“I do not know how to hide my ideas from those who work with me; still, I wish I could have kept those I am going to express a little longer to myself. The experiments have already begun which will decide them.
“It concerns rabies, but the results might be general.
“I am inclined to think that the virus which is considered rabic may be accompanied by a substance which, by impregnating the nervous system, would make it unsuitable for the culture of the microbe. Thence vaccinal3 immunity4. If that is so, the theory might be a general one: it would be a stupendous discovery.
“I have just met Chamberland in the Rue5 Gay-Lussac, and explained to him this view and my experiments. He was much struck, and asked my permission to make at once on anthrax the experiment I am about to make on rabies as soon as the dog and the culture rabbits are dead. Roux, the day before yesterday, was equally struck.
“Académie Fran?aise, Thursday, January 29, 1885.”
Could that vaccinal substance associated with the rabic virus be isolated6? In the meanwhile a main fact was acquired, that of preventive inoculation7, since Pasteur was sure of his series of dogs rendered refractory8 to rabies after a bite. Months were going by without bringing an answer to the question “Why?” of the antirabic vaccination9, as mysterious as the “Why?” of Jennerian vaccination.{414}
On Monday, July 6, Pasteur saw a little Alsatian boy, Joseph Meister, enter his laboratory, accompanied by his mother. He was only nine years old, and had been bitten two days before by a mad dog at Meissengott, near Schlestadt.
The child, going alone to school by a little by-road, had been attacked by a furious dog and thrown to the ground. Too small to defend himself, he had only thought of covering his face with his hands. A bricklayer, seeing the scene from a distance, arrived, and succeeded in beating the dog off with an iron bar; he picked up the boy, covered with blood and saliva10. The dog went back to his master, Théodore Vone, a grocer at Meissengott, whom he bit on the arm. Vone seized a gun and shot the animal, whose stomach was found to be full of hay, straw, pieces of wood, etc. When little Meister’s parents heard all these details they went, full of anxiety, to consult Dr. Weber, at Villé, that same evening. After cauterizing11 the wounds with carbolic, Dr. Weber advised Mme. Meister to start for Paris, where she could relate the facts to one who was not a physician, but who would be the best judge of what could be done in such a serious case. Théodore Vone, anxious on his own and on the child’s account, decided12 to come also.
Pasteur reassured13 him; his clothes had wiped off the dog’s saliva, and his shirt-sleeve was intact. He might safely go back to Alsace, and he promptly15 did so.
Pasteur’s emotion was great at the sight of the fourteen wounds of the little boy, who suffered so much that he could hardly walk. What should he do for this child? could he risk the preventive treatment which had been constantly successful on his dogs? Pasteur was divided between his hopes and his scruples16, painful in their acuteness. Before deciding on a course of action, he made arrangements for the comfort of this poor woman and her child, alone in Paris, and gave them an appointment for 5 o’clock, after the Institute meeting. He did not wish to attempt anything without having seen Vulpian and talked it over with him. Since the Rabies Commission had been constituted, Pasteur had formed a growing esteem17 for the great judgment18 of Vulpian, who, in his lectures on the general and comparative physiology19 of the nervous system, had already mentioned the profit to human clinics to be drawn20 from experimenting on animals.
His was a most prudent21 mind, always seeing all the aspects of a problem. The man was worthy22 of the scientist: he was{415} absolutely straightforward23, and of a discreet25 and active kindness. He was passionately27 fond of work, and had recourse to it when smitten28 by a deep sorrow.
Vulpian expressed the opinion that Pasteur’s experiments on dogs were sufficiently29 conclusive30 to authorize31 him to foresee the same success in human pathology. Why not try this treatment? added the professor, usually so reserved. Was there any other efficacious treatment against hydrophobia? If at least the cauterizations had been made with a red-hot iron! but what was the good of carbolic acid twelve hours after the accident. If the almost certain danger which threatened the boy were weighed against the chances of snatching him from death, Pasteur would see that it was more than a right, that it was a duty to apply antirabic inoculation to little Meister.
This was also the opinion of Dr. Grancher, whom Pasteur consulted. M. Grancher worked at the laboratory; he and Dr. Straus might claim to be the two first French physicians who took up the study of bacteriology; these novel studies fascinated him, and he was drawn to Pasteur by the deepest admiration32 and by a strong affection, which Pasteur thoroughly33 reciprocated34.
Vulpian and M. Grancher examined little Meister in the evening, and, seeing the number of bites, some of which, on one hand especially, were very deep, they decided on performing the first inoculation immediately; the substance chosen was fourteen days old and had quite lost its virulence36: it was to be followed by further inoculations gradually increasing in strength.
It was a very slight operation, a mere37 injection into the side (by means of a Pravaz syringe) of a few drops of a liquid prepared with some fragments of medulla oblongata. The child, who cried very much before the operation, soon dried his tears when he found the slight prick38 was all that he had to undergo.
Pasteur had had a bedroom comfortably arranged for the mother and child in the old Rollin College, and the little boy was very happy amidst the various animals—chickens, rabbits, white mice, guinea-pigs, etc.; he begged and easily obtained of Pasteur the life of several of the youngest of them.
“All is going well,” Pasteur wrote to his son-in-law on July 11: “the child sleeps well, has a good appetite, and the inoculated39 matter is absorbed into the system from one day{416} to another without leaving a trace. It is true that I have not yet come to the test inoculations, which will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. If the lad keeps well during the three following weeks, I think the experiment will be safe to succeed. I shall send the child and his mother back to Meissengott (near Schlestadt) in any case on August 1, giving these good people detailed40 instruction as to the observations they are to record for me. I shall make no statement before the end of the vacation.”
But, as the inoculations were becoming more virulent41, Pasteur became a prey42 to anxiety: “My dear children,” wrote Mme. Pasteur, “your father has had another bad night; he is dreading43 the last inoculations on the child. And yet there can be no drawing back now! The boy continues in perfect health.”
Renewed hopes were expressed in the following letter from Pasteur—
“My dear René, I think great things are coming to pass. Joseph Meister has just left the laboratory. The three last inoculations have left some pink marks under the skin, gradually widening and not at all tender. There is some action, which is becoming more intense as we approach the final inoculation, which will take place on Thursday, July 16. The lad is very well this morning, and has slept well, though slightly restless; he has a good appetite and no feverishness46. He had a slight hysterical47 attack yesterday.”
The letter ended with an affectionate invitation. “Perhaps one of the great medical facts of the century is going to take place; you would regret not having seen it!”
Pasteur was going through a succession of hopes, fears, anguish48, and an ardent49 yearning50 to snatch little Meister from death; he could no longer work. At nights, feverish45 visions came to him of this child whom he had seen playing in the garden, suffocating51 in the mad struggles of hydrophobia, like the dying child he had seen at the H?pital Trousseau in 1880. Vainly his experimental genius assured him that the virus of that most terrible of diseases was about to be vanquished52, that humanity was about to be delivered from this dread44 horror—his human tenderness was stronger than all, his accustomed ready sympathy for the sufferings and anxieties of others was for the nonce centred in “the dear lad.”
The treatment lasted ten days; Meister was inoculated{417} twelve times. The virulence of the medulla used was tested by trephinings on rabbits, and proved to be gradually stronger. Pasteur even inoculated on July 16, at 11 a.m., some medulla only one day old, bound to give hydrophobia to rabbits after only seven days’ incubation; it was the surest test of the immunity and preservation53 due to the treatment.
Cured from his wounds, delighted with all he saw, gaily54 running about as if he had been in his own Alsatian farm, little Meister, whose blue eyes now showed neither fear nor shyness, merrily received the last inoculation; in the evening, after claiming a kiss from “Dear Monsieur Pasteur,” as he called him, he went to bed and slept peacefully. Pasteur spent a terrible night of insomnia55; in those slow dark hours of night when all vision is distorted, Pasteur, losing sight of the accumulation of experiments which guaranteed his success, imagined that the little boy would die.
The treatment being now completed, Pasteur left little Meister to the care of Dr. Grancher (the lad was not to return to Alsace until July 27) and consented to take a few days’ rest. He spent them with his daughter in a quiet, almost deserted56 country place in Burgundy, but without however finding much restfulness in the beautiful peaceful scenery; he lived in constant expectation of Dr. Grancher’s daily telegram or letter containing news of Joseph Meister.
By the time he went to the Jura, Pasteur’s fears had almost disappeared. He wrote from Arbois to his son August 3, 1885: “Very good news last night of the bitten lad. I am looking forward with great hopes to the time when I can draw a conclusion. It will be thirty-one days to-morrow since he was bitten.”
