THE DISEASES OF SILK WORMS 137 



for a sample lot of healthy eggs. Pasteur sent 

 them several lots concerning which he made the 

 following predictions: 



i. One lot will produce healthy worms. 



2. One lot will perish exclusively from pebrine. 



3. One lot will perish exclusively from flacherie. 



4. One lot will perish partly from pebrine and partly 



from flacherie. 



Pasteur desired that these predictions be recorded 

 in the minutes of the Commission and that the re- 

 sults be reported on. They turned out exactly as 

 he had predicted. 



After six years of labor the silk worm diseases 

 were conquered and the silk industry of France 

 was brought back to prosperity. Pasteur's meth- 

 ods were applied in other countries into which the 

 diseases had extended (for they had become almost 

 world-wide in their distribution) and they met with 

 similar success. The work had been peculiarly 

 taxing and full of difficulties and discouragements, 

 but a dogged perseverance had brought it to a 

 triumphal ending. Pasteur succeeded where so 

 many others had failed, not only because of the 

 fertility and ingenuity of his mind, but because 

 he sought first, as he always did in attacking a 



