170 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



to examine three lots of seeds sent to him by a Mademoiselle 

 Amat, of Brives-la-Gaillarde, who was celebrated in the de- 

 partment of the Correze for her good management of silk- 

 worms. This magnanarelle, having had some successful re- 

 sults, was begging his Excellency to accord to those humble 

 seeds his particular consideration, and to have them developed 

 with every possible care. 



At the same time she was sending samples of the same seeds 

 to various places in the Gard, the Bouches du Rhone, etc., etc. 



M. Gressier (April 20) asked Pasteur to examine them and 

 to give him a detailed report. Pasteur answered four days 

 afterwards in terms which were certainly not softened by the 

 usual administrative precautions 



" Monsieur le Ministre, . . . these three sorts of seed are 

 worthless. If they are developed, even in very -small nurseries, 

 they will in every instance succumb to corpuscle disease. If 

 my seeding process had been employed, it would not have re- 

 quired ten minutes to discover that Mademoiselle Amat's 

 cocoons, though excellent for spinning purposes, were abso- 

 lutely unfit for reproduction. My seeding process gives the 

 means of recognizing those broods which are suitable for seed, ; 

 whilst opposing the production of the infected eggs which year 

 by year flood the silkworm cultivating departments. 



" I shall be much obliged, Monsieur le Ministre, if you will 

 kindly inform the Prefect of the Correze of the forecasts which 

 I now impart to you, and if you will ask him to report to you 

 the results of Mademoiselle Amat's three lots. 



" For my part, I feel so sure of what I now affirm, that I 

 shall not even trouble to test, by hatching them, the samples 

 which you have sent me. I have thrown them into the 

 river. ..." 



J. B. Dumas had come to Alais, Messrs. Gernez and 

 Duclaux now returned from their expeditions. In two hundred 

 broods, each of one or two ounces of seed, coming from three 

 different sources and hatched in various localities, not one 

 failure was recorded. The Lyons Commission, which had 

 made a note of Pasteur's bold prognosis, found it absolutely 

 correct ; the excellence of the method was acknowledged by all 

 who had conscientiously tried it. Now that the scourge was 

 really conquered, Pasteur imagined that all he had to do was 

 to set up a table of the results sent to him. But, from the 

 south of France and from Corsica, jealousies were beginning 



