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

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  Speaker 1: Section fourteen of Louis Pasteur by Albert Kheim and Louis Lumey,
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  Speaker 1: translated by Frederick Taber Cooper. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. Recording by Pamela and Nagami, Chapter ten,
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  Speaker 1: the supreme homage. Pasteur was seventy years of age. From
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  Speaker 1: his earliest years of study. He had consecrated his life
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  Speaker 1: to science and unwaveringly, with tireless energy that neither envious
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  Speaker 1: attacks nor bodily illness could break down. He had pursued,
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  Speaker 1: through a chain of strong and harmonious logic, the revolution
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  Speaker 1: which his genius had introduced into science and medicine. Now,
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  Speaker 1: in spite of the last selfish resistance of those who
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  Speaker 1: were not willing to surrender to the evidence of the truth,
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  Speaker 1: his name became famous throughout the world. His methods were
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  Speaker 1: introduced into numberless laboratories, his discoveries were everywhere being applied
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  Speaker 1: with success. Pasteur, bowed with suffering and with years almost
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  Speaker 1: incapacitated to do further work, was surrounded by universal admiration
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  Speaker 1: and by the personal affection of that group of scientists
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  Speaker 1: who within his institute were pursuing their personal researches along
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  Speaker 1: the path that he had traced. It was at this
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  Speaker 1: epoch that various committees were formed, both in France and abroad,
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  Speaker 1: for the purpose of celebrating the seventieth anniversary of his birth.
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  Speaker 1: The movement emanated from Denmark, Sweden and Norway. While at Paris,
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  Speaker 1: the Academy of Sciences was deeply stirred on the seventh
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  Speaker 1: of November eighteen ninety two by a letter from its
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  Speaker 1: Section of Medicine and Surgery, asking that homage should be
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  Speaker 1: paid to the illustrious scientist Monsieur the President. Monsieur Pasteur
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  Speaker 1: will be seventy years of age on the twenty seventh
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  Speaker 1: of next December. The Section of Medicine and Surgery feels
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  Speaker 1: that it ought to take the initiative in celebrating this
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  Speaker 1: glorious anniversary. Yet, while medicine and Surgery both oh Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Pastor of boundless admiration and gratitude, we know that the
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  Speaker 1: Institute as a whole is united in this same sentiment. Accordingly,
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  Speaker 1: we propose to invite our colleagues in the Institute, as
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  Speaker 1: well as all others who have benefited from the labours
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  Speaker 1: and discoveries of Monsieur Pastor, either in the domain of
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  Speaker 1: scientific research or in the practice of their art, to
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  Speaker 1: contribute to a subscription raised for the purpose of offering
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  Speaker 1: our illustrious compatriot a souvenir and a homage on the
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  Speaker 1: occasion of this jubilee. To this end, the Section of
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  Speaker 1: Medicine and Surgery has constituted itself a subscription committee. Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Duclo has kindly consented to cooperate with us, and Professor
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  Speaker 1: Granche has undertaken the duties of secretary of the committee,
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  Speaker 1: beg that our colleagues will send their offerings to the
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  Speaker 1: office of the Secretary of the Institute. The members of
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  Speaker 1: the committee Marie Charcon, Brn, Secar Granche, Boucha, Venou Guillon Duclo.
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  Speaker 1: The Academy of Sciences hastened to comply with the desire
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  Speaker 1: of its Section of Medicine, and at the following meeting
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  Speaker 1: Pasteur expressed his thanks to his colleagues. I was not present,
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  Speaker 1: he said, at the opening of the last meeting when
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  Speaker 1: the President read the letter from the Section of Medicine
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  Speaker 1: and Surgery. Someone was kind enough to detain me outside.
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  Speaker 1: It was well he did so. I should have been
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  Speaker 1: too deeply moved to return adequate. Thanks to my colleagues
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  Speaker 1: for the excess of honor they are preparing for me.
