152 LOUIS PASTEUR 



and infectious diseases. Would it be possible, he 

 thought, to check the diseases of human beings as 

 it was possible to check the maladies of wine, beer, 

 and silk worms? 



Pasteur's imagination inspired him with concep- 

 tions of the wonderful possibilities of discovery in 

 the field of disease through the application of the 

 same methods which had proven so successful in his 

 previous work. With the loss of his own children 

 through disease fresh in his mind, and deeply im- 

 pressed with the fearful suffering of French troops, 

 not only from epidemics, but from gangrene, blood 

 poisoning, erysipelas, and the other scourges that 

 were the common accompaniment of wounds and 

 operations, Pasteur was stirred by the ambition to 

 do something which would obviate some of the suf- 

 ferings which disease and infections inflict on hu- 

 manity. Provided now with a new laboratory 

 exceptionally well equipped for carrying on bac- 

 teriological research he was eager to enter upon 

 this new field. 



In Pasteur's time the cause of infectious diseases 

 was as little known as it was in the Dark Ages. 

 Pestilences and epidemics have always excited in 

 the human race a kind of superstitious awe. 

 Primitive peoples quite generally look upon disease 



