274 LOUIS PASTEUR. 



the bell, without any gradual preparation, immedi- 

 ately fell, asphyxiated. There was a little exclamation 

 of horror and a movement of pity in the audience. 

 While the first sparrow, which had gone through 

 the ordeal unharmed, was set free, and gradually 

 revived, Pasteur turned towards the assembly and 

 said 



' I never had the courage to kill a bird in sport, 

 but when it is a question of experiment I am deterred 

 by no scruple. Science has the right to assert the 

 sovereignty of its aims.' 



But to return to the animals of the laboratory : 

 From the little white mice, which hide themselves in a 

 packet of wadding, to the dogs which bark furiously 

 in their iron cages, all are devoted to death. But it 

 is not only the inmates of the laboratory which daily 

 succeed each other upon the operating and dissecting 

 tables. From divers parts of France, hampers full of 

 fowls which have died of cholera, or of some other 

 disease, are sent to Pasteur. Here is an enormous 

 basket packed with straw containing the dead body 

 of a pig which had died of measles. This fragment 

 of lung, packed in a tin box, belonged to a cow which 

 died of peripneumonia. Other packets are still more 

 precious. Since Pasteur went to Pauillac two years 

 ago, to watch for the return of a ship which was to 

 bring back some passengers attacked with yellow 



