Pasteur knew how important it was to keep the plain people thrilled
about microbe hunting--it is the _drama_ of science that they can
understand--so Pasteur said: “You may not only come to work in our
laboratory, but you shall have an entire laboratory to yourself!”
Metchnikoff went back to Odessa, getting a dreadful snubbing from
Koch on the way, and wondered whether it would not be best to give
up his tidy salary at the Russian Institute, to get away from these
people yelling for results.... But he began to take up his work
again, when suddenly something happened that left no doubt in his
mind as to what he had better do.
In response to the farmer’s complaints of “Where are your vaccines,
our flocks are perishing from anthrax!” Metchnikoff had told Dr.
Gamaléia to start giving sheep the anthrax vaccine on a large scale.
Then, one bright morning, while the Director was with Olga in their
summer home, in the country, a fearful telegram came to him from
Gamaléia:
“MANY THOUSANDS OF SHEEP KILLED BY THE ANTHRAX VACCINE.”
A few months later they were safely installed in the new Pasteur
Institute in Paris, and Olga (who enjoyed painting and sculpture
much better--but who would do anything for her husband because he
was a genius, and always kind to her) this good wife, Olga, held his
animals and washed his bottles for Metchnikoff. From then on they
marched, hand in hand, over a road strewn with their picturesque
mistakes, from one triumph to always greater victories and
notorieties.
V
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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