CHAPTER VIII 



1873—1877 



Pasteur had glimpses of another world beyond the 

 phenomena of fermentation — the world of virus ferments. 

 Two centuries earlier, an English physicist, Robert Boyle, 

 had said that he who could probe to the bottom the nature of 

 ferments and fermentation would probably be more capable 

 than any one of explaining certain morbid phenomena. These 

 words often recurred tp the mind of Pasteur, who had, con- 

 cerning the problem of contagious diseases, those sudden flashes 

 of light wherein genius is revealed. But, ever insisting on 

 experimental proofs, he constrained his exalted imagination so 

 as to follow calmly and patiently the road of experimental 

 method. He could not bear the slightest error, or even hasty 

 interpretation, in the praises addressed to him. One day, 

 during the period of the most ardent polemics, in the midst of 

 the struggle on spontaneous generation, a medical man named 

 Declat, who declared that Pasteur's experiments were "the 

 glory of our century and the salvation of future generations," 

 gave a lecture on " The Infinitesimally Small and their Role 

 in the World." " After the lecture," relates Dr. Declat him- 

 self, " M. Pasteur, whom I only knew by name, came to me, 

 and, after the usual compliments, condemned the inductions 

 I had drawn from his experiments. ' The arguments,' he said, 

 1 by which you support my theories, are most ingenious, but 

 not founded on demonstrated facts; analogy is no proof.' " 



Pasteur used to speak very modestly of his work. He said, 

 in a speech to some Arbois students, that it was "through 

 assiduous work, with no special gift but that of perseverance 

 joined to an attraction towards all that is great and good," that 

 he had met with success in his researches. He did not add 

 that an ardent kindness of heart was ever urging him forward. 

 After the services rendered within the last ten years to vinegar 



