148 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



looked forward to obtaining the help of Raulin, his former 

 pupil, when he had room enough to experiment on a larger 

 scale. The proposed site was part of the garden of the Ecole 

 Normale, where the pavilion already existing could be greatly 

 added to. 



In the meanwhile Pasteur was interviewed by the Mayor 

 and the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Orleans, 

 who begged him to come to Orleans and give a public lecture 

 on the results of his studies on vinegar. He consented with 

 pleasure, ever willing to attempt awakening the interest of the 

 public in his beloved Science — ''Science, which brings man 

 nearer to God." 



It was on the Monday, November 11, at 7.30 p.m., that 

 Pasteur entered the lecture room at Orleans. A great many 

 vinegar manufacturers, some doctors, apothecaries, professors, 

 students, even ladies, had come to hear him. An account in 

 a contemporary local paper gives us a description of the young 

 tst member of the Academic des Sciences as he appeared 

 before the Orleans public. He is described as of a medium 

 height, his face pale, his eyes very bright through his glasses, 

 scrupulously neat in his dress, with a tiny Legion of Honoui 

 rosette in his button hole. 



He began his lecture with the following simple words: "The 

 Mayor and the President of the Chamber of Commerce ha-^ing 

 heard that I had studied the fermentation which produces 

 vinegar, have asked me to lay before the vinegar makers of 

 this town the results of my work. I have hastened to comply 

 with their request, fully sharing in the desire which instigated 

 it, that of being useful to an industry which is one of the 

 sources of the fortune of your city and of your department.*' 



He tried to make them understand scientifically the wel? 

 known fact of the transformation of wine into vinegar. He 

 showed that all the work came from a little plant, a micro- 

 scopic fungus, the mycoderma ac^ti. After exhibiting an en' 

 larged picture of that mycoderma, Pasteur explained that the 

 least trace of that little vinegar-making plant, sown on the sur* 

 face of any alcoholic and slightly acid liquid, was sufficient to 

 produce a prodigious extension of it ; in summer or artificial 

 heat, said Pasteur, a surface of liquid of the same area as the 

 Orleans Lecture room could be covered in forty-eight hours. 

 The mycodermic veil is sometimes smooth and hardly visible, 

 Sometimes wrinkled and a little greasy to the touch. The fattjr 