On August 20, six weeks before the new elections of Deputies, Léon Say, Pasteur’s colleague at the Académie Fran?aise, wrote to him that many Beauce agricultors were anxious to put his name down on the list of candidates, as a recognition of the services rendered by science. A few months before, Jules Simon had thought Pasteur might be elected as a Life Senator, but Pasteur had refused to be convinced. He now replied to Léon Say—
“Your proposal touches me very much and it would be agreeable to me to owe a Deputy’s mandate57 to electors, several of whom have applied58 the results of my investigations59. But{418} politics frighten me and I have already refused a candidature in the Jura and a seat in the Senate in the course of this year.
“I might be tempted60 perhaps, if I no longer felt active enough for my laboratory work. But I still feel equal to further researches, and on my return to Paris, I shall be organizing a ‘service’ against rabies which will absorb all my energies. I now possess a very perfect method of prophylaxis against that terrible disease, a method equally adapted to human beings and to dogs, and by which your much afflicted61 Department will be one of the first to benefit.
“Before my departure for Jura I dared to treat a poor little nine-year-old lad whose mother brought him to me from Alsace, where he had been attacked on the 4th ult., and bitten on the thighs62, legs, and hand in such a manner that hydrophobia would have been inevitable63. He remains64 in perfect health.”
Whilst many political speeches were being prepared, Pasteur was thinking over a literary speech. He had been requested by the Académie Fran?aise to welcome Joseph Bertrand, elected in place of J. B. Dumas—the eulogium of a scientist, spoken by one scientist, himself welcomed by another scientist. This was an unusual programme for the Académie Fran?aise, perhaps too unusual in the eyes of Pasteur, who did not think himself worthy of speaking in the name of the Académie. Such was his modesty66; he forgot that amongst the savants who had been members of the Académie, several, such as Fontenelle, Cuvier, J. B. Dumas, etc., had published immortal67 pages, and that some extracts from his own works would one day become classical.
The vacation gave him time to read over the writings of his beloved teacher, and also to study the life and works of Joseph Bertrand, already his colleague at the Académie des Sciences.
Bertrand’s election had been simple and easy, like everything he had undertaken since his birth. It seemed as if a good fairy had leant over his cradle and whispered to him, “Thou shalt know many things, without having had to learn them.” It is a fact that he could read without having held a book in his hands. He was ill and in bed whilst his brother Alexander was being taught to read; he listened to the lessons and kept the various combinations of letters in his mind. When he became convalescent, his parents brought him a book of Natural History so that he might look at the pictures. He took the volume{419} and read from it fluently; he was not five years old. He learnt the elements of geometry very much in the same way.
Pasteur in his speech thus described Joseph Bertrand’s childhood: “At ten years old you were already celebrated69, and it was prophesied70 that you would pass at the head of the list into the Ecole Polytechnique and become a member of the Academy of Sciences? No one doubted this, not even yourself. You were indeed a child prodigy71. Sometimes it amused you to hide in a class of higher mathematics, and when the Professor propounded72 a difficult problem that no one could solve, one of the students would triumphantly73 lift you in his arms, stand you on a chair so that you might reach the board, and you would then give the required solution with a calm assurance, in the midst of applause from the professors and pupils.”
Pasteur, whose every progress had been painfully acquired, admired the ease with which Bertrand had passed through the first stages of his career. At an age when marbles and india-rubber balls are usually an important interest, Bertrand walked merrily to the Jardin des Plantes to attend a course of lectures by Gay-Lussac. A few hours later, he might be seen at the Sorbonne, listening with interest to Saint Marc Girardin, the literary moralist. The next day, he would go to a lecture on Comparative Legislation; never was so young a child seen in such serious places. He borrowed as many books from the Institute library as Biot himself; he learnt whole passages by heart, merely by glancing at them. He became a doctor ès sciences at sixteen, and a Member of the Institute at thirty-four.
Besides his personal works—such as those on Analytic74 Mechanics, which place him in the very first rank—his teaching had been brought to bear during forty years on all branches of mathematics. Bertrand’s life, apparently75 so happy, had been saddened by the irreparable loss, during the Commune, of a great many precious notes, letters, and manuscripts, which had been burnt with the house where he had left them. Discouraged by this ruin of ten years’ work, he had given way to a tendency to writing slight popular articles, of high literary merit, instead of continuing his deeper scientific work. His eulogy76 of J. B. Dumas was not quite seriously enthusiastic enough to please Pasteur, who had a veritable cult2 for the memory of his old teacher, and who eagerly grasped this opportunity of speaking again of J. B. Dumas’ influence on himself, of his admirable scientific discoveries, and of his political duties,{420} undertaken in the hope of being useful to Science, but often proving a source of disappointment.
Pasteur enjoyed looking back on the beloved memory of J. B. Dumas, as he sat preparing his speech in his study at Arbois, looking out on the familiar landscape of his childhood, where the progress of practical science was evidenced by the occasional passing, through the distant pine woods, of the white smoke of the Switzerland express.
When in his laboratory in Paris, Pasteur hated to be disturbed whilst making experiments or writing out notes of his work. Any visitor was unwelcome; one day that some one was attempting to force his way in, M. Roux was amused at seeing Pasteur—vexed at being disturbed and anxious not to pain the visitor—come out to say imploringly77, “Oh! not now, please! I am too busy!”
“When Chamberland and I,” writes Dr. Roux, “were engaged in an interesting occupation, he mounted guard before us, and when, through the glazed78 doors, he saw people coming, he himself would go and meet them in order to send them away. He showed so artlessly that his sole thought was for the work, that no one ever could be offended.”
But, at Arbois, where he only spent his holidays, he did not exercise so much severity; any one could come in who liked. He received in the morning a constant stream of visitors, begging for advice, recommendations, interviews, etc.
“It is both comical and touching79,” wrote M. Girard, a local journalist, “to see the opinion the vineyard labourers have of him. These good people have heard M. Pasteur’s name in connection with the diseases of wine, and they look upon him as a sort of wine doctor. If they notice a barrel of wine getting sour, they knock at the savant’s door, bottle in hand; this door is never closed to them. Peasants are not precise in their language; they do not know how to begin their explanations or how to finish them. M. Pasteur, ever calm and serious, listens to the very end, takes the bottle and studies it at his leisure. A week later, the wine is ‘cured.’”
He was consulted also on many other subjects—virus, silkworms, rabies, cholera80, swine-fever, etc.; many took him for a physician. Whilst telling them of their mistake, he yet did everything he could for them.
During this summer of 1885, he had the melancholy81 joy of seeing a bust82 erected83 in the village of Monay to the memory of{421} a beloved friend of his, J. J. Perraud, a great and inspired sculptor85, who had died in 1876. Perraud, whose magnificent statue of Despair is now at the Louvre, had had a sad life, and, on his lonely death-bed (he was a widower86, with no children), Pasteur’s tender sympathy had been an unspeakable comfort. Pasteur now took a leading part in the celebration of his friend’s fame, and was glad to speak to the assembled villagers at Monay of the great and disinterested87 artist who had been born in their midst.
On his return to Paris, Pasteur found himself obliged to hasten the organization of a “service” for the preventive treatment of hydrophobia after a bite. The Mayors of Villers-Farlay, in the Jura, wrote to him that, on October 14, a shepherd had been cruelly bitten by a rabid dog.
Six little shepherd boys were watching over their sheep in a meadow; suddenly they saw a large dog passing along the road, with hanging, foaming88 jaws89.
“A mad dog!” they exclaimed. The dog, seeing the children, left the road and charged them; they ran away shrieking90, but the eldest91 of them, J. B. Jupille, fourteen years of age, bravely turned back in order to protect the flight of his comrades. Armed with his whip, he confronted the infuriated animal, who flew at him and seized his left hand. Jupille, wrestling with the dog, succeeded in kneeling on him, and forcing its jaws open in order to disengage his left hand; in so doing, his right hand was seriously bitten in its turn; finally, having been able to get hold of the animal by the neck, Jupille called to his little brother to pick up his whip, which had fallen during the struggle, and securely fastened the dog’s jaws with the lash92. He then took his wooden sabot, with which he battered93 the dog’s head, after which, in order to be sure that it could do no further harm, he dragged the body down to a little stream in the meadow, and held the head under water for several minutes. Death being now certain, and all danger removed from his comrades, Jupille returned to Villers-Farlay.
Whilst the boy’s wounds were being bandaged, the dog’s carcase was fetched, and a necropsy took place the next day. The two veterinary surgeons who examined the body had not the slightest hesitation94 in declaring that the dog was rabid.
The Mayor of Villers-Farlay, who had been to see Pasteur during the summer, wrote to tell him that this lad would die{422} a victim of his own courage unless the new treatment intervened. The answer came immediately: Pasteur declared that, after five years’ study, he had succeeded in making dogs refractory to rabies, even six or eight days after being bitten; that he had only once yet applied his method to a human being, but that once with success, in the case of little Meister, and that, if Jupille’s family consented, the boy might be sent to him. “I shall keep him near me in a room of my laboratory; he will be watched and need not go to bed; he will merely receive a daily prick, not more painful than a pin-prick.”
