dis-
coveries, I have decided that your name should be given to
the village of Seriana, situated in the arrondissement of Batna,

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452 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 corner
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 S£riana is very ancient. M. Stephane 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 dis-
posal four scholarships, for four young men chosen by you.
Each scholarship would be of 3,000 fr. ; 2,400 for the men
themselves, and 600 fr. for the expenses they would incur in
your laboratories. Their lives would be rendered easier. You
could find amongst them, either an immediate 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 them-
selves 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 mys-
terious lady. The scholarship foundation was for one year only,
but other years were about to follow and to resemble this one.

1889—1895 453

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 :

11 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. Eoux
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 therefore been under-
taken 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."

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 cor-
respond 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

454 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

surface ; I shall tell the mother to purify herself like a Hindoo
—else what would you say to me! "

A German of the name of Klebs discovered the bacillus of
diphtheria in 1883, by studying the characteristic membranes;
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, pro-
duce the diphtheritic membranes : Messrs. Eoux and Yersin
demonstrated this fact and ascertained the method of its deadly
action.

Dr. Eoux, in a lecture to the London Koyal 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 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," con-
tinued M. Eoux, "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 prepared 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-pro-
ducers. 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. Eoux, is an intoxication caused by a very active
poison formed by the microbe within the restricted area
wherein it develops.

1889—1895 455

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 diphtheria.
The Klebs-Loeffler bacillus, disseminated in broth, 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 centimetre 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. Kichet
and Hericourt had already opened the way in 1888, while
studying another disease.

M. Eoux inoculated a horse with diphtheritic toxin miti-
gated 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 efficiency of the serum in the treatment of diphtheria, with
the collaboration of MM. Martin and Chaillou, who had, both
clinically and bacteriologically, studied more than 400 cases of
diphtheria.

There are in Paris two hospitals where diphtheritic children
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 Hopital Trousseau.

From February 1, MM. Roux, Martin, and Chaillou paid a
daily visit to the Enfants 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.

456 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Almost invariably, not only did the membranes cease to
increase during the twenty-four hours following the first injec-
tion, but they began to come away within thirty-six or forty-
eight hours, the third day at the latest ; the livid, leaden pale-
ness of the face disappeared ; the child was saved.

From 1890 to 1893 there had been 3,971 cases of diphtheria,
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. Eoux 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 inhabi-
tants 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, together with the
beauty of the object in view, filled him with enthusiasm. He
who had said, " Exhaust every combination, 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. Eoux, repeating and enlarging his lecture, made a com-
munication on the serotherapy of diphtheria which created a
great sensation in Europe.

In France, prefects asked the Minister of the Interior how
local physicians might obtain this antidiphtheritic serum. The
Figaro newspaper opened a subscription towards preserving
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 per-
manent organization for serotherapy. In three months, 50,000
doses of serum were about to be given away.

Pasteur, who was then at Arbois, followed every detail with
passionate interest. Sitting under the old quinces in his little
garden, he read the lists of subscribers, names of little children,
offering charitable gifts as they entered this life, and names of
sorrowing parents, giving in the names of dear lost ones.

1889-1895 457

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
so. But he remained silent, as was his wont when troubled by
his thoughts, his sadness only revealing itself to those who
lovingly watched every movement 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 unaccustomed to labora-
tory work, who desired to understand the diagnosis of diphtheria
and the mode in which the serum should be used. Pasteur,
from his study window, was watching all this coming and going
in his Institute. A twofold feeling was visible on his worn
features : a sorrowing 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 ascete.
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 recog-
nized the symptoms of the bubonic plague, which had ravaged
Europe on many occasions. He noticed that the epidemic
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 accord-
ance with his own method of observation : ' ' The peculiar apti-
tude to contract plague possessed by certain animals," wrote
M. Yersin, " enabled me to undertake 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

458 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

the blood of the patients and in the bubonic pulp.*' When
M. Yersin inoculated rats, mice, or guinea-pigs with this pulp,
the animals died, and he found 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
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 Eussian scientist,
who had elected to come to France for the privilege of working
by the side of Pasteur. M. Metchnikoff explained by the
action of the white corpuscles of the blood, named " leuco-
cytes," the immunity 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 accord-
ing 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 uncon-
scious for four hours ; the sweat of agony bathed his forehead
and his whole body, and his eyes remained closed. The even-
ing brought with it a ray of hope ; he was able to speak, and
asked not to be left alone. Immediate danger seemed avoided,
but great anxiety continued 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

1889—1895 459

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 1 to December 25, the
laboratory workers continued this watching, regulated by Dr.
Eoux as follows : —

Sunday night, Eoux and Chantemesse ; Monday, Queyrat and
Marmier ; Tuesday, Borrel and Martin; Wednesday, Mesnil
and Pottevin; Thursday, Marchoux and Viala ; Friday, Cal-
mette and Veillon ; Saturday, Eenon and Morax. A few altera-
tions were made in this order ; Dr. Marie claimed the privilege.
M. Metchnikoff, 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 fourteen,
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 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. Grille, who had often been sent for by Pasteur
when staying at Villeneuve 1'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 ! movements
slow at first, then rapid, accelerated, gasping, slackening again,

460 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

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 1, after seeing all his collaborators, down to the
youngest laboratory attendant, Pasteur received the visit of
one of his colleagues of the Academic Frangaise. It was Alex-
andre Dumas, 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 in-
tellect, had been surprised and touched by the delicate attentions
of a heart which only opened to a chosen few. Dumas, 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. His
blue eyes, usually keen and cold, easily detecting secret
thoughts and looking on them with irony, were full of an ex-
pression 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 sunshine.

As he could not go out, those who did not come to see him
thought him worse than he really was. It was therefore 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 Eue 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, bowing 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. Koux had arranged on tables, in the large

1889—1895 461

laboratory, the little flasks which Pasteur had used in his ex-
periments 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. Eoux showed his master the plague bacillus through
a microscope. Pasteur, looking at these things, souvenirs of
his own work and results of his pupils' researches, 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 investiga-
tions in China. A Normalien, M. Le Dantec, who had entered
the Ecole at sixteen at the head of the list, and who had after-
wards become a curator at the laboratory, was in Brazil, study-
ing yellow fever, of which he very nearly died. Dr. Adrien
Loir, after a protracted mission in Australia, was head of a
Pasteur Institute at Tunis. Dr. Nicolle was setting up a
laboratory of bacteriology at Constantinople. "There is still
a great deal to do 1 " sighed Pasteur as he affectionately pressed
Dr. Eoux' hand.

He was more than ever full of a desire to allay human suffer-
ing, 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 feelings was, soon after
this, revealed by an incident. The Berlin Academy of Sciences
was preparing a list of illustrious 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, de-
sired 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-Lor-
raine was a question of humanity ; the right of peoples to
dispose of themselves was in question. And by a bitter irony
of Fate, France, which had proclaimed this principle all over

462 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

Europe, saw Alsace torn away from her. And by whom? by
the very nation whom she had looked upon as the most ideal-
istic, 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 speak-
ing of himself. A little tent had been put up for him in the
new garden of the Pasteur Institute, under the young chest-
nuts, the flowers of which were now beginning to fall, and
he often spent his afternoons there. One or other of those
who had watched over him through the long winter nights fre-
quently 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 Eector of the Aca-
demy 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 Chappius' life was almost austere, though
tempered by a smiling philosophy.

Pasteur, less preoccupied than Chappuis by philosophical
discussions, soared without an effort into the domain of spirit-
ual things. Absolute faith in God and in Eternity, and a con-
viction that the power for good given to us in this world will
be continued beyond it, were feelings which pervaded his whole
life ; the virtues of the Gospel had ever been present to him.
Full of respect for the form of religion which had been that
of his forefathers, he came to it simply and naturally for spirit-
ual 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 1'Etang. 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 expres-
sion as when he used to go to Villeneuve 1'Etang to continue his
studies. When the carriage passed through Saint Cloud, some
of the inhabitants, who had seen him pass in former years,

1889—1895 463

saluted him with a mixture of emotion and respectful
interest.

