200 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



that the very existence of the divided country was jeopardized 

 under the eyes of the Prussians? The world of letters and of 

 science, helpless amidst such disorders, had dispersed; Saint 

 Claire Deville was at Gex, Dumas at Geneva. Some were 

 wondering whether lectures could not be organized in Switzer- 

 land and in Belgium as they had been under the Empire, thus 

 spreading abroad the influence of French thought. Examples 

 might be quoted of men who had served the glory of their 

 country in other lands, such as Descartes, who took refuge in 

 Holland in order to continue his philosophic meditations. 

 Pasteur might have been tempted to do likewise. Already, 

 before the end of the war, an Italian professor of chemistry, 

 Signor Chiozza, who had applied Pasteur's methods to silk- 

 worms in the neighbourhood of Villa Vicentina, got the Italian 

 Government to offer him a laboratory and the direction of a 

 silkworm establishment. Pasteur refused, and a deputy of 

 Pisa, Signor Toscanelli, hearing of this, obtained for Pasteur 

 the offer of what was better still a professor's chair of 

 Chemistry applied to Agriculture at Pisa ; this would give 

 every facility for work and all laboratory resources. " Pisa," 

 Signor Chiozza said, " is a quiet town, a sort of Latin quarter 

 in the middle of the country, where professors and students 

 form the greater part of the population. I think you would be 

 received with the greatest cordiality and quite exceptional con- 

 sideration ... I fear that black days of prolonged agitation 

 are in store for France." 



Pasteur's health and work were indeed valuable to the whole 

 world, and Signor Chiozza's proposition seemed simple and 

 rational. Pasteur was much divided in his mind : his first 

 impulse was to renew his refusal. He thought but of his van- 

 quished country, and did not wish to forsake it. But was it to 

 his country's real interests that he should remain a helpless 

 spectator of so many disasters? Was it not better to carry 

 French teaching abroad, to try and provoke in young Italian 

 students enthusiasm for French scientists, French achieve- 

 ments? He might still serve his beloved country in that quiet 

 retreat, amidst all those facilities for continuous work. He 

 thought of writing to Eaulin, who had relations in Italy, and 

 who might follow his master. Finally, he was offered very 

 great personal advantages, a high salary and this determined 

 his refusal, for, as he wrote to Signor Chiozza, "I should feel 

 that I deserved a deserter's penalty if I sought, away from my 



