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07 - Louis Pasteur by Albert Keim, Louis Lumet · Louis Pasteur

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  Speaker 1: Section seven of Louis Pasteur by Albert Caeim and Louis Lumet,
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  Speaker 1: translated by Frederic Taber Cooper. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain recording by Pamel and Agami, Chapter four
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  Speaker 1: for the National Wealth, Part two. Pasteur left Paris in
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  Speaker 1: the early days of June eighteen sixty five and installed
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  Speaker 1: himself at pont Piquet, in a small silkworm farm near
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  Speaker 1: a Lais, in the very heart of the stricken district.
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  Speaker 1: The diseases of silkworms had already been studied by Geherme Menville,
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  Speaker 1: Lebert and Frey, Ossimo Cantoni and Catrafage, the latter of
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  Speaker 1: whom gave its name to the most redoubtable of these diseases, pebrine.
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  Speaker 1: In this disease, the bodies of the infected worms became
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  Speaker 1: covered over with spots resembling grains of pepper. It was
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  Speaker 1: known in a vague way that it was caused by corpuscles,
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  Speaker 1: but when it became a question of determining their nature
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  Speaker 1: and the manner of their invasion, there was nothing but
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  Speaker 1: darkness and contradictions. As for remedies, they were purely empirical.
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  Speaker 1: Resort was had to sulfur, sugar, ground, mustard, ashes, et cetera,
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  Speaker 1: and all of them were quite in vain. Pasteur had
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  Speaker 1: to find his way through an inextricable labyrinth without any
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  Speaker 1: special knowledge, and armed solely with his intuitive mind and
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  Speaker 1: his unrivaled qualities as an investigator in his eastward don
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  Speaker 1: Esprit du Cloux, who together with Gernay and Mayo, was
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  Speaker 1: his collaborator at pont Biquet, relates all the fluctuations of
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  Speaker 1: that six years struggle, with its mistakes, its hopes, and
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  Speaker 1: its discouragements, surrounded by the indifferent for instan the hostility
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  Speaker 1: of those whose interests it disturbed, and the final triumph assured,
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  Speaker 1: indisputable and universally acclaimed. At the very beginning, Pasteur made
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  Speaker 1: the mistake of thinking that the corpuscles were the result
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  Speaker 1: of pebrin, and that they did not make their appearance
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  Speaker 1: until the disease had reached a certain stage. But notwithstanding
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  Speaker 1: that he was wrong in this, he established the fact
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  Speaker 1: that corpusculous moths produced corpusculous eggs, and that the whole
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  Speaker 1: problem was to find a way of obtaining healthy eggs.
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  Speaker 1: In this way he opened up the path to the truth.
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  Speaker 1: After experiments of unimagined delicacy, which demanded ceaseless watchfulness, Pasture
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  Speaker 1: convinced himself that the corpuscles were not an effect of
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  Speaker 1: the disease, but its cause, a form of parasite that
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  Speaker 1: invaded the bodies of the silkworms. He proved that pebrin
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  Speaker 1: wasreditary and contagious, and that the variations that were shown
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  Speaker 1: to occur in the disease were due solely to the
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  Speaker 1: state of receptivity of the individual insects, according as they
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  Speaker 1: were more or less sensitive to the action of the parasite.
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  Speaker 1: Here we have an embryo the theory of microbic diseases,
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  Speaker 1: which was destined a few years later to revolutionize the
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  Speaker 1: science of medicine. Pasteur converted himself into a cultivator of silkworms,
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  Speaker 1: and after many alterations between success and defeat, he obtained
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  Speaker 1: eggs that were perfectly healthy. His method was simple. After
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  Speaker 1: the moths had finished laying, he reduced their bodies to
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  Speaker 1: a pulp and examined them under a microscope, and every
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  Speaker 1: batch of eggs that was thus shown to have come
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  Speaker 1: from a corpusculous moth was destroyed. This operation, although so simple,
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  Speaker 1: encountered desperate eyes position on the part of the vendors
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  Speaker 1: of silkworm eggs, with whose trade it interfered. It required
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  Speaker 1: all of Pastor's energy to overcome this opposition, and all
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  Speaker 1: his activity as well, for he had to respond to
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  Speaker 1: all the appeals of the silk producers who sought his
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  Speaker 1: eggs or his advice as to the best methods to follow.
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  Speaker 1: A campaign of insults and columnies was organized against the
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  Speaker 1: great man, and it is even stated that he once
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  Speaker 1: had to seek safety and allais followed by an angry
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  Speaker 1: mob that stoned him as he went. Pasteur was keenly
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  Speaker 1: sensitive to such malevolent attacks, but nonetheless he continued his task.