At Villeneuve 1'Etang, the old stables of the Cent Gardes
had reverted to their former purpose and were used for the
preparation of the diphtheria antitoxin. 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 occasionally came
near, looking over their hurdles towards him. Pasteur felt
a deep thankfulness in watching the busy comings and goings
of Dr. Eoux and his curator, M. Martin, and of the veterinary
surgeon, M. Prevot, 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 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
unhappy convicts; this priest, who founded the work of the
Enfants Trouves, 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 scholarships

464 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR

for young men without means came to him in August and
offered him the funds for a Pasteur Hospital, the natural out-
come, 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 increas-
ing, 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 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 cannot," 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 re-
mained motionless, his eyes closed, his body almost entirely
paralyzed ; 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.

INDEX

H H

INDEX

Abbadie, d', presents medals to

Pasteur, 449
Abdul Aziz, Sultan, 141
About, Edmond :
On Pasteur, 383
On Pasteur's lecture at Sor-

bonne, 122
Pamphlet quoted, 177
Academie des Sciences, 29 note, 81

During siege of Paris, 186
Academie Fran9aise, Pasteur's re-
ception at, 345
Aerobes, 99
Agregation, 81 note
Alais :

Pasteur goes to, 115, 117, 129,

138, 155, 166

Statue to J. B. Dumas at, 446
Alexandria, French mission to, 377
Alfort, experiments on sheep at,

306

Alsace-Lorraine question, 461
Amat, Mile., 170
Anaerobes, 99, 220
Andral, Dr., 160

Advice to Pasteur, 247
Anglada, work "On Contagion"

quoted, 80
Anguillulce, 150
Anthrax (splenic fever, charbon),

257 seqq., 292
Hens and, 267, 277

Commission on, 278
Vaccination against, 311, 312
Experiment, 315, 317, 318, 320,

328, 367, 368
Results, 325, 367, 368
Antirabic inoculation on man, 414

Discussion on, 434
Anti-vivisection, Virchow on, 332
Aosta, Duke and Duchess of, 141
Arago, 27, 356
On Monge, 195

Arago (continued) :
Speech before Chamber of De-
puties, 245

Arbois :

Pasteur at, 6, 7, 180, 420, 437
Presentation to Pasteur from,

449
Prussians at, 202

Arboisian characteristics, 8

Arcis-sur-Aube, battle of, 4

Ardeche, 32

Ardouin, Dr., 380

Aristotle, allusions to hydrophobia
407

Arsonval, M. d', 280

Aselli, discoveries through vivi-
section, 336

Aspartic acid, 67, 70

Aspergillus niger, 204

Aubenas, tribute to Pasteur, 350,
351

Augier, Emile, 174

Aurillac, testimonial to Pasteur,
373

B

" Baccalaureat," 10 and note
Baciocchi, Princess, leaves Villa
Vicentina to Prince Irn
perial, 173

Bagneres-de-Luchon, 104
Balard, lecturer at Ecole Normale

29, 31, 56, 59, 100, 106
Advice to Pasteur, 217
Appeal to Pasteur, 217
Discovers bromin, 32
Inspector-General of Higher

Education, 145
On Pasteur's discovery, 40
Bar-sur-Aube, 3rd Regiment at, 3
Barbet Boarding School, 10, 12, 21
Barbet, M., 10, 22

H H 2

468

INDEX

Barbier, Captain, 10

B arm el, Dumas' Curator, 25

Bastian, Dr., attacks Pasteur, 253

seqq.

Baudry, Paul, 127
Bazaine at Metz, 186
Beauce, 147 note
Splenic fever in, 257, 276, 284,

314
Bechamp, theory of fermentation,

241

Beclard, Permanent Secretary of

Academic de Medecine, 309

On Commission on hydrophobia,

395
Beer, Pasteur studies manufacture

of, 207 seqq.
Behier, Dr., 233

Behring discovers antitoxin for
diphtheria, 455 ! ,

Bellaguet, M., 137 -
Belle, Jeanne, wife of Claude Pas-
teur, 2

Bellevue, Chateau, Napoleon and
William of Prussia meet
at, 182

Belotti, M., 206

Berchon, sanitary director, Bor-
deaux, 340
Bergeron, Jules :

Annual Secretary of Academie

de Me'decine, 309
On Pasteur's treatment of hy-
drophobia, 424

Speech at Pasteur Jubilee, 449
Bernard, Claude, 42

At Academie de Medecine, 225
At Tuileries, 154
Discoveries, 135
Experiment on dog, 335
Experiments on fermentation,

280

Illness, 134
Joins in Pasteur's experiments,

104

Letter to Deville, 137
Letter to Pasteur, 136
On fermentation, 80

— Medicine, 226

— Pasteur's researches, 72, 87

— Primary causes, 244

— Vivisection, 336
Posthumous notes, 280, 287
Senator, 174

Studies cholera, 126
Bersot, Ernest, quoted on spon-
taneous generation, 92

Bert, Paul, 279, 374

Classifies Pasteur's work, 376

Experiments, 263, 392

On Commission on hydrophobia.

395
Speech on Pasteur's discoveries,

245, 246
Berthelot, M. :

Consulted by Pasteur, 439
On alcoholic fermentation, 286
Berthollet, M., 248, 356

Discoveries, 195
Bertillon, candidate for Academie

de Medecine, 225
Bertin, M., 354
At Ecole Normale, 19, 145, 161,

180, 188

Character, 45, 145
Professor of Physics, Strasburg

45

Welcomes Pasteur to Paris, 212
Bertrand, Joseph :
Letters to Pasteur, 138
Sketch of, 419

Speech at inauguration of Pas-
teur Institute, 441
Speech at Pasteur Jubilee, 449
Berzelius, 195

Studies paratartaric acid, 25
Theories of fermentation, 80, 241
Besan9on, Jean Henri Pasteur at,

2, 4
Besson, candidature for Senate,

249
Beust, Baron von, superintendent

of factories, 65

Bigo manufactures beetroot alco-
hol, 79

Biot, J. J., 27, 42, 55, 59, 204
Attitude towards spontaneous

generation, 89, 100
Death, 101, 102
Interview with Pasteur, 41
Last letter, 103
Letters to Joseph Pasteur, 57,

58, 71, 81

Letter to Louis Pasteur, 59
Oldest member of Institute, 81
Passion for reading, 89
Praises Pasteur, 55
Biot, M., veterinary surgeon, at
Pouilly le Fort experi-
ment, 316, 320
Bischoffsheim, Raphael, lends villa

to Pasteur, 433
Bismarck, Prince :

Armistice with France, 193

INDEX

469

Bismarck (continued) :
Interview with Jules Favre, 184
On Napoleon III, 182
Blondeau, registrar of mortgages,

13

Bollene, Pasteur at, 360
Bonaparte, Elisa, at Villa Vicen-

tina, 173
Bonn, sous-prefecture, 189

University, 189

Bonnat, portrait of Pasteur, 440
Bordeaux, Pasteur at, 338
Bordighera :

Earthquake at, 436
Pasteur at, 434

Borrel attends on Pasteur, 459
Bouchardat, M. :

On Commission of Hygiene, 186
Report on remedies for hydro-
phobia, 408

Bouillaud, Dr., 229, 262, 294
Bouillier, M. F., Director of Ecole

Normale, 145, 180
Bouley, H., 264, 278, 323, 354
At experiment on earthworms,

304

Chairman of Commission on
hydrophobia, 395, 396,
397, 398
Report, 398
Death, 424
Letters to Pasteur, 324, 829

— on Colin, 320

— germ of hydrophobia, 398

— methods of Delafond and

Pasteur, 275

— microbes, 365, 367

— Pasteur's treatment of hydro-

phobia, 423

— remedies for hydrophobia, 408

— virulence of bacteridia, 311
Sketch of, 262

Statistics of death from hydro-
phobia, 428

Vaccinates sheep against an-
thrax, 306
Bourbaki, General :
Death, 193

Retreat of Army Corps, 192
Bourboulon, Commandant, gives
Pasteur news of his son,
193

