Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 72.djvu/23

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THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE
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stances where they could obtain nourishment. As early as 1854 he had discovered the ferment lactique, which causes milk to sour. He studied also what was called the ferment of butter, wine and vinegar, and soon found out a way by which wine could be turned into vinegar with great rapidity. The silk industry in the south of France having been threatened with destruction, a commission was appointed, with Dumas of the Sorbonne at its head, to study conditions, and if possible report a remedy. Dumas sent Pasteur to Arlois, where he remained most of the time from 1865 to 1868. The difficulty was found in the papillons and was easily remedied. For some reason not given, he returned in 1871 to Bonn the diploma for a professorship which had been granted him in 1868. From this time he began to turn his knowledge to practical use. Honors came from all quarters. In 1869 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society, London. In 1856 he had received the Rumford medal, in 1861 the Jenner prize and in 1874 the Copley medal. In 1872 the London Society of Arts offered him the Albert medal and in 1883 the University of Oxford made him doctor of science. Money also came to him with the expectation that it would be used in the increase of practical knowledge. In recognition of what he had done in saving the silk industry, through the minister of agriculture, Austria-Hungary gave him in 1868 10,000 florins, about $5,000. The Academy of Sciences in Paris received him into membership in 1862, and in 1875 the Academy of Medicine, although he was not a physician, made him a free associate member. The same year a prize of 12,000 francs was given him for his services in promoting industry, and in 1874 the French government voted him a pension of 12,000 francs. In 1881 he was received into the French Academy as one of the Immortals. As early as 1868 he was a commander of the Legion of Honor and was pushed forward as rapidly as possible for the reception of the Grand Cross. Such astonishing recognition could not come except for what the public, as well as scientific men, deemed good reasons. These reasons were his services for humanity. For Pasteur was one of the men whose nature compels them to make practical use of whatever knowledge they gain, whether from books or from experiment. Though men of science had long known something of his ability, his lecture in 1868 on the madness which follows the bite of dogs afflicted with rabies first brought him to the notice of the public. Yet he did not begin the systematic study of rabies till about 1880. He had already found a vaccine for the cure of chicken cholera, and the suggestion had come to him that perhaps the bite of mad dogs might be cured in the same way. Up to 1880 his laboratory had been in the normal school. But in view of what seemed natural to expect from him the municipal council gave him the use of the old garden belonging to the Collège