Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-11-05

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took his seat among tho forty ilinstFioa
members Of the French Academy
Cpen Ernest Rensu 6eyolsed The tass
Of delivering the address Of welcome
You sie al the present time, SIR,
said he. " directing your studies upot
hydrophobia; you are searching Tor .n'
microscopic germ which causes II. iou
viii end IL. Humanity will eve 70 you
the suppression Of a terrible disease
and also Of that mistrost which II
always present in some degree TO TIE
mind when We permit the cafesses OF
The animal that Is mans gra'eiui ana
familiar friend"
The mos, important telegrapbic news
Of tho week, taking higher rank even
thar The thieatenings OF war in Europe,
Is TINT Louis pasteur has discovered,
rot The microscopic germ, but a cure
fer h,drophobia. Even when given
such prominence as this, the news,
when massed in the columns OF the
daily newspaper, has to the general
reader less Of significance than 1t de-
serves; indeed. it may be said unques-
toned that, with the exception oil medi-
cal and scientific men, the assertion
will pass unnoticed by one hall ana
scoiled ut by the other half OF the read
ing public. So light a thing is fame,
and so one.sided are the general
ideas OF education that many we'll
informed man, who has State and ma
t;onai politics, the stock market, and
the racing news at his tongues end,
and reasons glibly and understsndingly
upon the effect Of European war upon
the wheat market, knows only Of Pas
teur that he is one OF those people who
are always ,heorizing ard experiment
ing with no result worth remembering.
A better knowledge OF the man, with
gratitude for his work, would be more
becoming a generation 10 whom he has
rendered so many inestimable services
services alike TO the prosperity aud
health Of the race.
The popular idea of the scientist Is
that be is, in general parlance,
crank" given up to theories whose
practice the world is well enough with
out. Pasteur's life and labors amply
disprove the idea. Devoted, indeed, to
the science Of chemistry, so far pos
sessed with the idea that to the man
who patiently follows the from which
be devisted all mysteries of creation
will open, that his constant regret is
that circumstances turned him to other
fields of research, his life has been
spent in the endeavor to assuage
the evils that came to hand. No
better exemplihcation could be had Of
the truth Of the proyerb that when
there is work to do God finds a hand
to do it. With Pasteur's early work
in the field of molecular physics, re-
sulting in the discovery OF molecular
dissy and in his firm belief that
the existing barrier between the min
eral and organic kingdoms will be over
thrown by some experimenter more for
tunate than himself, who shall pro-
duce dissymmetrical inorganic SUBJ
stances, the general reader can have
but little interest; but in erything
that he has done since, prompted
by the results OF an experiment, he bent
his powers Of intelligent observation
upon the phenomena Of fermentation,
every man, woman, and child may be
said to have,if they do not feel, per-
sonal interest. A fair illustration Of
the insignifcance attached TO common
things, and Of the incorrect ideas which
are allowed to invest them, is the
theory held, even as late as that time
1854, regarding the causes Of fer
peptatioD Of different substances aud
liquids is well known. According
to most authorities, among whom
Licbeg was, perhaps, the most eminent,
ferments were heterogeneous substances.
One or two later experimenters had diff
fered from this view, but, until Pasteur,
none recognized ferments as living
body, and consequently subject to GER
tain laws, which, when once known and
followed, converted the ferment into
useful instrument or disarmed it Of its
noxious powers. To the manufacture
and maladies Of the wines Of France
Pasteur contributed not theories alone,
but positive knowledge, which, attrliling
cost, abolished the causes Of wine dis
eases, which were rayagiDg the famous
manufactures Of France.
Not yet, however, could he return to
his beloved chemistry. A new evil
presented itself. The diseases of the
silk-worm were running the silk indus
try Of France. For years, during
which time these diseases spread, not
only through France, but to the far
East, Pasteur labored to establish the
truth Of his theory that the
disease existed in the moth and
was definite organism, di-
rectly communicable from one worm
to another, and that exemption from
infection was a sure and simple pre-
yentiye for the maladies that had
wrought financial ruin in so many COM
munines and this exemption, he show
ed, was certain if proper regard wa:
given to cleanliness, temperature, food
and the destruction Of all unhealthy
worms.
The inevitable penalty man must pay
for excessive work was at the end o
bis labors in this direction exacted from
NJ. Passeur. At only forty-ive he va
stricken with q paralysis that threat
ened q suspension Of a life-work tina
had already been q benedcence I
his countrymen. When health re
turned more work lay ready 70
his hand. The preservation of bee
in bottles or in casks was the pre-
blem next set Pasteur to solve, an
the method, IL not the man, is know
wherever beer is drank. To character
i've the advance Of pasteur from mol'
cular physics to ferments, thence
silk-worm diseases, and next to II
diseases Of animals and man, as beir
from step to step, does not convey
correct idea Of his progression. 1t
rather that of spiral curve, each rev
luton extending his range.
The next subject brought to his n
tice WAS that Of splenic-fsver, disea
fatal to fiocks and herds, communicab
- from animals Of one species to those
another, even to man. On the con
nent the germ theory Of disease W
gaining ground. Pasteur, not being
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