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the headmaster of the Royal College of Besançon offered him the post of preparation master. He started this job in January 1841. Louis Pasteur was now a serious and mature young man. It soon became clear that in time he would have to go back to Paris for his further education. Obviously, there were greater opportunities in the capital, and life was cheaper for a student there. In August 1842 Pasteur passed the examinations that allowed him to apply for admission to the Ecole Normale . In October he set off with a friend. Once in Paris, he entered the Barbet boarding school, where he was a part-time teacher as well as a student. He attended

Jean-Baptiste Dumas (1800–84) was an influential French chemist.

classes at the Lycée St. Louis, and also went regularly to the Sorbonne to hear the lectures of Professor Jean-Baptiste Dumas, the renowned chemist. Dumas was one of the few teachers able to inspire enthusiasm as well as impart knowledge, and had an enormous influence on Pasteur. Pasteur settled down well to this new life, working hard and happily. He made himself so useful that he was soon able to pay his own way. At the end of the school year 1843, the results of his examinations were brilliant: several distinctions and a first prize in physics.

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