Deckmbee 6, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



755 



maladies parasitaires, si, comme c'est ma 

 conviction, la doctrine des generations 

 spontanees est une chimere. ' 



Pasteur remained only three years at 

 Lille, and in October, 1857, he removed to 

 Paris, as director of the Scientific Section of 

 the Normal School, taking his residence 

 again rue d'Ulm, nine years after leaving 

 it in 1848. This time he was finally settled 

 in Paris. He knew well that the excessive 

 centralization of France obliged a savant 

 to be in Paris, if he wanted not only to be 

 appreciated, but also to get sufficient help 

 from the government for his researches. 

 At first he had no laboratory, being obliged 

 to build one at his own expense in the gar- 

 ret of the Normal School. By and by a 

 vast and good laboratory was built, exclu- 

 sively for his own use, in the yard directly 

 on the left after entering the gate of the 

 school. A marble slab has been lately placed 

 against it, recalling that it was the Pasteur 

 Laboratory. It was there that most of his 

 discoveries in bacteriology were made. 



In October, 1868, Pasteur was struck by 

 a very strong attack of hemiplegy ; dui-ing 

 several days he was in constant danger of 

 losing his life, and for months he was so 

 infirm as to be unable to leave his bed or 

 his room. Little by little, however, he re- 

 covered — a wonderful case of recovery. 

 Paralyzed on the left side, his arm and 

 leg kept visible marks of the paralytic 

 stroke, and he looked alwaj^s as a 

 wounded man ; but happily his mind was 

 never affected, after the immediate dan- 

 ger was past. I remember one night, 

 when I kept watch over him, his eyes — 

 always very beautiful — were almost lighted 

 up by happiness. " You are surprised to 

 see me so contented ; it is because I begin 

 to feel that I shall get out of this terrible 

 sickness ; my head is full of thoughts be- 

 cause I have so much to do with the fer- 

 ments!" His desire of prolonging his life 

 was mainly in order to continue his works 



on bacteriology. What an infatigable 

 worker ! Being only forty-five years old, 

 and having never abused anything but 

 too hard work ; Pasteur rallied, and was 

 able to go again to Alais, in Languedoc to 

 continue his observations on the silkworms. 

 The next year he was in Italian Austria, at 

 the villa Vicentina, near Trieste, carrying on 

 his researches; when the news of the dec- 

 laration of war between France and Prussia 

 reached him. He started at once to come 

 back, passing through southern Germany. 

 What he saw in passing at Munich had 

 made him anxious; and I remember a visit 

 which he received at the beginning of Au- 

 gust of General Fave, the commanding ofii- 

 cer of the Polj^technic School. The general 

 told him that the arms possessed by the 

 French army were so much superior to 

 those of the Germans that no fear was to be 

 entertained as to the final result. 



Pasteur received notice from Marechal 

 Vaillant, a few days after his return, that 

 the Emperor Napoleon was so satisfied with 

 his work on the silkworms that he has just 

 signed his nomination as a Senator. But 

 the nomination was never printed in the 

 Journal Officiel, and was left in the hurry of 

 the departure on the desk of the Emperor ; 

 so Pasteur was only a Senator in partibus. 



Pasteur was a very strong i^atriot ; the 

 defeat of the French armies went to his 

 heart so strongly that he abandoned all 

 work, and for the first time his laboratory 

 was deserted. Having retired at his house 

 at Arbois, he passed a most distressing 

 winter, crying like a child at the reading of 

 newspapers. When Franche-Comte was 

 invaded he left Arbois to retire to Switzer- 

 land. Passing through Pontarlier he found 

 there the retreating columns of Bourbaki's 

 army in great confusion, and among them 

 he met his only son, Jean Baptiste, a cor- 

 poral of bhasseurs. 



As soon as he was able to recover his 

 balance Pasteur went to Clermont-Ferrand, 