Bourgeois, Philibert, 3
Bourrel sends dogs to laboratory,

390, 396
Boussingault, M., 354

Boutet, veterinary surgeon, 261,

283, 329

On splenic fever, 276
Report of vaccinated sheep, 363

Boutroux, curator in Pasteur's
laboratory, 255

Boyle, Robert, on fermentation.
223

Brand, Dr., treatment of typhoid,
364

Breithaupt, Professor of Minera-
logy, 65

Bretonneau, on diphtheria, 453

Brie cattle suffer from anthrax,
257, 314

Brochin, candidate for Academie
de Medecine, 225

Brongniart, Alexandre, 42

On Commission on spontaneous
generation, 106

Brouardel, Professor :
On antirabic cure, 434, 437
Speech at Congress of Hygiene,

446
Speech at Pasteur Jubilee, 449

Broussais, surgery under, 235

Bruce, Mrs., presents Pasteur with
Life of Livingstone, 389

Buda-Pesth, Hygiene and Demo-
graphy Congress at, 456

Budberg, M. de, Russian Ambassa-
dor, 127

Budin and antisepsis, 290

Buffon, theory of spontaneous
generation, 90

Buonanni, recipe for producing
worms, 89

Butyric fermentation, 99

C

Cagniard-Latour studies yeast, 80,

81

Cailletet invents apparatus for
liquefaction of gases, 384
Cairo, cholera at, 377
Calmette, Edouard :
At Lille, 461
At Pasteur Jubilee, 447
Attends on Pasteur, 459
Cambon, Governor - General of
Algeria, letter to Pasteur,
451

Cardaillac, M. de, 163
Cardinal cultivates silkworms, 139
Carnot, President, 248

At inauguration of Pasteur In-
stitute, 440

470

INDEX

Carnot, President (continued) :

At Pasteur Jubilee, 448
Caro, deputy to Edinburgh, 384
Casabianca, Comte de, 168, 169
Celsus on hydrophobia, 407, 409
Chaffois, 192, 193
Chaillou collaborates with Roux,

455

Chamalieres brewery, 207
Chamber-land, M. :
At Pasteur Jubilee, 447
Collaborates with Pasteur, 260,
269, 271, 283, 289, 303,
305, 306, 808, 311, 317,
319, 321, 359, 420, 424
Cross of Legion of Honour, 326
On Pasteur's early researches,

.* 445
Vaccinations against anthrax,

440

Chambery, Pasteur at, 131
Chamecin, wood merchant, 3
Chamonix, Pasteur at, 97
Chantemesse, Dr. :

Attends on Pasteur, 459, 460
On antirabic cure, 434
Performs inoculations, 432
Chanzy, General, open letter, 190
Chappuis, Charles, 33
Letter to Pasteur, 20
On national testimonial to Pas-
teur, 246
Sketch of, 18
Visits Pasteur, 462
Chaptal, discoveries of, 195
Charbon. (See Anthrax)
Charcot on Pasteur's antirabic

cure, 438
Charriere, schoolfellow of Louis

Pasteur, 7, 37

Charrin, Dr., performs inocula-
tions, 432
Chartres :

Experiment on vaccination
against anthrax near, 328
Pasteur at, 284, 303
Scientific congress at, 276
Chassaignac, Dr., on "laboratory

surgery," 228
Chauveau on contagion, 366
Chemists and Physicians, 224, 233
Chevreul, M., 59

On siege of Paris, 188, 189
Chicken cholera, 297 seqq.
Chiozza, letter to Pasteur, 200
Cholera, 126
At Damietta and Cairo, 378

Christen, town councillor at Vau-
cresson, 406

Christophle, speech at inaugura-
tion of Pasteur Institute,
441

Clermont Ferrand, Pasteur at, 206

Clouet invents system of manu-
facturing steel, 195

Coblentz, prefecture, 189

Cochin, Denys, at Pasteur Jubilee,
448

Colin, Professor G., 277, 278
Advice to Biot, 319
Experiments on anthrax, 264,
267, 268

College de" France, 40 note, 146

Compiegne, Pasteur at, 127

Comte, Auguste, 124, 125
Doctrine, 342

Conseil-General de departement,
78 note

Contagious diseases, problem of,
223 scqq.

Conti, Napoleon Ill's secretary,

Copenhagen Medical Congress,
Pasteur at, 398

Coquelin ;

Acts in Plaideurs, 128
Recites at Trocadero fete, 431

Cornil, on acarus of itch, 366

Coulon, schoolfellow of Louis Pas-
teur, 7, 36

Cribier, Mme., 161

Cuisance River, 6, 7, 181

Cuvier, 356

Daguerre, national testimonial to,
245

Dalimier, Paul, Pasteur's advice
to, 109

Dalloz, editor of Moniteur, 153

Damietta, cholera at, 378

Darboux, "doyen" of Faculty of
Science, 31

Daremberg, Dr., on Pasteur at
Medical Congress, 332

Darlay as science master, 14

Darwin :

On earthworms, 304
On vivisection, 337

Dastre, M., 279

Daubree, speech at Pasteur Jubi-
lee, 449

INDEX

471

Daunas, sketch of, 14
David, Jeanne, wife of Denis Pas-
teur, 1

Davaine, Dr. C., 272, 278, 354
At experiment on earthworms,

304
Experiments on septicaemia, 229,

265

On butyric ferment, 228, 258
Davy, Sir H., 195
Debray, M., 327

Declat, Dr., on Pasteur's experi-
ments, 223
Prescribes carbolic solution for

wounds, 239
Delafond, Dr. :
On charbon blood, 258
Studies anthrax, 275
Delafosse, Professor of Mineralogy,

33,36

Delaunay acts in Plaideurs, 128
Delesse, Professor of Science at

Besan9on, 45
Delort, General Baron, 30

Native of Arbois, 202
Demarquay, Dr., prescribes car-
bolic solution for wounds,
239
Denmark, King and Queen of, at

Medical Congress, 399
Denonvilliers, surgery under, 235
Departements, 52 note
Descartes in Holland, 200
Despeyroux, Professor of Chemis-
try, 171

Dessaignes, chemist, 70
Deville, Henri Sainte Claire, 42,

45, 137, 160

Admiration for Pasteur's pre-
cision, 287
At Compiegne, 162
At Tuileries, 154
Character, 146

Congratulates Pasteur on Testi-
monial, 246
Death, 327
Laboratory, 84
Letter tt> Mine. Pasteur, 174
On Academie and Science, 196
On Commission of Hygiene, 186
Scientific mission in Germany,

179

Studies cholera, 126
Devise, speech at Pasteur Jubilee,

449
Diabetes, 135

Diderot on spontaneous genera-
tion, 90
Didon, gratitude to Pasteur, 144,

161 J

Dieffenbach, M., 335
Dieulafoy, Professor, attends Pas-
teur, 459
Diphtheria, 453

Statistics of mortality, 456
Disraeli quoted on public health,

446
Dole:

Jean Joseph Pasteur settles at,

5
Memorial plate on Pasteur's

house at, 376
Presentation to Pasteur from,

450

Douay village, 1
Doucet, Camille, on Pasteur's

speech, 345

Dresden, Pasteur at, 65
Droz, Joseph, his moral doctrine,

16
Dubois, Alphee, engraves medal

for Pasteur, 354
Dubois, Paul, 127

Bust of Pasteur, 401
Duboue, Dr., theory on hydropho-
bia, 393

Due, Viollet le, 127, 128
Du Camp, Maxime, 346
Duchartre elected member of

Academie, 100
Duclaux, M., 102, 103, 104, 131,

138, 169, 170, 204, 205
Accompanies Pasteur to Milan,

250

Advice to Pasteur, 217
Annals of Pasteur Institute, 434
At Pasteur Jubilee, 448
Class of biological chemistry,

