CHAPTER VII 



THE DISEASES OF SILK WORMS 



While still at work on the diseases of wine Pas- 

 teur received from his old friend and teacher, 

 Dumas, an urgent appeal to investigate a peculiar 

 malady which was creating great havoc in the silk 

 industry of France. Dumas represented as Sen- 

 ator a region in the south of France, which was 

 particularly infested by this disease. Knowing in- 

 timately Pasteur's career and how successfully he 

 had grappled with the diseases of wines and vari- 

 ous other scientific problems, Dumas picked out 

 Pasteur as the one man who would be most likely 

 to bring relief to an important industry which was 

 threatened with ruin. Dumas wrote, "I attach the 

 greatest importance to seeing your attention fixed 

 on the question which interests my poor country; 

 the distress is beyond anything you may imagine." 

 Pasteur had his misgivings about interrupting the 

 work on which he was engaged and entering a field 

 with which he was unfamiliar. "Consider, I pray 



you," he wrote to Dumas, "that I have never even 



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