122 LOUIS PASTEUR 



priority will find described in the works of Latin 

 agriculturists various methods for the preservation 

 of wine, based on the employment of heat. To give 

 the wine durability, they sometimes added to the 

 vintage variable quantities of boiled must, reduced to 

 half or two thirds, in which orris, myrrh, cinnamon, 

 white resin, and other ingredients, were infused. But, 

 to cite examples nearer our own time, Appert, whose 

 preserves have become so popular, relates that he sent 

 to St. Domingo some bottles of Beaune which had 

 been previously heated to seventy degrees, and that 

 he compared, on their return into France, two bottles 

 of this wine with a bottle which had remained at 

 Havre, and also with other bottles of the same wine 

 which had remained in his cellar, neither of which had 

 undergone the operation of heating. The superiority 

 of the wine which came from St. Domingo, said 

 Appert, was incontestable. Nothing could equal its 

 delicacy or its perfume. But Appert did not by any 

 means describe the wine of the two bottles which re- 

 mained in France as either injured or diseased. His 

 remark was based upon an incomplete observation. 

 It simply stated the fact, which indeed was previously 

 known, that a long voyage, added to the employment of 

 heat, had an excellent effect upon the Beaune. This in- 

 cident had been so completely forgotten, that it was only 

 in 1865 that Pasteur, during the historical researches 

 which preceded his ' Etudes sur le vin,' accidentally 



