viii CONQUEST OF DISEASE 215 



his son and son-in-law, and said, with a little uneasiness : 

 " It is no doubt the Prince of Wales arriving ; I ought to 

 have come sooner." " But it is you that they are all 

 cheering," explained the president of the Congress, and 

 the applause was so great that he had to rise and bow to 

 the great assembly. 



Pasteur had not studied medicine, yet he was able to 

 determine the true cause of disease and to discover 

 secrets hidden to physicians throughout the world's 

 history. When in 1860 he was awarded the prize for 

 experimental physiology by the French Academy of 

 Sciences, he wrote to his father : " God grant that by 

 my persevering labours I may bring a little stone to the 

 frail and ill-assured edifice of our knowledge of those 

 deep mysteries of life and death, where all our intellects 

 have so lamentably failed." 



Pasteur's remains rest in a mausoleum at the Institute 

 which bears his name in Paris. Upon the occasion of 

 their interment, the French Minister of Education 

 eloquently remarked :. 



As at the tombs of saints where people saw prodigies accom- 

 plished, so that of Pasteur wiU be enriched by a halo of miracles. 

 At every discovery beneficial to mankind, at every ray of 

 scientific glory which will be added to the aureole of France, the 

 gratitude of the country and of the world will flow to this building, 

 henceforth august in the annals of science, as to the source of 

 ulterior progress. 



The French people honour him above all other men ; 

 and when on one occasion they were asked to name their 

 greatest countrymen, they put Pasteur first, Napoleon 

 second and Victor Hugo third. 



A few years ago diphtheria was one of the most 

 dreaded of the infectious diseases which afflict the human 

 race; to-day, thanks to scientific research, it is the 



