44 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



absolutely sure of his subject. He wrote to Chappuis (Novem- 

 ber 20, 1848) : " I find that preparing my lessons takes up a 

 great deal of time. It is only when I have prepared a lesson 

 very carefully that I succeed in making it very clear and capable 

 of compelling attention. If I neglect it at all I lecture badly 

 and become unintelligible." 



He had both first and second year pupils ; these two classes 

 took up all his time and all his strength. He liked the second 

 class ; it was not a very large one. " They all work," Pasteur 

 wrote, "some very intelligently." As to the first year class, 

 what could he do with eighty pupils? The good ones were kept 

 back by the bad. ' Don't you think," he wrote, " that it is a 

 mistake not to limit classes to fifty boys at the most? It is 

 with great difficulty that I can secure the attention of all 

 towards the end of the lesson. I have only found one means, 

 which is to multiply experiments at the last moment." 



Whilst he was eagerly and conscientiously giving himself up 

 to his new functions — not without some bitterness, for he really 

 was entitled to an appointment in a Faculty, and he could not 

 pursue his favourite studies — his masters were agitating on his 

 behalf. Balard was clamouring to have him as an assistant at 

 the Ecole Normale. Biot was appealing to Baron Thenard. 

 This scientist was then Chairman of the Grand Council of the 

 Universite. 1 He had been a pupil of Vauquelin, a friend of 

 Laplace, and a collaborator of Gay-Lussac ; he had lectured 

 during thirty years at the Sorbonne, at the College de France, 

 and at the Ecole Polytechnique ; he could truthfully boast that 

 he had had 40,000 pupils. He was, like J. B. Dumas, a born 

 professor. But, whilst Dumas was always self possessed and 

 dignified in his demeanour, his very smile serious, Thenard, 

 a native of Burgundy, threw his whole personality into his work, 

 a broad smile on his beaming face. 



He was now (1848) seventy years old, and the memory of his 



1 Universite. The celebrated body known as Universite de Paris, and 

 instituted by Philippe Auguste in 1200, possessed great privileges from 

 its earliest times. It had the monopoly of teaching and a jurisdiction 

 of its own. It took a share in public affairs on several occasions, and 

 had long struggles to maintain against several religious orders. The 

 Universite was suppressed by the Convention, but re-organized by 

 Napoleon I in 1808. It is now subdivided into sixteen Academies 

 Vniversitaires, each of which is administered by a Rector. The title of 

 Grand Master of the Universite always accompanies that of Minister of 

 Public Instruction. [Trans.] 