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  Speaker 1: Even today I am unable to express all the emotion
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  Speaker 1: and gratitude that I feel. Roti, a member of the Institute,
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  Speaker 1: was chosen to execute the medal which was to be
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  Speaker 1: presented to him, and Messieurs Bouchard and Guillon undertook to
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  Speaker 1: arrange the details of the jubilee. It took place on
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  Speaker 1: December twenty seventh, eighteen ninety two, in the presence of
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  Speaker 1: the President of the Republic, Sadi Carnot, in the Great
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  Speaker 1: Amphitheater of the New Sorbun Seated on the platform were
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  Speaker 1: to be seen to the right of the President's chair,
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur d'abadi, President of the Academy of Sciences, le Royer,
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  Speaker 1: President of the Senate, Ribaut, President of the Council of Ministers,
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  Speaker 1: the ambassadors from Russia, England, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands,
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  Speaker 1: Sweden and Norway, Denmark and Bavaria. On the left, Messieur
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  Speaker 1: Joseph Bertrand, Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, Charles Floquet,
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  Speaker 1: President of the Chamber, Challes Dupui, Minister of Public Instruction,
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  Speaker 1: and all the other ministers. Behind them. These official personages
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  Speaker 1: were the delegations from the Institute, the Academy of Medicine
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  Speaker 1: and foreign scientific societies. Monsieur Gread, Vice Rector of the
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  Speaker 1: Academy of Paris, Monsieur Perrot, Director of the e Cole Normal,
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  Speaker 1: the deans of the faculties, the presidents of the Court
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  Speaker 1: of Causation, of the Council of State and of the
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  Speaker 1: Court of Appeals. The auditorium was occupied by delegations from
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  Speaker 1: the schools and faculties, the General Association of Students, the
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  Speaker 1: hospital staffs, the e coll Normal Superieur, the Polytechnique and
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  Speaker 1: the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Sciences and the
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  Speaker 1: School of Pharmacy. It was the chosen assemblage, brought to
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  Speaker 1: the highest pitch of enthusiasm and comprising representatives of all
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  Speaker 1: that was best in art and science and intellectual thought.
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  Speaker 1: At half past ten, Louis Pasteur made his entry, leaning
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  Speaker 1: on the arm of the President of the Republic, while
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  Speaker 1: the band of the Republican Guards saluted him with a
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  Speaker 1: triumphal march, and the entire assemblage arose to its feet
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  Speaker 1: and acclaimed him with rounds of applause. Pasteur seated himself
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  Speaker 1: before a little table on the platform in order to
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  Speaker 1: receive the addresses of the delegates and the president of
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  Speaker 1: the Academy of Sciences, Monsieur d'abadis opened the meeting and
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  Speaker 1: gave the floor to Monsieur Charles Dupui, Minister of Public Instruction.
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  Speaker 1: After summing up the works of Pasteur and extending a
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  Speaker 1: greeting to the foreign delegates, Monsieur Dupuis concluded by pointing
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  Speaker 1: out the significance of the jubilee. But what characterizes this
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  Speaker 1: ceremony beyond all else, what gives your jubilee its distinctive mark,
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  Speaker 1: he said, is that our homage is extended less to
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  Speaker 1: the past than to the future. Science, on behalf of
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  Speaker 1: which the whole universe is in your debt, has received
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  Speaker 1: from you a sure method and a definite principle. But
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  Speaker 1: as you yourself have said, the era of its application
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  Speaker 1: has only just commenced. The pastor institute built and endowed
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  Speaker 1: through the gratitude and admiration of peoples and of governments,
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  Speaker 1: for the purpose of serving both as a center of
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  Speaker 1: high scientific culture and a source of relief for the
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  Speaker 1: ills of the human race will realize your hopes. May
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  Speaker 1: you long continue, dear and illustrious Master, to preside over
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  Speaker 1: the destinies of this young and glorious edifice, and animate
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  Speaker 1: with your inspiring ardor the failanx of disciples who will
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  Speaker 1: surely fulfill the promises of the pastor doctrine. May France
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  Speaker 1: possess you for long years yet to come, and distinguish
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  Speaker 1: you before the world as the worthy object of her love,
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  Speaker 1: her gratitude, and her pride. After Monsieur d'a badis had
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  Speaker 1: presented Pastor with the great golden medal engraved by Rotis,
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  Speaker 1: addresses were made by Monsieur Bertrand and d'Aubray, and then
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  Speaker 1: by the famous English surgeon Lister in the name of
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  Speaker 1: the Royal Society of London. Monsieur Pasteur, He said, the
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  Speaker 1: great honor has been accorded me of bringing you the
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  Speaker 1: homage of the sciences of medicine and surgery. As a
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  Speaker 1: matter of fact, there is no one living in the
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  Speaker 1: entire world to whom the medical sciences owe so much
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  Speaker 1: as they do to you. Your researches in regard to
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  Speaker 1: fermentations have shed a powerful light that has illumined the
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  Speaker 1: fatal darkness of surgery and changed the treatment of wounds
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  Speaker 1: from a matter of empiricism, uncertain and too often disastrous,
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  Speaker 1: to a scientific art of assured beneficence. Thanks to you,
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  Speaker 1: surgery has undergone a complete revolution which has robbed it
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  Speaker 1: of its terrors and extended its efficacious powers almost without limit.