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  Speaker 1: Rising early in the morning, he would stand for long
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  Speaker 1: hours before the cases of silkworms, making observations and recording
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  Speaker 1: the daily results of his experiments, never discouraged or at
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  Speaker 1: least overcoming by force of will, those moments when the
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  Speaker 1: desired goal seemed as remote as ever, and proceeding to
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  Speaker 1: begin his work over again, to correct his opinions in
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  Speaker 1: accordance with the newly observed facts, with no intention of
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  Speaker 1: halting until he should hold within his powerful grasp the
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  Speaker 1: indisputable truth. What a heroic battle. It must not be
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  Speaker 1: forgotten that Pastor hardly knew what silkworms were when he
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  Speaker 1: undertook to cure them. The celebrated entomologist n Ri fab
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  Speaker 1: relates in his souvenirs the details of a visit that
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  Speaker 1: Pastor paid him. Upon arriving in the South, Pastor requested
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  Speaker 1: to see some cocoons. Fab brought him a handful. The
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  Speaker 1: illustrious scientists took them in his hand, turned and returned them,
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  Speaker 1: shook them near his ear and exclaimed, why there's something
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  Speaker 1: inside the chrysalis, replied fab the chrysalis, What's that? A
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  Speaker 1: sort of mummy into which the caterpillar changes before becoming
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  Speaker 1: a moth. And inside of every cocoon there's one of
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  Speaker 1: those things. Certainly it is to protect the chrysalis that
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  Speaker 1: the caterpillar spins its cocoon. Ah, responded Pastor, simply is not?
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  Speaker 1: This an admirable scene is described by the old entomologist Fabre.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor knew nothing. Pastor worked, observed, drew deductions, came to
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  Speaker 1: a conclusion, and where everyone else had failed, he alone succeeded.
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  Speaker 1: Such is the power of genius. The work upon silkworms
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  Speaker 1: had its interruptions. For Pastor tried to reconcile his personal
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  Speaker 1: researches with his functions as director of scientific studies at
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  Speaker 1: the Econnormal, but in any case he was forced to
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  Speaker 1: abandon them. In eighteen sixty seven, as the result of
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  Speaker 1: a small rebellion among the students due to a discourse
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  Speaker 1: delivered by Saint Beuve before the Senate on the subject
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  Speaker 1: of freedom of opinion, the school had been dismissed and
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  Speaker 1: the directors Nissa Pasteur and Jacquesnay replaced. In the course
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  Speaker 1: of reorganization, the Minister of Public Instruction Durey, appointed Pasteur
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  Speaker 1: professor of chemistry at the Sorband. But where was he
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  Speaker 1: to find a new laboratory. The only adequate one at
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  Speaker 1: the ex Court Normald, was occupied by Saint Clair de Ville,
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  Speaker 1: and it was impossible even to think of returning to
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  Speaker 1: the wretched quarters where the experiments on spontaneous generation had
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  Speaker 1: been made. Then it was that Pasteur, who, in spite
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  Speaker 1: of his personal modesty, was conscious of all that he
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  Speaker 1: was still able to do for science, requested that a
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  Speaker 1: laboratory should be constructed for him. This request was made
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  Speaker 1: in a note of such an exalted tone that it
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  Speaker 1: deserves to be reprote deduced in its entirety. It was
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  Speaker 1: addressed in Napoleon the Third Sire wrote, Pastor, my researches
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  Speaker 1: in regard to fermentations and the role played by microscopic
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  Speaker 1: organisms have opened up to physiological chemistry new avenues of
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  Speaker 1: which the agricultural industries and the study of medicine have
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  Speaker 1: already begun to reap the fruit. But the field which
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  Speaker 1: remains to be traversed is immense. My greatest desire would
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  Speaker 1: be to explore this field with renewed ardor without being
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  Speaker 1: hampered by the insufficiency of material means, since it involved
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  Speaker 1: seeking by a patient and scientific study of putrefaction for
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  Speaker 1: certain principles capable of guiding us to a discovery of
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  Speaker 1: the causes of putrid or contagious diseases. I should like
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  Speaker 1: to be installed in some building where the laboratory and
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  Speaker 1: its various dependencies would afford enough space to carry on
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  Speaker 1: the experiments comfortably and without danger to health. But how
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  Speaker 1: can researches be conducted in relation to gangrene, the viruses
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  Speaker 1: and experiments and inoculation unless we have quarters suitable for
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  Speaker 1: receiving animals, whether alive or dead butcher's meat brings an
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  Speaker 1: exorbitant price in Europe, but it is a superfluity in
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  Speaker 1: Buenos Aires. How is it possible in a cramped laboratory
