ANNUAL ADDRESS. 187 



to antagonize them. The scale threatened to destroy orange 

 culture in California ; the Colorado beetle seemed likely to ruin 

 one of our important food crops ; minute aphides terrified raisers 

 of fruit and cane in the Sandwich Islands. But the scale is no 

 longer a frightful burden in Califarnia ; the potato bug is now 

 only an annoyance, and the introduction of lady birds swept 

 aphides from the Sandwich Islands. The gypsy moth, be- 

 lieved for more than a hundred years to be a special judg- 

 ment, is no longer thought of as more than a very expensive 

 nuisance. The curculio, the locust, the weevil, the chinch bug 

 and others have been subjected to detailed investigation. In 

 almost all cases methods have been devised whereby the ravages 

 have been diminished. Even the borers which endangered some 

 of the most important timber species are now understood and 

 the possibility of their extermination has been changed into 

 probability. 



Having begun with the ''infinitely great," we may close this 

 summary with a reference to the " infinitely small." The study 

 of fermentation processes was attractive to chemists and natural- 

 ists, each claiming ownership of the agencies. Pasteur, with a 

 patience almost incredible, revised the work of his predecessors 

 and supplemented it with original investigations, proving that a 

 very great part of changes in organic substances exposed to the 

 atmosphere are due primarily to the influence of low animals or 

 plants whose germs exist in the atmosphere. 



One may doubt whether Pasteur had any conception of the 

 possibilities hidden in his determination of the matters at issue. 

 The canning of meats and vegetables is no longer attended with 

 uncertainty, and scurvy is no longer the bane of explorers ; 

 pork, which has supplied material for the building of railroads, 

 the digging of canals, the construction of ships, can be eaten 

 without fear. Flavorless butter can be rendered delicious by 

 introduction of the proper bacteria ; sterilized milk saves the 

 lives of many children ; some of the most destructive plagues 

 are understood and the antidotes are prepared by the culture of 

 antagonistic germs ; antiseptic treatment has robbed surgery of 

 half its terrors and has rendered almost commonplace opera- 



