CHEMISTRY 17 



quiet home was like Arbois to him : and, within 

 a month, he had sent to her father his formal 

 proposal of marriage : 



"... My father is a tanner at Arbois, a small 

 town in the Jura. My sisters live with him, and in the 

 affairs of the house and of the business take the 

 place of my mother, whom we had the grief of 

 losing in May of last year. My family is in easy 

 circumstances, but not rich. I estimate all that we 

 have at not more than fifty thousand francs : and, as 

 for me, I made up my mind long ago not to touch 

 what will come to me, but to leave it all to my 

 sisters. Thus, I have no private income : all that 

 I possess is good health, good principles, and my 

 position in the University. ... As for the future, 

 all that I can say is that, unless there should be a 

 complete change in my tastes, I shall devote myself 

 to researches in chemistry. My ambition is to go 

 back to Paris when my scientific work shall have 

 given me a reputation." 



At the end of May, they were married. She was 

 everything to him : without her, his work would 

 never have been accomplished : he would have died, 

 long before he did, under the strain of it. To 

 write of him, is to be writing of her : the two lives 

 are one, from 1849 to the day he died. His 

 letters to Chappuis are full of happiness : 



"Why aren't you a Professor of chemistry or 

 physics ? We should be working together, and in 

 ten years we would have revolutionised chemistry. 

 There are marvels hidden in crystallisation : and 



3 



