Central Catholic High School - Echo Yearbook (Fort Wayne, IN)

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. ' CENTRAL CATHOLIC his willingness to let others profit by his dis- coveries, whilephe himself would continue his scientific work. In 1857 he became director of science at the Ecole Normal, Paris. Some time after- ward he was appointed professor of geology, physics and chemistry at the School of Fine Arts. H At this time the silkworm disease was Last spreading over France and the great industry of the country was becoming crippled. Pas- teur was called to the rescue, though it is said that he had never seen a silkworm up, to this time. However, such real or attributed ignorance did not prevent him from making a completed study of the silkworm disease germs as soon as he undertook the commission. He discovered the disease germs in the bodies of the dead silkworms and also in the moth, the larva, and the egg. He concluded that by carefully segregating the healthy silkworms from the infected the spread of the disease could be prevented. He demonstrated the truth of his theory and manifested his prac- tical ability by taking charge of the silkworm industry at the French Prince Imperial. At the end of a year he had netted the French government 55,000,000 So much labor was too much for his strength, and partial paralysis followed in 1868. I But as he was a real scientist he could not be idle. He proceeded to study the diseases of animals. He investigated the chicken chol- era which was destroying ten per cent of the French fowls. This he succeeded in curing by cultivating the cholera germs artificially until they were harmless when inoculated into healthy fowl, though at the same time strong enough to call forth such a quantity of the contrary germs that the fowls would be here- after immune from the disease in question. In 1880 the Institute of Pasteur was founded. Here he continued his many investigations with renewed energy. He demonstrated the bacterial cause of anthrax, a disease which had destroyed whole herds of cattle in France. He showed that birds were not liable to fall vic- tims to the disease because the temperature of their blood is too high for the prosperity of the germ. He found by investigation that earth worms carried it from the graves of dead animals to the grazing animals in the fields. By the use of heat he gradually lowered I , . .2- HIGH SCHOOL ECHO 23 the vitality of the anthrax microbe until its source as a disease was much impaired. Bacteriology and its relation to human dis- eases was his next study. He spent much time in the hospitals and made many discoveries regarding those bacteria which cause diseases in man. Among other things he laid before the Institute of Sorbonne, in 1864, a plan for preventing the fatal results of hydrophobia by the same method of cultivation and inocula- tion of germs which had succeeded in counter- acting the chicken cholera. The Russians and the British of India have since used his method with success. As to the value of Pasteur's experiments, it is estimated that he more than compensated the French nation for the money wrung from her in 1870. His country was not unmindful of his work. The French government granted him an pension of 20,000 francs. Medals of honor and gifts of money came to him from his own and other countries. His scientific work was the wonder of the century, and it is little wonder that societies vied with one another in honoring him. But Pasteur's faith was even more admirable than his science. The more I know the more nearly is my faith that ofa Breton peasant. Could I but know an I would have the faith of a Breton peasant, said he one day in a public address. He could never understand .how any- one could call himself a scientist and at the same time profess to doubt the existence of a Creator, when all nature demonstrated the fact. In this simple faith he' died, September 28, 1895, saying his beads with the same devotion with which he had said it in the days of his strength. By his side was the life of St. Vincent de Paul, a saint who he had striven to imitate by lightening the sufferings of hu- manity. Above his tomb in the Institute Pas- teur are engraved the words which he himself wrote in a letter to a friend: 'iHappy the man who bears within him a Divinity, an ideal- of beauty and obeys it, an ideal of art, an ideal of science, of country, and of the vir- tues of the Gospel. A

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. :J , . ' xl., ,. mf V: , ' I ' 'l I 22 CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL ECHO drunken stranger, turned his attention to his companions. Brennan stole a glance at them and discovered that the captain, the mate of the tug, and a small man with a black mus4 tache comprised the party. The captain ad- dressed the small man as Jackson. He leaned across the table and said: Say, Jackson, I want my share of that Johnstone affair. All right, assented Jackson, handing the captain a roll of bills, and don't forget to have your tug between 28th and 32d streets at eight o'clock this evening. VVe're going to rifle As- tor's yacht and should we get chased by the cops as we pass by your craft we'1l toss the bag of stuff onto the deck. Then if We get caught there will be no -evidence as beforeg but be there on time. This 'ended the conversation and the three men left the'saloon. When they were gone Brennan staggered out into the street, and walked up to the station, where he requested the use of five men and a police boat for the evening. The chief was only too glad to ac- commodate him, because he, too, had comeg in for a share of the criticism. About seven-thirty Brennan brought the po- lice boat against the side of the Warrior, Asto'r's yacht, and having made arrangements with the owner. concealed his men about the deck. Twenty minutes later a launch bumped lightly against the yacht's side and soon a man appeared above the rail. Then climbing over the rail the man descended into the cabin. Soon he appeared again carrying in his hands a black bag bulging with stolen valuables. Pulling out his revolver, Brennan fired at the man's arm. The bullet struck the mark, and dropping the bag, the fellow immediately leaped over the rail into the launch and started down' the river. Brennan and his men leaped into their boat and started in pursuit. The crook's launch tried to cut across the bow,0f a municipal ferry-boat and Brennan again fired his revolver. The bullet clipped off the top of a spark plug, and this stalled the motor. The launch now drifted helplessly. The ferry tried to swingifrom its course but failed. There was a crash, and man and boat disappeared under the waves. L L cATHoLlc SCIENTXISTSL By H. C. Wiener, '16.' II.-Louis Pasteur. ' , Louis Pasteur, the great French scientist and founder of bacteriology, was born at ,Dole, France, December 27, 1822. His father was a poor tanner. When Louis was but two months old his parents moved to Arbois. When-young Pasteur was old enough to go to school he was sent to the College Cummnal, but he cared little for the study of books and devoted most of his time to fishing and sketching. However, as soon as he was admitted to studies in sci- ence he became interested and acquired such a love for science that he had no sooner re- ceived his degree at the College Communal than he set out for Paris to continue his studies under Dumas, Barlard, and Biot. I l A scientist named Mitscherlich, after some experiments in crystallography, aroused Pas- teur's curiosity by announcing that two tar- taric acids, apparently identical in chemical qualities and crystalline form, acted differently in solution toward polarized light. The young scientist doubted the statement of Mitscher- lich and, after performing several 'experiments on crystals, demonstrated beyond doubt that the said crystals were of different structures. . Shortly after this, a Ferman manufacturer ot chemicals discovered that impure tartrates of lime fermented when dissolved and exposed' to the sun's rays. This discovery prompted Paste-ur to conduct an investigation of fer- mentation and putrefaction In explaining his theories on the former hemaintained that all fermentations are the result of the pres'ence and growth of micro-organisms which he called the ferment. He also maintained that fermen- tations are not the result of spontaneous pro- duction but that the living organism proceeds from a parent of the same species. Reasoning from this he concluded that fermentation could never take place if the ferment germs be prevented from entering substances which easily ferment. Q . As a result of his 'experiments he was asked by the Empress Eugenie if he would devote himself to the establishment of great. manufac- turing industries for the benefit of France. He replied that he thought it quite beneath the dignity of a scientist to give up his time to commerce, but at the same time he manifested I 'l L ...1 ' ui 1

