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

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  Speaker 1: Section thirteen of Louis Pastor by Albert Kaim and Louis Lumay,
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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 Agami, Chapter nine,
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  Speaker 1: The Pasteur Institute. After the close of the War of
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  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy, Pasteur wrote to a mil Ducloux expressing his
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  Speaker 1: great desire to gather all his pupils into one establishment
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  Speaker 1: of which he should be the master, and where they
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  Speaker 1: could work together for science and the cure of disease
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  Speaker 1: in accordance with his system and fertile methods. More than
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  Speaker 1: twenty years were destined to pass before he saw the
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  Speaker 1: realization of this wish that was so dear to him,
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  Speaker 1: and he was not only infirm, but almost helpless when
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  Speaker 1: he entered the building that was to bear his name.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks to the movement of universal enthusiasm aroused us by
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  Speaker 1: his cure for hydrophobia, and international subscription was opened upon
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  Speaker 1: the initiative of the Academy of Sciences for the purpose
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  Speaker 1: of founding an establishment for vaccination and for scientific studies
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  Speaker 1: under the title of the Pastor Institute. Within a few months,
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  Speaker 1: the modest mites of the poor and the banknotes of
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  Speaker 1: the rich and generous formed a sum amounting to two million,
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  Speaker 1: five hundred eighty six thousand, six hundred eighty francs approximately
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  Speaker 1: five hundred seventeen thousand, three hundred thirty six dollars, and
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  Speaker 1: the institute buildings, slowly constructed, were inaugurated by the President
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  Speaker 1: of the Republic, Sadi Cacno, on the fourteenth of November
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  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty eight. This ceremony took place in the Library
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  Speaker 1: Hall before a gathering including delegations from learned societies, cabinet ministers,
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  Speaker 1: members of the Committee of the Institute, resided over by
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  Speaker 1: Joseph bertrand prominent statesmen and former government officials. Doctor Granchet,
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  Speaker 1: treasurer of the Committee, who had been one of the
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  Speaker 1: first to recognize the value of the method of vaccinating
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  Speaker 1: against hydrophobia, celebrated the discoveries of the illustrious scientists, now
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  Speaker 1: so nearly vanquished in life's struggle. You know, he said
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  Speaker 1: to his eminent hearers that Monsieur Pasteur is an innovator,
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  Speaker 1: that his creative imagination, controlled by a rigorous observation of facts,
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  Speaker 1: has overthrown many errors and built up in their place
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  Speaker 1: in entirely new science. His discoveries relating to ferments, to
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  Speaker 1: the generation of infinitely small organisms, and to microbes as
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  Speaker 1: the cause of contagious diseases, have constituted in biological chemistry,
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  Speaker 1: in the veterinary art, and in medicine. Not a regular
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  Speaker 1: process what a radical revolution. Now. Revolutions, even those inspired
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  Speaker 1: by scientific demonstrations, leave behind them wherever they pass some
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  Speaker 1: victims who do not easily forgive. Consequently, Monsieur Pasteur has
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  Speaker 1: a number of adversaries scattered throughout the world, not to
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  Speaker 1: count those French Athenians who do not like to see
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  Speaker 1: the same man always in the right and always fortunate.
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  Speaker 1: And as though his adversaries were not already numerous enough,
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur Pasteur made himself others by the implacable rigor of
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  Speaker 1: his dialectics and the dogmatic form that he sometimes gives
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  Speaker 1: to his thoughts. To this discourse of doctor Cornchet, Pasteur
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  Speaker 1: replied in lofty and noble words, in which there was
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  Speaker 1: a blending of melancholy and pride, and of the deep
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  Speaker 1: confidence that he had in the powers of science. And
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  Speaker 1: on the day, when foreseeing the future possibilities that would
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  Speaker 1: be opened up by the discover of the virus, so
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  Speaker 1: ran the words delivered by his son, for Pasteur himself
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  Speaker 1: was too much overcome by suffering any motion to deliver
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  Speaker 1: them in person. I appealed directly to my country to
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  Speaker 1: enable us, by means of private subscriptions, to build laboratories
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  Speaker 1: designed not only for the treatment of hydrophobia, but also
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  Speaker 1: for the study of virulent and contagious diseases. That same
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  Speaker 1: day France gave to us with lavish hands. And here
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  Speaker 1: we see it finished, this grand building of which it
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  Speaker 1: may be truly said that there is not a single
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  Speaker 1: stone that is not the material sign of a generous thought.
