DISEASES OF SILKWORMS 53 



he writes back, " are detestable. I have thrown 

 them into the river." The good lady was spreading 

 pebrine broadcast. 



He had still to make an end of all prejudice, 

 falsehood, and tricks of the trade : let there be 

 Oh, the crowd must have emphatic warrant one 

 final manifestation of the value of his method, for 

 everybody to see and accept. In November, 1869, 

 the Emperor lent him Villa Vicentina, a great 

 estate, not far from Trieste, belonging to the 

 Prince Imperial. On November 25, Pasteur went 

 there from Alais, with 100 ounces of selected seed. 

 For ten years, the silk-industry of the estate had 

 been wrecked by fiacherie and pebrine. He spent 

 the winter there, recovering his strength, writing 

 the two volumes of his Etudes sur les Maladies des 

 F'ers d Soie, and preparing for the spring : and he 

 had need to be on the watch, for he caught a man 

 on the estate selling suspected seed, from Japan, 

 to be mixed with the Alais seed. The cocoons 

 off the estate, in 1870, gave a clear profit of 

 22,000 francs : the first penny of profit made for 

 ten years. Then, within a few days after this 

 triumph at Villa Vicentina, came the Franco- 

 German War. 



That is the story of Pasteur's life up to 1870. 

 He had helped to discover a new department of 

 chemistry : he had revolutionised the manufacture 



