1885—1888 207 



Faculty of Science of Strasburg, and that his first inocula- 

 tion was made on an Alsatian boy, Joseph Meister. The 

 newspaper intended to send the subscriptions to Pasteur 

 with these words : " Offerings from Alsace-Lorraine to the 

 Pasteur Institute." 



The war of 1870 still darkened the memories of nations. 

 Amongst eager and numerous inventions of instruments of 

 death and destruction, humanity breathed when fresh news 

 came from the laboratory, where a continued struggle was 

 taking place against diseases. The most mysterious, the most 

 cruel of all was going to be reduced to impotence. 



Yet the method was about to meet with a few more cases like 

 Louise Pelletier's ; accidents would result, either from delay or 

 from exceptionally serious wounds. Happy days were still in 

 store for those who sowed doubt and hatred. 



During the early part of March, Pasteur received nineteen 

 Russians, coming from the province of Smolensk. They had 

 been attacked by a rabid wolf and most of them had terrible 

 wounds : one of them, a priest, had been surprised by the 

 infuriated beast as he was going into church, his upper lip and 

 right cheek had been torn off, his face was one gaping wound. 

 Another, the youngest of them, had had the skin of his forehead 

 torn off by the wolf's teeth ; other bites were like knife cuts. 

 Five of these unhappy wretches were in such a condition that 

 they had to be carried to the Hotel Dieu Hospital as soon as they 

 arrived. 



The Eussian doctor who had accompanied these mujiks 

 related how the wolf had wandered for two days and two 

 nights, tearing to pieces every one he met, and how he had 

 finally been struck down with an axe by one of those he had 

 bitten most severely. 



Because of the gravity of the wounds, and in order to make 

 up for the time lost by the Russians before they started, Pasteur 

 decided on making two inoculations every day, one in the morn- 

 ing and one in the evening ; the patients at the Hotel Dieu 

 could be inoculated upon at the hospital. 



The fourteen others came every morning in their toaloupes 

 and fur caps, with their wounds bandaged, and joined without a 

 word the motley groups awaiting treatment at the laboratory — 

 an English family, a Basque peasant, a Hungarian in hia 

 national costume, etc., etc. 



