1882—1884 361 



M. de* Ballincourt*s, who has lost all his pigs, and who ha^ 

 just bought some more in the hope that the vaccine will be 

 preservative. From morning till night we shall be able to 

 watch the disease and to try to prevent it. This reminds me 

 of the pebrine, with pigsties and sick pigs instead of nurseries 

 fuU of dying silkworms. Not ten thousand, but at least twenty 

 thousand swine have perished, and I am told it is worse still in 

 the Ardeche. " 



On the 17th, the day was taken up by the inoculation of some 

 pigs on the estate of M. de la Gardette, a few kilometres from 

 Bollene. In the evening, a former State Councillor, M. de 

 Gaillard, came at the head of a delegation to compliment 

 Pasteur and invite him to a banquet. Pasteur declined this 

 honour, saying he would accept it when the swine fever was 

 conquered. They spoke to him of his past services, but he 

 had no thought for them; like all progress-seeking men, he saw 

 but what was before him. Experiments were being carried out 

 — he had hastened to have an experimental pigsty erected near 

 M. Maucuer's house — and already, on the 21st, he wrote to 

 Mme. Pasteur, in one of those letters which resembled the loose 

 pages of a laboratory notebook — 



*' Swine fever is not nearly so obscure to me now, and I 

 am persuaded that with the help of time the scientific and 

 practical problem will be solved. 



** Three post-mortem examinations to-day. They take a long 

 time, but that seems of no account to Thuillier, with his cool 

 and patient eagerness.*' 



Three days later: *'I much regret not being able to tell you 

 yet that I am starting back for Paris. It is quite impossible 

 to abandon all these experiments which we have commenced; I 

 should have to return here at least once or twice. The chief 

 thing is that things are getting clearer with every experiment. 

 You know that nowadays a medical knowledge of disease is 

 nothing ; it must be prevented beforehand. We are attempting 

 this, and I think I can foresee success; but keep this for your- 

 self and our children. I embrace you all most affectionately. 



*'P.S. — I have never felt better. Send me 1,000 fr. ; I have 

 but 300 fr. left of the 1,600 fr. I brought. Pigs are expensive, 

 and we are killing a great many." 



At last on December 3: *'I am sending M. Dumas a note 

 for to-morrow's meeting at the Academy. If I had time I 

 would transcribe it for the laboratory and for Kene. 



;C M 



