A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



beside the massive granite sarcophagus without feeling 

 the same kind of mental uplift which comes from con- 

 tact with a great and noble personality. The preten- 

 tious tomb of Galileo in the nave of Santa Croce at 

 Florence, and the crowded resting-place of Newton and 

 Darwin in Westminster Abbey, have no such impres- 

 siveness as this solitary vault where rests the body of 

 Pasteur, isolated in death as the mightier spirits must 

 always be in life. 



Aims and Objects of the Pasteur Institute 



If one chances to come to the institute in the later 

 hours of the morning he will perhaps be surprised to 

 find a motley company of men, women, and children, 

 apparently of many nationalities and from varied 

 walks of life, gathered about one of the entrances or 

 sauntering near by. These are the most direct bene- 

 ficiaries of the institution, the unfortunate victims of 

 the bites of rabid dogs, who have come here to take the 

 treatment which alone can give them immunity from 

 the terrible consequences of that mishap. Rabies, or 

 hydrophobia as it is more commonly termed with us, 

 is well known to be an absolutely fatal malady, there 

 being no case on record of recovery from the disease 

 once fully established. Even the treatment which 

 Pasteur developed and which is here carried out can- 

 not avail to save the victim in whom the active symp- 

 toms of the malady are actually present. But, fortu- 

 nately, the disease is peculiarly slow in its onset, some- 

 times not manifesting itself for weeks or months after 

 the inoculation; and this delay, which formerly was 

 to the patient a period of fearful doubt and anxiety, 



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