CHAPTER IV 

 1855—1859 



In September, 1854, he was made Professor and Dean of 

 the new Faculte des Sciences at Lille. "I need not, Sir," 

 wrote the Minister of Public Instruction, M. Fortoul, in a 

 letter where private feelings were mixed with official solemnity, 

 " recall to your mind the importance which is attached to the 

 success of this new Faculty of Science, situated in a town which 

 is the richest centre of industrial activity in the north of France. 

 By giving you the direction of it, I show the entire confidence 

 which I have placed in you. I am convinced that you will 

 fulfil the hopes which I have founded upon your zeal." 



Built at the expense of the town, the Faculte was sit- 

 uated in the Rue des Fleurs. In the opening speech 

 which he pronounced on December 7, 1854, the young 

 Dean expressed his enthusiasm for the Imperial decree 

 of August 22, which brought two happy innovations into the 

 Faculties of Science : (1) The pupils might, for a small annual 

 sum, enter the laboratory and practise the principal experi- 

 ments carried out before them at the classes ; and (2) a new 

 diploma was created. After two years of practical and theoret- 

 ical study the young men who wished to enter an industrial 

 career could obtain this special diploma and be chosen as fore- 

 men or overseers. Pasteur was overjoyed at being able to do 

 useful work in that country of distilleries, and to attract large 

 audiences to the new Faculty. " Where in your families will 

 you find," he said, to excite indolent minds — " where will you 

 find a young man whose curiosity and interest will not imme- 

 diately be awakened when you put into his hands a potato, 

 when with that potato he may produce sugar, with that sugar 

 alcohol, with that alcohol aether and vinegar? Where is he 

 that will not be happy to tell his family in the evening that he 

 has just been working out an electric telegraph? And, gentle- 

 men, be convinced of this, such studies are seldom if ever 

 forgotten. It is somewhat as if geography were to be taught 



