1844—1849 31 



of the Legion of Honour and the first personage in Arbois — 

 where he beguiled his old age by translating Horace — used to 

 go across the Cuisance bridge without so much as glancing at 

 the tannery where the Pasteur family lived. Whilst the 

 general in his thoughts bequeathed to the town of Arbois his 

 books, his papers, his decorations, even his uniform, he was 

 far from foreseeing that the little dwelling by the bridge would 

 one day become the cynosure of all eyes. 



Months went by and happy items of news succeeded one 

 another. The Normalien was chiefly interested in the trans- 

 formations of matter, and was practising in order to become 

 capable of assisting in experiments ; difficulties only stimulated 

 him. At the chemistry class that he attended, the process of 

 obtaining phosphorus was merely explained, on account of the 

 length of time necessary to obtain this elementary substance ; 

 Pasteur, with his patience and desire for proven knowledge, 

 was not satisfied. He therefore bought some bones, burnt 

 them, reduced them to a very fine ash, treated this ash with 

 sulphuric acid, and carefully brought the process to its close. 

 What a triumph it seemed to him when he had in his posses- 

 sion sixty grammes of phosphorus, extracted from bones, which 

 he could put into a phial labelled " phosphorus." This was his 

 first scientific joy. 



Whilst his comrades ironically (but with some discernment) 

 called him a " laboratory pillar," some of them, more intent 

 upon their examinations, were getting ahead of him. — M. 

 Darboux, the present "doyen" of the Faculty 1 of Science, 

 finds in the Sorbonne registers that Pasteur was placed 7th at 

 the licence examination ; two other students having obtained 

 equal marks with him, the jury (Balard, Dumas and Delafosse), 

 mentioned his name after theirs. 



Those who care for archives would find in the Journal 

 General de V Instruction Publique of September 17, 1846, a 

 report of the agregation 2 competition (physical science). Out 

 peerage was abolished and life-peers were nominated by the King under 

 certain restrictions. This House of Peers was suppressed in 1848, and 

 in 1852 the Senate was instituted in its stead. [Trans.] 



1 Facultes, Government establishments for superior studies ; there are 

 in France Faculties of Theology, of Law, of Medicine, of Sciences and 

 of Letters, distributed among the larger provincial towns as well as in 

 Paris. The administrator of a faculty is styled doyen (dean) and is 

 chosen among the professors. [Trans.] 



2 Agrigation. An annual competition for recruiting professors for 

 faculties and secondary schools or lycees. A candidate for the lycees 