The family, on hearing this letter, came to an immediate35 decision; but, between the day when he was bitten and Jupille’s arrival in Paris, six whole days had elapsed, whilst in Meister’s case there had only been two and a half!
Yet, however great were Pasteur’s fears for the life of this tall lad, who seemed quite surprised when congratulated on his courageous95 conduct, they were not what they had been in the first instance—he felt much greater confidence.
A few days later, on October 26, Pasteur in a statement at the Academy of Sciences described the treatment followed for Meister. Three months and three days had passed, and the child remained perfectly96 well. Then he spoke65 of his new attempt. Vulpian rose—
“The Academy will not be surprised,” he said, “if, as a member of the Medical and Surgical97 Section, I ask to be allowed to express the feelings of admiration inspired in me by M. Pasteur’s statement. I feel certain that those feelings will be shared by the whole of the medical profession.
“Hydrophobia, that dread disease against which all therapeutic98 measures had hitherto failed, has at last found a remedy. M. Pasteur, who has been preceded by no one in this path, has been led by a series of investigations unceasingly carried on for several years, to create a method of treatment, by means of which the development of hydrophobia can infallibly be prevented in a patient recently bitten by a rabid dog. I say infallibly, because, after what I have seen in M. Pasteur’s laboratory, I do not doubt the constant success of this treatment when it is put into full practice a few days only after a rabic bite.
“It is now necessary to see about organizing an installation for the treatment of hydrophobia by M. Pasteur’s method. Every person bitten by a rabid dog must be given the oppor{423}tunity of benefiting by this great discovery, which will seal the fame of our illustrious colleague and bring glory to our whole country.”
Pasteur had ended his reading by a touching description of Jupille’s action, leaving the Assembly under the impression of that boy of fourteen, sacrificing himself to save his companions. An Academician, Baron99 Larrey, whose authority was rendered all the greater by his calmness, dignity, and moderation, rose to speak. After acknowledging the importance of Pasteur’s discovery, Larrey continued, “The sudden inspiration, agility100 and courage, with which the ferocious101 dog was muzzled102, and thus made incapable103 of committing further injury to bystanders, ... such an act of bravery deserves to be rewarded. I therefore have the honour of begging the Académie des Sciences to recommend to the Académie Fran?aise this young shepherd, who, by giving such a generous example of courage and devotion, has well deserved a Montyon prize.”
Bouley, then chairman of the Academy, rose to speak in his turn—
“We are entitled to say that the date of the present meeting will remain for ever memorable104 in the history of medicine, and glorious for French science; for it is that of one of the greatest steps ever accomplished105 in the medical order of things—a progress realized by the discovery of an efficacious means of preventive treatment for a disease, the incurable106 nature of which was a legacy107 handed down by one century to another. From this day, humanity is armed with a means of fighting the fatal disease of hydrophobia and of preventing its onset108. It is to M. Pasteur that we owe this, and we could not feel too much admiration or too much gratitude109 for the efforts on his part which have led to such a magnificent result....”
Five years previously110, Bouley, in the annual combined public meeting of the five Academies, had proclaimed his enthusiasm for the discovery of the vaccination of anthrax. But on hearing him again on this October day, in 1885, his colleagues could not but be painfully struck by the change in him; his voice was weak, his face thin and pale. He was dying of an affection of the heart, and quite aware of it, but he was sustained by a wonderful energy, and ready to forget his sufferings in his joy at the thought that the sum of human sorrows would be diminished by Pasteur’s victory. He went to the Académie{424} de Médecine the next day to enjoy the echo of the great sitting of the Académie des Sciences. He died on November 29.
The chairman of the Academy of Medicine, M. Jules Bergeron, applauded Pasteur’s statement all the more that he too had publicly deplored111 (in 1862) the impotence of medical science in the presence of this cruel disease.
But while M. Bergeron shared the admiration felt by Vulpian and Dr. Grancher for the experiments which had transformed the rabic virus into its own vaccine112, other medical men were divided into several categories: some were full of enthusiasm, others reserved their opinion, many were sceptical, and a few even positively113 hostile.
As soon as Pasteur’s paper was published, people bitten by rabid dogs began to arrive from all sides to the laboratory. The “service” of hydrophobia became the chief business of the day. Every morning was spent by Eugène Viala in preparing the fragments of marrow114 used for inoculations: in a little room permanently115 kept at a temperature of 20° to 23° C., stood rows of sterilized116 flasks117, their tubular openings closed by plugs of cotton-wool. Each flask118 contained a rabic marrow, hanging from the stopper by a thread and gradually drying up by the action of some fragments of caustic119 potash lying at the bottom of the flask. Viala cut those marrows120 into small pieces by means of scissors previously put through a flame, and placed them in small sterilized glasses; he then added a few drops of veal121 broth68 and pounded the mixture with a glass rod. The vaccinal liquid was now ready; each glass was covered with a paper cover, and bore the date of the medulla used, the earliest of which was fourteen days old. For each patient under treatment from a certain date, there was a whole series of little glasses. Pasteur always attended these operations personally.
In the large hall of the laboratory, Pasteur’s collaborators, Messrs. Chamberland and Roux, carried on investigations into contagious122 diseases under the master’s directions; the place was full of flasks, pipets, phials, containing culture broths123. Etienne Wasserzug, another curator, hardly more than a boy, fresh from the Ecole Normale, where his bright intelligence and affectionate heart had made him very popular, translated (for he knew the English, German, Italian, Hungarian and Spanish languages, and was awaiting a favourable124 opportunity of learning Russian) the letters which arrived from all parts of the{425} world; he also entertained foreign scientists. Pasteur had in him a most valuable interpreter. Physicians came from all parts of the world asking to be allowed to study the details of the method. One morning, Dr. Grancher found Pasteur listening to a physician who was gravely and solemnly holding forth125 his objections to microbian doctrines126, and in particular to the treatment of hydrophobia. Pasteur having heard this long monologue127, rose and said, “Sir, your language is not very intelligible128 to me. I am not a physician and do not desire to be one. Never speak to me of your dogma of morbid129 spontaneity. I am a chemist; I carry out experiments and I try to understand what they teach me. What do you think, doctor?” he added, turning to M. Grancher. The latter smilingly answered that the hour for inoculations had struck. They took place at eleven, in Pasteur’s study; he, standing130 by the open door, called out the names of the patients. The date and circumstances of the bites and the veterinary surgeon’s certificate were entered in a register, and the patients were divided into series according to the degree of virulence which was to be inoculated on each day of the period of treatment.
Pasteur took a personal interest in each of his patients, helping131 those who were poor and illiterate132 to find suitable lodgings133 in the great capital. Children especially inspired him with a loving solicitude134. But his pity was mingled135 with terror, when, on November 9, a little girl of ten was brought to him who had been severely136 bitten on the head by a mountain dog, on October 3, thirty-seven days before!! The wound was still suppurating. He said to himself, “This is a hopeless case: hydrophobia is no doubt about to appear immediately; it is much too late for the preventive treatment to have the least chance of success. Should I not, in the scientific interest of the method, refuse to treat this child? If the issue is fatal, all those who have already been treated will be frightened, and many bitten persons, discouraged from coming to the laboratory, may succumb137 to the disease!” These thoughts rapidly crossed Pasteur’s mind. But he found himself unable to resist his compassion138 for the father and mother, begging him to try and save their child.
After the treatment was over, Louise Pelletier had returned to school, when fits of breathlessness appeared, soon followed by convulsive spasms139; she could swallow nothing. Pasteur hastened to her side when these symptoms began, and new inoculations were attempted. On December 2, there was a{426} respite140 of a few hours, moments of calm which inspired Pasteur with the vain hope that she might yet be saved. This delusion142 was a short-lived one. After attending Bouley’s funeral, his heart full of sorrow, Pasteur spent the day by little Louise’s bedside, in her parents’ rooms in the Rue Dauphine. He could not tear himself away; she herself, full of affection for him, gasped143 out a desire that he should not go away, that he should stay with her! She felt for his hand between two spasms. Pasteur shared the grief of the father and mother. When all hope had to be abandoned: “I did so wish I could have saved your little one!” he said. And as he came down the staircase, he burst into tears.
He was obliged, a few days later, to preside at the reception of Joseph Bertrand at the Académie Fran?aise; his sad feelings little in harmony with the occasion. He read in a mournful and troubled voice the speech he had prepared during his peaceful and happy holidays at Arbois. Henry Houssaye, reporting on this ceremony in the Journal des Débats, wrote, “M. Pasteur ended his speech amidst a torrent144 of applause, he received a veritable ovation145. He seemed unaccountably moved. How can M. Pasteur, who has received every mark of admiration, every supreme146 honour, whose name is consecrated147 by universal renown148, still be touched by anything save the discoveries of his powerful genius?” People did not realize that Pasteur’s thoughts were far away from himself and from his brilliant discovery. He was thinking of Dumas, his master, of Bouley, his faithful friend and colleague, and of the child he had been unable to snatch from the jaws of death; his mind was not with the living, but with the dead.