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  Speaker 1: Medicine is indebted no less than surgery to your profound
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  Speaker 1: and philosophic studies. You have lifted the veil which for
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  Speaker 1: centuries had overhung infectious diseases. You have discovered and demonstrated
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  Speaker 1: their microbic nature. Thanks to your initiative, and in many
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  Speaker 1: cases to your special and personal labors, there are already
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  Speaker 1: a number of these pernicious disorders, of the causes of
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  Speaker 1: which we have a complete knowledge Feleik's que potuit rarem
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  Speaker 1: conoscore cause us. This knowledge has already perfected, in the
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  Speaker 1: surprising fashion, the diagnosis of these scourges of the human race,
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  Speaker 1: and has pointed out the path which must be followed
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  Speaker 1: in their prophylactic and curative treatment. On this path, your
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  Speaker 1: fine discoveries of the attenuation and reinforcement of viruses and
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  Speaker 1: preventive inoculations serve and will always continue to serve as
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  Speaker 1: guiding stars. As a brilliant illustration, I may refer to
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  Speaker 1: your services in regard to hydrophobia. Their originality is so striking,
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  Speaker 1: both in respect to pathology and to therapeutics, that in
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  Speaker 1: the beginning many physicians were mistrustful of you. Is it possible,
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  Speaker 1: they said to me, that a man who is neither
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  Speaker 1: a physician nor a biologist can instruct us after this fashion,
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  Speaker 1: regarding a disease over which the finest brains in the
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  Speaker 1: medical profession have labored in vain quis nous hicnostri suquessit
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  Speaker 1: steadibusho space. For my part, I knew only too well
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  Speaker 1: the brilliance of your genius, the scrupulous care of your inductions,
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  Speaker 1: and your absolute honesty to share such opinions for a moment.
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  Speaker 1: My confidence has been amply justified by the results, because,
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  Speaker 1: with the insignificant exception of a few ignorant persons, the
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  Speaker 1: whole world now recognizes the greatness of your victim over
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  Speaker 1: this terrible malady. You have furnished a method of diagnosis
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  Speaker 1: which puts an end beyond question to the torturing uncertainty
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  Speaker 1: which formerly haunted anyone who had been bitten by a dog, which,
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  Speaker 1: although healthy, was suspected of being mad. This alone would
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  Speaker 1: have sufficed to assure you the eternal gratitude of humanity.
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  Speaker 1: But through your marvelous system of inoculations against hydrophobia, we
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  Speaker 1: have succeeded in following up the poison after its entry
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  Speaker 1: into the system, and have vanquished it. Monsieur Pasteur, Infectious
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  Speaker 1: diseases constitute, as you know, the great majority of maladies
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  Speaker 1: that afflict the human race. You can therefore well understand
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  Speaker 1: that the sciences of medicine and surgery are eager upon
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  Speaker 1: this solemn occasion to offer you the profound homage of
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  Speaker 1: their admiration and gratitude. At the close of this address,
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  Speaker 1: the two great scientistics changed affectionate greetings. In the midst
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  Speaker 1: of tumultuous enthusiasm. Further addresses were delivered by Monsieur Bergeron,
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  Speaker 1: Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Medicine, and by Monsieur Sauton,
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  Speaker 1: President of the Municipal Council of Paris. The delegations then
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  Speaker 1: filed past the little table behind which Pasture was seated
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  Speaker 1: and laid their addresses on it. England was represented not
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  Speaker 1: only by Lister, but by Burdon, Sanderson, Grath, Molloy, pave
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  Speaker 1: Percival Wright, Roscoe Ray, Lancaster, Ruffer, Sidney Martin Woodhead Plimmer.