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  Speaker 1: All the virtues have paid tribute toward the erection of
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  Speaker 1: this abode of toil alas, it is my most poignant
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  Speaker 1: sorrow that I enter it as a man already vanquished
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  Speaker 1: by age, no longer surrounded by any of my former masters,
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  Speaker 1: nor any of the companionions of my struggles, neither Dumas
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  Speaker 1: nor Boullet, nor Paulbert nor Voupien, who, after having been
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  Speaker 1: like you, my dear conche the counselor of my early efforts,
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  Speaker 1: became the most convinced and energetic defender of my method.
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  Speaker 1: And yet although I grieve to think they are no
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  Speaker 1: longer here, after having taken part so valiantly in controversies
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  Speaker 1: which I never provoked, but which I was forced to endure.
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  Speaker 1: Although they cannot hear me proclaim what I owe to
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  Speaker 1: their counsels and support, although I feel their absence as
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  Speaker 1: keenly as on the day after their death, I have
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  Speaker 1: at least the consolation of the thought that all this
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  Speaker 1: work which we defended together is destined not to perish,
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  Speaker 1: and this faith in our science is shared by the
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  Speaker 1: collaborators and disciples here present. Hold fast to the enthusiasm,
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  Speaker 1: my dear colleagues, which has been yours since the earliest hour.
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  Speaker 1: But make strict accuracy its inseparable companion as certain nothing
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  Speaker 1: that cannot be proved in some simple and decisive fashion.
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  Speaker 1: Cultivate the critical spirit taken by itself. It is neither
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  Speaker 1: an awakener of ideas nor an incentive to great deeds.
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  Speaker 1: But without it nothing is stable. It always has the
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  Speaker 1: last word. This which I ask of you, and which
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  Speaker 1: you in turn will ask of the disciples whom you train,
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  Speaker 1: is the thing which, of all others is most difficult
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  Speaker 1: for an inventor to believe that you have discovered an
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  Speaker 1: important scientific fact, to feel a feverish desire to proclaim it,
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  Speaker 1: and yet to force yourself for days and weeks, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: for years, to combat your own discovery, to do your
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  Speaker 1: utmost to disprove your own experiments, and to refrain from
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  Speaker 1: announcing what you have discovered until you have exhausted every
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  Speaker 1: contrary hypothesis. That indeed is an arduous task. But when
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  Speaker 1: after all these efforts you arrive at certainty, you experience
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  Speaker 1: one of the greatest joys that the human soul can know.
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  Speaker 1: And the thought that you will contribute to the honor
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  Speaker 1: of your country renders this joy even more profound. Even
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  Speaker 1: if science has no country, the man of science must
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  Speaker 1: needs have one, and it is to her that he
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  Speaker 1: should give the credit for the influence which his labors
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  Speaker 1: may have throughout the world. If I may be permitted,
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  Speaker 1: mister President, to close with a philosophic reflection brought to
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  Speaker 1: my mind by your presence in this hall of toil,
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  Speaker 1: I would like to say that it seems to me
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  Speaker 1: that two contrary laws are today at war. One a
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  Speaker 1: law of blood and death, which, by daily inventing new
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  Speaker 1: methods of combat, forces the peoples to be forever read
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  Speaker 1: for the field of battle, and the other a law
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  Speaker 1: of peace and labor and health, which dreams only of
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  Speaker 1: delivering mankind from the scourges that beset it. The one
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  Speaker 1: seeks only violent conquests, the other only the assuagement of
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  Speaker 1: human ills. The latter places a single human life above
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  Speaker 1: all victories. The former would sacrifice hundreds of thousands of
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  Speaker 1: existences to the ambition of one man alone. The law
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  Speaker 1: of which we are the instruments, seeks, even in the
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  Speaker 1: midst of carnage, to stay the bloody havoc wrought by
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  Speaker 1: the law of war. The bandaging inspired by our antiseptic
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  Speaker 1: methods may preserve thousands of soldiers. Which of these laws
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  Speaker 1: will be victorious over the other, God alone knows. But
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  Speaker 1: of this we may be assured that French science will
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  Speaker 1: do its utmost, in obedience to the law of humanity,
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  Speaker 1: to extend the frontiers of life. What lofty accents and
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  Speaker 1: how well they sum up the philosophy of the long
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  Speaker 1: and laborious effort which Pastor unfalteringly sustained. He had reached
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  Speaker 1: his home vanquished by life, to use his own expression.
