18651870 129 



In the same way, the preceding week, Le Verrier 1 had 

 spoken of his planet, and Dr. Longet had given a lecture on 

 the circulation of the blood. That butterfly world of the 

 Court, taking a momentary interest in scientific things, did 

 not foresee that the smallest discovery made in the poor 

 laboratory of the Kue d'Ulm would leave a more lasting im- 

 pression than the fetes of the Tuileries of Fontainebleau and 

 of Compiegne. 



In the course of their private interview, Napoleon and 

 Eugenie manifested some surprise that Pasteur should not 

 endeavour to turn his discoveries and their applications to a 

 source of legitimate profit. "In France/' he replied, "scien- 

 tists would consider that they lowered themselves by doing so." 



He was convinced that a man of pure science would com- 

 plicate his life, the order of his thoughts, and risk paralysing 

 his inventive faculties, if he were to make money by his 

 discoveries. For instance, if he had followed up the industrial 

 results of his studies on vinegar, his time would have been 

 too much and too regularly occupied, and he would not have 

 been free for new researches. 



"My mind is free," he said. "I am as full of ardour for 

 the new question of silkworm disease as I was in 1863, when 

 I took up the wine question." 



What he most wished was to be able to watch the growth 

 of the silkworms from the very first day, and to pursue without 

 interruption this serious study in which the future of France 

 was interested. That, and the desire to have one day a 

 laboratory adequate to the magnitude of his works were his 

 only ambitions. On his return to Paris he obtained leave 

 to go back to Alais. 



" My dear Kaulin," wrote Pasteur to his 1 former pupil in 

 January, 1866. " I am again entrusted by the Minister of 

 Agriculture with a mission for the study of silkworm disease, 

 which will last at least five months, from February 1 to the 

 end of June. Would you care to join me?" 



1 Le Verrier, a celebrated astronomer, at that time Director of the 

 Paris Observatory. His calculations led him to surmise the existence 

 of the planet Neptune, which was discovered accordingly. Adam, an 

 English astronomer, attained the same result, by the same means, at the 

 same time, each of the two scientists being in absolute ignorance of the 

 work of the other. Le Verrier was the first to publish his discovery. 

 [Trans.] 



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