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  Speaker 1: Germany by Haskeavec and Scotelius. Belgium by Berlier Rand, Benidn, Casimier.
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  Speaker 2: Des Peer Herrera, Laurent Parmentier, Pescher, Rousseau, Rufferrat de Vilde,
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  Speaker 2: Denmark by Jacobsen, Salomonsen, Stuttgard von Chez, Spain by Chiron
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  Speaker 2: and Henaer, Holland by Engelman, Peigelhading, sponk Stokfis Vanofa Bekeldemaya,
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  Speaker 2: Italy by Campana and Perocchito, Russia by Menshnikov and Vnogrovsky,
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  Speaker 2: Poland by Benny Bougvid and Golazowski. Sweden and Norway by
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  Speaker 2: jardal Mam Lindstrom Nordenson Ceylander, Switzerland by Serinville Depine, Ladame
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  Speaker 2: sore Tarel Sutzer.
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  Speaker 1: The leading scientific societies also had their delegates. The University
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  Speaker 1: of Athens was represented by Monsieur Panas, and the Berlin
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  Speaker 1: Society of Medicine and Faculty of Medicine by Monsieur Bouchard.
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  Speaker 1: There were still other delegations from the Society of Medicine
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  Speaker 1: at Bern, the Belgian Society of Microscopy and the Society
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  Speaker 1: of Students of the Civil Hospitals of Brussels, from the
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  Speaker 1: Academic College of Bucharest and the University of Christiania, from
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  Speaker 1: the Association of Hygiene at Cologne, from the Academy of Copenhagen,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera. The French delegations were called forward in their turn,
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  Speaker 1: and those from Dole and Acbois attracted special attention because
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  Speaker 1: in the midst of this glorious ceremony they called to
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  Speaker 1: mind the humble origin of Pastor. The mayor of Dol
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  Speaker 1: offered him in the name of its citizens and album
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  Speaker 1: containing reproductions of his birth certificate and of the little
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  Speaker 1: house in which he was born. This was an intimate note,
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  Speaker 1: tender and touching. Pastor's reply to these discourses celebrating his glory,
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  Speaker 1: had to be read by his son. It is a
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  Speaker 1: page of grave eloquence and forms, as it were, his
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  Speaker 1: moral and scientific testament. Here is the complete text, which
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  Speaker 1: deserves to be preserved as one of the most beautiful
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  Speaker 1: monuments of French thought. Monsieur the President of the Public.
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  Speaker 1: Your presence transforms everything. An intimate festival becomes a great festival,
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  Speaker 1: and the simple anniversary of the birth of a scientist
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  Speaker 1: will remain, thanks to you, a date in the history
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  Speaker 1: of French science, Monsieur the Minister, gentlemen. In the midst
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  Speaker 1: of all this brilliance, my first thought reverts regretfully to
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  Speaker 1: all those men of science who spent their lives in
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  Speaker 1: vain endeavors in the past. They had to struggle against
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  Speaker 1: prejudices which stifle their ideas. These prejudices conquered, they still
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  Speaker 1: encountered other obstacles and difficulties of all sorts. It was
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  Speaker 1: only a few years ago before the public authorities and
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  Speaker 1: the municipal Council had begun to provide magnificent abodes for
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  Speaker 1: science that a man whom I greatly loved and admired,
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  Speaker 1: Claude Bernard, possessed as his sole laboratory, a low and
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  Speaker 1: humid seller only a few steps from here. Perhaps it
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  Speaker 1: was in that cellar that he contracted the disease which
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  Speaker 1: caused his death. Upon learning of the reception you were
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  Speaker 1: preparing for me to night, his was the first image
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  Speaker 1: that rose before my mind, I salute the memory of
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  Speaker 1: that great man. Gentlemen, though an ingenious and delicate thought,
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  Speaker 1: it would seem as though you had wished to cause
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  Speaker 1: a vision of my entire life to pass before my eyes.