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24 CENTRAL CATHOLIC H.IGH SCHOOL ECHO S - HPARDN ERS . By E. H. Kirkland, 'ia , Tin Can Harmer and the Swede were pard- nersf' Tin Can was a medium-sized man, dark complected, and morosef-well, hardly morose, but quiet. He had come to the Alaskan gold fields when they were in their infancy The Swede was a huge blond giant, with a physique that would have done credit to a Greek god. He had light wavy hair, deep blue eyes, stood six feet five inches, and had a heart that was full of sympathy for everyone who was in trouble. He carried himself like a millionaire without any caresg in fact, he was a millionaire at times, but when he and ,Tin Can made a strike they always came to town to celebrate. Every six months they made a journey to Portland and there they proceeded to light up the town and incidentally themselves. So when these two men came back they were flat, not a cent between them. Hut this only seemed to encourage them to further efforts and after they had secured all the supplies they needed, they mushed off for the gold fields once more. But a break must come between the best of friends and come it did, although it was some time before they came to any forceful arguments with fists or preferably guns. The two men had come from the region of the upper Yukon to the little town called Nugget, named most probably by the saloon-keeper who took in the nuggets, or by some miner who considered the saloon a nugget. When they stamped into the general store and saw behind the counter a woman, both of them almost fell over but evidently thought better of it. They showed their enthusiasm by trying to buy out the whole store. They vied with each other in buying canned goods, crackers, cheese, matches, and even lace, till the clerk almost dropped in her tracks, but this did not hinder them and it was only when they had about half the store piled up in front of them that they realized what they were doing. When they had gathered up all they could carry and walked outto the street, a general air of relief seemed to pervade the whole store. Not a word was spoken between them until supper and then it was only when Tin Can asked his mate to shove over the bacon. They stayed in town for two months hang- ing around the store all the while. During this time they learned that she- was the daugh- ter of old man Wade, the owner of the store. Whenever the Swede entered and found her talking to Tin Can, he left with a grunt, and when Tin Can came in to find the Swede hanging over the counter, he left muttering threats against that big stiff who didn't know how to mind his own business. Then one night the two men left town, both taking a different route, each refusing to travel with the other. Nothing was heard of them for a month or so until one night, when they both came back to the little mining town. The first place they both went was the store. There they found old man Wade sitting on the counter trying to hit the cuspidor .at every shot of tobacco juice, and dangling his feet in perfect contentment, oblivious to time and sur- roundings. Where's the clerk? was the ques- tion, shot at him like a bullet. Oh, her? Why she left town yisterday with Blackie Morris, answered the unperturbed Wade. , This reply seemed to stun them both for a minute: then Tin Can asked if she had left any word for him. 'fYes, she did. Here it is, said the old man handing him a note and relapsing into his former tranquility. f The note told them that she was going OH to marry Blackie Morris and that she hop'ed they would both have good luck. Say, looky here. This writin' seems a, bit shaky to me, said Tin Can. I don't believe its her writin', do you? and he handed the note over to the storekeeper. I should say that ain't her writin', was the cool reply, that Blackie must 'a wrote that! It's just as I thought, said Harmer and hurried out to the street followed by U19 Swede. , . They procured the best dogs in that part of the country outside of the team that Blackie had, and started in pursuit. After traveling for two days they came t.o a river that was just breaking up the ice layer, and the huge cakes of ice were thundering down with a force that would have crushed them both to bits. They procured an old scow.from a hunter who lived on the river bank. They odered to pay him for the use of it, but he refused them, saying that it was pay enough to see two fools have their heads broken trying to cross the