20 IE LIFE OF PASTEUB 



His col lea also probably sympathized with his irritation 

 in hearing a member of the My. M. Poggiale, formerly 



Apothecary in chief to the Yal d- Grace, give a som- 

 sceptical diss. n on such a subject as spontaneous genera- 



tion, saying disdainfully — 



' M. Pasteur has told us that he had looked for spo us 



generation for twenty yean without finding it; he will long 

 continue to look for it. and, in spite of his courage, perse- 

 verance and sagacity, I doubt whether he ever will find 

 It is almost an o ible question. However those who, like 



me, have no fixed opinion on the question of spontaneous 



eration reserve the right of verifying, of sifting and of 

 disputing new facts, as they appear, one by one and wherever 

 they are produced." 



'What!' cried Pasteur, wrathful whenever those great 

 questions were thoughtlessly tackled, " what 1 I have been for 

 twenty years engaged in one subject and I am not to have an 

 opinion ! and the right of verifying, sifting, and disputing the 

 facts is to belong to him who does nothing to become i 

 lightened but merely to read our works more or less attentively. 

 his feet on his study fender 11! J 



" You have no opinion on spontaneous generation, my deal 

 colleague; I can well believe that, while regretting it. I am 

 not speaking, of course, of those senti: ! opinions that 



rybody has, more or less, in questions of this nature, for 

 in this assembly we do not go in for sentiment. You say that, 

 in the present state of science, it is wiser to have no opinion : 



II, I have an opinion, not a sentimental one, but a rational 

 one. having acquired a right to it by twenty years of assiduous 

 labour, ami it would be wise in every impartial mind to share 

 it. My opinion — nay. more, my conviction — is that, in the 

 present state of sci) M you rightly say, spontam ous gene- 



ration is a chimera; and it would be impossible for you to 

 contradict me, for m] riments all stand forth to prove 



that spontaneous generation is a chimera. What is then 



II judgment on my experiments? Have I not a hundred 



ic matter in contact with pure air in the 



be.-' Litions for it to produce life spontaneously? Have 



1 not praol D those organic materia which are most 



curable, according to all its. to the genesis of spon- 



sity, such as blood, urine, and grape juice? How is it 



• you do not see the essential ditTerence between my op- 



