186 LOUIS PASTEUR 



wrote to his friend Paul Bert to "intervene most 

 warmly in their favor." The request was granted 

 and the news was conveyed to the laboratory. 

 "Hearty congratulations," wrote Madame Pasteur, 

 "were exchanged in the midst of rabbits and 

 guinea pigs." 



In the same year Pasteur was asked to repre- 

 sent France at the International Medical Congress 

 in London. Upon his arrival at the well-filled 

 hall in which the Congress was held he was invited 

 to the platform, and as he passed along the aisle 

 there was a great outburst of applause. "It is 

 doubtless the Prince of Wales who is arriving," 

 Pasteur remarked to his companions, "I should have 

 come sooner." "But it is you that they are all 

 cheering," exclaimed the President as Pasteur 

 reached the platform. The Prince of Wales and 

 the German Crown Prince entered later. In the 

 opening address of the President, Sir James Paget, 

 the mention of the name Pasteur brought such ap- 

 plause that Pasteur had to rise and bow to the 

 enthusiastic audience. "I was very proud," he 

 wrote to Madame Pasteur, "not for myself, — you 

 know how I regard success, — but for my country, 

 in reflecting that I was exceptionally distinguished 

 in the midst of that immense concourse of for- 



