FOR THE NATIONAL WEALTH 85 



d'Ulm and to accept the commission from the 

 Ministry of Agriculture. It was in the midst 

 of sorrow and mourning that he was destined 

 to carry on this new study a long and diffi- 

 cult one, lasting from 1865 to 1870 for within 

 a few years he lost his father and two of his 

 daughters. His father! We know the pro- 

 found affection that he felt for the old soldier 

 of the Empire, to whom he owed his love for 

 work and that steadfast conscience that guided 

 him so straightly through the path of life. His 

 daughters! The joy and the hope of his home 

 circle. These intimate tragedies traced a few 

 additional lines upon his austere face, but it 

 was with the same valiant heart, the same un- 

 biased mind, the same tenacious will that he 

 continued to pursue his great task on behalf of 

 humanity. 



Pasteur left Paris in the early days of June, 

 1865, and installed himself at Pont-Biquet, in 

 a small silk-worm farm near Alais, in the very 

 heart of the stricken district. 



The diseases of silk-worms had already been 



