1860— 1864j 111 



researclies on the rotatory power of certain liquids and theit 

 steam. 



At that same time, the heterogenists had at last placed them- 

 selves at the disposal of the Academic and were invited to meet 

 Pasteur before the Natural History Commission at M. 

 Chevreurs laboratory. ''I affirm," said Pasteur, *'that in 

 any place it is possible to take up from the ambient atmosphere 

 a determined volume of air containing neither egg nor spore 

 and producing no generation in putrescible solutions.'* The 

 Commission declared that, the whole contest bearing upon one 

 simple fact, one experiment only should take place. The 

 heterogenists wanted to recommence a whole series of experi- 

 ments, thus reopening the discussion. The Commission re- 

 fused, and the heterogenists, unwilling to concede the point, 

 retired from the field, repudiating the arbiters that they had 

 themselves chosen. 



And yet Joly had written to the A^cad^mie, *'lf one only 

 of our flasks remains pure, we will loyally own onr defeat/* 

 A scientist who later became Permanent Secretary of the 

 Aeademie des Sciences, Jamin, wrote about thij^ 'sonfliot' 

 **The heterogenists, however they may have eoloured th^ir 

 retreat, have condemned themselves. If they had been «mr€ 

 of the fact — ^which they had solemnly engaged to prove oi to 

 own themselves vanquished, — they would have insisted oc 

 showing it, it would have been the triumph of their doc^trine." 



The heterogenists appealed to the public. A few days after 

 their defeat, Joly gave a lecture at the Faculty of Medicine. 

 He called the trial, as decided on by the Commission, a **circxis 

 competition*'; he was applauded by those who saw other than 

 scientific questions in the matter. The problem was now com- 

 ing down from mountains and laboratories into the arena of so- 

 ciety discussions. If all comes from a germ, people said, whence 

 came the first germ? "We must bow before that mystery, 

 said Pasteur; it is the question of the origin of all things, and 

 absolutelj^ outside the domain of scientific research. But an 

 invincible curiosity exists amongst most men which cannot 

 admit that science should have the wisdom to content itself 

 with the vast space between the beginning of the world and 

 the unknown future. Many people transform a question of 

 fact into a question of faith. Though Pasteur had brought into 

 his researches a solely scientific preoccupation, many people 

 appro\ed or blamed him as the defender of a religious caijse, 



