1844<— 1849 4S 



fceaching, the services rendered to industry by his discoveries, 

 the eclat of his name and titles contrasted with his humble 

 origin, all combined to render him more than a Chancellor of 

 the University; he was in fact a sort of Field Marshal of 

 science, and all powerful. Three years previously he had much 

 scandalized certain red-tape officials by choosing three very 

 young men — Puiseux, Delesse, and H. Sainte Claire Deville — 

 as professors for the new Faculty of Science at Besangon. He 

 had accentuated this authoritative measure by making Sainte 

 Claire Deville Dean of the Faculty. In the unknown professor 

 of twenty-six, he had divined the future celebrated scientist. 



At the end of the year 1848 Pasteur solicited the place of 

 assistant to M. Delesse, who was taking a long leave of absence. 

 This would have brought him near Arbois, besides placing 

 him in a Faculty. He asked for nothing more. Thenard, who 

 had Biot's report in his hands, undertook to transmit to the 

 I^Iinister this modest and natural request. He was opposed 

 by an unexpected argument — the presentation of assistantships 

 belonged to each Faculty. This custom was unknown to 

 Pasteur. Thenard was unable to overcome this routine 

 formality. Pasteur thought that the unanimous opinion of 

 Thenard, Biot, and Pouillet ought to have prevailed. *'I can 

 practically do nothing here,'* he wrote on the sixth of 

 December, thinking of his interrupted studies. '*If I cannot 

 go to Besancon, I shall go back to Paris as a curator." 



His father, to whom he paid a visit for the new year, per- 

 suaded him to look upon things more calmly, telling him that 

 wisdom repudiated too much hurry. Louis deferred to his 

 father's opinion to the extent of writing, on January 2, 1849, 

 to the Minister of Public Instruction, begging him to overlook 

 his request. However, the members of the Institute who had 

 taken up his cause did not intend to be thwarted by minor 

 difficulties. Pasteur's letter was hardly posted when he 

 received an assistantship, not at the BesanQon Faculty but at 

 Strasburg, to take the place of M. Persoz, Professor of 

 Chemistry, who was desirous of going to Paris. 



Pasteur, on his arrival at Strasburg (January 15) was 

 welcomed by the Professor of Physics, his old school friend, 

 the Franc-Comtois Bertin. ''First of all, you are coming to 

 live with me," said Bertin gleefully. ''You could not do 

 better; it is a stone's throw from the Faculte." By living 

 with Bertin, Pasteur acquired a companion endowed with a 