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  Speaker 1: But it was peopled by active toilers, his pupils and disciples,
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  Speaker 1: who were imbued with his method and would continue to
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  Speaker 1: carry on his work one and all obedient to his
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  Speaker 1: temperament and genius as a scientist. The first buildings erected
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  Speaker 1: on the Rue Duttot are devoted to the service of
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  Speaker 1: the Bacteriological Institute. They cover a surface space of eleven
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  Speaker 1: thousand square meters and consist of two vast two story
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  Speaker 1: pavilions parallel to the street and connected by a third
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  Speaker 1: midway between them. They contain, besides the laboratories, the study
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  Speaker 1: halls and library, where scientific works may be consulted, and
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  Speaker 1: which also contains busts of Pasteur, of Don Pedro, of
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  Speaker 1: Alexander the Third, of Madame Futaro Heine, of Madame Boussiko,
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  Speaker 1: of Mme de Roth's child, and of the Count de
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  Speaker 1: lous Bin, all benefactors of the institute. It is also
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  Speaker 1: adorned by two paintings, the one representing a Miduklo, the
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  Speaker 1: other Professor Menzhnikov. Work in this fine and spacious chamber
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  Speaker 1: is facilitated by the cordial welcome of its librarian, Monsieur Roussel.
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  Speaker 1: An apartment has been reserved for Pasteur It is at
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  Speaker 1: present occupied by Doctor Rux, Director of the Institute. All
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  Speaker 1: the working rooms, whatever their dimensions, are finished according to
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  Speaker 1: the same model, without colors and with varnished walls, with
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  Speaker 1: the result that there is always the most absolute cleanliness.
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  Speaker 1: The Department for the treatment of hydrophobia is installed on
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  Speaker 1: the ground floor. It includes a waiting room, an examination
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  Speaker 1: room and an oculation room, besides a laboratory in which
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  Speaker 1: are preserved the marrows of infected rabbits which are used
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  Speaker 1: for the preparation of vaccines. In the left wing are
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  Speaker 1: situated a lecture room, a laboratory for the preparation of
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  Speaker 1: culture mediums and a dissecting room. The first floor is
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  Speaker 1: given over to the course in the technical study of microbes,
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  Speaker 1: and the second floor is used for the researches of
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  Speaker 1: young scientists who have been admitted for the purpose of
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  Speaker 1: carrying on their personal studies. The active work of the
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  Speaker 1: Bacterological Institute is divided into four main branches, the Department
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  Speaker 1: of Vaccines, the Department of Hydrophobia, the Department of Technical
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  Speaker 1: Microbiology and the Department of Menshnikov. After the erection of
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  Speaker 1: the Bactorological Institute, the Sir both Therapic Institute was founded
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  Speaker 1: as a result of the discovery by doctor Rue of
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  Speaker 1: the vaccine for croup, and next the Institute of Biological Chemistry.
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  Speaker 1: The Pastor Institute, as a collective whole, which had for
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  Speaker 1: its first director the illustrious scientist Emil Duclo, forms a
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  Speaker 1: vast organism in which the most precious discoveries are evolved.
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  Speaker 1: It is frequented by large numbers of students, both native
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  Speaker 1: and foreign. It is thrown forth branches throughout the world,
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  Speaker 1: and there is today no country that does not possess
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  Speaker 1: a Pastor Institute. We find them in Russia, Turkey, Italy, Brazil,
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  Speaker 1: the Argentine Republic, the French colonies, Tunis, Indochina, Morocco, Cambodia,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera. Every year a new building rises on some
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  Speaker 1: corner of the earth, where there is some special malady
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  Speaker 1: to conquer, and whither a remedy may be brought. Commission
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  Speaker 1: set forth from the institute in the Rue duttote to
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  Speaker 1: go and study on the spot these great epidemics, the
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  Speaker 1: modern scourges which must be conquered. The Pastor Institute, today,
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  Speaker 1: directed by doctor Rux, is an incomparable working laboratory in
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  Speaker 1: which the most precious discoveries are being evolved, and it
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  Speaker 1: is also an admirable institute for the promulgation of France's
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  Speaker 1: contributions to science. End of section thirteen.