INTRODUCTION 



This book is more than a critique of Pasteur. It is a 

 contribution to the biological history of a swiftly changing 

 time, a very striking period in the development of science. 

 As such it should be of interest to all biologists, and 

 especially to all teachers and students of biology and of 

 medicine. For them it was written, and tiranslated. In 

 this time of world upheaval and readjustment, when our 

 young men are looking more and more to France for 

 moral and intellectual ideals, it seems peculiarly apropos 

 that the scientific life of one of her greatest sons, to whom 

 the whole world owes an enormous debt of gratitude, 

 should be set before them clearly and interestingly. 



This life of Pasteur was published in 1896, and 

 its author has been dead fifteen years. The book speaks 

 for itself, but in giving to the public an English edition 

 it seems fitting to say some words respecting its author: 

 '^Cette grande et belle intelligence, si simple et si rohuste" 

 (Yourievitch). 



The senior translator still remembers with what un- 

 expected and keen pleasure a dozen years ago he saw the 

 title of this book in a German catalogue of second-hand 

 books. For some unexplained reason he had never come 

 across the book in any library or seen any notice of it in 

 any review, nor could he find any of his fellows who had 

 read it, or seen it, or even heard of it. Once, only, since 

 then has he seen it mentioned in a catalogue of second- 

 hand books. Indeed, it seems almost as if it must have 

 died still-born, so little notice has been taken of it, at 

 least outside of France. Duclaux's name was enough, 

 however, and it was ordered straightway, with the fear, 

 oft renewed during the next few weeks, that like many a 



V 



