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Michel, where Blanchard’s antiquarian book-shop
attracts my attention. Casually I take up an
old chemical work by Orfila, open it at haphazard
and read, “Sulphur has been classified
among the simple bodies. Davy and Berthollet,
however, have endeavoured to prove by their able
experiments that it contains hydrogen, oxygen,
and a third basal element which has not yet
been distinguished.”
One may imagine my almost religious ecstasy
at this well-nigh miraculous discovery. Davy
and Berthollet had demonstrated the presence
of hydrogen and oxygen, and I of carbon. It
rests, therefore, with me to lay down the formula
for sulphur.
Two days later my name was entered on the
list of the scientific faculty of the Sorbonne
(founded by St. Louis!), and I received permission
to work in the laboratory. The first morning
I went there was for me a solemn occasion.
I was under no illusions as regards the professors,
who had received me with the cold politeness
due even to a foreign intruder. I knew that
I should never be able to convince them, but I felt
simultaneously a calm still joy, and the courage
of a martyr who faces a hostile crowd, because
for me at my age youth was the natural enemy.
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