250 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



Italy and France, and Pasteur represented France. He was 

 accompanied by his former pupils, his associates in his silk- 

 worm studies, Duclaux and Eaulin, both of whom had become 

 professors at the Lyons Faculty of Sciences, and Maillot, who 

 was then manager of the silkworm establishment of Mont- 

 pellier. The members of the Congress had been previously 

 informed of the programme of questions, and each intending 

 speaker was armed with facts and observations. The open 

 discussions allowed Duclaux, Eaulin and Maillot to demon- 

 strate the strictness and perfection of the experimental method 

 .which they had learned from their master and which they were 

 teaching in their turn. 



Excursions formed a delightful interlude ; one on the lake of 

 Como was an enchantment. Then the French delegates were 

 offered the pleasant surprise of a visit to an immense seeding 

 establishment in the neighbourhood of Milan, which had been 

 named after Pasteur. We have an account of this visit in a 

 letter to J. B. Dumas (September 17). 



' ' My dear Master ... I very much regret that you are not 

 here : you would have shared my satisfaction. I am dating 

 my letter from Milan, but in reality, the congress being ended, 

 we are staying at Signer Susani's country house for a few days. 

 Here, from July 4, sixty or seventy women are busy for ten 

 hours every day with microscopic examinations of absolute 

 accuracy. I never saw a better arranged establishment. 

 400,000 moth cells are put under the microscope every day. 

 The order and cleanliness are admirable ; any error is made 

 impossible by the organization of a second test following the 

 first. 



" I felt, in seeing my name in large letters on the facade of 

 that splendid establishment, a joy which compensates for much 

 of the frivolous opposition I have encountered from some of 

 my countrymen these last few years ; it is a spontaneous 

 homage from the proprietor to my studies. Many sericicultors 

 do their seeding themselves, by selection, or have it done by 

 competent workers accustomed to the operation. The harvest 

 from that excellent seed depends on the climate only ; in a 

 moderately favourable season the production often reaches fifty 

 or seventy kilogrammes per ounce of twenty-five grammes." 



Signer Susani was looking forward to producing for that one 

 year 30,000 ounces of seed. In the presence of the prodigious 

 activity of this veritable factory- -where, besides the microscope 



