the means of securing immunity from the dreaded plague. The history of this research, of the gradual elimination of the unimportant conditions, of the recognition of those which controlled the disease, is one of the most fascinating chapters of scientific discovery. Suffice it here to say that careful experiment and accurate observation succeeded in ascertaining the cause of the disease and in preventing its recurrence, thus bringing back to prosperity the silk trade of France, with all that this entails. " There is no greater charm," says Pasteur, " for the investigator than to make new discoveries; but his pleasure is heightened when he sees that they have a direct application to practical life." Pasteur had the good fortune, and just reward of seeing the results of his work applied to the benefit both of the human race and the animal world. It is to him that the world is indebted for the introduction of methods which have already worked wonders, and bid fair to render possible the preventive treatment of all infectious diseases. Just as each kind of fermentation possesses a definite organized ferment, so many diseases are dependent on the presence of a distinct microbe; and just as the gardener can pick out and grow a given plant or vegetable, so the bacteriologist can (in most cases) eliminate the adventitious and grow the special organism—in other words, can obtain a pure cultivation which has the power of bringing about the special disease. But by a process of successive and continued artificial cultures under different conditions, the virus of the organism is found to become attenuated; and when this weakened virus is administered, the animal is rendered immune against further attacks. The first disease investigated by Pasteur was that of chicken cholera, an epidemic which destroyed 10% of the French fowls; after the application of the preventative method the death-rate was reduced to below 1%. Next came the successful attempt to deal with the fatal cattle scourge known as anthrax. This is also caused by the presence of a microbe, of which the virus can also be attenuated, and by inoculation of this weakened virus the animal rendered immune. Many millions of sheep and oxen all over the world have thus been treated, and the rate of mortality reduced from 10 to less than 1%. As to the money value of these discoveries, T. H. Huxley gave it as his opinion that it was sufficient to cover the whole cost of the war indemnity paid by France to Germany in 1870.
The most interesting of Pasteur's investigations in preventive and curative medicine remains to be told. It is no less than a cure for the dread disease of hydrophobia in man of of rabies in animals; and the interest of the achievement is not only that he successfully combated one of the mysterious and most fell diseases to which man is subject, but also that this was accomplished in spite of the fact that this special microbe causing the disease had not been isolated. To begin with, Pasteur, in studying the malady in dogs, came to the conclusion that the injection of a portion of the matter of the spinal column of a rapid dog into the body of a healthy one produces in the latter with certainty the symptoms of rabies. The next step was to endeavour so as to modify and weaken the virus as to enable it to be used as a preventive or as an antitoxin. This, after and long serious labour, he effected; the dog thus inoculated proved to be immune when bitten by a rabid animal. But this was not enough. Would the inoculation of the attenuated virus have a remedial effect on an animal already bitten? If so, it might be possible to save the lives of persons bitten by mad dogs. Here again experiment was successful. A number of dogs were inoculated, the same number were untreated, and both sets were bitten by rabid animals. All the treated dogs lived; all the untreated dogs died from rabies. It was, however, one thing to experiment on dogs, and quite another to do so on human beings. Nevertheless Pasteur was bold enough to try. The trial was successful, and by doing so he earned the gratitude of the human race. Then, on the 14th of November 1888, the Institut Pasteur was founded. Thousands of people suffering from bites from rabid animals, from all lands, have been treated in this institute, and the death-rate from this most horrible of all diseases has been reduced to less than 1%. Not only in Paris, but in many other cities throughout the world, institutes on the model of the original one have been set up and are doing beneficent work, all arising from the genius and labour of one man. At the inauguration of the institute Pasteur closed his oration with the following words:—
" Two opposing laws seem to me now in contest. The one, a law of blood and death, opening out each day new modes of destruction, forces nations to be always ready for the battle. The other, a law of peace, work and health, whose only aim is to deliver man from the calamities which beset him. The one seeks violent conquests, the other the relief of mankind. The one places a single life above all victories, the other sacrifices hundreds of thousands of lives to the ambitions of a single individual. The law of which we are the instruments strives even through the carnage to cure the wounds due to the law of war. Treatment by our antiseptic methods may preserve the lives of thousands of soldiers. Which of these two laws will prevail, God only knows. But of this we may be sure, that science, in obeying the law of humanity, will always labour to engage the frontiers of life."
Rich in years and in honours, but simple-minded and affectionate as a child, this great benefactor to his species passed quietly away near St Cloud on the 28th of September 1895.
Mention need only be made of Pasteur's chief works, as follows: Études sur le vin (1866), Études sur le vinaigre (1868), Études sur le maladie des vers à soie (1870) Études sur le bière (1876). He began the practice of inoculation for hydrophobia in 1885.
Se Vie de Pasteur, by René Vallerey-Radot (Paris, 1900).
(H. E. R.)
PASTICCIO, an Italian word, now often Englished as " pastiche," formed from pasta, paste, for a composition in music,
painting or other arts, made up of selections from fragments
or imitations of the work of other artists, a medley or
pot-pourri. The term has also been applied to a form of musical
composition in which selections from various operas, &c., are
pieced together to form a consecutive whole, special librettos
being sometimes written for them.
PASTO, a city of Colombia and capital of the department of Nariño, about 36 m. from the boundary line with Ecuador, on
one of the inland trade routes with that republic, and on a
principal line of communication with the great forested regions
of the Caquetá (Japurá), Putumayo and Napo. Pop. (1906
estimate), 6000. It stands on an elevated plain, 8347 ft. above
the sea, at the eastern foot of the Pasto volcano, which rises
above the city to a height of 13,990 ft. Wool is produced to some
extent and is woven for the local market in the woollen factories
of Pasto.
PASTON LETTERS, an invaluable collection of letters and papers, consisting of the correspondence of members of the Paston family, and others connected with them, between the years 1422 and 1509, and also including some state papers and other important documents. The bulk of the letters and papers were sold by William Paston, 2nd earl of Yarmouth, the last representative of the family, to the antiquary Peter Le Neve early in the 18th century. On Le Neve's death in 1729 they came into the possession of Thomas Martin of Palgrave, who married his widow; and upon Martin's death in 1771 they were purchased by John Worth, a chemist at Diss, whose executors sold them three years later to John Fenn of East Dereham. In 1787 Fenn published a selection of the letters in two volumes, and general interest was aroused by this publication. In 1780 Fenn published two other volumes of letters, and when he died in 1794 he had prepared for the press a fifth volume, which was published in 1823 by his nephew, Serjeant Frere. In 1787 Fenn had received a knighthood, and on this occasion, the 23rd of May, he had presented the originals of his first two volumes to King George III. These manuscripts soon disappeared, and the same fate attended the originals of the three other volumes. In these circumstances it is not surprising that some doubt should have been cast upon the
