18 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 



that living organism could be produced from inanimate objects 

 by spontaneous generation was firmly fixed by tradition. In 

 fact Van Helmont in the sixteenth century had given a prescription 

 for the creation of mice from grains of wheat, pieces of cheese 

 and dirty linen. By carefully prepared experiments Pasteur proved 

 that life begins from life, upsetting for all time the doctrine of 

 spontaneous generation. He studied especially lactic acid and alco- 

 holic fermentation and proved that each was due to the action of 

 living cells. He furthermore gave definite proof that putrefaction 

 and decay are the chemical by-products produced by the metabolic 

 action of micro-organisms. 



Pasteur's connection with the Industrial Institute at Lille had 

 brought him in direct contact with the agricultural industries of 

 France. In 1857 he was appointed Administrator of the Ecole Nor- 

 male and director of the scientific studies. To return to Paris and 

 continue his work on behalf of science and humanity was a happy 

 event for Pasteur. Dr. Fleury says of him : "During 15 years 

 he could be seen each evening after dinner pacing up and down 

 along a corridor where no one dared to come and interrupt his 

 reverie. Paralyzed since 1870 — for on two different occasions 

 apoplexy attacked his brain — as he walked he slightly dragged one 

 foot while his mind ripened some newly conceived idea or pre- 

 pared for the experiment of the morrow. At times his reverie as- 

 sumed the intensity of ecstacy and within the brain of this man 

 of genius flashes of light revealed his goal and gave him a pre- 

 vision of all that was destined to emanate from him. 'How beau- 

 tiful it is ! How beautiful it is !' he would say and then he would 

 add, T must work.' " 



His first laboratory at the Ecole Normale consisted of two 

 garret rooms fitted up by himself where the temperature went to 

 zero in winter and 97°F. in summer. Certainly the great produc- 

 tivity of his primitive laboratory proves that here and elsewhere 

 brick and stone do not make productive researches as is so often 

 found in our own country where we have the buildings, equipment 

 and everything except men who can and will make discoveries in 

 science. From this primitive laboratory, Pasteur completed his 

 studies on fermentation and differentiation of aerobic from 

 anerobic bacteria. 



DuClaux said of his early researches : ''Throughout the best 

 years of his life this man lived in advance of his time, a pioneer 

 lost in solitude, absorbed in the contemplation of the horizons he 

 had discovered and which his eye alone could behold and traverse. 

 He lived in his own thoughts without being a dreamer for a dream 



