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are the researches of Mons Pasteur into the life history of the 
special microbes or germs which produce those terrible and destruce- 
tive diseases called charbon or anthrax, and rabies, or canine 
madness ; the former of which costs agriculturists literally millions 
of pounds annually by its wholesale destruction of sheep, cattle, 
and horses, and the latter, as we all know, is even still more disas- 
trous to the human race. A wonderful man is M. Pasteur! He 
began his chemical career as a mere assistant in a laboratory, and 
now it is not too much to say his discovery bids fair to revolutionise 
the whole science of medicine, and may possibly be the means of 
saving myriads of human lives, as it has even already preserved thou- 
sands of the lower animals. M. Pasteur first turned his attention to 
the different kinds of ferments, the germs which cause fermentation 
im wine, beer, &c., and proved that each kind had its own indi- 
viduality, and could and should be cultivated separately, and made 
to produce only its own species of fermentation. This discovery 
Was of immense commercial importance, for it practically led to 
certainty in place of uncertainty in the manufacture of these liquids. 
His next great work was the discovery of tbe Silkworm disease, 
called pebrine, which, since 1853, has been costing France some 
four millions of pounds annually, and which bid fair ere long to 
annihilate the silk trade uf that country. Pasteur’s researches led 
him not only to the indentification of the special bacillus which 
produced the disease, but also to the means necessary to detect and 
destroy it His next crusade was against that fatal disease called 
Anthrax or Charbon, or Splenic fever, which in severe cases often 
destroys the lives of sheep and horses in twenty-four hours. In 
one district of Russia alone, between the years 1867 and 1870, no 
less than 50,000 animals and 568 human beings perished of this 
fell disorder. Here, once more, he detected the special fungoid 
growth or bacillus, which produced such disastrous results, and 
found that by cnltivating the germs out of the body, in broth for 
example (just as a gardener might raise seeds in a different soil) he 
was able to so weaken or modify their virulence that when used 
to vaccinate healthy animals they ensured perfect immunity from 
the disense without seriously affecting their health. Thus in a 
celebrated test experiment, which was watched with immense 
interest, not only by scientists but by practical men, 
Pasteur vaccinated 25 of a flock of 50 healthy sheep, 
and when they had recovered from the slight illness so produced, he 
publicly innoculated the whole flock with the virus of Charbon ; the 
result was precisely what he had predicted, in 24 hours the 25 
unprotected sheep were dead, while the 25 vaccinated animals were 
alive and well. But Pasteur’s greatest achievement is his last, for 
although he has not yet indentitied the special bacillus of Rabies he 
