292 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



cur in 1807, and placed the prophecy as a sealed letter in 

 the hands of the Mayor of St. Hippolyte. 



In 1867 the cultivators communicated to the mayor 

 their results. The letter of Pasteur was then opened and 

 read, and it was found that in twelve out of fourteen cases 

 there was absolute conformity between his prediction and 

 the observed facts. Many of the groups had perished to- 

 tally ; the others had perished almost totally ; and this 

 was the prediction of Pasteur. In two out of the fourteen 

 cases, instead of the prophesied destruction, half an aver- 

 age crop was obtained. Now, the parcels of eggs here re- 

 ferred to were considered healthy by their owners. They 

 had been hatched and tended in the firm hope that the la- 

 bor expended on them would prove remunerative. The appli- 

 cation of the moth-test for a few minutes in I860 would 

 have saved the labor and averted the disappointment. Two 

 additional parcels of eggs were at the same time submitted 

 to Pasteur. He pronounced them healthy ; and his words 

 were verified by the production of an excellent crop. 

 Other cases of prophecy still more remarkable, because 

 more circumstantial, are recorded in Pasteur's work. 



Pasteur subjected the development of the corpuscles to 

 a searching investigation. With admirable skill and com- 

 pleteness he examined the various modes by which the 

 plague is propagated. He obtained perfectly healthy 

 worms from moths perfectly free from corpuscles, and se- 

 lecting from them 10, 20, 30, 50, as the case might be, he 

 introduced into the worms the corpusculous matter. It was 

 first permitted to accompany the food. Let us take a sin- 

 gle example out of many. Rubbing up a small corpuscu- 

 lous worm in water, he smeared the mixture over the mul- 

 berry-leaves. Assuring himself that the leaves had been 

 eaten, he watched the consequences from day to day. Side 

 by side with the infected worms he reared their fellows, 

 keeping them as much as possible out of the way of infec- 



