liv 



the diseases of silk-worms, for he found that it was not only pebrine 

 which decimated the silk-worm litters, but that another and totally 

 distinct disease, flacherie, was also responsible for an enormous 

 mortality amongst the worms. For five years then Pasteur was 

 absorbed in unravelling these two diseases, and in discovering the 

 best means for their prevention, and the vast amount of work which 

 he accomplished in this connexion can only be approximately esti- 

 mated by studying the two splendid volumes entitled ' Maladie des 

 Vers a, Soie,' published in 1870. 



The opposition, the criticism, and the relentless scepticism with 

 which the researches on silk- worm diseases and their prevention 

 were received at the time, in a measure foreshadowed the bitterness 

 of the conflict in which he was subsequently to become engaged in 

 defending his investigations on the treatment of rabies. 



The mental strain of his work told heavily upon Pasteur, and 

 before he had been able to put the last and finishing touches, as it 

 were, to his investigations, he was struck down with a severe attack 

 of paralysis, from which his recovery was at first despaired of. 

 Throughout his illness, however, his mind remained perfectly clear, 

 but he never subsequently recovered the full use of his limbs. 



The war of 1870 plunged him into deep despair, for Pasteur was 

 perhaps an even more ardent patriot than savant, and for a time he 

 seemed completely crushed, and unable to take up the thread of his 

 researches. Prevented from returning to Paris on account of the 

 Commune, he gladly availed himself of the offer of his old pupil, 

 Duclaux, to come and work in his laboratory at Clermont Ferrand. 

 Here he commenced those classical researches on the diseases of beer, 

 which had for their object such an illumination of the brewing 

 industry as would enable Prance to produce malt liquors of equal 

 value and excellence to those for which her hereditary enemy across 

 the Rhine had so long been pre-eminent. These researches w r ere in 

 1876 collected and printed in a single volume, bearing the title 

 4 Etudes sur la Biere,' which is unquestionably the best known of all 

 Pasteur's publications in this country, and which has been translated 

 into English. Throughout this volume Pasteur shows unmistakable 

 signs that his thoughts and ideas were bearing in the direction of the 

 applications which his methods and discoveries might have in the 

 interpretation and treatment of the phenomena of disease. We find 

 him making the significant suggestion that " l'etiologie des maladies 

 contagieuses est peut-etre a la veille d'en recevoir une lumiere inat- 

 tendue." Indeed, his researches had already borne fruit in many of 

 the directions indicated by the above words, for Rayer and Davaine 

 were encouraged to once more approach the investigation of anthrax, 

 whilst we know that as early as 1865 Lister, then a surgeon in Glas- 

 gow, began his work in antiseptic surgery, based entirely on Pasteur's 



