290 BIOLOGY AND iTS MAKERS 
widely circulated of the French journals—the Petit Parisien— 
appealed to its readers all over the country to vote upon the 
relative prominence of great Frenchmen of the last century. 
Pasteur was the winner of this interesting contest, having 
received 1,338,425 votes of the fifteen millions cast, and rank- 
ing above Victor Hugo, who stood second in popular esti- 
mation, by more than one hundred thousand votes. This 
enviable recognition was won, not by spectacular achieve- 
ments in arms or in politics, but by indefatigable industry 
in the quiet pursuit of those scientific researches that have 
resulted in so much good to the human race. 
Personal Qualities.—He should be known also from the 
side of his human qualities. He was devotedly attached to 
his family, enjoying the close sympathy and assistance of his 
wife and his daughter in his scientific struggles, a circum- 
stance that aided much in ameliorating the severity of his 
labors. His labors, indeed, overstrained his powers, so that 
he was smitten by paralysis in 1868, at the age of forty-six, 
but with splendid courage he overcame this handicap, and 
continued his unremitting work until his death in 1895. 
The portrait of Pasteur with his granddaughter (Fig. 92) 
gives a touch of personal interest to the investigator and the 
contestant upon the field of science. His strong face shows 
dignity of purpose and the grim determination which led to 
colossal attainments; at the same time it is mellowed by 
gentle affection, and contrasts finely with the trusting ex- 
pression of the younger face. 
Pasteur was born of humble parents in Déle in the Jura, 
on December the 27th, 1822. His father was a tanner, 
but withal, a man of fine character and stern experience, as 
is “shown by the fact that he had fought in the legions 
of the First Empire and been decorated on the field of 
battle by Napoleon.” The filial devotion of Pasteur and his 
justifiable pride in his father’s military service are shown 
