416 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



to another without leaving a trace. It is true that I have not 

 yet come to the test inoculations, which will take place on 

 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. If the lad keeps well 

 during the three following weeks, I think the experiment will 

 be safe to succeed. I shall send the child and his mother back 

 to Meissengott (near Schlestadt) in any case on August 1, 

 giving these good people detailed instruction as to the observa- 

 tions they are to record for me. I shall make no statement 

 before the end of the vacation." 



But, as the inoculations were becoming more virulent, 

 Pasteur became a prey to anxiety : " My dear children," wrote 

 Mme. Pasteur, "your father has had another bad night; he is 

 dreading the last inoculations on the child. And yet there can 

 be no drawing back now ! The boy continues in perfect 

 health." 



Kenewed hopes were expressed in the following letter from 

 Pasteur 



"My dear Rene", I think great things are coming to pass. 

 Joseph Meister has just left the laboratory. The three last 

 inoculations have left some pink marks under the skin, gradu- 

 ally widening and not at all tender. There is some action, 

 which is becoming more intense as we approach the final 

 inoculation, which will take place on Thursday, July 16. The 

 lad is very well this morning, and has slept well, though 

 slightly restless ; he has a good appetite and no feverishness. 

 He had a slight hysterical attack yesterday." 



The letter ended with an affectionate invitation. " Perhaps 

 one of the great medical facts of the century is going to take 

 place ; you would regret not having seen it! " 



Pasteur was going through a succession of hopes, fears, 

 anguish, and an ardent yearning to snatch little Meister from 

 death ; he could no longer work. At nights, feverish visions 



icame to him of this child whom he had seen playing in the 

 garden, suffocating in the mad struggles of hydrophobia, like 

 the dying child he had seen at the Hopital Trousseau in 1880. 

 Vainly his experimental genius assured him that the virus of 

 that most terrible of diseases was about to be vanquished, that 

 pumanity was about to be delivered from this dread horror 

 bis human tenderness was stronger than all, his accustomed 

 ready sympathy for the sufferings and anxieties of others was 

 for the nonce centred in " the dear lad." 



The treatment lasted ten days ; Meister was inoculated 



