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INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, 



Dr. Joseph Ewart, F.R.C.P., Sept. 13th, 1886. 

 "Louis Pasteur: his Life and Labours." 

 The author gave a brief resumd of the principal incidents in 

 the early life of Pasteur, touching on his parentage, education, 

 and favourite studies. From these he passed to the first of a long 

 series of brilliant experiments on the influence of fungi in their 

 development on the chemical and molecular composition of the 

 inorganic substance in which they germinated. The transition 

 from these studies to those still more remarkable ones on which 

 his fame chiefly rests was easy. Having received an appointment 

 at Lille where the chief industry is connected with the produc- 

 tion of alcohol, fermentation enlisted his attention. His experi- 

 ments confirmed the hypothesis which he advanced that fermen- 

 tation was a process of life ; that a living organism was always 

 present in a fermenting liquid, and that in the process of its 

 growth, those chemical and molecular changes are brought about 

 by which various substances are produced. The steps by which 

 putrefaction was connected with fermentation were next dwelt 

 upon. The author then glanced at the circumstances 

 which led Pasteur to investigate the silk-worm disease 

 and to the brilliant results which followed from his re- 

 searches. From the questions involved in the diseases of silk- 

 worms, Pasteur passed to those larger and still more important 

 ones having reference to the infectious diseases of animals and 

 man. Thus anthrax or splenic fever next engaged his attention, 

 and having laid bare its cause, he next devoted himself to the 

 etiolgy of chicken-cholera. Having in the last two cases 

 demonstrated the protection which vaccination by the 

 attenuated virus affords, he began in 1880 to study the subject 

 of hydrophobia, not doubting that a microbe would be found here 

 also as the origin of the evil, and that the terrible disease might 

 be combated by the same method as had been found so successful 

 in anthrax and chicken-cholera. 



Note.— A copy of this address in extenso was sent by Dr. Ewart to 

 every member of the Society. Gentlemen who have joined since 

 it was issued may obtain a copy on application to Mr. Clark. 



