supposed remedies had been tried. Fresh silk-worms had been brought from China on a number of occasions, but they succumbed to the disease, or their progeny became affected by it. Nothing availed and the case seemed hopeless. Pasteur found the silkworm had been suffering from two diseases, pebrine and flacherie, and that the spread of these diseases could be prevented by careful segregation of healthy worms from those diseased. The announcement seemed too good to be true and was scouted. Pasteur demonstrated its absolute truth and his practical ability by taking charge of the villa of the French Prince Imperial, where the silk industry had been ruined. At the end of the year the sale of cocoons gave a net profit of 26,000,000 francs (over $5,000,000).
Naturally Pasteur proceeded to the study of diseases of animals and human beings. He demonstrated the bacterial cause of anthrax, which had made serious ravages among cattle in France. The organism was distributed by contact, real contagion. Earthworms, he showed, carry it up from the bodies of animals buried in shallow graves to infect grazing animals. He found further that he could by heat reduce the vitality of the anthrax microbe, so that it produced but a mild form of the disease which would protect cattle against the fatal form. Then he discovered the cause of fowl cholera. He cultivated it artificially and after a time his cultures would not produce the disease in fowl, though it served to protect them against injections of virulent cultures which would kill "control" fowl. The discoveries of vaccinating viruses for these two diseases saved France millions of dollars every year.
Pasteur proceeded with the development of bacteriology and its relation to disease. Having studied many cases of child-bed fever at the hospitals, he declared before a medical society that he had seen its cause, and challenged he drew a picture resembling a rosary of what we now know as a streptococcus, or chain coccus. He discovered other coccus (berry) forms of pathological microbes, some of them arranged in bunches like grapes, thence called staphylococci. Finally came his work on rabies. Unable to find the cause of the disease, which has not yet been discovered, he succeeded in making from the dessicated spinal cords of animals dead from the disease a vaccinating virus, which protects human beings bitten by a rabid animal against the development of rabies. This treatment met with great opposition. The Germans talked sneeringly of "a remedy of which we know nothing for a disease of which we know less". With time Pasteur's vindication came. The Russians, who suffered severely from rabies, from the bites of mad wolves on the steppes, found it of great service, and the tsar honoured Pasteur by a personal visit. Next the British in India found it wonder-working. Other countries adopted it. Finally the German Government established Pasteur Institutes, and acclaimed the discovery.
Many honours came to Pasteur. Besides the Rumford and Copley Medals (1856-1874), in 1868 the Austrian Government gave him a prize of 10,000 francs for his work on silk-worms; in 1873 the French Société d'Encouragement, a prize of 12,000 francs; the Russian Society of Rural Economy, a medal (1882); the Albert medal (1882); the Bressa Prize, 5000 francs (Turin Academy, 1888); the French Government, an annual pension of 12,000 francs (1874), increased in 1883 to 25,000 francs, and besides all the degrees of the Legion of Honour orders were conferred on him by Russia, Denmark, Greece, Brazil, Sweden, Turkey, Norway, and Portugal. Oxford gave him a D.C.L., Bonn, an honorary M.D., the English Royal Society, foreign membership, and the French Academy, its membership (1881). He was made Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences in 1887. There was a magnificent celebration of his jubilee on his seventieth birthday, 27 Dec, 1892, to which contributions were sent from every civilized country and all the great institutions of learning.
Pasteur's faith was as genuine as his science. In his panegyric of Littré, whose fauteuil he took, he said: "Happy the man who bears within him a divinity, an ideal of beauty and obeys it; an ideal of art, an ideal of science, an ideal of country, an ideal of the virtues of the Gospel". These words are graven above his tomb in the Institut Pasteur. In his address Pasteur said further "These are the living springs of great thoughts and great, actions. Everything grows clear in the reflections from the Infinite". Some of his letters to his children breathe profound simple piety. He declared "The more I know, the more nearly is my faith that of the Breton peasant. Could I but know all I would have the faith of a Breton peasant woman." What he could not above all understand is the failure of scientists to recognize the demonstration of the existence of the Creator that there is in the world around us. He died with his rosary in his hand, after listening to the Life of St. Vincent de Paul which he had asked to have read to him, because he thought that his work like that of St. Vincent would do much to save suffering children.
Pasteur's principal works are: "Etudes sur le Vin", (1866); "Etudes sur le Vinaigre" (1868); "Etudes sur la Maladie des Vers à Soie" (2 vols., 1870); "Quelques Réflexions sur la Science en France" (1871); "Etudes sur la Bière" (1876); "Les Microbes organisés, leur rôle dans la Fermentation, la Putréfaction et la Contagion" (1878); "Discours de Réception de M. L. Pasteur à l'Académie Française" (1882); "Traitement de la Rage" (1886).
Vallery-Radot, Life of Pasteur (tr. New York, 1902; Duclaux, Pasteur: Histoire d'un espirit (Paris, 1896); Virchow, Bert. Klin. Wochenschr. (1895), 947; Frankland, Pasteur (New York. 1900); Herter, Influence of Pasteur on Medical Science (New York, 1904); Jubilé de M. Pasteur (1822-1892), (Paris, 1893); Walsh, Makers of Modern Medicne (New York, 1907).
James J. Walsh.
Pasto, Diocese of (Pastensis, Pastopolitana), a Colombian see, suffragan of Popayán, from which it was separated by the Bull of Pius IX, "In excelsa militantibus ecclesia", 10 April, 1859. Situated in the State of Cauca, it is bounded on the north by the Dioceses of Garzon and Popayán, and on the south by the Vicariate Apostolic of Napo, Ecuador. The present bishop, Mgr Adolfo Perea, b. 1853 in the Diocese of Popayán, elected 16 December, 1907, succeeded Mgr Ezequiel Moreno, O.S.A. (b. at Alfaro, Tarazona, 9 April, 1838, made titular Bishop of Pinara, 23 October, 1893, transferred to Pasto, 2 December, 1893). The diocese contains 315,640 Catholics, 41,000 pagan Indians, 68 parishes, 90 secular and 23 regular priests, 133 churches or chapels. The town of Pasto, containing about 12,000 inhabitants, is well built and is a busy trade centre between Colombia and Ecuador. It is situated at the eastern base of the volcano La Galera at an altitude of 8650 feet. Founded in 1539, it was captured by Bolivar during the War of Independence in 1822, and suffered severely from an earthquake in 1834. It contains many churches, a seminary, a Jesuit college, and an hospital under the care of the Sisters of Charity. On 23 December, 1904, the Prefecture Apostolic of Caquetá (q. v.) was separated from Pasto.
Groot, Hist. eclesiástica y civil de Nueva Granada (1869); Cieza de León, Crónica del Perú. I (Antwerp, 1554); Petre, The Republic of Columbia (London, 1906).
A. A. MacErlean.
Pastor.—This term denotes a priest who has the cure of souls (cura animarum), that is, who is bound in virtue of his office to promote the spiritual welfare of the faithful by preaching, administering the sacraments, and exercising certain powers of external government, e.g., the right of supervision, giving precepts, imposing light corrections—powers rather paternal in