440

Congratulates Pasteur on testi-
monial, 246
On Bastian, 253
On heating liquids, 255
Professor of Chemistry at Cler-

mont Ferrand, 206
Ducret, Antoine and Charles, shot,

202

Ducrot, General, 155
Dujardin-Beaumetz, on antirabio

cure, 434

Dumas, Alexandre, 106, 107
Pasteur and, 341
Visits Pasteur, 460

472

INDEX

Dumas, J. B., 418
Academie sponsor for Pasteur,

344

Advice to Pasteur, 89, 103
Appreciation of Pasteur, 252
At Alais, 170
Death, 384

Interest in sericiculture, 117
La Vie d'un Savant, 383 note;

letter on, 383
Laboratory, 42
Letter to Bouley, 312
Letters to Pasteur, 60, 166, 169
On Academie and Science, 196

— Commission on spontaneous

generation, 106

— Critical Examination, 287

— Destruction of Regnault's in-

struments, 191

— Fermentation, 79, 80
Presents Pasteur to Napoleon

III, 104

President of Monetary Com-
mission, 145

Requests Pasteur for articie on
Lavoisier, 121, 122

Senator, 174

Sketch of, 356

Sorbonne lecturer, 21, 25, 40, 44,
55, 59

Speech at Peclet's tomb, 328

Speech to Pasteur, 354

Statue at Alais to, 446
Dumont, Dr., 8
Dupuy, Charles, speech at Pasteur

Jubilee, 448

Duran, Carolus, portrait of Pas-
teur, 439
Duruy, M., 106

At inauguration of Pasteur In-
stitute, 441

At Tuileries, 154

Attitude towards Germany, 178

Letter to Pasteur, 139

Minister of Public Instruction,
130

System of National Education,
140

Visits Pasteur, 165

E

Earthworms, pathogenic action of,

304

Eastern Army Corps, 192, 193
Ecole Normale, 10 and note, 154
An ambulance, 180, 188

Ecole Normale (continued) :
Disturbances at, 143
Scientific Annals of, 110
Students enlist, 180
Ecole Poly technique, 43 note, 154
Edelfeldt, portrait of Pasteur, 440
Eggs, researches on alteration of,

231
Ehrenberg, discoveries on in-

fusories, 214

Electric telegraph, birth of, 76
Elsinore, congress visit, 402
Emperor of Brazil, interest in Pas-
teur's experiments, 403
Empress Eugenie :
At Bordighera, 436
Interview with Pasteur, 127, 128
Regent, 182

Enfants Malades hospital : diph-
theritic treatment at, 455
English commission on inoculation

for hydrophobia, 430
Report, 437
Erdmann, M., 64
Exhibition reward distribution,
141

Facultes, 31 note

Falloux, attitude towards liberty

of teaching, 52
Fauvel, on Pasteur's inductions,

369

Fave, General, 133, 147, 162, 163
Favre, Jules, Minister of Foreign

Affairs, 182
Armistice, 193

Interview with Bismarck, 184
" February days," 37 note
Feltz on puerperal fever, 292
Fermentation, teaching on, 80,

101, 222, 240

Alcoholic, 85, 104, 113, 286
Butyric, 99, 220, 228, 258
Lactic, 83, 215
of tan, 186
Virus, 223 seqq.

Ferrieres Chateau, interview be-
tween Bismarck and
Favre at, 184
Fikentscher, obtains racemic acid,

62
Fleming, Mr., 430

On commission on inoculation

for hydrophobia, 430
Flesschutt, Dr., 131

INDEX

478

Fleys, Dr., proposes toast of
Pasteur, 373

Flourens, on spontaneous genera-
tion, 105, 106

Fontainebleau, Napoleon at, 4

Formate of strontian crystals, 50

Fortoul, Minister of Public In-
struction, 75

Fouque, M., 327

Fourcroy, M., 248
Discoveries of, 195

Foy, General, works of, 183

Franco-German War, 177 seqq.

Franklin on scientific discovery,
76

Frederic III, sketch of, 330

Fremy, M. :

On origin of ferments, 216, 218
Theory of fermentation, 241

French character, 207

G

Gaidot, Father, 12
Gaillard, M. de, 361
Galen :
Discoveries through vivisection,

336

Remedy for hydrophobia, 407 *-*
Galtier, experiments on hydropho-
bia, 393

Garde Nationale, 37 note
Gardette, M. de la, 361
Gautier, Theophile, 125
Gay-Lussac, 356

Lectures at Jar din des Plant es,

419
Speech before Chamber of

Peers, 245

Studies racemic acid, 26
Gayon, researches on alteration of

eggs, 231

Geneva Congress of Hygiene, 357
'Germs, Pasteur's theory of, 187
Gernez, M., 104 161, 166, 169, 170,

327

Centenary of Ecole Normale, 110
Collaborates with Pasteur, 130,

138, 156, 204
Geroine, Knight of Legion of

Honour, 142

Gille, Dr., attends Pasteur, 459
Girard on vineyard labourers and

Pasteur, 420
Girardin, St. Marc, 82
Girod, Henry, Royal Notary of
Salins, 1

G16nard adopts Brand's treatment

of typhoid, 364
Godelier, Dr., 160
Goltz, M. de, Prussian Ambas-
sador, 127
Gosselin, Dr., 240
Got acts in Plaideurs, 128
Gounod conducts Ave Maria at

Trocadero fete, 431
Grancher, Dr. :

Admiration for Pasteur's experi-
ment's, 417, 424
Advises Pasteur to winter in

South, 432

Attends Pasteur, 459
On antirabic cure, 434
Pasteur consults, 415
Performs inoculations, 432
Speech at inauguration of Pas-
teur Institute, 441
Grandeau, M., 327

Letter to Pasteur, 341
Graviere, Admiral Jurien de la,

433

Greard, deputy to Edinburgh, 384
Greece, King and Queen of, at

Medical Congress, 399
Grenet, Pasteur's curator, 213
Gressier, M., Minister of Agricul-

culture, 275
Grevy, Jules, supports Tamisier

and Thurel, 248

Gridaine, Cunin, Minister of Agri-
culture, 275
Gsell, Stephane, on origin of

Seriana, 452
Guerin, Alphonse, on cause of

purulent infection, 236
Guerin, Jules, on vaccine, 308
Guillaume, Eugene, deputy to

Edinburgh, 384
Guillemin, M., 77

Schoolfellow of Louis Pasteur, 7
Guizot, M. :

Deputy to Edinburgh, 384
Quoted on spontaneous genera-
tion, 112

Welcomes Biot to Academie, 82
Guy on, Professor :

Accepts Pasteur's advice, 232
Attends Pasteur, 459

Hankel, Professor of Physics at
Leipzig, 64

474

INDEX

Hardy, M., welcomes Pasteur to
Academie de Medecine,
370

Harvey, discoveries through vivi-
section, 336
Hautefeuille, M., 327
Heated wine, experiments on, 157
Hemiorganism, 216
Henner, portrait of Pasteur, 439
Henri IV plants m-ulberry trees,

116, 172
Hens and anthrax, 267, 277

Commission on, 278
Hericourt, Dr., 455

At Villeneuve PEtang, 445
Herve, Edouard, 427
Heterogenia. (See Spontaneous

generation)

Hippocrates, allusions to hydro-
phobia, 407

Horsley, Victor, secretary to Com-
mission on inoculation for
hydrophobia, 431, 437
Houssaye, Henry, on ovation to

Pasteur, 426

Hugo, Victor, Annee Terrible, 191
Huguenin, portrait of Bonaparte,

181

Humbert of Italy, Prince, 141
Humboldt, Alexander von, inter-
view with J. B. Dumas,
356
Husson, M., 166

Researches on Vaccine, 405
Huxley on Pasteur's discoveries,

374, 375
Hydrophobia :
Dogs inoculated against, 395 :

Commission, 395, 410
English Commission on inocula-
tion for, 430
Report, 437
Experiments on, 318, 363, 383

390, 410 422 seqq.
Former remedies, 407
Origin of, 409
Hygiene :

