enabling him to become candidate for the École normale. But
here something (probably the examiner) was at fault, for a note
was attached to Pasteur's diploma stating that he was only
" mediocre " in chemistry. In those early days and early
trials the dominant note of Pasteur's life was sounded. To
his sisters he writes: " Ces trois choses, la volonté, le travail,
le succès, se partagent toute l'existence humaine. La volonté
ouvre la porte aux carrier es brill antes et heureuses; le travail
les franchit, et une fois arrivé au terme du voyage, le succes
vient couronner l'œuvre." Throughout his life, and to the very
end, " work " was his constant inspiration. On his deathbed
he turned to the devoted pupils who watched over their master's
last hours. " Où en êtes-vous?" he exclaimed. " Que faites-vous?"
and ended by repeating his favourite words, " II faut
travailler."
The first incentive to his serious study of chemistry was given by hearing J. B. A. Dumas lecture at the Sorbonne; and ere long he broke new ground for himself, A. J. Balard having given him an opportunity for chemical work by appointing him to the post of laboratory assistant. A few words of explanation concerning Pasteur's first research are necessary to give the key to all his future work. What was the secret power which enabled him to bring under the domain of scientific laws phenomena of disease which had so far bafHed human endeavour? It simply consisted in the application, to the elucidation of these complex problems, of the exact methods of chemical and physical research. Perhaps the most remarkable discovery of modern chemistry is the existence of compounds, which, whilst possessing an identical composition, are absolutely different bodies, judged of by their properties. The first of the numerous cases of isomerism now known was noted, but unexplained, by J. J. Berzelius. It was that of two tartaric acids, deposited from wine-lees. The different behaviour of these two acids to a ray of polarized light was subsequently observed by J. B. Biot. One possessed the power of turning the plane of the polarized ray to the right; the other possessed no rotary power. Still no explanation of this singular fact was forthcoming, and it was reserved for the young chemist from Franche-Comté to solve a problem which had baffled the greatest chemists and physicists of the time. Pasteur proved that the inactivity of the one acid depended upon the fact that it was composed of two isomeric constituents: one the ordinary or dextrorotary acid, and the other a new acid, which possessed an equally powerful left-handed action. The veteran Biot whose acquaintance Pasteur had made, was incredulous. He insisted on the repetition of the experiment in his presence; and when convinced of the truth of the explanation he exclaimed to the discoverer: " Mon cher enfant, j'ai tant aimé les sciences dans ma vie que cela me fait battre le cœur." Thus at one step Pasteur gained a place of honour among the chemists of the day, and was immediately appointed professor of chemistry at the Faculté of Science at Strasburg, where he soon afterwards married Mile Laurent, who proved herself to be a true and noble helpmeet. Next he sought to prepare the inactive form of the acid by artificial means; and after great and long-continued labour he succeeded, and was led to the commencement of his classical researches on fermentation, by the observation that when the inactive acid was placed in contact with a special form of mould (Penicillium glaucum) the right-handed acid alone was destroyed, the left-handed variety remained unchanged. So well was his position as a leading man of science now established that in 1854 he was appointed professor of chemistry and dean of the Faculte des Sciences at LiUe. In his inaugural address he used significant words, the truth of which was soon manifested in his case: " In the field of observation chance only favours those who are prepared." The diseases or sicknesses of beer and wine had from time immemorial baffled all attempts at cure. Pasteur one day visited a brewery containing both sound and unsound beer. He examined the yeasts under the microscope, and at once saw that the globules from the sound beer were nearly spherical, whilst those from the sour beer were elongated; and this led him to a discovery, the consequences of which have revolutionized chemical as well as biological science, inasmuch as it was the beginning of that wonderful series of experimental researches in which he proved conclusively that the notion of spontaneous generation is a chimera. Up to this time the phenomenon of fermentation was considered strange and obscure. Explanations had indeed been put forward by men as eminent as Berzelius and Liebig, but they lacked experimental foundation. This was given in the most complete degree by Pasteur. For he proved that the various changes occurring in the several processes of fermentation—as, for example, in the vinous, where alcohol is the chief product; in the acetous, where vinegar appears; and in the lactic, where milk turns sour—are invariably due to the presence and growth of minute organisms called ferments. Exclude every trace of these organisms, and no change occurs. Brewers' wort remains unchanged for years, milk keeps permanently sweet, and these and other complex liquids remain unaltered when freely exposed to air from which all these minute organisms are removed. " The chemical act of fermentation, " writes Pasteur, " is essentially a correlative phenomenon of a vital act beginning and ending with it."
But we may ask, as Pasteur did, Why does beer or milk become sour on exposure to ordinary air? Are these invisible germs which cause fermentation always present in the atmosphere? or are they not generated from the organic, but the non-organized constituents of the ferment able liquid? In other words, are these organisms not spontaneously generated? The controversy on this question was waged with spirit on both sides; but in the end Pasteur came off victorious, and in a series of the most delicate and most intricate experimental researches he proved that when the atmospheric germs are absolutely excluded no changes take place. In the interior of the grape, in the healthy blood, no such germs exist; crush the grape, wound the flesh, and expose them to the ordinary air, then changes, either fermentative or putrefactive, run their course. But place the crushed fruit or the wounded animal under conditions which preclude the presence or destroy the life of the germ, and again no change takes place; the grape juice remains sweet and the wound clean. The application of these facts to surgical operations, in the able hands of Lord Lister, was productive of the most beneficent results, and has indeed revolutionized surgical practice.
Pasteur was now the acknowledged head of the greatest chemical movement of the time, the recipient of honours both from his own country and abroad, and installed at the ficole normale in Paris in a dignified and important post. Not, however, was it without grave opposition from powerful friends in the .cademy that Pasteur carried on his work. Biot—who loved and admired him as a son—publicly announced that his enterprise was chimerical and the problem insoluble; Dumas evidently thought so too, for he advised Pasteur not to spend more of his time on such a subject. Yet he persevered: " Travailler, travailler toujours " was his motto, and his patience was rewarded by results which have not merely rendered his name immortal, but have benefited humanity in a way and to a degree for which no one could have ventured to hope. To begin with a comparatively small, though not unimportant, matter, Pasteur's discoveries on fermentation inaugurated a new era in the brewing and wine-making industries. Empiricism, hitherto the only guide, if indeed a guide at all, was replaced by exact scientific knowledge; the connexion of each phenomenon with a controllable cause was established, and rule-of-thumb and quackery banished for ever by the free gift to the world of the results of his researches.
But his powers of patient research and of quick and exact observation were about to be put to a severe test. An epidemic of a fatal character had ruined the French silk producers. Dumas, a native of the Alais district, where the disease was rampant, urged Pasteur to undertake its investigation. Up to that time he had never seen a silkworm, and hesitated to attempt so difficult a task; but at the reiterated request of his friend he consented, and in June 1865 went to the south of France for the purpose of studying the disease on the spot. In September of the same year he was able to announce results which pointed to