A telegram from New York having announced that four children, bitten by rabid dogs, were starting for Paris, many adversaries149 who had heard of Louise Pelletier’s death were saying triumphantly that, if those children’s parents had known of her fate, they would have spared them so long and useless a journey.
The four little Americans belonged to workmen’s families and were sent to Paris by means of a public subscription150 opened in the columns of the New York Herald151; they were accompanied by a doctor and by the mother of the youngest of them, a boy only five years old. After the first inoculation, this little boy, astonished at the insignificant152 prick, could not help saying, “Is this all we have come such a long journey for?” The{427} children were received with enthusiasm on their return to New York, and were asked “many questions about the great man who had taken such care of them.”
A letter dated from that time (January 14, 1886) shows that Pasteur yet found time for kindness, in the midst of his world-famed occupations.
“My dear Jupille, I have received your letters, and I am much pleased with the news you give me of your health. Mme. Pasteur thanks you for remembering her. She, and every one at the laboratory, join with me in wishing that you may keep well and improve as much as possible in reading, writing and arithmetic. Your writing is already much better than it was, but you should take some pains with your spelling. Where do you go to school? Who teaches you? Do you work at home as much as you might? You know that Joseph Meister, who was first to be vaccinated153, often writes to me; well, I think he is improving more quickly than you are, though he is only ten years old. So, mind you take pains, do not waste your time with other boys, and listen to the advice of your teachers, and of your father and mother. Remember me to M. Perrot, the Mayor of Villers-Farlay. Perhaps, without him, you would have become ill, and to be ill of hydrophobia means inevitable death; therefore you owe him much gratitude. Good-bye. Keep well.”
Pasteur’s solicitude did not confine itself to his two first patients, Joseph Meister and the fearless Jupille, but was extended to all those who had come under his care; his kindness was like a living flame. The very little ones who then only saw in him a “kind gentleman” bending over them understood later in life, when recalling the sweet smile lighting154 up his serious face, that Science, thus understood, unites moral with intellectual grandeur155.
Good, like evil, is infectious; Pasteur’s science and devotion inspired an act of generosity156 which was to be followed by many others. He received a visit from one of his colleagues at the Académie Fran?aise, Edouard Hervé, who looked upon journalism157 as a great responsibility and as a school of mutual158 respect between adversaries. He was bringing to Pasteur, from the Comte de Laubespin, a generous philanthropist, a sum of 40,000 fr. destined159 to meet the expenses necessitated160 by the organization of the hydrophobia treatment. Pasteur, when{428} questioned by Hervé, answered that his intention was to found a model establishment in Paris, supported by donations and international subscriptions161, without having recourse to the State. But he added that he wanted to wait a little longer until the success of the treatment was undoubted. Statistics came to support it; Bouley, who had been entrusted162 with an official inquiry163 on the subject under the Empire, had found that the proportion of deaths after bites from rabid dogs had been 40 per 100, 320 cases having been watched. The proportion often was greater still: whilst Joseph Meister was under Pasteur’s care, five persons were bitten by a rabid dog on the Pantin Road, near Paris, and every one of them succumbed164 to hydrophobia.
Pasteur, instead of referring to Bouley’s statistics, preferred to adopt those of M. Leblanc, a veterinary surgeon and a member of the Academy of Medicine, who had for a long time been head of the sanitary165 department of the Préfecture de Police. These statistics only gave a proportion of deaths of 16 per 100, and had been carefully and accurately166 kept.
On March 1, he was able to affirm, before the Academy, that the new method had given proofs of its merit, for, out of 350 persons treated, only one death had taken place, that of the little Pelletier. He concluded thus—
“It may be seen, by comparison with the most rigorous statistics, that a very large number of persons have already been saved from death.
“The prophylaxis of hydrophobia after a bite is established.
“It is advisable to create a vaccinal institute against hydrophobia.”
The Academy of Sciences appointed a Commission who unanimously adopted the suggestion that an establishment for the preventive treatment of hydrophobia after a bite should be created in Paris, under the name of Institut Pasteur. A subscription was about to be opened in France and abroad. The spending of the funds would be directed by a special Committee.
A great wave of enthusiasm and generosity swept from one end of France to another and reached foreign countries. A newspaper of Milan, the Perseveranza, which had opened a subscription, collected 6,000 fr. in its first list. The Journal d’Alsace headed a propaganda in favour of this work, “sprung from Science and Charity.” It reminded its readers that Pasteur had occupied a professor’s chair in the former brilliant{429} Faculty167 of Science of Strasburg, and that his first inoculation was made on an Alsatian boy, Joseph Meister. The newspaper intended to send the subscriptions to Pasteur with these words: “Offerings from Alsace-Lorraine to the Pasteur Institute.”
The war of 1870 still darkened the memories of nations. Amongst eager and numerous inventions of instruments of death and destruction, humanity breathed when fresh news came from the laboratory, where a continued struggle was taking place against diseases. The most mysterious, the most cruel of all was going to be reduced to impotence.
Yet the method was about to meet with a few more cases like Louise Pelletier’s; accidents would result, either from delay or from exceptionally serious wounds. Happy days were still in store for those who sowed doubt and hatred168.
During the early part of March, Pasteur received nineteen Russians, coming from the province of Smolensk. They had been attacked by a rabid wolf and most of them had terrible wounds: one of them, a priest, had been surprised by the infuriated beast as he was going into church, his upper lip and right cheek had been torn off, his face was one gaping169 wound. Another, the youngest of them, had had the skin of his forehead torn off by the wolf’s teeth; other bites were like knife cuts. Five of these unhappy wretches170 were in such a condition that they had to be carried to the H?tel Dieu Hospital as soon as they arrived.
The Russian doctor who had accompanied these mujiks related how the wolf had wandered for two days and two nights, tearing to pieces every one he met, and how he had finally been struck down with an axe171 by one of those he had bitten most severely.
Because of the gravity of the wounds, and in order to make up for the time lost by the Russians before they started, Pasteur decided on making two inoculations every day, one in the morning and one in the evening; the patients at the H?tel Dieu could be inoculated upon at the hospital.
The fourteen others came every morning in their touloupes and fur caps, with their wounds bandaged, and joined without a word the motley groups awaiting treatment at the laboratory—an English family, a Basque peasant, a Hungarian in his national costume, etc., etc.{430}
In the evening, the dumb and resigned band of mujiks came again to the laboratory door. They seemed led by Fate, heedless of the struggle between life and death of which they were the prize. “Pasteur” was the only French word they knew, and their set and melancholy faces brightened in his presence as with a ray of hope and gratitude.
Their condition was the more alarming that a whole fortnight had elapsed between their being bitten and the date of the first inoculations. Statistics were terrifying as to the results of wolf-bites, the average proportion of deaths being 82 per 100. General anxiety and excitement prevailed concerning the hapless Russians, and the news of the death of three of them produced an intense emotion.
Pasteur had unceasingly continued his visits to the H?tel Dieu. He was overwhelmed with grief. His confidence in his method was in no wise shaken, the general results would not allow it. But questions of statistics were of little account in his eyes when he was the witness of a misfortune; his charity was not of that kind which is exhausted172 by collective generalities: each individual appealed to his heart. As he passed through the wards173 at the H?tel Dieu, each patient in his bed inspired him with deep compassion. And that is why so many who only saw him pass, heard his voice, met his pitiful eyes resting on them, have preserved of him a memory such as the poor had of St. Vincent de Paul.
“The other Russians are keeping well so far,” declared Pasteur at the Academy sitting of April 12, 1886. Whilst certain opponents in France continued to discuss the three deaths and apparently saw nought174 but those failures, the return of the sixteen survivors175 was greeted with an almost religious emotion. Other Russians had come before them and were saved, and the Tsar, knowing these things, desired his brother, the Grand Duke Vladimir, to bring to Pasteur an imperial gift, the Cross of the Order of St. Anne of Russia, in diamonds. He did more, he gave 100,000 fr. in aid of the proposed Pasteur Institute.
In April, 1886, the English Government, seeing the practical results of the method for the prophylaxis of hydrophobia, appointed a Commission to study and verify the facts. Sir James Paget was the president of it, and the other members were:—Dr. Lauder-Brunton, Mr. Fleming, Sir Joseph Lister, Dr. Quain, Sir Henry Roscoe, Professor Burdon Sanderson, and{431} Mr. Victor Horsley, secretary. The résumé of the programme was as follows—
Development of the rabic virus in the medulla oblongata of animals dying of rabies.
Transmission of this virus by subdural or subcutaneous inoculation.