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  Speaker 1: lacking in the necessary resources to apply all the various
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  Speaker 1: tests to processes which perhaps render the preservation and transportation
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  Speaker 1: of meat a simple matter. The disease properly known as
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  Speaker 1: sang de rat splenic apoplexy, causes in the district of
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  Speaker 1: Boss an annual loss of four million francs. It would
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  Speaker 1: be indispensable to go there, no doubt, for several success
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  Speaker 1: of seasons at the period of the greatest heat, and
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  Speaker 1: spend several weeks in the environs of Charont in order
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  Speaker 1: to carry on a series of minute observations. These researches,
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  Speaker 1: and a thousand others, which according to my belief, are
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  Speaker 1: related to the great phenomenon of the transformation of organic
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  Speaker 1: matter after death and the enforced return of every living
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  Speaker 1: thing to the soil and the atmosphere, are compatible only
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  Speaker 1: with the installation of a vast laboratory. The time has
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  Speaker 1: come to emancipate the experimental sciences from the obstacles which
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  Speaker 1: trammel them. Napoleon the Third responded to this eloquent appeal,
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  Speaker 1: in which Pastor outlined to a certain extent the program
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  Speaker 1: of his future work. He gave an order to Durey
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  Speaker 1: to gratify this legitimate desire of the scientist and the
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  Speaker 1: Minister of Public Instruction, that a laboratory should be built
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  Speaker 1: for him by the state in the gardens of the
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  Speaker 1: eekoln Male. But they needs must reckon with administrative delays.
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  Speaker 1: The plans were handed in by the architect of the
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  Speaker 1: Ei Cool, Monsieur Bouchet, in accordance with Pasteur's specifications, in
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  Speaker 1: September eighteen sixty seven, but the actual work was delayed
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  Speaker 1: until a year later, after Pasteur had denounced in a
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  Speaker 1: pamphlet the Bourget de lacience, the lamentable conditions under which
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  Speaker 1: French scientists were obliged to conduct their experiments, as compared
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  Speaker 1: with scientists in other countries, and notably in Germany. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: a catastrophe was about to befall Pastor in even Menas's life.
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  Speaker 1: On the nineteenth of October eighteen sixty eight, he was
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  Speaker 1: prostrated by an attack of paralysis on the left side,
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  Speaker 1: and so gravely affected that for the first twenty four
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  Speaker 1: hours a fatal termination was feared. Pastor rallied from the
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  Speaker 1: crisis thanks to the robustness of his constitution, and it
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  Speaker 1: was during those days of physical and mental suffering, while
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  Speaker 1: he lay motionless, as though stricken by a thunderbolt, that
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  Speaker 1: he revealed most vividly the loftiness of his thoughts, the
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  Speaker 1: beauty of his character, and the stoic grandeur of his principles.
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  Speaker 1: On the second afternoon of his illness, doctor Gaudalier, who
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  Speaker 1: was attending him, was enabled to make the following announcement
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  Speaker 1: in his health bulletin, he wishes to talk about science.
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  Speaker 1: In reply to Saint Clair de Ville, who had spoken
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  Speaker 1: some affectionate words of encouragement, he uttered the following admirable phrase,
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  Speaker 1: I regret to die. I should like to have been
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  Speaker 1: of more service to my country. His preoccupation as a
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  Speaker 1: scientist never for an instant left him, as doctor Goudelier
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  Speaker 1: himself attested, and eight days after his attack he dictated
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  Speaker 1: a note to Monsieur Gernay, his assistant, in relation to
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  Speaker 1: the disease of silkworms. Pastor was surrounded with the most
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  Speaker 1: devoted care of his family and also by his pupils,
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  Speaker 1: who loved him as they might have loved a father
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  Speaker 1: who was somewhat cold, somewhat distant, but who hid beneath
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  Speaker 1: an external reserve, a warm heart, ever ready to defend
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  Speaker 1: his friends. Messieurs Gernay, du Claus, Rolin, Didon and Berton
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  Speaker 1: took turns in watching beside him anxiously. Following the successive
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  Speaker 1: phases of his illness, the whole scientific world was troubled,
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  Speaker 1: as though facing the possibility of a great disaster, and
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  Speaker 1: Napoleon the Third himself demanded news every morning. Six weeks
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  Speaker 1: after his attack, Pastre was able to ride and entered.
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  Speaker 1: Upon his convalescence. He had been affected badly by the
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  Speaker 1: stoppage of the work upon his laboratory, which had coincided
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  Speaker 1: with the beginning of his illness, but by the order
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  Speaker 1: of the Emperor, it had been resumed, and from his
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  Speaker 1: window passed Eure could see the foundations beginning to rise.
