DISCUSSION WITH POUCHET 109 



seize this affirmation on the wing. The experiments on 

 the Maladetta, made apparently under the same con- 

 ditions as his own, contradicted them absolutely. He 

 demanded that the Academy of Sciences name a com- 

 mission before which each of the adversaries should re- 

 peat his experiments, that commission to say on which 

 side was the truth. 



This was in truth a curious episode, and a very in- 

 structive one, as we shall see. Requested to repeat 

 their experiment immediately, MM. Pouchet, Joly and 

 Musset, began by demanding postponement until warm 

 weather. The demand was singular: the heat of the 

 thermostat is a perfect substitute for the heat of the 

 sun, and if the doctrine of spontaneous generation is 

 true in July, it ought to be true in December. The 

 commission succeeded, nevertheless, in bringing before 

 it in June all the adversaries in question. We had 

 come from the laboratory of the normal school with 

 everything that was needed to repeat the experiment 

 in dispute: Pouchet, Joly and Musset had come alone 

 and unarmed. It was soon evident that they had no 

 desire to fight. Having tried various dilatory methods, 

 but being brought back incessantly to the question 

 in point by the severe tone of Dumas, and by the slightly 

 mocking pleasantry of Balard they ended by declar- 

 ing that they made default and retired. 



The battle was won, for Pasteur was sure of his 

 experiments which succeeded once more in the hands of 

 the ommission as an incisive report by M. Balard, 

 inserted in the Comptes rendus de V Academic des Sciences, 

 testified. Had any one told us then that this brilliant 

 victory amounted to nothing he would have surprised us 

 very much. Nevertheless, such was the case. Pasteur 

 was right; but Pouchet, Joly and Musset, were right 

 also, and if, instead of withdrawing, they had repeated 



