194 THE LITE OF PASTEUR 



to another without leaving a trace. It is true that I have not 

 yet come to the test inoculations, which will take place on 

 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. If the lad keeps well 

 during the three following weeks, I think the experiment will 

 be safe to succeed. I shall send the child and his mother back- 

 to Meissengott (near Schlestadt) in any case on August 1 . 

 giving these pood people detailed instruction as to the observa- 

 tions they are to record for me. I shall make no statement 

 before the end of the vacation." 



But, as the inoculations were becoming more virul 

 Pasteur became a prey to anxiety : " My dear children," wrote 

 Mme. Pasteur, "your father has had another bad night ; he is 

 dreading the last inoculations on the child. And yet there can 

 be no drawing back now ! The boy continues in perfect 

 health." 



Renewed hopes were expressed in the following letter from 

 Pasteur — 



' My dear Rene, I think great things are coming to 

 Joseph Meister has just left the laboratory. The thr> 

 inoculations have left some pink marks under the skin, gradu- 

 ally widening and not at all tender. There is some action, 

 which is becoming more intense as we approach the final 

 inoculation, which will take place on Thursday. July 10. 

 lad is very well this morning, and has slept well, though 

 slightly restless; he has a good appetite and no feverishn> 

 II" hid a slight hysterical attack J lay.*' 



The letter ended with an affectionate invitation. " Perhaps 

 one of the gnat medical facts of the century is going to t I 

 place ; you would regret not having seen it ! " 



Pasteur was going through a succession of hopes, f< 

 anguish, and an ardent yearning to snatch little Meister fr 

 death; he could no longer work. At nights, feverish visions 

 came to him of this child whom he had seen playing in I 

 garden, suffocating in the mad struggles of hydrophobia, like 

 the dying child he had seen at the Hopital Trousseau in 1880. 

 Vainly his experimental genius assured him that the virus of 

 that most terrible of diseases was about to be vanquished, that 

 humanity was about to be delivered from this dread horror — 

 his human tenderness was Btronger than all. his accustomed 

 ipatbv for the sufferings and anxieties of others was 

 for the nonce centred in " the dear lad 



The treatment last I in days; Meister was inocul ft! 



