1040 The American Naturalist. ` [November, 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
Louis Pasteur was born at Dôle in the Jura region on Dec. 27, 
1822. His father, a journeyman tanner, was poor, but he was a soldier 
who had been decorated for his valor on the field, and it is supposed 
that from him the famous man of science imbibed the patriotism which 
has always been one of his striking characteristics. His father super“ 
intended personally his early education, and the boy was sent to school 
at Arbois and began his classical studiesthere. It is said that in those 
days his devotion to study was not great. He was fond then of draw- 
ing, and preferred sketching his neighbors to spending time over his 
books, and this inclination seemed so strong that it was predicted he 
would ultimately become an artist. But the capacity for work which 
developed so strongly later asserted itself when he began to study at 
the college of Besancon. He took the degree of Bachelor of Letters 
there, was appointed a tutor, and in the intervals of his duties he 
studied to prepare himself for the Ecole Normale. On his first exam- 
ination he was admitted, having passed fourteenth on the list of candi- 
dates. 
But this did not satisfy his ambition. He went to Paris, started on 
a new course of study in the Institution Barbet, and in 1845 tried the 
examination for a second time and won fourth place. He spent two 
years at the Ecole in the study of chemistry, and was appointed a doc- 
tor in 1847. The following year he was appointed a professor of phy- 
sics in the college at Dijon, and three months later was called to the 
Dniversity of Strassburg, where he was appointed professor of physics 
in the Faculty of Sciences. In 1854 he accomplished the organization 
of the newly formed Faculty of Sciences at Lille, and three years after- 
ward he returned to Paris and assumed the “ direction of the scientific 
studies” at the Ecole Normale. 
In 1865 he was made a professor of geology, physics, and chemistry, 
at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and in 1867, professor of chemistry at 
the Sorbonne, and he remained here until 1875. He was elected a 
member of the Academy of Sciences in 1862, and six years later, the 
faculty of medicine at Bonn gave him the title of Doctor, but he re- 
turned the diploma on account of the Franco-German war. In 1869 
he was made a foreign member of the Royal Society of London, and in 
1881 a member of the French Academy. The University of Oxford 
conferred on him the title of Doctor of Sciences, and he was made, 
