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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. n. No. 45. 



attacked the problem and failed. In the 

 year 1865 no remedj' had been discovered, 

 no cause was known and the silk- worm in- 

 dustry was threatened with immediate de- 

 struction. Pasteur was asked to investigate 

 the question and at first refused to do so. 

 His success in the study of fermentation 

 had opened to him a prosperous career ; he 

 knew nothing whatsoever of silk-worm 

 raising, and he was afraid that the investi- 

 gation, even if successful, would lead him 

 too far fi'om his own chosen line of work. 

 He was, however, over-persuaded and 

 finally accepted the task of investigating 

 pebrine, little thinking that it was only the 

 continuation of his studies on fermentation 

 and that along the line opened to him by 

 this investigation he was to find his life 

 work and world-wide reputation. Pasteur 

 undertook the investigation of pebrine 

 already prepared for his discoveries, for 

 living micro-organisms were for him potent 

 agents in nature. He very soon discovered 

 that the cause of the disease was a micro- 

 scopic organism living in the moth. He 

 was not the first to discover this organism, 

 for others had seen it and described it. 

 That Pasteur succeeded where others failed 

 was due to the fact of his belief in the 

 powers of the microscopic world. Others 

 regarded these organisms as of no impor- 

 tance, but Pasteur had become so imbued by 

 his study of fermentation with the impor- 

 tant agency of microscopic organisms that 

 the very first question that he asked was 

 whether living bodies were not the cause of 

 the disease that he had been set to investi- 

 gate. If organisms could produce fermen- 

 tations in dead material why might they 

 not produce disease in living creatures? 

 The result of his work here we need not 

 dwell upon. It was a brilliant success. It 

 demonstrated that the disease was caused 

 by the organisms and it devised a remedj'' 

 against the trouble by simply breeding from 

 healthy moths. The world laughed at him; 



those interested in the silk worm industry 

 refused to adopt his methods as those of a 

 fanatical microscopist, and too simple. He 

 met at first with nothing but opposition, 

 but the man arose to the occasion and so 

 sure was he that he was right that he again 

 arranged for a public demonstration. An 

 abandoned silk-worm farm was put into his 

 hands and, although at the time an invalid 

 and unable to travel by ordinarj^ means, he 

 had himself transported across France and 

 personally directed the work on this silk- 

 worm farm, although he was unable to do 

 anything himself. It is not, perhaps, gen- 

 erally known that firom this time to his 

 death Pasteur was partially paralyzed and 

 unable to perform the work of his own ex- 

 periments. There is something truly pa- 

 thetic and dramatic as we think of him, an 

 invalid, simpljr capable of directing others 

 in their work, and yet fired with the belief 

 that he was right and with the determina- 

 tion to convince the world that he was 

 right. Again Pasteur's genius demonstrated 

 itself and, by using his simple remedy, in a 

 short time this silk worm farm, abandoned' 

 because of the presence of the disease, was 

 restoi-ed to a condition in which it was one 

 of the best paying silk-worm farms in 

 France. The disease was practically erad- 

 icated from it. With a bound Pasteur's 

 reputation spread throughout France and 

 the world. The silk-worm industry in 

 France began to adopt his methods at once 

 and rapidly assumed its old condition of 

 prosperity. From now on the Frenchmen 

 were ready to accept almost anything that 

 Pasteur would say. He had saved them 

 their beloved silk-worm industiy and had 

 been the means of saving to the peasants of 

 France a sum of monej' almost beyond be- 

 lief. 



The next important work in Pasteur's 

 life was his investigations upon the subject 

 of the fermentations of beer. The Franco- 

 Prussian war and its results had deprived 