Intensification176 of this virus by successive passages from rabbit to rabbit.
Possibility either of protecting healthy animals from ulterior bites from rabid animals, or of preventing the onset of rabies in animals already bitten, by means of vaccinal inoculations.
Applications of this method to man and value of its results.
Burdon Sanderson and Horsley came to Paris, and two rabbits, inoculated on by Pasteur, were taken to England; a series of experiments was to be begun on them, and an inquiry was to take place afterwards concerning patients treated both in France and in England. Pasteur, who lost his temper at prejudices and ill-timed levity177, approved and solicited178 inquiry and careful examination.
Long lists of subscribers appeared in the Journal Officiel—millionaires, poor workmen, students, women, etc. A great festival was organized at the Trocadéro in favour of the Pasteur Institute; the greatest artistes offered their services. Coquelin recited verses written for the occasion which excited loud applause from the immense audience. Gounod, who had conducted his Ave Maria, turned round after the closing bars, and, in an impulse of heartfelt enthusiasm, kissed both his hands to the savant.
In the evening at a banquet, Pasteur thanked his colleagues and the organizers of this incomparable performance. “Was it not,” he said, “a touching sight, that of those immortal composers, those great charmers of fortunate humanity coming to the assistance of those who wish to study and to serve suffering humanity? And you too come, great artistes, great actors, like so many generals re-entering the ranks to give greater vigour179 to a common feeling. I cannot easily describe what I felt. Dare I confess that I was hearing most of you for the first time? I do not think I have spent more than ten evenings of my whole life at a theatre. But I can have no regrets now that you have given me, in a few hours’ interval180, as in an exquisite181 synthesis, the feelings that so many others scatter182 over several months, or rather several years.{432}”
A few days later, the subscription from Alsace-Lorraine brought in 43,000 fr. Pasteur received it with grateful emotion, and was pleased and touched to find the name of little Joseph Meister among the list of private subscribers. It was now eleven months since he had been bitten so cruelly by the dog, whose rabic condition had immediately been recognized by the German authorities. Pasteur ever kept a corner of his heart for the boy who had caused him such anxiety.
Pasteur’s name was now familiar to all those who were trying to benefit humanity; his presence at charitable gatherings183 was considered as a happy omen141, and he was asked to preside on many such occasions. He was ever ready with his help and sympathy, speaking in public, answering letters from private individuals, giving wholesome184 advice to young people who came to him for it, and doing nothing by halves. If he found the time, even during that period when the study of rabies was absorbing him, to undertake so many things and to achieve so many tasks, he owed it to Mme. Pasteur, who watched over his peace, keeping him safe from intrusions and interruptions. This retired185, almost recluse186 life, enabled him to complete many works, a few of which would have sufficed to make several scientists celebrated.
Every morning, between ten and eleven o’clock, Pasteur walked down the Rue Claude-Bernard to the Rue Vauquelin, where a few temporary buildings had been erected to facilitate the treatment of hydrophobia, close to the rabbit hutches, hencoops, and dog kennels187 which occupied the yard of the old Collège Rollin. The patients under treatment walked about cheerfully amidst these surroundings, looking like holiday makers188 in a Zoological Garden. Children, whose tears were already dried at the second inoculation, ran about merrily. Pasteur, who loved the little ones, always kept sweets or new copper189 coins for them in his drawer. One little girl amused herself by having holes bored in those coins, and hung them round her neck like a necklace; she was wearing this ornament190 on the day of her departure, when she ran to kiss the great man as she would have kissed her grandfather.
Drs. Grancher, Roux, Chantemesse, and Charrin came by turns to perform the inoculations. A surgery ward24 had been installed to treat the numerous wounds of the patients, and entrusted to the young and energetic Dr. Terrillon.{433}
In August, 1886, while staying at Arbois, Pasteur spent much time over his notes and registers; he was sometimes tempted to read over certain articles of passionate26 criticism. “How difficult it is to obtain the triumph of truth!” he would say. “Opposition191 is a useful stimulant192, but bad faith is such a pitiable thing. How is it that they are not struck with the results as shown by statistics? From 1880 to 1885, sixty persons are stated to have died of hydrophobia in the Paris hospitals; well, since November 1, 1885, when the prophylactic193 method was started in my laboratory, only three deaths have occurred in those hospitals, two of which were cases which had not been treated. It is evident that very few people who had been bitten did not come to be treated. In France, out of that unknown but very restricted number, seventeen cases of death have been noted194, whilst out of the 1,726 French and Algerians who came to the laboratory only ten died after the treatment.”
But Pasteur was not yet satisfied with this proportion, already so low; he was trying to forestall195 the outburst of hydrophobia by a greater rapidity and intensity196 of the treatment. He read a paper on the subject to the Academy of Sciences on November 2, 1886. Admiral Jurien de la Gravière, who was in the chair, said to him, “All great discoveries have gone through a time of trial. May your health withstand the troubles and difficulties in your way.”
Pasteur’s health had indeed suffered from so much work and anxiety, and there were symptoms of some heart trouble. Drs. Villemin and Grancher persuaded him to interrupt his work and to think of spending a restful winter in the south of France. M. Raphael Bischoffsheim, a great lover of science, placed at Pasteur’s disposal his beautiful villa84 at Bordighera, close to the French frontier, which he had on divers197 occasions lent to other distinguished198 guests, the Queen of Italy, Henri Sainte-Claire Deville, Gambetta, etc.
Pasteur consented to leave his work at the end of November, and started one evening from the Gare de Lyon with his wife, his daughter and her husband, and his two grandchildren; eighteen friends came to the station to see him off, including his pupils, M. Bischoffsheim, and some foreign physicians who were staying in Paris to study the prophylactic treatment of hydrophobia.
The bright dawn and the sunshine already appearing at{434} Avignon contrasted with the foggy November weather left behind in Paris and brought a feeling of comfort, almost of returning health; a delegation199 of doctors met the train at Nice, bringing Pasteur their good wishes.
The travelling party drove from Vintimille to Bordighera under the deep blue sky reflected in a sea of a yet deeper blue, along a road bordered with cacti200, palms and other tropical plants. The sight of the lovely gardens of the Villa Bischoffsheim gave Pasteur a delicious feeling of rest.
His health soon improved sufficiently for him to be able to take some short walks. But his thoughts constantly recurred201 to the laboratory. M. Duclaux was then thinking of starting a monthly periodical entitled Annals of the Pasteur Institute. Pasteur, writing to him on December 27, 1887, to express his approbation202, suggested various experiments to be attempted. He attributed the action of the preventive inoculations to a vaccinal matter associated with the rabic microbe. Pasteur had thought at first that the first development of the pathogenic microbe caused the disappearance203 from the organism of an element necessary to the life of that microbe. It was, in other words, a theory of exhaustion204. But since 1885, he adopted the other idea, supported indeed by biologists, that immunity was due to a substance left in the body by the culture of the microbe and which opposed the invasion—a theory of addition.
“I am happy to learn,” wrote Villemin, his friend and his medical adviser205, “that your health is improving; continue to rest in that beautiful country, you have well deserved it, and rest is absolutely necessary to you. You have overtaxed yourself beyond all reason and you must make up for it. Repairs to the nervous system are worked chiefly by relaxation206 from the mental storms and moral anxieties which your rabid work has occasioned in you. Give the Bordighera sun a chance!”
But Pasteur was not allowed the rest he so much needed; on January 4, 1887, referring to a death which had occurred after treatment in the preceding December, M. Peter declared that the antirabic cure was useless; at the following meeting he called it dangerous when applied in the “intensive” form. Dujardin-Beaumetz, Chauveau and Verneuil immediately intervened, declaring that the alleged207 fact was “devoid of any scientific character.” A week later, MM. Grancher and Brouardel bore the brunt of the discussion. Grancher, Pasteur’s representative on this occasion, disproved certain allegations, and{435} added: “The medical men who have been chosen by M. Pasteur to assist him in his work have not hesitated to practise the antirabic inoculation on themselves, as a safeguard against an accidental inoculation of the virus which they are constantly handling. What greater proof can they give of their bona fide convictions?” He showed that the mortality amongst the cases treated remained below 1 per 100. “M. Pasteur will soon publish foreign statistics from Samara, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Warsaw and Vienna: they are all absolutely favourable.”
As it was insinuated208 that the laboratory of the Ecole Normale kept its failures a secret, it was decided that the Annals of the Pasteur Institute would publish a monthly list and bulletin of patients under treatment.
Vulpian, at another meeting (it was almost the last time he was heard at the Académie de Médecine), said, à propos of what he called an inexcusable opposition, “This new benefit adds to the number of those which our illustrious Pasteur has already rendered to humanity.... Our works and our names will soon be buried under the rising tide of oblivion: the name and the works of M. Pasteur will continue to stand on heights too great to be reached by its sullen209 waves.” Pasteur was much disturbed by the noise of these discussions; every post increased his feverishness, and he spoke every morning of returning to Paris to answer his opponents.
