PASSY 



PASTEUR 



795 



European states no one is allowed to go abroad with- 

 out a passport from his government authorising him 

 to leave the country a provision used as a means 

 of detaining persons charged with crime ; and pass- 

 ports are even required by the natives to enable 

 them to go from place to place in their own country. 

 The regulations of different states have varied much 

 regarding the use of passports ; and of late years 

 there has been a great relaxation of the stringency 

 of the regulations connected with them. Sweden 

 was the first country to give up demanding pass- 

 ports in time of peace ; Russia and Turkey still 

 insist on them ; sometimes, as during anti-socialist 

 excitements, German authorities demand passports 

 from foreigners not travelling, but wishing to 

 reside for a period of weeks in any given place ; 

 Portugal asks them of persons leaving the country 

 by sea ; and on the French and German frontiers 

 the neighbour-governments are specially inquisi- 

 torial. Within the United Kingdom no passports 

 are required ; but for a British subject travelling 

 in some parts of the Continent they are still re- 

 quisite. Even where not necessary, they are often 

 useful in order to prove identity in asking for 

 letters at a foreign post-olHce, for example. At 

 some of the German universities the production of 

 passports and other 'papers' is required of all 

 foreign students matriculating. The passport most 

 used by British subjects is that of the British 

 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, which is 

 now granted to any British subject for a fee of 

 two shillings, and is good for life. If the applicant 

 lie not personally known to the Secretary of State, 

 he must either be recommended to him by some 

 person who is known to him, or produce an applica- 

 tion in his favour by some banking firm established 

 in London or elsewhere in the United Kingdom, 

 or a certificate of identity signed by a mayor, 

 ina^'i-trate, justice of the peace, minister of re- 

 ligion, physician, surgeon, solicitor, or notary 

 resident in the United Kingdom. In certain cases 

 the production of a certificate of birth may be 

 required. If the applicant be a naturalised British 

 subject his certificate of naturalisation must be 

 forwarded to the Foreign Oltice. 



In time of war passports or safe-conducts may be 

 granted in special cases by neutral powers, to pro- 

 tect persons and property from belligerents, anu by 

 a l>elligerent to protect from interference by its 

 own ships or forces. 



Passy, a western suburb of Paris ( q. v. ). 



Pasta, GIUDITTA (JUDITH), opera singer, was 

 born of Jewish parents, Negri by name, at Como 

 near Milan, 9th April 1798, and received her musi- 

 cal education at Como and in the conservatoire at 

 Milan. She married a singer called Pasta before 

 1816, and was at first a failure on the stage. Her 

 first great triumph was achieved at Verona in 1822, 

 seven years after she began to sing. The year 

 following she was engaged at the Paris Italian 

 O|>era, where her singing excited great admiration. 

 From 1825 to 1833 was the period of her most 

 splendid triumphs, which were won principally in 

 London and Paris. She withdrew from the stage 

 in the following year, and resided on the banks of 

 Lake Como till she died on 1st April 1865. She 

 hail a magnificent voice, which passed easily from 

 the highest soprano notes to the gravest contralto 

 tones. In addition she possessed fine dramatic 

 power. Her principal roles were Medea, Desde- 

 mona, Semiramide, La Sonnamlmla (the opera of 

 tliis name was written for her by Bellini), Nina, 

 Camilla, and Giulia in Romeo e Giulia. 



Pasteboard. See CARDBOARD, MILLBOARD, 

 STRAWBOARD. 



Pastel, chalk mixed with other materials and 

 various colours, and formed into Pencils or Crayons 



(q.v.). Drawings with such dry, coloured crayons 

 may be made on paper or parchment, and have 

 been especially used in portraiture. Pastel is also 

 a name for Woad (q.v.). 



Pastes. See GEM. 



Pasteur, Louis, distinguished for his researches 

 in chemistry and pathology, and more precisely for 

 many discoveries in regard to bacteria, was oorn 

 on 27th December 1822, at D61e in the depart- 

 ment of Jura. From the college of Arhois he 

 passed to Besancon, and thence to the Ecole Nor- 

 male and the Sorbonne in Paris. After the com- 

 pletion of his preparatory studies he held various 

 academic positions at Straslujrg, Lille, and Paris, 

 and from 1867 to 187"> was professor of Chemistry at 

 the Sorbonne. Subsequently the centre of his 

 work was at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. His 

 work was at first chemical. Following up well- 

 known researches by Arago, Biot, and Mitscher- 

 lieh, Pasteur discovered the facets on tartrate crys- 

 tals and what are called left-handed tartrates. He 

 also propounded the theory that ' molecular dissym- 

 metry ' supposed to be expressed in the power 

 which solutions of some organic substances have 

 of causing a beam of polarised light to rotate was 

 characteristic of living matter and its products. 



It is said that a German manufacturer of chemi- 

 cals noticed that impure tartrate of lime fermented 

 when dissolved and exposed in the sun, and that 

 this prompted Pasteur to an investigation, the 

 result of which was the discovery of a living fer- 

 ment a micro-organism comparable in its powers 

 to the yeast-plant which Cagniard-Latour and 

 Schwann hail discovered in alcoholic fermentation. 

 Pasteur was further able to show that the little 

 organism would, in a solution of paratartrate of 

 ammonia, select for fowl the 'right-handed' tar- 

 trates alone, leaving the ' left-handed, 'although the 

 difference between these is merely physical not 

 chemical. Having got hold of a clue, Pasteur went 

 on to show that other fermentations lactic, butyric, 

 acetic are essentially due to organisms. He was 

 naturally led to corroborate and extend Schwann's 

 researches on putrefaction, which is also due to 

 micro-organisms, and this path of investigation 

 enabled him to make important practical sugges- 

 tions in regard to the making of vinegar and the 

 prevention of wine disease, as also to correct in- 

 sufficiently careful experiments which were leading 

 many to believe that spontaneous generation was 

 demonstrable. 



Prompted by his illustrious master Dumas, 

 Pasteur next (1865) directed his inquiries to those 

 diseases of silkworms by which the silk industry in 

 France had been almost ruined. It is said that he 

 had never before even seen a silkworm, though he 

 knew the supposed disease-germs which had been 

 demonstrated by previous investigations in ths 

 insect's blood. These he traced from egg to larva, 

 from chrysalis to moth ; and, as the pebrine disease 

 is distinctly manifest in the adults, though it may 

 be hidden in the young, the practical conclusion 

 was plain that unhealthy moths should be rejected, 

 and that all precautions should be taken to prevent 

 infection. But Pasteur's work on the diseases of 

 silkworms overstrained him, and in 1868 he was 

 laid aside by paralysis. Soon, however, he was at 

 work again^ investigating beer as he had investi- 

 gated wine, detecting the intruders which some- 

 times interfere with the life of the yeast-plant and 

 spoil the brew. His researches began to come yet 

 closer to human life, for he attacked the problem of 

 splenic fever, the bacillus of which hail been dis- 

 covered by Davaine (1863), and skilfully traced 

 from stage to stage by Koch (1 876 ). Of Pasteur's 

 investigations in this connection, that by which 

 he showed that birds were not liable to fall 