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  Speaker 1: One of my compatriots from the Jurras, the mayor of
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  Speaker 1: the city of Dole, has brought me a photograph of
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  Speaker 1: the very humble home in which my father and mother
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  Speaker 1: lived their hard and needy life. The presence of all
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  Speaker 1: these students from the Ecole Normal reminds me of the
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  Speaker 1: intoxication of my first scientific enthusiasms. The representatives of the
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  Speaker 1: Faculty of Leo evoked the memory of my first studies
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  Speaker 1: in crystallography and fermentations, which opened to me an entire
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  Speaker 1: new world. What boundless hopes took possession of me when
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  Speaker 1: I first grasped the fact that there were laws behind
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  Speaker 1: all those obscure phenomena. You, my dear colleagues, have yourselves
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  Speaker 1: been witnesses of the series of deductions that permitted me,
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  Speaker 1: as a disciple of the experimental method, to arrive at
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  Speaker 1: physiological studies. If at times I have troubled the calm
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  Speaker 1: of your academies with somewhat heated discussions. It was because
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  Speaker 1: I was passionately defending the truth. You, lastly, delegates from
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  Speaker 1: foreign nations, who have come from so far to give
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  Speaker 1: proof of your sympathy toward France, you bring me the
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  Speaker 1: most profound joy that can be felt by a man
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  Speaker 1: who believes invincibly that science and peace will triumph over
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  Speaker 1: ignorance and war, that the various peoples will come to
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  Speaker 1: an agreement not to destroy, but to build up, and
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  Speaker 1: that the future will belong to those who have done
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  Speaker 1: the most for suffering humanity. I appeal to you, my
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  Speaker 1: dear lister, and to you all illustrious representatives of science
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  Speaker 1: and medicine and surgery. Young men, young men, put your
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  Speaker 1: confidence in these sure and powerful methods, from which we
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  Speaker 1: have as yet learned only the first secrets. And I
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  Speaker 1: say to all of you, whatever your career may be,
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  Speaker 1: guard yourselves from the taint of destructive and sterile skepticism.
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  Speaker 1: Refuse to be discouraged by the sadness of certain hours
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  Speaker 1: which pass over a nation. Live in the serene peace
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  Speaker 1: of laboratories and libraries. Say to yourselves, at first, what
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  Speaker 1: have I done toward my own education? And then, in
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  Speaker 1: proportion as you advance what have I done for my country?
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  Speaker 1: Do so up to the moment when perhaps you may
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  Speaker 1: have the immense happiness of thinking that you have contributed
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  Speaker 1: in some measure to the progress and well being of humanity.
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  Speaker 1: But whether life favors your efforts to a greater or
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  Speaker 1: a less extent, one must have earned the right to say,
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  Speaker 1: when the great goal draws near, I have done what
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  Speaker 1: I could. Gentlemen, I wish to express my profound emotion
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  Speaker 1: and my deepest gratitude, just as the great artist wrote
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  Speaker 1: tea on the reverse side of this metal has hidden
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  Speaker 1: under roses the date of heavy years that weigh upon
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  Speaker 1: my life. So you, my dear colleagues, have wished to
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  Speaker 1: give to my old age a spectacle to gladden it immensely,
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  Speaker 1: the spectacle of all this eager and affectionate youth. The ceremony,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: notwithstanding that it was official, ended in an outburst of
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  Speaker 1: enthusiasm that gave it a high human significance. Louis Pasteur
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  Speaker 1: had fulfilled his task. The robust toiler, genius and dogged
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  Speaker 1: will combined could now rest among his disciples, who continued
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  Speaker 1: the struggle in his place, and according to his methods,
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  Speaker 1: on behalf of science and against disease in order to
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  Speaker 1: extend the frontiers of life and of Section fourteen