It was a pitiful thing to note on his worn countenance210 the visible signs of the necessity of the peace and rest offered by this beautiful land of serene211 sunshine; and to hear at the same time a constant echo of those angry debates. Anonymous212 letters were sent to him, insulting newspaper articles—all that envy and hatred can invent; the seamy side of human nature was being revealed to him. “I did not know I had so many enemies,” he said mournfully. He was consoled to some extent by the ardent support of the greatest medical men in France.
Vulpian, in a statement to the Académie des Sciences, constituted himself Pasteur’s champion. Pasteur indeed was safe from attacks in that centre, but certain low slanderers who attended the public meetings of the Académie continued to accuse Pasteur of concealing214 the failures of his method. Vulpian—who was furiously angry at such an insinuation against “a man like M. Pasteur, whose good faith, loyalty215 and scientific integrity should be an example to his adversaries as they are to{436} his friends”—thought that it was in the interest both of science and of humanity to state once more the facts recently confirmed by new statistics; the public is so impressionable and so mobile in its opinions that one article is often enough to shake general confidence. He was therefore anxious to reassure14 all those who had been inoculated on and who might be induced by those discussions to wonder with anguish whether they really were saved. The Academy of Sciences decided that Vulpian’s statement should be inserted in extenso in all the reports and a copy of it sent to every village in France. Vulpian wrote to Pasteur at the same time, “All your admirers hope that those interested attacks will merely excite your contempt. Fine weather is no doubt reigning216 at Bordighera: you must take advantage of it and become quite well.... The Academy of Medicine is almost entirely217 on your side; there are at the most but four or five exceptions.”
Pasteur had a few calm days after these debates. Whilst planning out new investigations, he was much interested in the plans for his Institute which were now submitted to him. His thoughts were always away from Bordighera, which he seemed to look upon as a sort of exile. This impression was partly due to the situation of the town, so close to the frontier, and the haunt of so many homeless wanderers. He once met a sad-faced, still beautiful woman, in mourning robes, and recognized the Empress Eugénie.
Shortly afterwards, he received a visit from Prince Napoleon, who dragged his haughty218 ennui219 from town to town. He presented himself at the Villa Bischoffsheim under the name of Count Moncalieri, coming, he said, to greet his colleague of the Institute. Rabies formed the subject of their conversation. The next day, Pasteur called on the Prince, in his commonplace hotel rooms, a mere temporary resting place for the exiled Bonaparte, whose mysterious, uncompleted destiny was made more enigmatical by his startling resemblance to the great Emperor.
On February 23, the day after the carnival220, early in the morning, a violent earthquake cast terror over that peaceful land where nature hides with flowers the spectre of death. At 6.20 a.m. a low and distant rumbling221 sound was heard, coming from the depths of the earth and resembling the noise of a train passing in an underground tunnel; houses began to rock and{437} ominous222 cracks were heard. This first shock lasted more than a minute, during which the sense of solidity disappeared altogether, to be succeeded by a feeling of absolute, hopeless, impotence. No doubt, in every household, families gathered together, with a sudden yearning not to be divided. Pasteur’s wife, children and grandchildren had barely had time to come to him when another shock took place, more terrible than the first; everything seemed about to be engulfed223 in an abyss. Never had morning been more radiant; there was not a breath of wind, the air was absolutely transparent224.
An early departure was necessary: the broken ceilings were dropping to pieces, shaken off by an incessant225 vibration226 of the ground which continued after the second shock, and of which Pasteur observed the effect on glass windows with much interest. Pasteur and his family dove off to Vintimille in a carriage, along a road lined with ruined houses, crowded with sick people in quest of carriages and peasants coming down from their mountain dwellings227, destroyed by the shock, leading donkeys loaded with bedding, the women followed by little children hastily wrapt in blankets and odd clothes. At Vintimille station, terrified travellers were trying to leave France for Italy or Italy for France, fancying that the danger would cease on the other side of the frontier.
“We have resolved to go to Arbois,” wrote Mme. Pasteur to her son from Marseilles; “your father will be better able there than anywhere else to recover from this shock to his heart.”
After a few weeks’ stay at Arbois, Pasteur seemed quite well again. He was received with respect and veneration229 on his return to the Academies of Sciences and of Medicine. His best and greatest colleagues had realized what the loss of him would mean to France and to the world, and surrounded him with an anxious solicitude.
At the beginning of July, Pasteur received the report presented to the House of Commons by the English Commission after a fourteen months’ study of the prophylactic method against hydrophobia. The English scientists had verified every one of the facts upon which the method was founded, but they had not been satisfied with their experimental researches in Mr. Horsley’s laboratory, and had carried out a long and minute inquiry in France. After noting on Pasteur’s registers the names of ninety persons treated, who had come from the same{438} neighbourhood, they had interviewed each one of them in their own homes. “It may therefore be considered as certain”—thus ran the report—“that M. Pasteur has discovered a prophylactic method against hydrophobia which may be compared with that of vaccination against small-pox. It would be difficult to overestimate230 the utility of this discovery, both from the point of view of its practical side and of its application to general pathology. We have here a new method of inoculation, or vaccination, as M. Pasteur sometimes calls it, and similar means might be employed to protect man and domestic animals against other virus as active as that of hydrophobia.”
Pasteur laid this report on the desk of the Academy of Sciences on July 4. He spoke of its spirit of entire and unanimous confidence, and added—
“Thus fall to the ground the contradictions which have been published. I leave on one side the passionate attacks which were not justified231 by the least attempt at experiment, the slightest observation of facts in my laboratory, or even an exchange of words and ideas with the Director of the Hydrophobia Clinic, Professor Grancher, and his medical assistants.
“But, however deep is my satisfaction as a Frenchman, I cannot but feel a sense of deepest sadness at the thought that this high testimony232 from a commission of illustrious scientists was not known by him who, at the very beginning of the application of this method, supported me by his counsels and his authority, and who later on, when I was ill and absent, knew so well how to champion truth and justice; I mean our beloved colleague Vulpian.”
Vulpian had succumbed to a few days’ illness. His speech in favour of Pasteur was almost the farewell to the Academy of this great-hearted scientist.
The discussion threatened to revive. Other colleagues defended Pasteur at the Academy of Medicine on July 12. Professor Brouardel spoke, also M. Villemin, and then Charcot, who insisted on quoting word for word Vulpian’s true and simple phrase: “The discovery of the preventive treatment of hydrophobia after a bite, entirely due to M. Pasteur’s experimental genius, is one of the finest discoveries ever made, both from the scientific and the humanitarian233 point of view.” And Charcot continued: “I am persuaded that I express in these words the opinion of all the medical men who have studied the question with an open mind, free from prejudice; the{439} inventor of antirabic vaccination may, now more than ever, hold his head high and continue to accomplish his glorious task, heedless of the clamour of systematic234 contradiction or of the insidious235 murmurs236 of slander213.”
The Academy of Sciences begged Pasteur to become its Life Secretary in Vulpian’s place. Pasteur did not reply at once to this offer, but went to see M. Berthelot: “This high position,” he said, “would be more suitable to you than to me.” M. Berthelot, much touched, refused unconditionally237, and Pasteur accepted. He was elected on July 18. He said, in thanking his colleagues, “I would now spend what time remains before me, on the one hand in encouraging to research and in training for scientific studies,—the future of which seems to me most promising,—pupils worthy of French science; and, on the other hand, in following attentively238 the work incited239 and encouraged by this Academy.
“Our only consolation240, as we feel our own strength failing us, is to feel that we may help those who come after us to do more and to do better than ourselves, fixing their eyes as they can on the great horizons of which we only had a glimpse.”
He did not long fulfil his new duties. On October 23, Sunday morning, after writing a letter in his room, he tried to speak to Mme. Pasteur and could not pronounce a word; his tongue was paralyzed. He had promised to lunch with his daughter on that day, and, fearing that she might be alarmed, he drove to her house. After spending a few hours in an easy chair, he consented to remain at her house with Mme. Pasteur. In the evening his speech returned, and two days later, when he went back to the Ecole Normale, no one would have noticed any change in him. But, on the following Saturday morning, he had another almost similar attack, without any premonitory symptoms. His speech remained somewhat difficult, and his deep powerful voice completely lost its strength. In January, 1888, he was obliged to resign his secretaryship.
Ill-health had emaciated241 his features. A portrait of him by Carolus Duran represents him looking ill and weary, a sad look in his eyes. But goodness predominates in those worn features, revealing that lovable soul, full of pity for all human sufferings, and of which the painter has rendered the unspeakable thrill.
