Louis Pasteur : his life and labours / by his son-in-law [René Vallery-Radot] ; translated from the French by Lady Claud Hamilton.

  • Vallery-Radot, René.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Louis Pasteur : his life and labours / by his son-in-law [René Vallery-Radot] ; translated from the French by Lady Claud Hamilton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    diseases. The sourness, putridity, and other maladies of beer Pasteur traced to special ' ferments of disease,' of a totally different form, and therefore easily dis- tinguished from the true tomla or yeast-plant. Manj^ mysteries of our breweries were cleared u]3 by this inquuy. Without knowing the cause, the brewer not unfrequently incurred heavy losses through the use of bad yeast. Five minutes' examination with the microscope would have revealed to him the cause of the badness, and prevented him from using the yeast. He would have seen the true torula overpowered by foreign intruders. The microscope is, I believe, now everywhere in use. At Burton-on-Trent its aid was very soon invoked. At the conclusion of his studies on beer M. Pasteur came to London, where I had the pleasure of conversing with him. Crippled by paraly- sis, bowed down by the sufferings of France, and anxious about his family at a troubled and an un- certain time, he appeared low in health and depressed in spirits. His robust appearance when he visited London, on the occasion of the Edinburgh Anniver- sary, was in marked and pleasing contrast with my memory of his aspect at the time to which I have referred. While these researches were going on, the Germ Theory of infectious disease was noised abroad. The researches of Pasteur were frequently referred to as b