Pasteur - Knight Of The Laboratory Knight of the Laboratory

PASTEUR Knight of the Laboratory BY FRANCIS E. BEN2 ILLUSTRATED BY James MacDonald DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY NEW YORK, N. Y. COPYRIGHT, BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER Published, March, 1938 Second printing, September, 1938 Third printing, November, 1938 Fourth printing, May, 1939 Fifth printing, February, 1940 Sixth printing, December, 1941 Seventh printing, May, 1943 Eighth printing, March, 1944 HIJTTBD IK THE U If I T E D STATES OP AMERICA T THE VAIL-BALLOU ESS, IMC., BINQHAMTOK, If. Y. Contents CHAPTER AOX I OFF TO PARIS i II PASS OR, FAIL 15 III MOLECULAR SUBSTITUTION 29 IV BIOT TESTS PASTEUR 41 V SCIENCE vs. SENTIMENT 53 VI BEGINNINGS OF FERMENTATION . ... 7 VII SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 81 VIII WINE AND SILKWORMS 96 IX WINE 107 X WAR 119 XI FIGHTING FOR THE LIVES OF MILLIONS . . 132. XII A TOAST TO SCIENCE 142 XIII BEGINNING THE BATTLE AGAINST ANTHRAX 151 XIV VACCINATION j. 6z XV THE CRUCIAL TEST 178 XVI A VACANCY IN THE FRENCH ACADEMY . .188 XVII AT BOLLENE 201 XVIII A SUPREME SACRIFICE 209 XIX BEYOND A NATION S BOUNDARIES . . . 218 DEC - 1944 Illustrations PAGE Louis could not sleep, could not forget his home . . 17 The determined scientist picked his way precariously along the precipices 87 Louis Pasteur s dreams for his beloved France were shattered. War was a certainty 123 It was a strange assortment of human beings that swarmed the farmyard at Pouilly le Fort to see the first injection . 171 But the boy lived and was perfectly healthy. The rem edy for hydrophobia had been found. . . 227 Chapter I Off to Paris TMPATIENTLY the horses pawed, rattled their har-JLness, shook their heads in the driving cloud of rain and sleet. Inside the stagecoach, passengers shivered, chilled to the marrow with the damp, October cold. The driver stomped up and down before the Hotel de la Poste, now soothing the anxious team, now hurrying the porters who strapped the luggage on board. On the driver s box there was no room inside two boys about fifteen years old huddled under a tar paulin, trying their best to keep dry and yet wave and talk to their parents who called from under the eaves of the hotel. One boy smiled as if smiles had always been easy for him, as if he d never had a care in the world. This happy-go-lucky fellow was Jules Vercel, traveling with Louis Pasteur from their native Arbois to school in Paris. Though Louis was not the easygoing type, a stranger could have seen he was a real boy. Any of the towns people of Arbois would have agreed to that. Louis 2 Pasteur Knight of the Laboratory might take his studies a little more seriously than Jules, but he was equally thorough when it came to fishing in the river Cuisance or to the mock battles they staged in the tanyard of Louis father. Right at this moment, Louis Pasteur realized he was going to be homesick. And after that, more homesick. The biting, icy rain clattering on the canvas and nip ping at his cheeks was bad enough, but looking around him, realizing he would be traveling for two days from this familiar scene was far worse. The driver blew his horn. The team gave a prelimi nary jerk at the coach. quot Good-by, Mother and Father, quot cried Louis. quot We ll be back for Christmas, don t forget, quot yelled Jules. quot Good-by, Louis Good-by, Jules Write as soon as you reach Paris, quot criedthe parents, almost in concert. quot Keep yourselves bundled up good, quot added Louis mother as the coach started on its journey. Lurching through the mud puddles, the great coach pulled away. Fighting to keep back the tears, Louis watched the square towers of Arbois and lastly the steeple of his church, in which he had so often attended services, fade into the whipping curtain of sleet and rain. Even the wonders of Paris, his opportunity for an education there, were not enough to silence that aching sense of loss...