1884. 



LOUIS PASTEUR, HIS LIFE AND LABOURS. 



(A Review.) * 



IN the early part of the present year the French 

 original of this work was sent to me from Paris 

 by its author. It was accompanied by a letter from 

 M. Pasteur, expressing his desire to have the work trans- 

 lated and published in England. Responding to this 

 desire, I placed the book in the hands of Messrs. Long- 

 man, who, in the exercise of their own judgment, de- 

 cided on publication. The translation was confided, at 

 my suggestion, to Lady Claud Hamilton. 



The translator's task was not always an easy one, 

 but it has, I think, been well executed. A few slight 

 abbreviations, for which I am responsible, have been 

 introduced, but in no case do they affect the sense. It 

 was, moreover, found difficult to render into suitable 

 English the title of the original : " M. Pasteur, His- 

 toire d'un Savant par un Ignorant." A less piquant 

 and antithetical English title was therefore substituted 

 for the French one. 



This filial tribute, for such it is, was written, under 

 the immediate supervision of M. Pasteur, by his de- 

 voted and admiring son-in-law, M. Valery Radot. It 

 is the record of a life of extraordinary scientific ardour 

 and success, the picture of a mind on which facts fall 

 like germs upon a nutritive soil, and, like germs so 



* Written as an introduction to the English translation. 

 174 



