XVlll INTRODUCTION 



assistants; Grancher, Chant emesse, and Charrin, physi- 

 cians in charge of the antirabic inoculations; and Eugene 

 Viala, devoted assistant in the rabies service. Also a 

 little later Metchnikoff and Yersen formed part of the 

 staff, but Strauss had gone earlier to a chair in the Med- 

 ical School. Pasteur was now 66, and the sole shadow 

 on the picture was the ill health of the master. If 

 Pasteur had not been weakened by his second attack of 

 paralysis in 1887, the new Institute might have been 

 very different from what it is to-day, namely, a great 

 cooperative research institution drawing the brightest 

 minds from all parts of France and all quarters of the 

 globe. It might have been greater, at first, but on the 

 death of the master all would have crumbled. Its pres- 

 ent form, so cohesive while at the same time so well 

 adapted to maintain the independence of the workers^ 

 corresponds rather to the ideas of the collaborators than 

 to those of Pasteur and is due largely to the administra- 

 tive genius of Duclaux on whom fell nearly the whole 

 burden of the organization. Duclaux wished to make it 

 an immense college of international biology, whereas 

 Pasteur's idea was rather to make it a place where he 

 would work behind closed doors with rare and devoted 

 assistants, not explaining too fully the reason for his 

 demands but being, like an Indian god, one head with 

 many hands. Our good English poet has said : 



"The old order changeth, yielding place to new 



And God fulfils himself in numj- ways, 



Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." 



So it was to be here. The old master, the founder, was 

 not always in perfect accord with his friend. Duclaux 

 wished to open all the doors, call the faithful from all 

 corners of the earth, work in a large way, found a scien- 

 tific college for the future, where each one would be free 



