52 PASTEUR 



the little laboratory in the Rue d'Ulm that the 

 great and peaceful revolution was to proceed, 

 designed to cure all the ills of life by penetrat- 

 ing the secrets of nature. It ought to be re- 

 garded as a sacred spot, for one of the finest 

 of all human minds lived and thought there, 

 while such high virtues as courage, persever- 

 ance and moral strength were there put into 

 magnificent practice. 



M. Maurice de Fleury has related how Pas- 

 teur never ceased working, even when his la- 

 borious day was ended : 



"During fifteen years/' he says, "he could be 

 seen each evening after dinner pacing up and 

 down a long corridor where no one dared to 

 come and interrupt his reverie. Paralysed since 

 1870 for on two different occasions apoplexy 

 attacked his brain he would seize the bunch 

 of keys in his pocket with his stiffened hand 

 and make them rattle in order to soothe his 

 thoughts with the rhythmic sound; and as he 

 walked he slightly dragged one foot, while his 

 mind ripened some newly conceived idea or 