Central Commission, 186
International Congress of, 446

Iceland spar, 27

Ingenhousz, 100

Institut de France. 29 note

Jacobsen, J. C., founds Carlsberg

Brewery, 401
Jacquinet, sub-director of Ecole

Normale, 84, 144, 145
Jaillard, experiments on anthrax,

258, 261
Jamin, M., 354

On heterogenist dispute, 111
Jarry, Claude, royal notary, 2
Jenner, national rewards to, 374
Joinville, Prince de, 53 and note
Joly, Nicolas, professor of physio-
logy, Toulouse, 95, 104,

138, 216, 255

Demands Commission on spon-
taneous generation, 105,

111
Lecture at Faculty of Medicine,

111
Jouassain, Mile., acts in Plai-

deurs, 128
Joubert, professor of physics at

College Rollin, 254, 265,

269, 271
Jourdan, Gabrielle, wife of Jean

Henri Pasteur, 2
Journal de la Medecine et de la

Chimie quoted, 310
Joux, forest of, 1
Jupille, J. B., bitten by mad dog,

421; inoculated, 422

Kaompfen, director of fine arts,

Dole, 376
Kestner, produces paratartaric

acid, 26, 62, 65, 68
Kitasato, discovers antitoxin for

diphtheria 455
Studies plague, 458
Klebs, discovers bacillus of diph-
theria, 454
Klein, Dr., pneumo-enteritis of

swine, 362
Koch, Dr. :

At Thuillier's funeral, 381
Campaign against Pasteur, 357,

359, 363, 367
Finds bacillus of tuberculosis,

227

On bacillus anthracis, 259, 260
Studies cholera, 379, 382
Kuhn, Chamalieres brewer, 207

INDEX

475

Laboratories, 42, 84, 153

Lachadenede, M. de, 121, 171

Lactic fermentation, 83, 99

Lagrange, quoted on Lavoisier's
execution, 195

Lamartine, 36 and note

Lambert, Fran9oise, wife of
Claude Etienne Pasteur, 2

Lamy, Auguste, 161

Landouzy, on ambulance ward
(1870), 235

Lannelongue, Dr., 289, 391

Laplace, M., 356

Lapparent, M. de, Chairman of
Commission on wine, 156,
157

Larrey Baron, 309

On Jupille and Pasteur's dis-
covery, 423
Surgery under, 235, 240

Laubespin, Comte de, 427

Lauder-Brunton, Dr., on Commis-
sion on inoculation for
hydrophobia, 430

Laurent, Auguste, 55
Sketch of, 31, 33

Laurent, Madame, 47

Laurent, Maria. (See Pasteur,
Mme. Louis)

Laurent, M., Rector of Academy

of Strasburg, 47, 156
Sketch of, 47, 54

Lavoisier, death, 195

Edition of his works, 122

Le Bel, studies on stereo-chem-
istry, 445

Le Dantec, studies on yellow
fever in Brazil, 461

Le Fort, Leon :

On puerperal fever, 290
Surgery under, 235, 270

Le Roux, Dissertation sur la Eage,
407

Le Verrier, 129 note, 131

Leblanc, statistics of deaths from
hydrophobia, 428

Lechartier, M., 104, 327

Lefebvre, General, 4

Lefort, Mayor of Arbois, 202

Lemaire, Jules, prescribes carbolic
solution for wounds, 239

Lemuy, situation of, 1

Leplat, experiments on anthrax,
258, 261

Lereboullet, on anthrax, 269

Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 142

Deputy to Edinburgh, 384
Leval Division :
At Arcis-sur-Aube, 4
At Bar-sur-Aube, 3
Lheritier, candidate for Academie

de Medecine, 225
Liberty of teaching, law on, 62
Liebig :

Ideas on fermentation, 175, 215,

222

Interview with Pasteur, 176
Theory of fermentation, 80,81,241
Lille :

Pasteur Dean of Faculte at, 75
Pasteur Institute at, 461
Lister, Sir Joseph :
Appreciation of Pasteur, 252
At Pasteur Jubilee, 449
Letter to Pasteur, 238
Method of surgery, 238, 239
On Commission on inoculation

for hydrophobia, 430
Surgical method, 187, 216
Littre :

Medicine and Physicians, 294
On Microbe, 267
On primary causes, 244
Sketch of, 342

Loeffler, isolates bacillus of diph-
theria, 454

Loir, Adrien, 54, 58, 360, 362, 402
Dean of Lyons Faculty of

Science, 194
Head of Pasteur Institute,

Tunis, 461

London, Pasteur visits, 210
London Medical Congress, Pasteur

at, 329

London Society for Protection of
Animals, complaints on
vivisection, 336

Longet, Dr., Treatise on Physi-
ology, 127

Lons-le-Saulnier, 192, 248
Louis XI introduces mulberry tree

into Touraine, 116
Louis XVI, 171

Proposal for balloon ascent, 405
Lucas-Championniere, Just :
Edits Journal de la Medecine,

310

On dressing of wounds, 238
Lycee St. Louis, 11, 21, 22
Lyons, Pasteur at, 194
Lyons Commission on silkworm
disease, 170

476

INDEX

M

MacDonald, General, 4

Magendie, M. :

Experiment with rabic blood,

392
Interview with Quaker, 334

Maillot, M. :

Accompanies Pasteur to Milan.

249

Collaborates with Pasteur, 130,
138, 166, 169

Mairet, Bousson de, sketch of, 8

Maisonneuve, Dr., prescribes car-
bolic solution for wounds,
239

Malic acid, optical study of, 57,
59

Malus, Etienne Louis, discovers
polarization of light, 27

Marat, conduct to Lavoisier, 195

Marchoux, attends on Pasteur, 459

Marcou, geologist, 161

Marie, Dr., attends on Pasteur,
459

Marie, Grand Duchess of Russia,
141

Marmier, attends on Pasteur, 459

Marnoz, Jean Joseph Pasteur at, 6

Martin, M. :

Attends on Pasteur, 459
Collaborates with Roux, 455
Lecture on diphtheria, 457

Maternite, mortality at, 290

Mathilde, Princesse, 107
Salon, 125

Maucuer, at Bollene, 360

Maunory, M., 284, 303

Maury, A., 137

Medici, Catherine de, plants mul-
berry tree in Orleannais,
116

Medicine, general condition (1873),
226, 233

Meissonier, Knight of Legion of
Honour, 142

Meister, Joseph, 432
Bitten by mad dog, 414
Inoculated, 415, 429

Melun Agricultural Society, trib-
ute to Pasteur, 350

Melun, experiment on vaccination
of anthrax near. 314.
316

Mericourt, Le Roy de, 225

Mery, on anatomists, 226

Mesnil, M. du, 163

Atteads on Pasteur, 459

Metchnikoff :

At Pasteur Jubilee, 448
Directs private laboratories, 440
Work on " leucocytes," 458
Metz surrendered, 185
Meudon, proposed laboratory at,

398
Mezieres, mission to Edinburgh

384
Michelet quoted on his friendship

with Poinsat, 18
Microbe :
Rossignol on, 314
Word invented, 266
Microscope, results of its inven-
tion, 90
Mieges, near Nozeroy, registers

of, 1
Milan Congress of Sericiculture,

Pasteur at, 249
Miller, M., 66
Milne-Edwards :
At Tuileries, 154
On Commission on spontaneous

generation, 106
Mina, Espoz y, sketch of, 3
Mitscherlich, chemist and crystal-

lographer, 26
In Paris, 61

Theory of fermentation, 241
Moigno, Abbe, on spontaneous

generation, 112
Molecular dissymmetry, 38, 72, 88,

199, 445
Monge, method of founding cannon,

195, 248
Monod, Henri, quotes Disraeli on

public health, 446
Montaigne quoted on friendship,

18
Montalembert, attitude towards

liberty of teaching, 52
Montanvert, 97, 105
Montpellier, Pasteur at, 353
Montrond, Pasteur at, 192
Moquin-Tandon, on Pasteur's can-
didature for Academic,

