756 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 49. 



in Auvergne, where his favorite pupil, M. Du- 

 claus, was professor of chemistry, and there 

 in his laboratory, during the Commune, 

 Pasteur began his series of researches on 

 the ferments of beer, which resulted in 

 the publication, in 1876, of his magistral 

 work, ' Etudes sur la Biere, ses maladies, 

 etc' 



We have come now to the work, which 

 has placed Pasteur at the head of the 

 Philanthropists, as the greatest benefactor of 

 humanity. First it was his discoveries of 

 antiseptics, which, as Dr. Lister says in a 

 letter to Pasteur, dated Februarj', 1874, 

 was suggested to him by the reading of his 

 studies on the germs of putrefaction. It was 

 not without hesitation that Pasteur became a 

 phj'siologist, as he said often then, " I am 

 neither a Doctor of Medicine nor a veterinary 

 surgeon ; " but good words to encourage him 

 came from many masters of science, such 

 as Claude Bernard, Rayer, Bouley, Paul 

 Bert, Tyndall, Huxley, etc. In a letter 

 dated February, 1876, Tyndall expresses 

 his unbounded admiration for the researches 

 of Pasteur, saying that "thanks to his works, 

 medical sciences will soon get rid of em- 

 pirical methods and be placed on true 

 scientific bases." 



The discovery of the bacteria of the 

 anthrax conducted Pasteiir to the sure cure 

 of that terrible and disastrous sickness 

 among sheep, oxen and horses, saving mill- 

 ions of francs to agriculturists and stock 

 breeders ; then came in succession the 

 septicEemia, the cholera of chickens and 

 hydrophobia. The last discoverj^ is the one 

 which made Pasteur so popular ; persons 

 bitten by mad dogs and mad wolves came 

 from Russia, Germanj^^ Austria-Hungary, 

 England, Algeria, even America, to be in- 

 noculated and treated. At first Pasteur 

 was very timid ; and the first two of his 

 j)atients, who died, notwithstanding his 

 care, were very distressing to him ; but 

 medical colleagues encouraged him, saying 



that some cases are refractory to all sorts of 

 medications, and the brilliant results of 

 numerous cures, shown by careful statis- 

 tics, soon put an end to his hesitations. 



The cure of diphtheria, although not made 

 by Pasteur, was inspired by him, and Dr. 

 Roux followed closely all the directions 

 and suggestions made to him by his illus- 

 trious master and teacher. 



Pasteur met many opponents, for it is in 

 human nature to oppose discoveries made 

 against accepted theories, and savants oc- 

 cupying exalted position do not like to be 

 interfered with. In Germany Liebig and 

 Koch, in England Dr. Bastien, and in 

 France Berthelot and Pouchet, made oppo- 

 sition not exempt from passion and jeal- 

 ousy. The attack of Berthelot, who pub- 

 lished, six months after the death of Claude 

 Bernard, a posthumous paper found in 

 notes, rather incomplete and confused even, 

 which if true was the inauguration of 

 a new system of spontaneous generation 

 among the ferments of grape wine, took 

 Pasteur by surprise and was very painful to 

 him, for he has always professed a great 

 admiration for Claude Bernard, with whom 

 he was in most intimate friendship. With- 

 out losing time, Pasteur started for Arbois 

 and carried out delicate experiment, in one 

 of his own vineyards, which after one year 

 showed most couclusivelj^ the mistake of 

 both Bernard and Berthelot. This discus- 

 sion is printed in full, in ' Examen critique 

 d'un ecrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur 

 la fermentation,' 1879. 



Pasteur received more honor during his 

 life than any other savants ever did, and 

 he entered into immortality before his 

 death. The honors bestowed on him were 

 all well deserved; for not only did he 

 orient a new medical science, surgery, the 

 veterinary arts, the making of beer, wine 

 and vinegar, but he alwaj's declined to take 

 patents of any sort, notwithstanding most 

 tempting offers of large sums of money 



