178 PASTEUR: THE HISTORY OF A MIND 



He felt, however, that this prescription was a little 

 uncertain. What is a languishing worm? One must 

 be a good grower of silkworms to see it, and there were 

 no longer any such. Several years of successive dis- 

 asters had overthrown practices, experiences, and 

 traditions. He must find for the disease a more palpable 

 sign, and, for that purpose, must study it in its origins, 

 in its etiology. 



VIII 

 STUDIES OF 1868, 1869, 1870 



The etiology of this disease was the work of the 

 years 1868, 1869 and 1870, an intermittent labor, 

 interrupted as it was by other occupations. The 

 recommendation Pasteur had made to eliminate from 

 the egg-laying everything that had the appearance of 

 flacherie suppressed for the time being all grave fears 

 on the subject of this disease, leaving the corpuscular 

 disease alone in the foreground. It was urgent to prove 

 to all the worth and the eminently practical character 

 of the new method of silkworm breeding. 



In this work Pasteur showed qualities not among 

 those of which I have undertaken the history, because 

 they do not form a part of his greatness, and because 

 he could well have done without them. But I must 

 mention them because they complete his physiognomy. 

 These were the masterful qualities of a chief of industry 

 who watches everything, lets no detail escape him, 

 wishes to know everything, to have a hand in everything, 

 and who, at the same time, puts himself in personal 

 relation with all his clientele, asking both those 

 who are content and those who are not the reasons 

 for their opinions. 