100

Morax, attends on Pastour, 459
Moreau, Armand, 278, 279
Moritz, on chicken cholera, 297
Morveau, Guyton de, 195, 248
Mount Poupet, Pasteur climbs,

97

Mouthe Priory, 1
Mucors, Raulin's experiments on,

204
Mulberry tree, 116

INDEX

477

Musset, Charles, 120, 216, 255
Demands Commission on spon-
taneous generation, 105
New Experimental Researches
on Heterogenia, 94

Mussy, Dr. Henry Gueneau de :
Congratulates Pasteur, 337
Deputy to Edinburgh, 384
Paper on contagium germ, 263

Mussy, Dr. Noel Guineau de, 160

Mycoderma, 101, 128

Mycoderma aceti, 148, 215, 230

Mycoderma vini, 218, 219, 230

N

Napoleon I :
At Fontainebleau, 4
Respect for Science, 195
Restores eilk industry, 116
Napoleon III :
Distributes exhibition rewards,

141
Grants laboratory to Pasteur,

147
Interest in sericiculture, 128,

133, 174

Interview with Pasteur, 104
Invites Pasteur to Compiegne,

127

Leaves Sedan and Paris, 181
Letter on Pasteur's laboratory,

162
Summons scientists to Tuileries,

154
Napoleon, Prince, interviews with

Pasteur, 436

National Testimonials, 245
Naumann, Dr. Maurice, 197

Professor of mineralogy, 286
Needham, partisan of spontaneous

generation, 90

Nelaton, on surgery (1870), 236
Ney, General, 4

Nicolle, Dr., laboratory of bacteri-
ology at Constantinople,
461 ^
Niepce, national testimonial to,

245

Nimes, Pasteur at, 352, 354
Nisard, Professor :

Academic sponsor for Pasteur,

344
Director of Ecole Normale, 84,

143

Letters to Pasteur, 119, 303
Sketch of, 346

Nocard, M., 307

Goes to Alexandria, 379
On hydrophobia, 403, 409

Oersted and modern telegraph, 76
" Ordonnances," 8 and note.
Orleans, Pasteur lectures on

vinegar at, 148
Oudinot, General, 4
Ovariotomy, fatal results of, 235

Pages, Dr., Mayor of Alais, 121,

172

Paget, Sir James :
At Copenhagen Medical Con-
gress, 399

President of Commission on ino-
culation for hydrophobia,
430

Speech at Medical Congress, 330
Paillerols, near Digne, 169
Panum, President of Copenhagen

Medical Congress, 399
Parandier, M., 43
Paratartaric (racemic) acid, 26,

38, 41, 62

Pasteur in search of, 63 seqq.
Pareau, Mayor of Arbois, 13
Parieu, M. de, Minister of Publi<

Instruction, 54
Paris :

Bombarded, 188
Capitulation, 193
Prepares for siege, 183
Parmentier on potato, 171
Pasteur, Camille, 119, 121, 123
Pasteur, Ce*cile, 130
Pasteur, Claude, 1

Marriage contract, 1
Pasteur, Claude Etienne, 2

Enfranchised, 2
Pasteur, Denis, marries Jeanne

David, 1

Pasteur Hospital, project for, 464
Pasteur Institute :
Annals of, 434, 435, 457
Founded, 428
Inauguration, 440
Scholarships, 452
Trocadero fete for, 431
Pasteur, Jean Henri, at Besan
9on, 2

478

INDEX

Pasteur, Jean Joseph, 250

Character, 7, 22, 58

Conscript, 3

Death, 118

In Paris, 12, 57

Marriage, 5

Sergeant-major, 4

Studies, 31

Pasteur, Jeanne, death of, 86, 118
Pasteur, Josephine, 18, 30, 50
Pasteur, Louis :

Administration of Ecole Nor-
male, 84, 109, 112

Advice to Paul Dalimier, 109

Advice to Raulin, 203

Article on Claude Bernard's
works, 134

— indifference of public authori-

ties, 151

— Lavoisier, 122, 124

At Arbois, 7, 180, 420, 437

— Besan9on Royal College, 14

seqq.

— Bordeaux, 339

— Compiegne, 127

— Copenhagen Medical Con-

gress, 398
Speech, 399

— Geneva Congress of Hygiene,

358

— London Medical Congress,

357
Lecture, 331, 337

— Milan Congress of Sericicul-

ture, 250
Speech, 251

— Villa Vicentina, 173

— Villeneuve 1'Etang, 462
Birth, 6

Candidate for Academy of
Sciences, 81, 100

Candidature for Senate, 247

Characteristics, 9, 10, 12, 15, 22,
23, 25, 32, 60, 151, 223,
246, 252, 295, 325, 462

Chemistry and Physics theses,
34

Consulted on inoculation for
peripneumonia, 350

Criticism of Bernard's posthu-
mous notes, 281, 287

Curator in Balard's laboratory,
32

Crystallographic researches, 26,

33, 57, 60, 445
Lecture on, 102

Dean of Lille Faculte, 75, 249

Death, 464

Pasteur, Louis (continued) :
Delegation to, 354
Deputy to Edinburgh, 384

Speech, 386
Discovers constitution of para-

tartaric acid, 39
Discussion with Bastian, 253
Dispute with Rammelsberg, 102
Experiments on atmospheric air,

93 seqq.
Friendship for Charles Chappuis,

18, 20, 22,
Grand Cross of Legion of

Honour, 326
His masters, 145, 252
His name given to district in

Canada and to village in

Algeria, 451
His teaching, 77, 79
Illness, 433, 439, 446, 458, 464

Watchers, 459, 462
In hospitals, 289, 291

— London, 210

— Paris, 11, 20, 57

— Strasburg, 45, 177
Influence of his labours, 445
Influence of Oxygen on Develop-
ment of Yeast, 221

Interview with Biot, 41

— Liebig, 176

— Mitscherhch and Rose, 61

— Napoleon III, 104, 128
Jubilee celebration, 447

Speech, 450
Knight of Legion of Honour,

70
Laboratory (new), 157, 162, 164,

194, 232, 445

Laureat of Exhibition, 140
Lecture on germ theory, 271
Lectures on vinegar at Orleans,

148
Letters, 23, 24, 28

On experiment at Pouilly le

Fort, 322, 323
To Bellotti, 207

— Chappuis on Lille Faculty,

77

— Dumas, 141, 166, 250

— Duruy, 131

— Emperor of Brazil, 404

— Jupille, 427

— Laurent, 48

— Napoleon III, 146

— Raulin, 199

— Sainte Beuve, 126
M.D. of Bonn, 154

Returns diploma, 189, 190, 197

INDEX

479

Pasteur, Louis (continued) :

Marks of gratitude from agri-
culturists, 372
Marriage, 61
Medal from Society of French

Agricultors, 312
Member of Academie de Mede-

cine, 225
Speech, 241, 242, 243

— Academie des Sciences, 103,

272

— - Academie Fran9aise, 341, 345
Memorial plate on house at

Dole, 376

National testimonial, 245
Obtains racemic acid, 69
Offered professorship at Pisa,

200
On chicken cholera, 299, 308

— Littre and Positivism, 342

— Science and religion, 244

— Scientific supremacy of

France, 195

— Vaccine, 309, 311

of anthrax, 311, 312

— Experiment, 314, 317, 318,

320, 323, 367
Results, 325
Paper on Plague, 301
Paralytic stroke, 160, 439
Pastel drawings, 12, 20,
Pension augmented, 374
Permanent Secretary of Acade"-

mie des Sciences, 439
Portraits, 439
Professor of Chemistry, Stras-

burg, 45
Professor of Physics at Dijon,

42

Proposed studies, 198
Refuses German decoration, 461
Reply to Dumas, 355
" Researches on Dimorphism"

36
Researches on spontaneous

generation, 87 seqq., 216,

222, 277

Lecture at Sorbonne on, 106
Speech on, 242
Researches on stereo-chemistry,

445

Science's Budget, 153
Scientific Annals of Ecole Nor-

male, 110

Searches for his son, 192
Solicitude for patients, 416, 425,

427
Speech at Aubenas, 351

Pasteur, Louis (continued) :

Speech at inauguration of Insti-
tute, 442

Speech on Deville, 327
Speech on Joseph Bertrand, 419,

426
Studies beer, 207 seqq., 219, 229,

232, 282, 285
Book on, 214, 219, 339

— Cholera, 126

— Contagious diseases, 224

seqq.

