102 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



Rammelsberg, holding the crystal in the opposite direction, 

 said: **It is hemihedral on the left side." It was a mere 

 matter of conventional orientation; nothing was changed in the 

 scientific results announced by Pasteur. But some adversaries 

 made a weapon of that inverted crystal; not a dangerous 

 weapon, thought Pasteur at first, fancying that a few words 

 would clear the misunderstanding. But the campaign per- 

 sisted, with insinuations, murmurs, whisperings. When 

 Pasteur saw this simple difference in the way the crystal was 

 held stigmatised as a cause of error, he desired to cut short this 

 quarrel made in Germany. He then had with him no longer 

 Eaulin, but M. Duclaux, who was beginning his scientific life. 

 M. Duclaux remembers one day when Pasteur, seeing that 

 incontrovertible arguments were required, sent for a cabinet 

 maker with his tools. He superintended the making of a com- 

 plete wooden set of the crystalline forms of tartrates, a gigantic 

 set, such as Gulliver might have seen in Brobdingnag if he had 

 studied geometrical forms in that island. A coating of coloured 

 paper finished the work; green paper marked the hemihedral 

 face. A member of the Philomathic Society, Pasteur asked 

 the Society to give up the meeting of November 8, 1862, to the 

 discussion of that subject. Several of his colleagues vainly 

 endeavoured to dissuade him from that intention; Pasteur 

 hearkened to no one. He took with him his provision of 

 wooden crystals, and gave a vivid and impassioned lecture. 

 **If you know the question," he asked his adversaries, ** where 

 is your conscience? If you know it not, why meddle with 

 it?" And with one of his accustomed sudden turns, "What 

 is all this?" he added. *'One of those incidents to which we 

 all, more or less, are exposed by the conditions of our career; 

 no bittemeps remains behind. Of what account is it in the 

 presence of those mysteries, so varied, so numerous, that we 

 all, in divers directions, are working to clear? It is true I 

 have had recourse to an unusual means of defending myself 

 against attacks not openly published, but I think that means 

 was safe and loyal, and deferential towards you. And," he 

 added, thinking of Biot and Senarmont, "will you have my 

 full confession? You know that I had during fifteen years the 

 inestimable advantage of the intercourse of two men who are 

 no more, but whose scientific probity shone as one of the 

 beacons of tlie Academic des Sciences. Before deciding on the 

 course I have now followed, I questioned my memory and 



