THE CURATIVE POISON 117 



since passed beyond the limits of scientific cir- 

 cles, and in 1874 the National Assembly, wish- 

 ing to pay honour to his rare merit, awarded 

 him a national recompense, one which had been 

 granted only twice before within the century, 

 in 1839 to Daguerre and Niepce, and in 1845 

 to the engineer Vicat. Paul Bert was appointed 

 to make the report. In the course of it he said : 

 "The discoveries of M. Pasteur, after having 

 shed new light upon the obscure question of 

 fermentations and of the mode in which micro- 

 scopic organisms make their appearance, have 

 revolutionised certain branches of business in- 

 dustry, agriculture and pathology. One is 

 struck with admiration when one realises that 

 so many results and such widely different ones 

 have all been derived, through an unbroken 

 chain of facts, followed up step by step, leav- 

 ing nothing to conjecture, from an original the- 

 oretical study as to the manner in which tar- 

 taric acid deflects polarised light. Never before 

 has that famous epigram, 'Genius is patience/ 

 received so splendid a confirmation. 



