ADDRESS. Ixxxix 



which the most sordidly practical of men will admit to have value — namely, 

 money and life. 



The direct loss to France caused by the Pebrine in seventeen years, cannot 

 be estimated at less than fifty millions sterling ; and if we add to this what 

 Redi's idea, in Pasteur's hands, has done for the wine-grower and for the 

 vinegar-maker, and try to capitalize its value, we shall find that it will go a 

 long way towards repairing the money losses caused by the frightful and 

 calamitous war of this autumn. 



And as to the equivalent of Redi's thought in life, how can we overesti- 

 mate the value of that knowledge of the nature of epidemic and epizootic 

 diseases, and consequently of the means of checking, or eradicating, them, the 

 dawn of which has assuredly commenced ? 



Looking back no further than ten years, it is possible to select three (1863, 

 18C4, and 1869) in which the total number of deaths from scarlet-fever alone, 

 amounted to ninety thousand. That is the return of kiUed, the maimed and 

 disabled being left out of sight. Why, it is to be hoped that the list of killed 

 in the present bloodiest of all wars will not amount to more than this ! But 

 the facts, which I have placed before you, must leave the least sanguine 

 without a doubt that the nature and the causes of this scourge will, one day, 

 be as wcU understood as those of the Pebrine are now ; and that the long- 

 sufi'ered massacre of our innocents will come to an end. 



And thus mankind will have one more admonition that "the people perish 

 for lack of knowledge ; " and that the alleviation of the miseries, and the 

 promotion of the welfare, of men must be sought, by those who will not 

 lose their pains, in that diligent, patient, loving study of all the multitudi- 

 nous aspects of Nature, the results of which constitute exact knowledge, or 

 Science. 



It is the justification and the glory of this great Meeting that it is gathered 

 together for no other object than the advancement of the moiety of Science 

 which deals with those phenomena of Nature which we call physical. May 

 its endeavours be crowned with a full measure of success ! 



1870. 



