SKETCH OF F. A. VULPIAN. 265 



"One Tuesday, at the nsnal hour of his demonstrations in the. 

 laboratory, he gave us students an agreeable surprise, and one 

 which we shall long remember. He had invited the renowned 

 Pasteur to show to the class the results of his researches in his 

 now world-famed methods of prophylaxis by vaccination of many 

 virulent diseases of the lower animals. For the short hour of the 

 lecture, Pasteur took chicken-cholera for his subject. He showed 

 the students the micrococcus which causes the disease, the man- 

 ner of converting it into a harmless vaccinating matter, and 

 finally the lesions produced in the unvaccinated fowl by the micro- 

 coccus. Prof. Vulpian, in his large-hearted admiration for his fel- 

 low-scientist, took a real pleasure in giving his class an opportu- 

 nity of seeing and hearing Pasteur. 



" The personal appearance of Prof. Vulpian was more than 

 usually striking. He was above the average in stature, and 

 his broad but slightly stooping shoulders were surmounted by a 

 large, finely shaped head, which was adorned by a thick growth 

 of wavy, iron-gray hair. His grave and dignified mien, and the 

 modest air of a true savant that he constantly bore, at once com- 

 manded the respect and consideration that he so well merited. 

 His kindly disposition of character endeared him to all with 

 whom he came in contact ; and the generosity and absence of jeal- 

 ousy with which he welcomed any discovery made by another 

 scientist, or any honor conferred upon a colleague, was another 

 trait in the character of this truly estimable man. 



" He lived in the rue Soufflot, that short but fine street in the 

 Latin Quarter of Paris which is closed at one end by the Pan- 

 theon, where the remains of Victor Hugo rest, and at the other 

 by the beautiful Jardin du Luxembourg, where stands the stately 

 palace in which the Senate sits. In this remarkable garden of the 

 Luxembourg, full of fountains, statuary, flower-beds, orange-trees, 

 and students, the hero of this sketch was fond of walking after 

 dinner. Almost every evening about sundown he could be seen 

 strolling quietly through the garden, during half an hour, in com- 

 pany with a tall young man whom I supposed to be his son, and 

 with whom he kept up a pleasant, fatherly conversation. Then, 

 before the retraite sounded, which was the signal to close the gates, 

 he would return to his home close by, where his arduous profes- 

 sional work awaited him. 



" During the progress of that hot debate which took place last 

 year in the French Academy of Medicine upon the value of Pas- 

 teur's method of vaccination as a means of preventing the out- 

 break of hydrophobia after the bite of a mad animal. Prof. Vul- 

 pian gave proof of his excellent judgment in medical controversy, 

 and of his unshaken friendship for Pasteur. In the session of 

 January 18, 1887, he made a warm defense of Pasteur's method. 