Pasteur’s various portraits, compared with one another, show us different aspects of his physiognomy. A luminous242 profile, painted by Henner ten years before, brings out the powerful{440} harmony of the forehead. In 1886, Bonnat painted, for the brewer243 Jacobsen, who wished to present it to Mme. Pasteur, a large portrait which may be called an official one. Pasteur is standing in rather an artificial attitude, which might be imperious, if his left hand was not resting on the shoulder of his granddaughter, a child of six, with clear pensive244 eyes. In that same year, Edelfeldt, the Finnish painter, begged to be allowed to come into the laboratory for a few sketches245. Pasteur came and went, attending to his work and taking no notice of the painter. One day that Edelfeldt was watching him thus, deep in observation, his forehead lined with almost painful thoughts, he undertook to portray246 the savant in his meditative247 attitude. Pasteur is standing clad in a short brown coat, an experimental card in his left hand, in his right, a phial containing a fragment of rabic marrow, the expression in his eyes entirely concentrated on the scientific problem.
During the year 1888, Pasteur, after spending the morning with his patients, used to go and watch the buildings for the Pasteur Institute which were being erected in the Rue Dutot. 11,000 square yards of ground had been acquired in the midst of some market gardens. Instead of rows of hand-lights and young lettuces248, a stone building, with a Louis XIII fa?ade, was now being constructed. An interior gallery connected the main building with the large wings. The Pasteur Institute was to be at the same time a great dispensary for the treatment of hydrophobia, a centre of research on virulent and contagious diseases, and also a teaching centre. M. Duclaux’s class of biological chemistry, held at the Sorbonne, was about to be transferred to the Pasteur Institute, where Dr. Roux would also give a course of lectures on technical microbia. The “service” of vaccinations249 against anthrax was entrusted to M. Chamberland. (The statistics of 1882—1887 gave a total of 1,600,000 sheep and nearly 200,000 oxen.) There would also be, under M. Metchnikoff’s direction, some private laboratories, the monkish250 cells of the Pastorians.
At the end of October, the work was almost completed; Pasteur invited the President of the Republic to come and inaugurate the Institute. “I shall certainly not fail to do so,” answered Carnot; “your Institute is a credit to France.”
On November 14, politicians, colleagues, friends, collaborators, pupils assembled in the large library of the new Institute. Pasteur had the pleasure of seeing before him, in the first rank,{441} Duruy and Jules Simon; it was a great day for these former Ministers of Public Instruction. Like them, Pasteur had all his life been deeply interested in higher education. “If that teaching is but for a small number,” he said, “it is with this small number, this élite that the prosperity, glory and supremacy251 of a nation rest.”
Joseph Bertrand, chairman of the Institute Committee, knowing that by so doing he responded to Pasteur’s dearest wishes, spoke of the past and recalled the memories of Biot, Senarmont, Claude Bernard, Balard, and J. B. Dumas.
Professor Grancher, Secretary of the Committee, alluded252 to the way in which not only Vulpian but Breuardel, Charcot, Verneuil, Chauveau and Villemin had recently honoured themselves by supporting the cause of progress and preparing its triumph. These memories of early friends, associated with that of recent champions, brought before the audience a vision of the procession of years. After speaking of the obstacles Pasteur had so often encountered amongst the medical world—
“You know,” said M. Grancher, “that M. Pasteur is an innovator253, and that his creative imagination, kept in check by rigorous observation of facts, has overturned many errors and built up in their place an entirely new science. His discoveries on ferments254, on the generation of the infinitesimally small, on microbes, the cause of contagious diseases, and on the vaccination of those diseases, have been for biological chemistry, for the veterinary art and for medicine, not a regular progress, but a complete revolution. Now, revolutions, even those imposed by scientific demonstration255, ever leave behind them vanquished ones who do not easily forgive. M. Pasteur has therefore many adversaries in the world, without counting those Athenian French who do not like to see one man always right or always fortunate. And, as if he had not enough adversaries, M. Pasteur makes himself new ones by the rigorous implacability of his dialectics and the absolute form he sometimes gives to his thought.”
Going on to the most recently acquired results, M. Grancher stated that the mortality amongst persons treated after bites from rabid dogs remained under 1 per 100.
“If those figures are indeed eloquent,” said M. Christophle, the treasurer256, who spoke after M. Grancher, “other figures are touching. I would advise those who only see the dark side of humanity,” he remarked, before entering upon the statement{442} of accounts—“those who go about repeating that everything here below is for the worst, that there is no disinterestedness257, no devotion in this world—to cast their eyes over the ‘human documents’ of the Pasteur Institute. They would learn therein, beginning at the beginning, that Academies contain colleagues who are not offended, but proud and happy in the fame of another; that politicians and journalists often have a passion for what is good and true; that at no former epoch258 have great men been more beloved in France; that justice is already rendered to them during their lifetime, which is very much the best way of doing so; that we have cheered Victor Hugo’s birthday, Chevreul’s centenary, and the inauguration259 of the Pasteur Institute. When a Frenchman runs himself down, said one of M. Pasteur’s colleagues, do not believe him; he is boasting! Reversing a celebrated and pessimistic phrase, it might be said that in this public subscription all the virtues260 flow into unselfishness like rivers into the sea.”
M. Christophle went on to show how rich and poor had joined in this subscription and raised an amount of 2,586,680 fr. The French Chambers261 had voted 200,000 fr., to which had been added international gifts from the Tsar, the Emperor of Brazil, and the Sultan. The total expenses would probably reach 1,563,786 fr., leaving a little more than a million to form an endowment for the Pasteur Institute, a fund which was to be increased every year by the product of the sale of vaccines262 from the laboratory, which Pasteur and Messrs. Chamberland and Roux agreed to give up to the Institute.
“It is thus, Sir,” concluded the treasurer, directly addressing Pasteur, “that public generosity, practical help from the Government, and your own disinterestedness have founded and consolidated263 the establishment which we are to-day inaugurating.” And, persuaded that the solicitude of the public would never fail to support this great work, “This is for you, Sir, a rare and almost unhoped for happiness; let it console you for the passionate struggles, the terrible anxiety and the many emotions you have gone through.”
Pasteur, overcome by his feelings, had to ask his son to read his speech. It began by a rapid summary of what France had done for education in all its degrees. “From village schools to laboratories, everything has been founded or renovated264.” After acknowledging the help given him in later years by the public authorities, he continued{443}—
“And when the day came that, foreseeing the future which would be opened by the discovery of the attenuation265 of virus, I appealed to my country, so that we should be allowed, through the strength and impulse of private initiative, to build laboratories to be devoted266, not only to the prophylactic treatment of hydrophobia, but also to the study of virulent and contagious diseases—on that day again, France gave in handfuls.... It is now finished, this great building, of which it might be said that there is not a stone but what is the material sign of a generous thought. All the virtues have subscribed267 to build this dwelling228 place for work.
“Alas! mine is the bitter grief that I enter it, a man ‘vanquished by Time,’ deprived of my masters, even of my companions in the struggle, Dumas, Bouley, Paul Bert, and lastly Vulpian, who, after having been with you, my dear Grancher, my counsellor at the very first, became the most energetic, the most convinced champion of this method.
“However, if I have the sorrow of thinking that they are no more, after having valiantly268 taken their part in discussions which I have never provoked but have had to endure; if they cannot hear me proclaim all that I owe to their counsels and support; if I feel their absence as deeply as on the morrow of their death, I have at least the consolation of believing that all that we struggled for together will not perish. The collaborators and pupils who are now here share our scientific faith....” He continued, as in a sort of testament269: “Keep your early enthusiasm, dear collaborators, but let it ever be regulated by rigorous examinations and tests. Never advance anything which cannot be proved in a simple and decisive fashion.
“Worship the spirit of criticism. If reduced to itself, it is not an awakener of ideas or a stimulant to great things, but, without it, everything is fallible; it always has the last word. What I am now asking you, and you will ask of your pupils later on, is what is most difficult to an inventor.
“It is indeed a hard task, when you believe you have found an important scientific fact and are feverishly270 anxious to publish it, to constrain271 yourself for days, weeks, years sometimes, to fight with yourself, to try and ruin your own experiments and only to proclaim your discovery after having exhausted all contrary hypotheses.
“But when, after so many efforts, you have at last arrived at a certainty, your joy is one of the greatest which can be felt{444} by a human soul, and the thought that you will have contributed to the honour of your country renders that joy still deeper.
“If science has no country, the scientist should have one, and ascribe to it the influence which his works may have in this world. If I might be allowed, M. le Président, to conclude by a philosophical272 remark inspired by your presence in this Home of Work, I should say that two contrary laws seem to be wrestling with each other nowadays; the one, a law of blood and of death, ever imagining new means of destruction and forcing nations to be constantly ready for the battlefield—the other, a law of peace, work and health, ever evolving new means of delivering man from the scourges273 which beset274 him.
