Louis Pasteur. 



Born at Dole, in the Jura, December 27, 1822. 



Died at Villneuve-l'Etang, near St. Cloud, 

 September 28, 1895, 



''PflE facts of Pasteur's life have been so fully detailed in the news- 

 J- papers that we do not propose to recapitulate them. Those who 

 desire such information may be referred to " Louis Pasteur : His 

 Life and Labours, by his Son-in-law " ; translated by Lady Claud 

 Hamilton ; New York, 1885 ; and to an article by Sir James Paget in 

 Nature, vol. xliii., pp. 481-485, March 26, i8gi. A complete list of 

 Pasteur's writings is given in the Revue Scientifique, 4 ser., vol. iv., 

 pp. 427-431, October 5, 1895, which may be purchased for sixpence 

 of Mr. T. Fisher Unwin. 



1. — Pasteur and the Rumford Medal. 



TN the year 1856 the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society was 

 -'- awarded to Louis Pasteur. It has often been stated, and is usually 

 repeated in accounts of his life, that the medal was given in recogni- 

 tion of his researches on the polarisation of light ; from which it 

 might be supposed that his early studies were in purely physical 

 science, and that he had suddenly and capriciously abandoned that 

 subject for biological investigation. But this would be an entirely 

 erroneous impression. The research contemplated in the award was 

 one which contributed nothing new to the knowledge of polarised 

 light ; the medal was awarded to Pasteur, in the words of the 

 President, " for his discovery of the nature of racemic acid and its 

 relation to polarised light." 



Another fact commonly overlooked in the popular appreciations 

 of Pasteur's work is that this discovery was intimately related to his 

 subsequent researches, and possessed for him an immense biological 

 interest. During the years 1848 to 1857 he published no less than 

 sixteen papers on this and kindred subjects, and it is interesting to 

 trace in these the dominating idea which led him to the study of 

 ferments and thence to the classic discoveries which have made his 

 name so famous, that in the world at large his earlier labours are 

 almost forgotten, 



