88 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



rose and addressed me in these words. After praising the zeal I 

 had brought to this novel kind of teaching at the Society's 

 request, and the so great penetration I had given proof of, in the 

 course of the work I had just expounded, he added, ' The 

 Academie, sir, rewarded you a few days ago for other profound 

 researches ; your audience of this evening will applaud you as 

 one of the most distinguished professors we possess.' 



' All I have underlined was said in those very words by M. 

 Dumas, and was followed by great applause. 



" All the students of the scientific section of the Ecole Nor- 

 male were present ; they felt deeply moved and several of them 

 have expressed their emotion to me. 



" As for myself, I saw the realization of what I had foreseen. 

 You know how I have always told you confidentially that time 

 would see the growth of my researches on the molecular dissym- 

 metry of natural organic products. Founded as they were on 

 varied notions borrowed from divers branches of science — 

 crystallography, physics, and chemistry — those studies could 

 not be followed by most scientists so as to be fully under- 

 stood. On this occasion I presented them in the aggregate 

 with some clearness and power and every one was struck by 

 their importance. 



"It is not by their form that these two lectures have de- 

 lighted my hearers, it is by their contents; it is the future 

 reserved to those great results, so unexpected, and opening such 

 entirely new vistas to physiology. I have dared to say so, for at 

 these heights all sense of personality disappears, and there only 

 remains that sense of dignity which is ever inspired by true 

 love of science. 



" God grant that by my persevering labours I may bring a 

 little stone to the frail and ill-assured edifice of our knowledge 

 of those deep mysteries of Life and Death where all our 

 intellects have so lamentably failed. 



" P.S. — Yesterday I presented to the Academy rr.v re- 

 searches on spontaneous generation ; they seemed to produce 

 a great sensation. More later." 



When Biot heard that Pasteur wished to tackle this study 

 of spontaneous generation, he interposed, as he had done 

 seven years before, to arrest him on the verge of his audacious 

 experiments on the part played by dissymmetrical forces in 

 the development of life. Vainly Pasteur, grieved at Biot's 

 disapprobation, explained that this question, in the course of 