— Fermentations, 79, 83, 85, 99,

113, 224, 240

— Hydrophobia, 318, 363, 383,

390 seqq.

Inoculates dogs, 395, 410
Inoculates Joseph Meister, 416
Inoculates Jupille, 422

— Silkworm Disease, 117, 120,

129, 139, 155, 168

— on Wine, 113, 158, 283
Book on, 133

— Rouget of pigs, 360
Report on, 362

— Splenic fever, 257, 259, 275,

284
Travels in search of racemic

acid, 62 seqq.
Trephines dog, 318
Turin veterinary school and,

367, 371

Vintage tour, 104
Visitors, 420
Visits Duclaux, 206
Pasteur, Madame Louis, 49, 52,
59, 103, 160, 172, 432, 459
Goes to Alais, 130
Letters to daughter, 318, 322,

325, 396
Paul, St. Vincent de, Life of,

463

Payen, paper on beer, 208
Pecquet, discoveries through vivi-
section, 336

Peers of France, 30 note
Pelletier, Louise, bitten by mad

dog, 425

Pellico, Silvio, Miei prigioni, 16
Pelouze, M., 335
Penicillium glaucum, 204, 230
Perdrix, at Pasteur Jubilee, 448
Perraud, J. J., bust at Monay to.

421

Perreyve, Henri, on Poland, 184
Perroncito, on microbe of chicken

cholera, 297
Perrot, deputy to Edinburgh, 384

480

INDEX

Persoz, Professor of Chemistry,
Strasburg, 45

Peter M. :

Dispute with Pasteur, 364, 366,

369, 370
On antirabic cure, 434

Philomathic Society, Pasteur mem-
ber of, 102

Phthisis, theory of, 227

Phylloxera, 295

Physicians, attitude towards
chemists, 224, 233

Picard, General, candidature for
Senate, 249

Pidoux and Trousseau, Traite de
Therapeutique, 224

Pidoux, Dr. :
On disease, 227
On tuberculosis, 227

Pierrefonds Castle restored, 127

Pierron, on Laurent at Riom, 47

Piorry, Dr. :

On disease and patient, 264
On tuberculosis, 228

Pisa, Pasteur offered professorship
at, 200

Pitt, on vote to Jenner, 374, 375

Plague bacillus discovered, 457

Plague, Pasteur's paper on, 301

Plaideurs acted at Compiegne, 128

Plenisette village, 1

Pliny the Elder, remedy for hydro-
phobia, 407

Poggiale, speech on spontaneous
generation, 242

Pointurier, M., 12

Polarization of light, 27

Polignac, Cardinal of, Anti-Lucre-
tius, 90

Poligny, 192
Sous-prtfet of, 9.

Polytechnician, 43 note

Pontarlier, retreat to, 192

Positivist doctrine, 342

Potatoes, prejudice against, 171

Pottevin, attends on Pasteur, 459

Pouchet, M., 98, 104, 138, 216, 255
Note on Vegetable and Animal

Proto-organisms, 92
The Universe, 214
Theory of fermentation, 241

Pouillet", Professor of Physics at
Sorbonne, 27, 29, 43

Pouilly le Fort, experiment on vac-
cination of anthrax, 315,
316, 317, 319, 323
Results, 324

Prague, Pasteur at, 66

Prevot, at Villeneuve 1'Etang, 462
Primary teaching, law on reorga-
nization, 140
Prince Imperial, Villa Vicentina,

173

Prix de Home, 191 note
Prix Montyon, 16 note
Provost, acts in Plaideurs, 128
Provostaye, de la, work on crystal-
lography, 33, 38
Prussia, Crown Prince of, 141
Puerperal fever, 290 seqq.
Puiseux, Professor of Science at

Besancon, 45
Putrefaction, 104

Quain, Dr., on Commission on
inoculation for hydro-
phobia, 430

Quatrefages, essay on history of
silkworm, 116

Queyrat, attends on Pasteur, 459

R

Rabies and hydrophobia, 409 ^
Rabies, Commission. ( See under

Hydrophobia)
Rabourdin, M., 284
Racemic. (See Paratartaric acid)
Raibaud-Lange, M., 169
Rammelsberg, dispute with Pas-
teur, 102

Randon, General, 166
Raspail, F. V., researches on

origin of itch, 374
Rassmann, Dr., obtains racemic

acid, 67
Raulin, Jules, 93, 130, 161, 166,

173, 209
Accompanies Pasteur to Milan,

250

Sketch of, 204
Raulin's liquid, 205
i Ravaisson, F., 137
| Rayer, on charbon blood, 258
! Raynaud, Dr. Maurice, 289

On hydrophobia, 391
Reaudin, Auguste, on Lister's

methods, 239
Reclus, Dr., on purulent infection,

237

Reculfoz village, 1
Redi, Francesco, experiment on

spontaneous generation,

INDEX

481

Redtenbacher, M., 66
"Regiment Dauphin," 4
Regnault, Henri, 50, 59

Death, 191

Regnier acts in Plaideurs, 128
Renan, E., 137
On state of France, 199
Quoted from Revue Germanique,

110

Sketch of, 348

Speech to Pasteur on hydropho-
bia, 390
Welcomes Pasteur to Academie

Fran9aise, 346
Renaud, M., 7
Renault, experiments with rabic

blood, 392
Rencluse, 105

Renon, attends on Pasteur, 459
Repecaud, Headmaster of Royal

College, Besancon, 14
Rhenish provinces, 189
Richet, Dr., 455
Rigault, lectures at College de

France, 82

Robin, Charles, sketch of, 124
Rbchard, Dr., on plague, 303
Rochette, Baron de la, sketch of,

314
Rochleder, professor of chemistry,

Prague, 67

Roger, on Pasteur's services, 245
Rollin College, experiments in la-
boratory at, 411, 415, 432
Romanet, Headmaster of Arbois

College, 9, 13, 30, 36
Romieu, sketch of, 53
"Rouget" of pigs (swine fever),

360, 362

Roqui, Jean Claude, 6
Roqui, Jeanne Etiennette, wife of
Jean Joseph Pasteur, 6, 7
Death, 40

Roscoe, Sir Henry, on Commis-
sion on inoculation for
hydrophobia, 430
Rose, G., crystallographer, in

Paris, 61
Rossignol, M. :

Article in Veterinary Press on

microbe, 313

Vaccination of sheep against an-
thrax and, 315, 321, 323
Rotz, Pasteur medal, 447
Rouher, at Tuilerics, 154
Roux, Dr. :

Account of Thuillier's death, 381
At Pasteur Jubilee, 448

Roux, Dr. (continued) :
Attends Pasteur, 459
Collaborates with Pasteur, 289,
291, 303, 305, 308, 317,
318, 321, 338, 359, 372,
393, 420, 424

Cross of Legion of Honour, 326
Goes to Alexandria, 379
Inoculates horse with diphtheri-
tic toxin, 455

Lectures on diphtheria, 456
Lectures on technical microbia,

440

Lecture to London Royal So-
ciety, 454

On Pasteur's medical work, 283
Performs inoculations, 432
Sketch of, 233
Studies diphtheria, 453
Roziers, Pilatre de, balloon ascent,

405
Russian mujiks bitten by wolf, 429

S

Saccharimeter, 28
Sadowa, battle of, 178
Sainte Beuve :

Letters to Pasteur, 125
On Biot's character, 56
Opinion of Joseph Droz, 14
Pasteur attends his lectures, 123
Philosophy, 123
Speech at Senate, 143
St. Dizier, 4

