THE CURATIVE POISON 121 



sion of the discussion before the Chamber in 

 regard to powder for the navy. "I have studied 

 chemistry to some extent/' he said, "and I recall 

 a remark once made to me by one of our most 

 illustrious scientists. I had finished some small 

 research, the report on which I submitted to 

 M. Pasteur. It began with a phrase that is 

 common enough in manuals of chemistry : 'We 

 know that . . .' 'What do we know?' 

 Pasteur said to me, 'We know nothing at all.' 



"I replied, 'Excuse me, Monsieur, but the 

 fact I cited was taken from one of your own 

 writings.' I thought I had the best of it, but 

 Pasteur merely rejoined, 'That has nothing to 

 do with it ; you ought to have verified me.' " 



Therein lies Pasteur's whole secret: he al- 

 ways repeated his experiments over and over 

 until he was certain of the truths that they con- 

 tained; and it was by this means that he tri- 

 umphed over his adversaries. His controversy 

 with Bastian, together with a posthumous pa- 

 per by Claude Bernard on fermentations, led 

 him to investigate the fermentation of grapes. 



