INTRODUCTION XV 



come across a wall of big dry stones, a retaining wall 

 made to gain a few inches of earth, an irrigation ditch, 

 an old tree sensing decrepitude, a big rock in a field, 

 without thinking of all those who have builded and 

 planted and dug, or grumbled at having to pass around 

 the rock they could not remove. With such ideas and 

 impressions, there is no solitude. I live in communion 

 with my own, and with this soil, on which they have 

 left the powerful impression of their feeble intelligences, 

 and their vigorous arms." 



At Paris he displayed incredible activity mornings 

 and evenings at his work-table and the rest of the day 

 either at the Agronomic Institute or at the Sorbonne 

 (Roux). These were sad years and labor was an opiate. 

 He overworked and suffered from insomnia and for two 

 years from boils. During this time he wrote ''Ferments 

 et Maladies" (1882) which he dedicated to his wife who 

 had died of puerperal fever. ''To you, innocent victim 

 of the infinitely httle, I dedicate this book in which I 

 have attempted to popularize their history. May it, 

 sHght as it is, serve to hasten a httle the day wherein 

 the accomphshment of her sacred mission will no longer 

 cause the wife to fail her husband, and the mother the 

 new-born child." The book made a sensation and a 

 gold medal was struck for it by the Society of Agricul- 

 ture; also a number of medical men were won over to a 

 belief in microbes. 



Duclaux loved to ripen a project for a long time in his 

 mind and to work it over and over on paper before 

 finally putting it into type, which is the secret of all 

 good expression. This was Tennyson's method and 

 Renan's. It was Beethoven's way in music. It is also 

 the method of Anatole France. 



In 1882, apropos of "Ferments et maladies'' which had 

 just appeared, he wrote to his friend, M. Voigt, ''You 

 2 