St. Hippolyte la Fort, 165, 174
St. Victor, Paul de, on Germany,

188
Salimbeni, treatise on sericicul-

ture, 159
Salins, 97

Claude Etienne Pasteur settles

at, 2

Sand, George, 107
Sandeau, Jules, 127
Sanderson, Professor Burden, on
Commission on inocula-
tion for hydrophobia, 431
Sarcey, Francisque, 37
Saussure, Theodore de, 100
Sauton, speech at Pasteur Jubilee,

449

Say, Leon, Pasteur's reply to, 417
Scheele discovers tartaric acid, 26
Schrotter, Professor, 66
Schwann, Dr., observations on fer-
mentations, 80
Science and Religion, 244
I I

482

INDEX

Scientists meet at Tuileries, 154

Sedan, 181

Sedillot, Dr. :

Correspondence of Institute, 186
Sketch of, 266

Senarmont, M. de, 50, 58, 59, 101
Advice to Pasteur, 69
Confidence in Pasteur, 89

Septicaemia, 229, 234, 263, 308, 368

Seriana village, Algeria, 451

Sericiculture, 115

Serotherapy. (See Diphtheria)

Serres, Olivier de, 172
Statue to, 350, 352
Theatre d* Agriculture, 172
Treatise on Gathering of Silk.
116, 120

Seybel, M., 66

Signol, experiments, 262

Silkworm disease, 116 seqq/ 139,

155, 156, 168 >
Lyons Commission on, 170

Simon, Jules, 144, 418
At inauguration of Pasteur In-
stitute, 441
On Ecole Normale, 23

Sorbonne, 21 note, 146
Inauguration of new, 446
Pasteur Jubilee celebration, 447

Spallanzani, Abbe^, experiments on
animalculse, 91

Splenic fever (charbon). (See
Anthrax)

Spontaneous generation, 87 seqq.,

216, 222, 227, 232, 277
Commission oh, 106, 111
Pasteur's lecture at Sorbonne
on, 106

Stoffel, Colonel Baron, 155

Strasburg, Pasteur at, 45, 71

Strnsburg arsenal, 179, 185

Strasburg University, 189

Straus, M. :

Goes to Alexandria, 379
On Cholera Commission, 382

Sully, opposes silk industry, 116

Sully-Prudhomme, love of France,
191

Supt village, 2

Surgery before Pasteur, 234 seqq.

Susani, S., 250

Swine fever. (See Rouget of pigs)

Talmy, Dr., at Bordeaux, 339
Tamisier, candidature for Senate,
249

Tantonville brewery, 213
Tarnier, Dr., 289

On puerperal fever, 289
Tartaric acid, constitution of, 26,

38
Teaching :

Law on liberty of, 52
Law on primary, 140
Terrillon, Dr., 432
Thenard, Baron, 59, 356

Sketch of, 45
Thierry, M., at Pouilly le Fort

experiment, 316, 319
Thiers, M. :

Letter to Pasteur, 144
On bravery of 3rd Regiment, 3
Third Regiment of Line, 3
"Regiment Dauphin," 4
Thorwaldsen Museum, Copen-
hagen, 402
Thuillier, Louis, 317
Collaborates with Pasteur, 357,

359, 360, 362
Death, 380

Goes to Alexandria, 379
Studies hydrophobia, 391
Thurel, candidature for Senate,

249
Tisserand, M., 354

Director of Crown Agricultural

establishments, 173
On Commission on hydrophobia,

395

Toscanelli, S., 200, 201
Toul, on second line of fortifica-
tions, 179
Tourtel brewery at Tantonville,

213

Toussaint, professor at Toulouse
Veterinary School, 264,
284
Studies microbe of chicken

cholera, 297

Vaccinates sheep against an-
thrax, 306, 307

Traube, Dr., on ammoniacal fer-
mentation, 232
Trecul, Dr., 230

On heterogenesis, 216, 218
Theory of fermentation, 241 -
Trelat, Dr., surgeon at Maternite,

290

On Commission of Hygiene, 186
Trocadero fete for Pasteur Insti-
tute, 431
Troost, M., 327

Trousseau and Pidoux, Traiie de
Therapeutique, 224

INDEX

Trousseau, Dr. :

Lecture on ferments quoted, 229

On diphtheria, 453

On puerperal fever, 290 - — •*
Tsar, sends Cross of St. Anne of

Russia to Pasteur, 430
Tuberculosis, researches on, 227
Tuileries, scientists meet at, 154
Tunis, Pasteur Institute at, 461
Turin Veterinary School and Pas-
teur, 368, 371
Tyndall, Professor :
Dust and Diseases, 239
Letter to Pasteur, 353
Typhoid fever, medical methods of
treating, 364

Udressier, Claude Fra^ois, Count
of, 1

Udressier, Philippe-Marie-Fran-
9ois, Count of, 2

CJniversite, 44 note, 155

University of Edinburgh, Tercen-
tenary, 384
Degrees, 385

Vaccination, 300, 309, 311
Against anthrax, 312

Experiment, 314, 317, 818,

320, 328, 367
Results, 325
Against swine fever, 382
Vailiant, Field-Marshal, 142, 168
At Tuileries, 154
Silkworm nursery, 173
Vallisneri, medical professor of

Padua, 90

Van Helmont, recipe for produc-
ing mice, 89

Van t'Hoff, studies on stereo-
chemistry, 445
Van Tieghem, 217, 232
Vauquelin, tanning process, 29
Veillon, attends on Pasteur, 459
Velpeau :

On diphtheria, 453
On pin prick, 234
Venasque Pass, 105
Vercel, Jules, 7, 36, 97, 192, 266
Accompanies Pasteur to Paris,

Verneuil, M. :
On antirabic cure, 434
On surgery (1870), 236

Vescovato, 169
Veuillot, Louis, 36

On liberty of teaching, 53
Viala, Eugene :

Attends on Pasteur, 459
Preparations for inoculations,

424

Sketch of, 402

Vialla, M., Vice-President of Agri-
cultural Society, Mont-
pellier, 353

Vicat, national testimonial to, 245
Villa Vicentina, Illyria, 173
Villemin, Dr. :

Advises Pasteur to winter in

south, 433, 434
At experiment on earthworms,

304
On Commission on hydrophobia,

395
On contagion of tuberculosis,

367
Researches on tuberculosis, 226,

227

Villeneuve 1'Etang, branch estab-
lishment of laboratory at,
398, 406, 410
Stables, 463
Villers-Farlay, Mayor of, writes to

Pasteur, 421
Vinegar, Pasteur lectures on

manufacture of, 148
Virchow, Professor :

At Copenhagen Medical Con-
gress, 399
At Edinburgh, 386
On anti-vivisection, 332
Virulent Diseases — Chicken Cho-
lera, 298

Virus ferments, 223 seqq.
Vivisection :

Discoveries made through, 337
Virchow on, 332
Volta, S., 195
Voltaire :

Philosophic Dictionary quoted

on God, 92

Singularities of Nature, 92
Vone, Theodore, consults Pasteur,

414
Vulpian, 278

Champions Pasteur, 435, 436
Death, 438

On Brand's treatment of ty-
phoid, 365
On Commission on hydrophobia,

395
Pasteur consults, 415

484

INDEX

Vulpian (continued) :

Speech on Pasteur's experiments
on hydrophobia, 422, 438

W

Wales, Prince of, 141

Wallace, Sir Richard, founds dogs'

cemetery at Bagatelle, 411
Wasserzug, Etienne, interprets for

Pasteur, 424
Weber, Dr., advises Mme. Meister

to consult Pasteur, 414
William, King of Prussia, meets

Napoleon, 182
Wine, studies on, 113, 158
Wissemburg, 178
Wolf-bites, statistics of death

from, 430

Wurtz :

Laboratory, 42

On Commission of Hygiene, 186

Yeast, 80

Pasteur's paper on, 221, 230.

(See also Fermentation)
Yellow fever, Pasteur studies, 338
Yersin, Dr. :

Studies diphtheria, 453
Studies plague in China, 458.

461

Younger, welcomes Pasteur to
Edinburgh, 38

Zevort, M., 47, 130
Zimmern, sous-prefecture, 189

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