ON THE ROAD TO FAME 59 



born spontaneously from matter in a state of 

 decomposition, or is it not more likely that, in 

 accordance with the general laws of life, they 

 are produced by germs? This was, in short, 

 the question of spontaneous generation, which 

 had so long been combatted and which he now 

 undertook to solve. Pasteur believed that 

 nothing is self-creative, but this was something 

 which had to be proved, and he succeeded in 

 proving it victoriously, in the full heat of bat- 

 tle, and in spite of the attacks and insults of 

 those who championed the opposite doctrine. 



His friends, with Biot at their head, tried 

 to turn him aside from these researches, which 

 they judged useless and vain. But Pasteur, 

 strong in his conviction and with that dogged 

 will which never turned back from any obstacle, 

 so long as he was sure that he had grasped the 

 truth, disregarded the advice of his elders and 

 plunged into experiments that bristled with dif- 

 ficulties. 



From the most remote antiquity spontaneous 

 generation had been accepted, and it is well 