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  Speaker 1: The hope of soon being able to recommence his experiments
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  Speaker 1: with the help of material means, such as he had
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  Speaker 1: long desired, hastened his cure. While he rested his body,
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  Speaker 1: he went into a sort of spiritual retirement. He read,
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  Speaker 1: or had read to him the thoughts of Pascal, the
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of God and of oneself, and the works of Nicole.
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  Speaker 1: This man of science, unique in his qualities as an experimenter,
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  Speaker 1: who would abandon any in every theory in the face
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  Speaker 1: of facts, always separated science from faith, and it is
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  Speaker 1: known that he was a practical Catholic to the day
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  Speaker 1: of his death. As soon as he could be removed,
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  Speaker 1: Pasteur wished to return to the south of France in
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  Speaker 1: order to continue his study of silkworms and clear up
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  Speaker 1: certain points which seemed to him to be still obscure.
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  Speaker 1: He disregarded all suggestions of prudence, and in spite of
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  Speaker 1: his weakened condition, he installed himself in January eighteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: nine at Santipolette du Pont, near A Lais. Shortly after
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  Speaker 1: his arrival, Pasteur, who still moved his left arm and leg,
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  Speaker 1: clumsily fell to the ground and once more had to
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  Speaker 1: take to his bed. But he nonetheless continued to work,
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  Speaker 1: dictating the experiments to be made to his collaborators Gernay,
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  Speaker 1: Roland and Maie, and informing himself each day of the
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  Speaker 1: observations they had gathered. His method was still combated, and
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  Speaker 1: while certain silk producers declared that it was excellent. Certain
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  Speaker 1: organsed bodies, such as the Silk Commission of Leon, questioned
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  Speaker 1: its value. Pastor forwarded to the members of this commission
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  Speaker 1: several samples of eggs, indicating in advance what result each
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  Speaker 1: of the samples should give. The boldness of his predictions
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  Speaker 1: was a proof of his certainty, and as a matter
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  Speaker 1: of fact, they were realized. Nevertheless, his adversaries refused to
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  Speaker 1: lay down their arms, even though his processes began to
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  Speaker 1: be employed abroad, and the Austrian government awarded him a
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  Speaker 1: prize of ten thousand francs in recognition of the services
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  Speaker 1: he had rendered to the culture of silkworms. Not only
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  Speaker 1: did Pasteur find a cure for peyberin, but also for
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  Speaker 1: another disease of silkworms, known as flacherie, which was almost
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  Speaker 1: as much dreaded as the former Mariche Vallon, Minister of
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  Speaker 1: the House to Napoleon the Third, decided to try the
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  Speaker 1: pastor a method experimentally in one of the domains of
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  Speaker 1: the Crown. A vast property planted with mulberry trees was chosen.
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  Speaker 1: It belonged to the Prince Imperial and was situated at
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  Speaker 1: Villa Vicentina in Austrian Fruili. Pasteurs set forth in November
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine with healthy eggs obtained by his process
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  Speaker 1: of cellular breeding from three cultivators, Monsieur rebo, Mio and Gourde,
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  Speaker 1: and immediately upon arriving he set to work. For the
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  Speaker 1: previous ten years the Imperial Domain, infected with Pabrina and Flacheri,
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  Speaker 1: had produced nothing. While the harvest resulting from Pasteur's eggs
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  Speaker 1: gave a net profit of twenty two thousand francs, it
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  Speaker 1: formed a neat little surplus for the purse of the
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  Speaker 1: Prince Imperial. Pasteur remained for eight months at Villa Vicentina,
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  Speaker 1: and there put the finishing tem to his work, in
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  Speaker 1: which he systematized all his previous studies on silkworms. His
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  Speaker 1: former master, Dumas, had the pleasure of introducing to the
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  Speaker 1: Academy of Science at a meeting held the eleventh of
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  Speaker 1: April eighteen seventy, and of pronouncing the eulogy on his
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  Speaker 1: studies on the disease of silkworms, a practical and assured
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  Speaker 1: method of combating it and preventing its return. The Academy
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  Speaker 1: had spoken the victory was complete Pasteur had been made
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  Speaker 1: Senator of the Empire by a decree issued the previous July,
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  Speaker 1: and he was returning to France, impatient to begin new researches,
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  Speaker 1: when he learned at Strasbourg with an inexpressible sinking of
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  Speaker 1: the heart, that war had been declared. This meant the
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  Speaker 1: postponement of all his projects, of all those researches which
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  Speaker 1: he wished to undertake for the benefit of humanity. The
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  Speaker 1: scientists no longer had the floor and of Section seven