Page 19 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

16 BfiCHAMP OR PASTEUR?
only eleven, when a change in his life occurred. His
mother's brother, who held the post of French Consul at
Bucharest, paid the Bechamps a visit and was struck by
the intelligence and aptitude of young Antoine. He grew
anxious to give him better opportunities than he would be
likely to meet with in his quiet country home. We have
not heard much of Antoine's mother; but when we find
that his parents unselfishly allowed him, for his own good,
to be taken away from them at the early age of eleven, we
may be fairly certain that she was a clever, far-seeing
woman, who might perhaps support Schopenhauer's
theory that a man's mother is of more importance to him
than his father in the transmission of brains! Be that as it
may, when the uncle's visit ended, the small nephew went
with him and the two undertook together the long and,
in those days, very wearisome coach journey from Nancy
to Bucharest.
It thus came about that Antoine saw much of the world
and gained a thorough knowledge of a fresh language,
advantages that strengthened and developed his alert
intellect. Unfortunately, his kind relative died after a few
years and the boy was left to face the battle of life alone.
Friends came to his help and placed him as assistant to a
chemist, who allowed him to attend classes at the Uni-
versity, where his brilliant genius made all learning easy
and in 1833, without any difficulty, he obtained a diploma
in pharmacy. In his youthful proficiency he presents a
contrast to Pasteur, who, in his school days, was pro-
nounced to be only an average pupil, and later, by an
examiner, to be mediocre in chemistry.
Antoine was still under twenty when he returned to his
native land and, after visiting his parents, started work at a
chemist's in Strasbourg, which city at that time, with the
rest of Alsace and Lorraine, formed part of France. His
extraordinary powers of work were soon made manifest.
Much of his spare time was devoted to the study of his own
language, in which he acquired the polish of style that was
to stand him in good stead in his future lectures and