NOVBIUBEE 8, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



603 



public eye for demonstration in such a 

 fashion as to appeal in a striking manner 

 to the world. No other scientist has ever 

 achieved so many brilliant public successes. 

 We must above all things learn from Pas- 

 teur's life that after all the chief reason 

 that his reputation advanced so rapidly in 

 the comparatively few years of his active 

 work was in no small measure the fact that 

 he had the wisdom to see that it is to the 

 application of science to practical life that 

 the world in general gives the greatest ad- 

 miration. There is ever a tendency among 

 scientists to belittle one of their number 

 who attempts to apply to practical life the 

 results of research. In spite of every plea 

 that may be made for pure science it is the 

 application of science to the life of man 

 that has the greatest interest to mankind. 

 As we look through Pasteur's life and study 

 the growth of his wide reputation we shall 

 find that this reputation was largely founded 

 upon the brilliant epochs in his history 

 where he applied to practical subjects the 

 results of the scientific investigation. The 

 advance in his reputation came at those 

 occasions when the public learned of his 

 woi-k because it had been applied to some- 

 thing that interested the world. The hom- 

 age that the world has given to Pasteur 

 testifies to the value of practical science, 

 testifies to the truth of the position that 

 pure science is of value to man chiefly as it 

 can be applied to facts that influence prac- 

 tical life. While, then, applied science is 

 frequently mentioned with a slight disdain 

 by the modern advanced scientist, it is well 

 to remember that Pasteur, whose reputa- 

 tion as a scientist has perhaps outranked 

 that of any man of the last 50 years, made 

 his reputation and achieved his world-wide 

 fame because he applied to the practical 

 things of life the discoveries revealed to 

 him by his microscope. 



The active part of Pasteur's life was so 

 full of investigations in many lines that it 



is impossible in a brief review that they 

 should receive the weight which they de- 

 serve. Only the most important of them 

 can be here mentioned, a selection being- 

 made of those upon which his reputation 

 has been chiefly built. Pasteur received an 

 early training as a chemist, and the first 

 work of his life was chemical. Until he 

 had reached about the age of 32 the work 

 he had been doing had been mostly in the 

 line of molecular physics, and certain papers 

 upon the structure of crystals appeared from 

 his pen which even in those early years 

 showed signs of geniiis. He would have 

 probably made his mark as a chemist had 

 not his attention been turned to a more 

 fruitful field. In 1854 he was appointed 

 Dean of the University of Lille, and it was 

 at this place that his attention was first 

 turned in the direction which subsequently 

 made him famous. A simple incident led 

 him to the study of fermentations in the 

 manufacture of certain chemicals. The 

 crj'stallization of tartrates had earlier in- 

 terested him, but now he noticed that tar- 

 trate of lime had a tendency to ferment. 

 This fact attracted his attention and led 

 him into observations and experiments upon 

 the nature of the fermentation of tartrates. 

 These experiments demonstrated to his 

 microscope the universal presence of living 

 organisms in the fermenting material. 

 Finding these fermentations universally ac- 

 companied by living oi-ganisms it appeared 

 to him as probable that the fact must be 

 part of some general law. It was not a 

 pure accident that living organisms were 

 present, but in some way he believed there 

 was a connection between the fermentations 

 and the presence of the organisms. A gen- 

 eral law he formulated, and reached the in- 

 ference that fermentations in general are 

 produced by living organisms, microscopical 

 in size but of very great potency. This con- 

 clusion was, of course, a simple inference 

 as yet undemonstrated, but it was the in- 



