DISCUSSION WITH POUCHET 109 



this affirmation on the wing. The experiments on the 

 Maladetta, made apparently under the same condi- 

 tions as his own, contradicted them absolutely. He 

 demanded that the Academy of Sciences name a com- 

 mission before which each of the adversaries should re- 

 peat his experiments, that commission to say on which 

 side was the truth. 



This was in truth a curious episode, and a very in- 

 structive one, as we shall see. Requested to repeat 

 their experiment immediately, MM. Pouchet, Joly and 

 Musset, began by demanding postponement until warm 

 weather. The demand was singular: the heat of the 

 thermostat is a perfect substitute for the heat of the 

 sun, and if the doctrine of spontaneous generation is 

 true in July, it ought to be true in December. The 

 commission succeeded, nevertheless, in bringing before 

 it in June all the adversaries in question. We had come 

 from the laboratory of the normal school with every- 

 thing that was needed to repeat the experiment in dis- 

 pute: Pouchet, Joly and Musset had come alone and 

 unarmed. It was soon evident that they had no desire 

 to fight. Having tried various dilatory methods, but 

 being brought back incessantly to the question in point 

 by the severe tone of Dumas, and by the slightly mocking 

 pleasantry of Balard they ended by declaring that they 

 made default and retired. 



The battle was won, for Pasteur was sure of his ex- 

 periments which succeeded once more in the hands of 

 the Commission as an incisive report by M. Balard, 

 inserted in the Comptes rendus de VAcademie des Sciences, 

 testified. Had any one told us then that this brilliant 

 victory amounted to nothing he would have surprised us 

 very much. Nevertheless, such was the case. Pasteur 

 was right; but Pouchet, Joly and Musset, were right 

 also, and if, instead of withdrawing, they had repeated 



