LOUIS PASTEUR 485 



the government to build new laboratories. At length a Antiseptic 

 building was in course of erection, when Pasteur fell ill, 

 and many thought he would die. The work stopped, for 

 without him there seemed no object in continuing. It 

 was necessary to appeal to the Emperor to have the build- 

 ing operations resumed, and in the meanwhile Pasteur 

 gradually recovered and was able to return to his labors. 

 II. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Pas- 

 teur noted with distress the frightful mortality among 

 the wounded. Even slight injuries produced fatal 

 results. Operations in certain hospitals were commonly 

 followed by death. With all his experience in dealing 

 with putrefactive changes, Pasteur fully realized that 

 the trouble was due to bacteria or germs. He could 

 reason from the silkworms to mankind, and recommend 

 the proper sanitary measures. He could see how the 

 surgeons, coming to save life, carried the cause of death 

 on their hands and their clothes. Pasteur, however, 

 was not a medical man, and could not carry out his 

 ideas in practice. Neither could he convince the 

 medical profession, which was by no means ready to 

 take advice from an outsider. It remained for an 

 English surgeon, Joseph Lister, to adopt Pasteur's 

 ideas, and develop in a practical way a system of anti- 

 septic surgery. Lister revolutionized surgical practice, 

 though not without meeting a good deal of opposition, 

 and he never failed to express his debt to Pasteur. The 

 saving of life through the new methods has been in- 

 calculable. Not only do the wounded recover in large 

 numbers, but operations which formerly would have 

 been deemed impossible are now easy. For example, 

 the operation for appendicitis, now considered hardly 

 dangerous if done in time, would before the time of 

 Lister have been only a last desperate resort. 



