318 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



' ' the third and last inoculation will take place this time with 

 fifty sheep and ten cows. I feel great confidence for the two 

 first, on the 5th and the 17th, have been effected under the best 

 conditions without any mortality amongst the twenty-five 

 vaccinated subjects. On June 5 at latest the final result will 

 be known, and should be twenty-five survivors out of twenty- 

 five vaccinated, and six cows. If the success is complete, this 

 will be one of the finest examples of applied science in this 

 century, consecrating one of the greatest and most fruitful 

 discoveries." 



This great experiment did not hinder other studies being 

 pursued in the laboratory. The very day of the second inocula- 

 tion at Pouilly le Fort, Mme. Pasteur wrote to her daughter, 

 " One of the laboratory dogs seems to be sickening for hydro- 

 phobia ; it seems that that would be very lucky, in view of the 

 interesting experiment it would provide." 



On May 25, another letter from Mme. Pasteur shows how 

 deeply each member of the family shared Pasteur's preoccupa- 

 tions and hopes and was carried away with the stream of his 

 ideas: "Your father has just brought great news from the 

 laboratory. The new dog which was trephined and inoculated 

 with hydrophobia died last night after nineteen days' incuba- 

 tion only. The disease manifested itself on the fourteenth day, 

 and this morning the same dog was used for the trephining of a 

 fresh dog, which was done by Roux with unrivalled skill. All 

 this means that we shall have as many mad dogs as will be 

 required for experiments, and those experiments will become 

 extremely interesting. 



"Next month one of the master's delegates will go to the 

 south of France to study the ' rouget ' of swine, which ordin- 

 arily rages at this time. 



"It is much hoped that the vaccine of that disease will be 

 found." 



The trephining of that dog had much disturbed Pasteur. 

 He, who was described in certain anti-vivisectionist quarters 

 as a laboratory executioner, had a great horror of inflicting 

 suffering on any animal. 



"He could assist without too much effort," writes M. Koux, 

 " at a simple operation such as a subcutaneous inoculation, and 

 even then, if the animal screamed at all, Pasteur was imme- 

 diately filled with compassion, and tried to comfort and 

 encourage the victim, in a way which would have seemed 



