8 LOUIS PASTEUR 



a distance and supporting him in Paris. Besides 

 there was the fear in the hearts of the parents, who 

 were loth to be separated from their son, that the 

 temptations of the gay capital might overcome the 

 effects of their careful training. 



Through the influence of a family friend, young 

 Pasteur secured the privilege of attending the pre- 

 paratory school of M. Barbet who consented to 

 receive him for reduced fees. This offer overcame 

 the scruples of his parents, and accordingly Pasteur 

 set out for Paris, accompanied by one of his young 

 friends, Jules Vercel, whose society served to miti- 

 gate the dreariness of the long journey by stage 

 coach. Young Pasteur, who was then sixteen years 

 of age, was not happy in his new surroundings. 

 Despite his heroic efforts to interest himself in 

 study, he was seized by the peculiar malady of 

 homesickness. Those who have suffered acutely 

 from this affliction may understand something of 

 the anguish of a young lad in a strange city sepa- 

 rated from a family circle in which he had known 

 only close and affectionate companionship. "If I 

 could only get a whiff of the tannery yard," he 

 said to Jules Vercel, "I should be cured." But his 

 case went from bad to worse until M. Barbet, who 

 feared that his pupil's health was becoming im- 



