LOUIS PASTEUR. 25 



by ordinary means, he had himself transported across France and 

 personally directed the work on this silkworm farm, although he 

 was unable to do anything himself. 



It is not, perhaps, generally known that from this time to his 

 death Pasteur was partially paralysed and unable to perform the 

 work of his own experiments. There is something truly pathetic 

 and dramatic as we think of him, an invalid, simply capable of 

 directing others in their work, and yet fired with the belief that he 

 was right, and with the determination to convince the world that 

 he was right. Again Pasteur's genius demonstrated itself, and, by 

 using his simple remedy, in a short time this silkworm farm, 

 abandoned because of the presence of the disease, was restored to 

 a condition in which it was one of the best-paying silkworm farms 

 in France. The disease was practically eradicated from it. With 

 a bound Pasteur's reputation spread throughout France and the 

 world. The silkworm industry in France began to adopt his 

 methods at once and rapidly assumed its old condition of prosper- 

 ity. From now on the Frenchmen were ready to accept almost 

 anything that Pasteur would say. He had saved them their 

 beloved silkworm industry, and had been the means of saving to 

 the peasants of France a sum of money almost beyond belief. 



The next important work in Pasteur's life was his investigations 

 upon the subject of the fermentations of beer. The Franco- 

 Prussian war and its results had deprived the French people of 

 their beer-makers, who had been largely German, and when the 

 French people began to make their own beer they found them- 

 selves for awhile in difficulties. In spite of careful methods, 

 various imperfections in fermentations were of frequent occur- 

 rence. By this time the French public had become confident in 

 Pasteur's abilities, and it was only natural that he should be 

 requested to find the solution for this puzzle. As usual, success 

 attended his efforts. His microscope soon showed him that the 

 trouble was due to the use of impure yeasts. The brewer's yeast 

 was liable to be mixed with various species of bacteria as well as 

 improper species of yeasts, and his genius soon showed methods 

 of removing the difficulties and bringing the fermentative industry 

 into a condition of uniformity. Upon the basis of these experi- 

 ments has been founded the whole of our modern brewing 



