Industrial Chemistry 



first see if it is possible to earn the small for- 

 tune which I shall need if I am to teach in a 

 decent manner.' 



Thereupon we exchanged a friendly grip of 

 the hand and parted. I never saw him again. 

 His fatherly arguments had soon convinced 

 me : I was prepared to hear the blunt truth. 

 A few months earlier, I had received my nom- 

 ination as an assistant-lecturer in zoology at 

 the university of Poitiers. They offered me 

 a ridiculous salary. After paying the costs of 

 moving, I should have had hardly three francs 

 a day left; and, on this income, I had to keep 

 my family, numbering seven in all. I hastened 

 to decline the very great honour. 



No, science ought not to practise these 

 jests. If we humble persons are of use to her, 

 she should at least enable us to live. If she 

 can't do that, then let her leave us to break 

 stones on the highway. Oh, yes, I was pre- 

 pared for the truth when that honest fellow 

 talked to me of frock-coated poverty ! I am 

 telling the story of a not very distant past. 

 Since then, things have improved consider- 

 ably; but, when the pear was properly ripened, 

 I was no longer of an age to pick it. 



And what was I to do now, to overcome the 

 difficulty mentioned by my inspector and con- 



453 



