FOR THE NATIONAL WEALTH 91 



entific studies at the Ecole Normale. But in 

 any case he was forced to abandon them in 

 1867, as the result of a small rebellion among 

 the students, due to a discourse delivered by 

 Sainte-Beuve before the Senate on the subject 

 of freedom of opinion. The school had been 

 dismissed, and the directors, Nisard, Pasteur 

 and Jacquinet, replaced in the course of reor- 

 ganisation. 



The Minister of Public Instruction, Duruy, 

 appointed Pasteur professor of chemistry at the 

 Sorbonne, but where was he to find a new 

 laboratory? The only adequate one at the 

 Ecole Normale was occupied by Sainte-Claire 

 Deville, and it was impossible even to think of 

 returning to the wretched quarters where the 

 experiments on spontaneous generation had 

 been made. Then it was that Pasteur, who, in 

 spite of his personal modesty, was conscious of 

 all that he was still able to do for science, re- 

 quested that a laboratory should be constructed 

 for him. This request was made in a note of 

 such an exalted tone that it deserves to be re- 



