PASTEUR'S CAREER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8986, 25 February 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

PASTEUR'S CAREER.

M. Locis Pastece is another instance of Extraordinary scientific perseverance. At seventeen he was an usher in the Lyceum of Besaneon. His round of duties was monotonous. He did not teach the boys himself, but saw that they learnt their lessons, besides keeping order in the dormitory. On Sundays he accompanied them to mass, and on Thursdays he took them out to walk. How did he contrive to become a scientific man ? Simply by making use of opportunities. He was permitted to attend the professors' lectures in the higher classes ; and the lectures on natural philosophy attracted his attention. Yet he was obliged to limit his scientific studies to the hours of recreation and the holidays. But it so happened that a pupil at the Lyceum had a very fine microscope, which he permitted Pasteur to examine and use. On Thursdays, when he went out with the pupils, the microscope was taken to the ramparts to examine the insects. This little incident determined his future history. He became an enthusiast in microscopic work. All the rest came to him by degrees, with persevering application and study. He put the angel of death under the microscope, and discovered the laws by which animals and human beings might be guarded from her fatal influence. He investigated the causes of the silk and vine disease, and is now engaged in tracking typhoid fever to its lair, and searching into the nature of hydrophobia. —From .''Smiles' Life Labour."