FIRST DISCOVEEIES. 39 



of penicillium sown upon this soil was not formed of 

 dissymmetric elements, as is the case with all other 

 vegetable substances, its development, its life, its 

 fructification would accommodate themselves equally 

 well with the left-handed tartaric acid as with the 

 right. The fact that the left-handed tartaric acid is 

 less assimilable than its opposite is due solely and 

 evidently to the dissymmetry of one or other of the 

 primordial substances of the little plant. 



Thus for the first time was introduced into 

 physiological studies and considerations the fact of 

 the influence of the molecular dissymmetry of natural 

 organic products. 



Pasteur always speaks with enthusiasm of the 

 grand future reserved for researches which have this 

 influence for their object ; for molecular dissymmetry 

 is the only sharp line of demarcation which exists be- 

 tween the chemistry of inorganic and that of organic 

 nature. 



