376 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



paring for the press his important Analyse des Infiniment 

 Petits. It is true of the wife of Asaph Hall, the illustri- 

 ous discoverer of the satellites of Mars. Often he was on 

 the point of abandoning the quest of these diminutive 

 moons which no one had ever seen but which his calcula- 

 tions led him to believe really existed but he was encour- 

 aged by Mrs. Hall to continue his observations, with the 

 result that his labors and vigils were at last rewarded by 

 the startling discovery of Deimos and Phobos. 



And there is Mme. Pasteur, who, in her way, was quite 

 as important a factor in the scientific career of her im- 

 mortal husband as were the women just mentioned in the 

 lives of their husbands, to whose triumphs they so materi- 

 ally contributed. 



One of the great Frenchman's biographers has truly de- 

 clared that ' ' it is impossible rightly to appreciate Pasteur 's 

 life without some understanding of the immense assistance 

 which he received in his home. Whether in discussing 

 forms of crystals, watching over experiments, shielding 

 her husband from all the daily fret of life, or busy at the 

 customary evening task of writing to his dictation, Madame 

 Pasteur was at once his most devoted assistant and incom- 

 parable companion. His surroundings at home were en- 

 tirely subordinated to his scientific life, and his family 

 shared with him both his trials and his triumphs. At the 

 time when Pasteur was engrossed with the study of an- 

 thrax, and, after many difficulties and disappointments, 

 had at length succeeded in preparing a vaccine against it, 

 he at once hurried from the laboratory to communicate his 

 great discovery first to his wife and daughter. ' J1 



i Pasteur, by Mr. and Mrs. Percy Frankland, p. 26 et seq., Lon- 

 don, 1898. A French writer referring to this happy discovery ex- 

 presses himself as follows: "Quand Pasteur trouva le vaccin de 

 charbon, il remonta triomphant de son laboratoire et les larmes lui 

 vinrent aux yeux en embrassant sa femrne et sa fille auxquelles il 

 annoncait sa victoire." Revue Encyclopedique, p. 20, Jan. 15, 1895. 



