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are the researches of Mons Pasteur into the hfe history of the 

 special microbes or germs which produce those terrible and destruc- 

 tive diseases called charbon or anthrax, and rabies, or canine 

 madness ; the former of which costs agriculturists literally millions 

 of pounds annually by its wholesale destruction of sheep, cattle, 

 and horses, and the latter, as we all know, is even still more disas- 

 trous to the human race. A wonderful man is M. Pasteur ! He 

 began his chemical career as a mere assistant in a laboratory, and 

 now it is not too much to say his discovery bids fair to revolutionise 

 the whole science of medicine, and may possibly be the means of 

 saving myriads of human lives, as it has even already preserved thou- 

 sands of the lower animals. M. Pasteur first turned his attention to 

 the different kinds of ferments, the germs which cause fermentation 

 in wine, beer, &c., and proved that each kind had its own indi- 

 viduality, and could and should be cultivated separately, and made 

 to produce only its own species of fermentation. This discovery 

 Was of immense commercial importance, for it practically led to 

 certainty in place of uncertainty in the manufacture of these liquids. 

 His next great work was the discovery of tbe Silkworm disease, 

 called pebrine, which, since 1853, has been costing France some 

 four millions of pounds annually, and which bid fair ere long to 

 annihilate the silk trade of that country. Pasteur's researches led 

 him not only to the indentificatiou of the special bacillus which 

 produced the disease, but also to the means necessary to detect and 

 destroy it His next crusade was against that fata,! disease called 

 Anthrax or Charbon, or Splenic fever, which in severe cases often 

 destroys the lives of sheep and horses in twenty-four hours. In 

 one district of Kussia alone, between the years 1867 and 1870, no 

 less than 50,000 animals and 568 human beings perished of this 

 fell disorder. Here, once more, he detected the special fungoid 

 growth or bacillus, which produced such disastrous results, and 

 found that by cultivating the germs out of the body, in broth for 

 example (just as a gardener might raise seeds in a different soil) he 

 was able to so weaken or modify their virulence that when used 

 to vaccinate healthy animals they ensured perfect immunity from 

 the disease without seriously affecting their health. Thus in a 

 celebrated test experiment, which was watched with immense 

 interest, not only by scientists but by practical men, 

 Pasteur vaccinated 25 of a flock of 50 healthy sheep, 

 and when they had recovered from the slight illness so produced, he 

 publicly innoculated the whole flock with the virus of Cliarbon ; the 

 result was precisely what he had predicted, in 24 hours the 25 

 unprotected sheep were dead, while the 25 vaccinated animals were 

 alive and well. But Pasteur's greatest achievement is his last, for 

 although he has not yet indentified the special bacillus of Rabies he 



