



STATE DAIRY ASSOCtATION. 483 



16,000,000 in one day and 281,000,000,000 in two days. Fig. Ill sliowa 

 various stages of division. On the whole, they help us more than they 

 harm us. It will appear, from what is said above, that if all bacteria 

 were disease germs none of us would escape. They are our ultimate 

 scavengers. One sort lives in the tubercles on the roots of clover and en- 

 ables the plant to gather nitrogen from the air, which, in the death of 

 the plant, rejuvenates the soil. The story of how they help us is even a 

 longer one than how they harm us. The past twenty'-five years have 

 taught us how to reach out to the impalpable dust of the atmosphere to 

 recognize in it our friends and om* foes, to harness one and restrain the 

 other, in many cases, with the same ease and certainty as in the case of 

 the ox and tiger. 



DISEASES OF SILKWORMS. 



It is always a pleasure to be able to say "The hour found its man." 

 In the matter of the disease that prostrated the silkworm industry of 

 Southern France it is not, however, true. The disease came in 1849. It 

 was nearly twenty years before Pasteur completed the conquest. Whep 

 neighbors meet there they do not say, "How are you," as we do, but 

 "How ax'e your silliworms?" This means that the silkworms are the 

 life of the community. Pasteur's old teacher, who was "Reporter of the 

 Commission-," knowing what he had done for the diseases of wine and 

 beer, asked him to go to Alais and see what he could do for the trouble. 

 The story is long, and, as the story of ti'iumph always is, it is interesting. 

 Only the barest outlines can be given. On the day of his arrival the 

 germs were found. Three weeks later a remedy was proposed. When a 

 silkworm moth has laid her eggs her duty to the species and the industry 

 is performed. Her subsequent pleasures are personal merely. Pasteur 

 prescribed: when a moth had laid her eggs grind her to powder in a 

 mortal' with a little water, and if these disease "corpuscles" are found, 

 burn the eggs; if not, save them. Five years of subsequent labor and ex- 

 periment were necessary to answer all questions and differentiate between 

 two fatal diseases and complete the cure. That his cure was real was 

 shown by his being offered the culture of the Imperial villa near Trieste, 

 which had not paid the cost of carrying it on for ten years. Pasteur had 

 been paralyzed on one side by his great labors, but he had his fi-iends 

 carry him in a rocking chair across France and over the Alps to Vicen- 

 tina. The silkworms knew their master, and spun for him that one year 

 26,000,000 francs worth of silk over and above the cost of their care. From 

 that hom'-to this, fame and fortune have known no other name like that 

 of Pasteur, 



He had now discovered the causes of diseases in wine, beer and silk- 

 worms, and had in every case prescribed a remedy. Could he not find 

 out the causes of diseases among animals and men? On his way home 

 he resolved to try. 



