342 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



His colleagues also probably sympathized with his irritation 

 in hearing a member of the assembly, M. Poggiale, formerly 

 apothecary in chief to the Val de Grace, give a somewhat 

 sceptical dissertation on such a subject as spontaneous genera- 

 tion, saying disdainfully — 



*'M. Pasteur has told us that he had looked for spontaneous 

 generation for twenty years without finding it; he will long 

 continue to look for it, and, in spite of his courage, perse- 

 verance and sagacity, I doubt whether he ever will find it. 

 It is almost an unsolvable question. However those who, like 

 me, have no fixed opinion on the question of spontaneous 

 generation reserve the right of verifying, of sifting and of 

 disputing new facts, as they appear, one by one and wherever 

 they are produced/' 



**What!" cried Pasteur, wrathful whenever those great 

 questions were thoughtlessly tackled, "what! I have been foi- 

 twenty years engaged in one subject and I am not to have an 

 opinion ! and the right of verifying, sifting, and disputing the 

 facts is to belong to him who does nothing to become en- 

 lightened but merely to read our works more or less attentively, 

 his feet on his study fender ! ! ! 



*'You have no opinion on spontaneous generation, my dear 

 colleague; I can well believe that, while regretting it. I am 

 not speaking, of course, of those sentimental opinions that 

 everybody has, more or less, in questions of this nature, for 

 in this assembly we do not go in for sentiment. You say that, 

 in the present state of science, it is wiser to have no opinion: 

 well, I have an opinion, not a sentimental one, but a rational 

 one, having acquired a right to it by twenty years of assiduous 

 labour, and it would be wise in every impartial mind to share 

 it. My opinion — nay, more, my conviction — is that, in the 

 present state of science, as you rightly say, spontaneous gene- 

 ration is a chimera; and it would be impossible for you to 

 contradict me, for my experiments all stand forth to prove 

 that spontaneous generation is a chimera. "What is then 

 your judgment on my experiments? Have I not a hundred 

 times placed organic matter in contact with pure air in the 

 best conditions for it to produce life spontaneously? Have 

 I not practised on those organic materia which are most 

 favourable, according to all accounts, to the genesis of spon- 

 taneity, such as blood, urine, and grape juice? How is it 

 that you do not see the essential difference between my op' 



