328 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



much I Wait for them rather in those divine regions of know- 

 ledge and full light, where thou knowest all now, where thou 

 canst understand the Infinite itself, that terrible and bewildering 

 notion, closed for ever to man in this world, and yet the eternal 

 source of all Grandeur, of all Justice and all Liberty." 



Pasteur's voice was almost stifled by his tears, as had been 

 that of J. B. Dumas speaking at Pclet's tomb. The emotions 

 of savants are all the deeper that they are not enfeebled, as in 

 so many writers or speakers, by the constant use of words 

 which end by wearing out the feelings. 



Little groups slowly walking away from a country church- 

 yard seem to take with them some of the sadness they have 

 been feeling, but the departure from a Paris cemetery gives a 

 very different impression. Life immediately grasps again and 

 carries away in its movement the mourners, who now look as if 

 they had been witnessing an incident in which they were not 

 concerned. Pasteur felt such bitter contrasts with all his 

 tender soul, he had a cult for dear memories; Sainte Claire 

 Deville's portrait ever remained in his study. 



The adversaries of the new discovery now had recourse to a 

 new mode of attack. The virus which had been used at Pouilly 

 le Fort to show how efficacious were the preventive vaccina- 

 tions was, they said, a culture virus some even said a 

 Machiavellian preparation of Pasteur's. Would vaccinated 

 animals resist equally well the action of the charbon blood 

 itself, the really malignant and infallibly deadly blood? Those 

 sceptics were therefore impatiently awaiting the result of some 

 experiments which were being carried out near Chartres in the 

 farm of Lambert. Sixteen Beauceron sheep were joined to a 

 lot of nineteen sheep brought from Alfort and taken from the 

 herd of 300 sheep vaccinated against charbon three weeks 

 before, on the very day of the lecture at Alfort. On July 16, 

 at 10 o'clock in the morning, the thirty-five sheep, vaccinated 

 and non-vaccinated, were gathered together. The corpse of a 

 sheep who had died of charbon four hours before, in a neigh- 

 bouring farm, was brought into the field selected for the experi- 

 ments. After making a post-mortem examination and noting 

 the characteristic injuries of splenic fever, ten drops of the 

 dead sheep's blood were injected into each of the thirty-five 

 sheep, taking one vaccinated at Alfort and one non- vaccinated 

 Beauceron alternately. Two days later, on July 18, ten of the 



