EARLY YEARS OF PASTEUR'S LIFE 



to Besan9on, to the Royal College of Franche 

 Comte. Here he studied and taught mathematics 

 and physics, and received his board and lodging, 

 and 300 francs a year. The spirit of hard work 

 was upon him: and his face was set toward the 

 Ecole Normale, the great training-college in Paris. 

 It was at Besan^on, that he and Charles Chappuis 

 began a lifelong friendship. In 1842, he was 

 examined for a degree in science, and passed, but 

 without distinction ; was only " moderate " in 

 chemistry, and low on the list of candidates for the 

 Ecole Normale : and he made up his mind to read 

 for a year more, and then be examined again. 

 Paris, and young Chappuis in Paris, kept calling to 

 him : and in October, 1842, he went to Paris. He 

 shared a room, close to his old boarding-school, 

 with two pupils ; gave lessons in mathematics, at 

 six o'clock every morning ; read hard for a degree ; 

 and attended lectures on chemistry, at the Sorbonne, 

 by J. B. Dumas. " You cannot imagine," he 

 writes home, " what a rush of people there is at 

 this course. The hall is vast, and always filled. 

 One has to go half-an-hour beforehand, to get a good 

 place ; just like the theatre. Like it, also, there is a 

 great deal of applause. There are always six or seven 

 hundred of us. " In the summer of 1 843, he did well 

 in examination, and was fourth on the list for the 

 Ecole Normale. His admission there determined 



