OKLAHOMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 19 



which comes true ceases to be a dream." 



His experiments showing that spontaneous generation is a myth, 

 aroused great interest and people became anxious to look through 

 the microscope to see micro-organisms. Napolean HI wished to 

 meet him and was delighted with his serious and simple manner. 

 He told the Emperor that his secret ambition was to study contage- 

 ous diseases to find cures for all the ills of humanity. 



The wine industry of France became nearly ruined by the 

 souring of the wines. Pasteur was invited to- occvtpy a laboratory 

 placed at his disposal by his home town, Arbois, in 1864 to sec 

 if he could find the cause and cure of the acid that soured their 

 "rosy and tawny wines." He replied to the mayor and town coun- 

 cil, who had extended the invitation to him in a manner character- 

 istic of the man, as follows : "This spontaneous offer from a town 

 dear to me for so many reasons does too much honor to my modest 

 labors, and the way in which is is made covers me with confusion." 

 He feared that his services would not be in proportion to their 

 generosity so he refused the offer and carried on his researches in 

 an improvised laboratory in an old coffee room. He found that 

 each disease of wine had its special micro-organisms and solved the 

 situation by heating the wines to 135 °F. and sealing them. This 

 restored the industry which meant 500,000,000 francs annually to 

 France alone. 



For fifteen years a scourge had ravaged the silk worms of 

 southern France and was proving fatal to the national silk industry 

 with a loss of 120,000,000 francs annuallj^ Pasteur was prevailed 

 upon by the Minister of Agriculture and one of his former teachers, 

 Dumas, to study pebrine, as the disease of the silk worm was called, 

 to see if he could find a remedy. Although he knew nothing about 

 silk worms he left Paris in 1865 and installed himself at a small 

 silk farm near Alais. He became a cultivator of silk worms and 

 after several years he found the organisms that were producing, 

 not only the disease, pebrine, but also flacherie which was almost 

 as fatal. He suggested remedies, which brought back the silk industry 

 and wealth to the ruined sections of his country. But it was during 

 this work (1868) that his left side became completely paralyzed 

 and he was confined for six weeks before he could rise. When 

 he was not expected to live, he said : "I regret to die : I should 

 like to have been of more service to mj' country." 



Pasteur was one of France'.s great patriots. When the Franco- 

 Prussian War broke out in 1870-71, Pasteur due to his paralysis 

 was not fit for military service and because of the siege of Paris 

 he could not continue his work at his Paris laboratory, neither 



