164 LOUIS PASTEUR. 



DECISIVE EXPERIMENTS. 



AFTER having dictated this scientific note, which he 

 thought would have been his last, his courage forsook 

 him for a time. ' I regret to die,' he said to his 

 friend, Sainte-Claire Deville, who had hastened to his 

 bedside ; ' I should have wished to render more service 

 to my country.' His life was spared, but for several 

 months Pasteur remained entirely paralysed, incapable 

 of the slightest movement. Smitten thus in his full 

 strength at the age of forty-five, he took a sad review 

 of his own state. Even at the height of his attack 

 his mind had always retained its clearness. He had 

 pointed out to the doctor without any faltering of 

 voice the progressive symptoms of the paralysis. Then 

 reproaching himself for having added to the grief of 

 his wife by thus dwelling on the details of his illness, 

 he never allowed another word to escape him about 

 his infirm condition. Sometimes, even when he 

 heard his two assistants, M. Gernez and M. Duclaux, 

 whose devotion to him during those sad days could 

 only be compared to that of his wife, talking to him of 



