1850—1854 5$ 



receiving the approval and counsel of masters who inspired him 

 with a feeling of veneration. 



"At my age," wrote Biot to Pasteur, "one lives only in 

 the interest one takes in those one loves. You are one of the 

 small number who can provide such food for my mind." And 

 alluding in that same letter (December 22, 1851) to four reports 

 successively approved of by Balard, Dumas, Begnault, 

 Chevreul, Senarmont and Thenard : " I was very happy to see, 

 in those successive announcements of ideas of so new and so 

 far-reaching a nature, that you have said — and that we have 

 made you say — nothing that should now be contradicted or 

 objected to in one single point. I still have in my hands the 

 pages of your last paper concerning the optical study of malic 

 acid. I have not yet returned them to you, as I wish to extract 

 from them some results that I shall place to your credit in a 

 paper I am now writing." 



It was no longer Biot and Senarmont only who were watch- 

 ing the growing importance of Pasteur's work. At the 

 beginning of the year 1852 the physicist Eegnault thought of 

 making Pasteur a corresponding member of the Institute. 

 Pasteur was still under thirty. There was a vacancy in the 

 General Physics section, why not offer it to him? said Eegnault, 

 with his usual kindliness. Biot shook his head : " It is to the 

 Chemistry section that he ought to belong." And, with the 

 courage of sincere affection, he wrote to Pasteur, " Your work 

 marks your place in chemistry rather than physics, for in 

 chemistry you are in the front rank of inventors, whilst in 

 physics you have applied processes already known rather than 

 invented new ones. Do not listen to people, who, without 

 knowing the ground, would cause you to desire, and even to 

 hastily obtain, a distinction which would be above your real 

 and recognized claims. . . . Besides, you can see for yourself 

 how much your work of the last four years has raised you in 

 every one's estimation. And that place, which you have made 

 for yourself in the general esteem, has the advantage of not 

 being subject to the fluctuations of the ballot. Farewell, dear 

 friend, write to me when you have time, and be assured that 

 my interest in hard workers is about the only thing which yet 

 makes me wish to live. Your friend." 



Pasteur gratefully accepted these wise counsels. In an 

 excess of modesty, he wrote to Dumas that he should not apply 



