INTRODUCTION vii 



goes the shortest way to the heart of a subject, and im- 

 presses one everywhere as honest and fair in his scientific 

 criticisms. He is an ideal man of science and, moreover, 

 he has what many lack, a direct, forcible, and delightful 

 way of putting things. One would like to know more 

 about such a man, and Madame Duclaux hi her inter- 

 esting book ("I like it best of all the books I have 

 written," she said) has opened the way. In the spirit 

 of her happy motto Transire benefaciendo, and mostly 

 from this heart book, 1 I have compiled the following 

 facts respecting the author of "Pasteur: Histoire d'un 

 Esprit." 



Duclaux was Auvergnaise. He was born in 1840 in 

 Aurillac in Cantal. Aurillac is a quaint, gray-stuccoed, 

 red-roofed town on a high plateau in the old volcanic 

 region of southern France. It is in a smiling, pastoral 

 country, overlooked by the great rounded flanks of the 

 extinct volcanoes. It is in latitude 45, due south of 

 Paris 442 kilometers, and north of the eastern Pyrenees 

 275 kilometers. East and west it lies about midway be- 

 tween Bordeaux and the Rhone at Valence. Already 

 the population begins to be southern in its speech and its 

 manners. 



On both sides Duclaux was descended from the great 

 middle class of France. His father was a clerk with 

 wandering and scholarly proclivities, a dreamy and silent 

 man. His mother was a good-natured, joyous, affec- 

 tionate country girl, the daughter of a small proprietor 

 and merchant. He was the first child. From his ear- 

 liest days he was brought up very strictly. His father, 

 Pierre-Justin Duclaux, gave nearly his whole time to his 

 education, himself teaching him at first, and later, when 

 he was under other instructors, going over all his lessons 



1 La vie de fimile Duclaux, Par Madame fimile Duclaux (Mary Robin- 

 son). Laval. L. Barne"oud and Cie Imprimeurs. 1906. 12 mo., pp. 332. 