“The one seeks violent conquests, the other the relief of humanity. The latter places one human life above any victory; while the former would sacrifice hundreds and thousands of lives to the ambition of one. The law of which we are the instruments seeks, even in the midst of carnage, to cure the sanguinary ills of the law of war; the treatment inspired by our antiseptic methods may preserve thousands of soldiers. Which of those two laws will ultimately prevail, God alone knows. But we may assert that French Science will have tried, by obeying the law of Humanity, to extend the frontiers of Life.{445}”
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1
scribbled
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| v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
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cult
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| n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜 | |
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vaccinal
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| 疫苗的 | |
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immunity
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| n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权 | |
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rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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inoculation
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| n.接芽；预防接种 | |
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refractory
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| adj.倔强的，难驾驭的 | |
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vaccination
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| n.接种疫苗，种痘 | |
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saliva
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| n.唾液，口水 | |
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cauterizing
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| v.（用腐蚀性物质或烙铁）烧灼以消毒( cauterize的现在分词 ) | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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14
reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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physiology
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| n.生理学，生理机能 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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25
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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authorize
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| v.授权，委任；批准，认可 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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reciprocated
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| v.报答，酬答( reciprocate的过去式和过去分词 )；（机器的部件）直线往复运动 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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virulence
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| n.毒力，毒性；病毒性；致病力 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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prick
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| v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛 | |
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inoculated
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| v.给…做预防注射( inoculate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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41
virulent
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| adj.有毒的，有恶意的，充满敌意的 | |
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42
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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43
dreading
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| v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的现在分词 ) | |
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44
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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45
feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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46
feverishness
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47
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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48
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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49
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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50
yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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51
suffocating
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| a.使人窒息的 | |
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52
vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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53
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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54
gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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55
insomnia
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| n.失眠，失眠症 | |
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56
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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57
mandate
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| n.托管地；命令，指示 | |
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58
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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60
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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61
afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62
thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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63
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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64
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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65
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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66
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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68
broth
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| n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等) | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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70
prophesied
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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prodigy
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| n.惊人的事物，奇迹，神童，天才，预兆 | |
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72
propounded
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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73
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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analytic
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| adj.分析的，用分析方法的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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76
eulogy
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| n.颂词；颂扬 | |
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imploringly
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| adv. 恳求地, 哀求地 | |
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78
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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79
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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80
cholera
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| n.霍乱 | |
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81
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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82
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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83
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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84
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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85
sculptor
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| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
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86
widower
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| n.鳏夫 | |
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87
disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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88
foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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89
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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90
shrieking
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| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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91
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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92
lash
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| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
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93
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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94
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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therapeutic
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| adj.治疗的，起治疗作用的；对身心健康有益的 | |
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baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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101
ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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102
muzzled
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| 给（狗等）戴口套( muzzle的过去式和过去分词 )； 使缄默，钳制…言论 | |
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103
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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104
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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105
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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106
incurable
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| adj.不能医治的，不能矫正的，无救的；n.不治的病人，无救的人 | |
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107
legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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108
onset
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| n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始 | |
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109
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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110
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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111
deplored
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| v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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112
vaccine
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| n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的 | |
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113
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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114
marrow
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| n.骨髓；精华；活力 | |
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115
permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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116
sterilized
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| v.消毒( sterilize的过去式和过去分词 )；使无菌；使失去生育能力；使绝育 | |
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117
flasks
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| n.瓶，长颈瓶， 烧瓶( flask的名词复数 ) | |
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118
flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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119
caustic
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| adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的 | |
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120
marrows
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| n.骨髓（marrow的复数形式） | |
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121
veal
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| n.小牛肉 | |
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122
contagious
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| adj.传染性的，有感染力的 | |
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123
broths
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| n.肉汤( broth的名词复数 )；厨师多了烧坏汤；人多手杂反坏事；人多添乱 | |
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124
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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125
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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126
doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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127
monologue
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| n.长篇大论，（戏剧等中的）独白 | |
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128
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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129
morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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130
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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131
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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132
illiterate
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| adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲 | |
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133
lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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134
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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135
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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136
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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137
succumb
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| v.屈服，屈从；死 | |
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138
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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139
spasms
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| n.痉挛( spasm的名词复数 )；抽搐；（能量、行为等的）突发；发作 | |
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140
respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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141
omen
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| n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示 | |
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142
delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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143
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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144
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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145
ovation
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| n.欢呼，热烈欢迎，热烈鼓掌 | |
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146
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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147
consecrated
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|
| adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献 | |
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148
renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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149
adversaries
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| n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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150
subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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151
herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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152
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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153
vaccinated
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| [医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的 | |
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154
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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155
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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156
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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157
journalism
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| n.新闻工作，报业 | |
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158
mutual
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|
| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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159
destined
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|
| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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160
necessitated
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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161
subscriptions
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| n.（报刊等的）订阅费( subscription的名词复数 )；捐款；（俱乐部的）会员费；捐助 | |
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162
entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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163
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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164
succumbed
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|
| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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165
sanitary
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|
| adj.卫生方面的，卫生的，清洁的，卫生的 | |
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166
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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167
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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168
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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169
gaping
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|
| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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170
wretches
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|
| n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 )；可怜的人；恶棍；坏蛋 | |
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171
axe
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|
| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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172
exhausted
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|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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173
wards
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| 区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态 | |
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174
nought
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|
| n.／adj.无，零 | |
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175
survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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176
intensification
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| n.激烈化，增强明暗度；加厚 | |
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177
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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178
solicited
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|
| v.恳求( solicit的过去式和过去分词 )；（指娼妇）拉客；索求；征求 | |
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179
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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180
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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181
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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182
scatter
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|
| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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183
gatherings
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|
| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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184
wholesome
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|
| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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185
retired
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|
| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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186
recluse
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| n.隐居者 | |
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187
kennels
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| n.主人外出时的小动物寄养处，养狗场；狗窝( kennel的名词复数 )；养狗场 | |
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188
makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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189
copper
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|
| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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190
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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191
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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192
stimulant
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| n.刺激物，兴奋剂 | |
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193
prophylactic
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|
| adj.预防疾病的；n.预防疾病 | |
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194
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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195
forestall
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| vt.抢在…之前采取行动；预先阻止 | |
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196
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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197
divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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198
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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199
delegation
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| n.代表团；派遣 | |
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200
cacti
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| n.（复）仙人掌 | |
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201
recurred
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| 再发生，复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 )； 治愈 | |
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202
approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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203
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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204
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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205
adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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206
relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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207
alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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208
insinuated
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| v.暗示( insinuate的过去式和过去分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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209
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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210
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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211
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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212
anonymous
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| adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的 | |
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213
slander
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| n./v.诽谤，污蔑 | |
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214
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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215
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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216
reigning
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| adj.统治的，起支配作用的 | |
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217
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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218
haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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219
ennui
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| n.怠倦，无聊 | |
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220
carnival
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| n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演 | |
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221
rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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222
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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223
engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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224
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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225
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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226
vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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227
dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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228
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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229
veneration
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| n.尊敬，崇拜 | |
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230
overestimate
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| v.估计过高，过高评价 | |
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231
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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233
humanitarian
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| n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者 | |
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systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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insidious
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| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
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murmurs
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| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
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237
unconditionally
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| adv.无条件地 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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incited
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| 刺激，激励，煽动( incite的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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241
emaciated
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| adj.衰弱的，消瘦的 | |
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242
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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243
brewer
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| n. 啤酒制造者 | |
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244
pensive
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| a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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245
sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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246
portray
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| v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等) | |
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meditative
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| adj.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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248
lettuces
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| n.莴苣，生菜（ lettuce的名词复数 ）；生菜叶 | |
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249
vaccinations
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| n.种痘，接种( vaccination的名词复数 )；牛痘疤 | |
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250
monkish
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| adj.僧侣的，修道士的，禁欲的 | |
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251
supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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252
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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253
innovator
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| n.改革者；创新者 | |
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254
ferments
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| n.酵素( ferment的名词复数 )；激动；骚动；动荡v.（使）发酵( ferment的第三人称单数 )；（使）激动；骚动；骚扰 | |
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demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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256
treasurer
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| n.司库，财务主管 | |
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257
disinterestedness
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258
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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259
inauguration
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| n.开幕、就职典礼 | |
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260
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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261
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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262
vaccines
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| 疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 ) | |
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consolidated
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| a.联合的 | |
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264
renovated
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| 翻新，修复，整修( renovate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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attenuation
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| n.变薄；弄细；稀薄化；减少 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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subscribed
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| v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意 | |
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valiantly
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| adv.勇敢地，英勇地；雄赳赳 | |
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testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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270
feverishly
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| adv. 兴奋地 | |
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271
constrain
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| vt.限制，约束；克制，抑制 | |
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272
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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273
scourges
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| 带来灾难的人或东西，祸害( scourge的名词复数 )； 鞭子 | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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