[According to Pasteur, a "pharmacist's clerk" became "wilde world savants' president"].

An odd autograph cosigned by L. Pasteur and J. Bertrand, reporting addresses given par both scientists during the reception of J. Bertrand at the French Academy, has been recently sold in the United States. It gives the opportunity to evoke, first how J.-B. Dumas, Pasteur's master and Bertrand's predecessor in the Academy, filled his pupil with admiration, second to suggest some elements at Pasteur's political thought.