Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-06-25
THE AGE OF PASTEUR.
LIFE AND WORK OF THE FAMOUS
FRENCHMAN.
He has Saved More Lives Than Any
Other Man.

He is paralytic. His hair is white as
snow. His days are numbered. But if
his walking is ended, the march of prog
ress whichhe began still goes irresistably
on; if his hair is white and his eyes are
dull, the memory of his achievements
will stay bright in the memory of the
world forever; if his life will soon end,
countless lives prolonged will add their
usefulness to the worlds sum total, and
thus testify that his was not lived in vain.
The Pasteur Institute is a great red
brick building, inclosed by high iron
fence on the Rue Dutot. The man who
designed the unique institution, and to
whose genius is due all the wonderful
work which has been done in it, spends
his long days in seclusion in his great
apartment ON it's second floor, waiting
calmly, and, indeed, happily, for his 18th
birthday, and the end, which can scarce
ly be far beyond it,
HOnOred as perhaps no other scientist
ever has been, the presiding genius of
this place is not even now content to give
up his studies and enter upon the period
of absolute rest which he has so richly
earned and which his friends so strongly
urge. He is no longer able to carry on
experiments himself-it has been diff
and often impossible for him to go to the
laboratories during the past two years.
He has at last been forced to give up even
the superintendent of the researches
which are constantly being carried on in
the strange workshop where science is
learning how to battle death. But still,
his is the dominating spirit of the place.
He is old and i'll, weary and worn, but it
is true that not one of the world. start
ling and wOrld-benefiting discoveries
which have developed on the Rue Dutot
during the past five years would havebeen
perfected without the aid of his counsel
and advice, despite the fact that there is
every day gathered under the great roof
of the institution such group of learn
ed men as have never before worked to-
gether along one line In harmony since
the beginning of scientific investigation.
and IN all that group of great scientists
there is not one who would for any price
try to rob the master of this tribute.
CharcOt, himself one of the greatest sci
entists the world ever produced. wrote:
"If it were still the usage to bestow
upon an age the name of single man,
ours might justly be called the Age Of
Pasteur.
His work has grown out of one great
discovery. 1t was, until he came, the be-
lief of science that organic decomposi-
tiou--decay-wa the result of purely
chemical action. He proved that there
is nothing chemical about it; that decay
is merely the generation of destructive
life-of microbes. Pasteur might also
be spoken of as the inventor of the mi
crobe He proved that there constantly
exists in the air certain forms of life
which. if they come in contact with a
field sympathetic to their growth, thrive
and multiply incredibly, consuming the
substance and disorganizing it in order
to maintain their own life. He found
that decay was the work of these germs.
Thus originated germinOlogy-bacteriol-
ogy. Bacteriology is the basis of almost
every great medico- scientific discovery
which has been made since he discovered
it. The science of curing and the science
of preventing disease have advanced by
leaps and bounds since this avenue was
found.
After he had discovered germs and
their place in the world, he discovered
how to use them-how to make them
fight themselves. The virus of certain
diseases was made up of germs. These
seemed to be proof against any enemy to
them which he was able to create out of
drugs. But he found that he could at
tenuate the virus-that is to say, that he
could artficially vary the virulence of the
germs. He could make it weak enough
so that it would be apparently without
effect, or he could make it so strong that
it would instantly kill. By weakening it
be made it safe to introduce it into the
veins of animals, and he found that when
he had done this those animals were rem
dered stronger in their resistance. The
germs created property which was ia
tai to themselves, 1t was the old theory
of sbimila similibus curantur" Nike
cures like,) He made germs fight germs.
In the eyes of the world his greatest
work has been the discovery of cure
for hydrophobia. The horror of rabies
had come down uninterrupted from the
Dark Ages No one had trieL to relieve
it; no one had been able to learn its true
source. The only remedy which was
even tried was a relic of barbarism. Peo-
pie rang a brass bell in the presence of
sufferers from rabies, and believed that
it quieted them. This probably origi-
mated in the days when disease was sup
posed to be a devil which could be
frightened away by Eoise. Pasteur mas
tered hydrOphobia. First he studied out
its cause, learned the nature of the ven
ON in the dog whose bite caused it.
Then he found his means OF alternating
of thinning-that venom, until it could
be given to an animal without killing it.
He gradually increased these doses until
the animal had become so Injured to the
venom that he could stand a dose so
large that it would at first have been fa
tai to him. Thus he was protected
against rabies. That was the theory.
His first experiments were made on
dogs, guinea pigs and rabbits. The
guinea pig is more like the human being
in its susceptibility to such doses than
is any otlrer animal. That accounts for
it's frequent use in medical experiments.
Pssteur hesitated a long time before he
with a human being. 1t
was serious matter to introduce the
active element of so horrible disease as
hydrOphoba into mans blood. What
if, instead of making him proof against
rabies, he should give him the disease?
The possibility was not pleasant one,
and it was hard thing to find subject
who was brave enough to accept the
scientists confidence as certainty and
submit himself to the experiment. But
at last one was found. He was shep
ard boy, and the hours that intervened
between the giving of the first dose and
the time when it would be possible to
aspartain Nvbatbar fha madirina would