1882—1884 383 



laboratory, that "temple of the future" as Pasteur called it 

 From every part of the world, letters reached Pasteur, appeals, 

 requests for consultations. Many took him for a physician. 

 '*He does not cure individuals," answered Edmund About one 

 day to a foreigner who was under that misapprehension; *'he 

 only tries to cure humanity." Some sceptical minds were pre- 

 dicting failure to his studies on hydrophobia. This problem was 

 complicated by the fact that Pasteur was trying in vain to dis- 

 cover and isolate the specific microbe. 



He was endeavouring to evade that difficulty; the idea pur- 

 sued him that human medicine might avail itself of *'the long 

 period of incubation of hydrophobia, by attempting to establish, 

 during that interval before the appearance of the first rabic 

 symptoms, a refractory condition in the subjects bitten. '' 



At the beginning of the year 1SS4, J. B. Dumas enjoyed 

 following from a distance Pasteur's readings at the Academie 

 des Sciences His failing health and advancing age (he was 

 more than eighty years old) had forced him to spend the winter 

 in the South of France. On January 26, 1884, he wrote to 

 Pasteur for the last time, a propos of a book ^ which was a short 

 summary of Pasteur's discoveries and their concatenation: 



**Dear colleague and friend, — I have read with a great and 

 sincere emotion the picture of your scientific life drawn by a 

 faithful and loving hand. 



** Myself a witness and a sincere admirer of your happy 

 efforts, your fruitful genius and your imperturbable method, 

 I consider it a great service rendered to Science, that the 

 accurate and complete whole should be put before the eyes of 

 young people. 



**It will make a wholesome impression on the public in 

 general; to young scientists, it will be an initiation, and to 

 those who, like me, have passed the age of labour it will bring 

 happy memories of j^outhful enthusiasm. 



"May Providence long spare you to France, and maintain in 

 you that admirable equilibrium between the mind that observes, 

 the genius that conceives, and the hand that executes with a 

 perfection unknown until now." 



This was a last proof of Dumas' affection for Pasteur. 

 Although his life was now fast drawing to its close, his mental 

 faculties were in no wise impaired, for we find him three weeks 

 later, on February 20, using his influence as Permanent Secre* 



1 La Vie d'un Savant, by the author of the present work. JTrans.) 



