340 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



came, to be shut up with the patients in the lazaretto. Pasteur 

 wrote on December 25 to Mine. Pasteur : " There is nothing 

 new save the Minister's authorization to Dr. Talmy to enter 

 the lazaretto; I have just telegraphed to him that he might 

 start. The owners of the Richelieu still suppose that she will 

 reach Pauillac on Tuesday. M. Berchon, who is the first to 

 be informed of what takes place in the roads, will send me a 

 telegram as soon as the Richelieu is signalled, and we shall 

 then go M. Talmy, Roux and I to ascertain the state of 

 the ship, of course without going on board, which we should 

 not be allowed to do if it has a suspicious bill of health." 



And, as Mme. Pasteur had asked what happened when a 

 ship arrived, he continued in the same letter : " From his 

 boat to windward, M. Berchon receives the ship's papers, 

 giving the sanitary state of the ship day by day. Before pass- 

 ing from the hands of the captain of the vessel to those of the 

 sanitary director, the papers are sprinkled over with chloride 

 of lime. 



" If there are cases of illness, all the passengers are taken 

 to the lazaretto ; only a few men are left on board the ship, 

 which is henceforth in quarantine, no one being allowed to 

 leave or enter it. 



" God permit that, in the body of one of those unfortunate 

 victims of medical ignorance, I may discover some specific 

 microscopic being. And after that? Afterwards, it would be 

 really beautiful to make that agent of disease and death become 

 its own vaccine. Yellow fever is one of the three great scourges 

 of the East bubonic plague, cholera, and yellow fever. Do 

 you know that it is already a fine thing to be able to put the 

 problem in those words ! " 



The Richelieu arrived, but she was free from fever. The 

 last passenger had died during the crossing and his body had 

 been thrown into the sea. 



Pasteur left Bordeaux and returned to his laboratory. 



