374 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



fortune to him who had placed every process he discovered 

 into the public domain. Finally, France could quote the words 

 of the English physiologist, Huxley, in a public lecture at the 

 London Royal Society: "Pasteur's discoveries alone would 

 suffice to cover the war indemnity of five milliards paid by 

 France to Germany in 1870." 



To that capital was added the inestimable price of human 

 lives saved. Since the antiseptic method had been adopted 

 in surgical operations, trie mortality had fallen from 50 per 100 

 to 5 per 100. 



In the lying-in hospitals, more than decimated formerly (for 

 the statistics had shown a death-rate of not only 100 but 200 

 per 1,000), the number of fatalities was now reduced to 3 per 

 1,000 and soon afterwards fell to 1 per 1,000. And, in conse- 

 quence of the principles established by Pasteur, hygiene was 

 growing, developing, and at last taking its proper place in the 

 public view. So much progress accomplished had brought 

 Pasteur a daily growing acknowledgment of gratitude, his 

 country was more than proud of him. His powerful mind, 

 allied with his very tender heart, had brought to French glory 

 an aureole of charity. 



The Government of the Eepublic remembered that England 

 had voted two national rewards to Jenner, one in 1802 and one 

 in 1807, the first of 10,000, and the second of 20,000. It 

 was at the time of that deliberation that Pitt, the great orator, 

 exclaimed, "Vote, gentlemen, your gratitude will never reach 

 the amount of the service rendered." 



The French Ministry proposed to augment the 12,000 fr. pen- 

 sion accorded to Pasteur in 1874 as a national recompense, and 

 to make it 25,000 fr., to revert first to Pasteur's widow, and 

 then to his children. A Commission was formed and Paul Bert 

 again chosen to draw up the report. 



On several occasions at the meetings of the commission one 

 of its members, Benjamin Easpail, exalted the parasitic theory 

 propounded in 1843 by his own father. His filial pleading 

 went so far as to accuse Pasteur of plagiarism. Paul Bert, 

 whilst recognizing the share attributed by F. V. Easpail to 

 microscopic beings, recalled the fact that his attempt in favour 

 of epidemic and contagious diseases had not been adopted by 

 scientists. "No doubt," he said, " the parasitic origin of the 

 itch was now definitely accepted, thanks in a great measure 

 to the efforts of Easpail ; but generalizations were considered 



