_Louis Pasteur was born at Dôle, France, December 27, 1822, the son of a tanner. Educated at Arbois, Besançon, and the École Normale, he was appointed assistant professor of chemistry at the last-named institution. His first important work was in demonstrating the asymmetry of molecules. In 1863 he investigated fermentation and showed that it was caused by the growth of bacteria and later proved that it was also the cause of putrefaction, a suggestion which Lister employed in developing antiseptic surgery. In 1865 Pasteur discovered the bacillus which caused the silkworm disease. Taking up the principle of inoculation he applied it to small-pox and later extended it to other infectious diseases. He died September 28, 1895._ INOCULATION FOR HYDROPHOBIA[35] Gentlemen:--Your Congress meetings are the place for the discussion of the gravest problems of medicine; they serve also to point out the great landmarks of the future. Three years ago, on the eve of the London Congress, the doctrine of micro-organisms, the ætiological cause of transmissible maladies, was still the subject of sharp criticisms. Certain refractory minds continued to uphold the idea that “disease is in us, from us, by us.” It was expected that the decided supporters of the theory of the spontaneity of diseases would make a bold stand in London; but no opposition was made to the doctrine of “exteriority,” or external causes, the first cause of contagious diseases, and those questions were not discussed at all. It was there seen, once again, that when all is ready for the final triumph of truth, the united conscience of a great assembly feels it instinctively and recognises it. All clear-sighted minds had already foreseen that the theory of the spontaneity of diseases received its death-blow on the day when it became possible reasonably to consider the spontaneous generation of microscopic organisms as a myth, and when, on the other hand, the life-activity of those same beings was shown to be the main cause of organic decomposition and of all fermentation. From the London Congress, also, dates the recognition of another very hopeful progress; we refer to the attenuation of different viruses, to the production of varying degrees of virulence for each virus, and their preservation by suitable methods of cultivation; to the practical application, finally, of those new facts in animal medicine. New microbic prophylactic viruses have been added to those of fowl-cholera and of splenic fever. The animals saved from death by contagious diseases are now counted by hundreds of thousands, and the sharp opposition which those scientific novelties met with at the beginning was soon swept away by the rapidity of their onward progress.