1885—1888 195 



twelve times. The virulence of the medulla used was tested by 

 trephinings on rabbits, and proved to be gradually stronger. 

 Pasteur even inoculated on July 16, at 11 a.m., some medulla 

 only one day old, bound to give hydrophobia to rabbits after 

 only seven days' incubation ; it was the surest test of the 

 immunity and preservation due to the treatment. 



Cured from his wounds, delighted with all he saw, gaily 

 running about as if he had been in his own Alsatian farm, 

 little Meister, whose blue eyes now showed neither fear nor 

 shyness, merrily received the last inoculation; in the evening, 

 after claiming a kiss from " Dear Monsieur Pasteur," as he 

 called him, he went to bed and slept peacefully. Pasteur spent 

 a terrible night of insomnia ; in those slow dark hours of night 

 when all vision is distorted, Pasteur, losing sight of the 

 accumulation of experiments which guaranteed his success, 

 imagined that the little boy would die. 



The treatment being now completed, Pasteur left little 

 Meister to the care of Dr. Grancher (the lad was not to return 

 to Alsace, until July 27) and consented to take a few days' rest. 

 He spent them with his daughter in a quiet, almost deserted 

 country place in Burgundy, but without however finding much 

 restfulness in the beautiful peaceful scenery ; he lived in con- 

 stant expectation of Dr. Grancher's daily telegram or letter 

 containing news of Joseph Meister. 



By the time he went to the Jura, Pasteur's fears had almost 

 disappeared. He wrote from Arbois to his son August 3, 

 1885 : " Very good news last night of the bitten lad. I am 

 looking forward with great hopes to the time when I can draw a 

 conclusion. It will be thirty-one days to-morrow since he was 

 bitten." 



On August 20, six weeks before the new elections of Deputies, 

 Leon Say, Pasteur's colleague at the Academie Francaise, 

 wrote to him that many Beauce agricultors were anxious to put 

 his name down on the list of candidates, as a recognition of the 

 services rendered by science. A few months before, Jules 

 Simon had thought Pasteur might be elected as a Life Senator, 

 but Pasteur had refused to be convinced. He now replied to 

 Leon Say — 



" Your proposal touches me very much and it would be 

 agreeable to me to owe a Deputy's mandate to electors, several 

 of whom have applied the results of my investigations. But 



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