HIS LIFE AND LABOURS. 179 



were suggested by the pregnant discovery of Faraday, 

 published in 1845. By both helices and magnets 

 Faraday caused the plane of polarisation in perfectly 

 neutral liquids and solids to rotate. If the turning of 

 the plane of polarisation be a demonstration of mole- 

 cular dissymmetry, then, in the twinkling of an eye, 

 Faraday was able to displace symmetry by dissym- 

 metry, and to confer upon bodies, which in their 

 ordinary state were inert and dead, this power of 

 rotation which M. Pasteur considers to be the ex- 

 clusive attribute of life. 



The conclusion of M. Pasteur here referred to, 

 which M. Radot justly describes as 'worthy of the 

 most serious consideration,' is sure to arrest the atten- 

 tion of a large class of people, who, dreading 6 mate- 

 rialism,' are ready to welcome any generalisation 

 which differentiates the living world from the dead. 

 M. Pasteur considers that his researches point to an 

 irrefragable physical barrier between organic and 

 inorganic Nature. Never, he says, have you been able 

 to produce in the laboratory, by the ordinary processes 

 of chemistry, a dissymmetric molecule — in other 

 words, a substance which, in a state of solution, where 

 molecular forces are paramount, has the power of 

 causing a polarised beam to rotate. This power be- 

 longs exclusively to derivatives from the living world. 

 Dissymmetric forces, different from those of the labora- 

 tory, are, in Pasteur's mind, the agents of vitality. 

 They alone build up dissymmetric molecules which 

 baffle the chemist when he attempts to reproduce them. 

 Such molecules trace their ancestry to life alone. 

 ' Pourrait-on indiquer une separation plus profonde 

 entre les produits de la nature vivante, et ceux de la 

 nature minerale, que cette dissymetrie chez les uns, 

 et son absence chez les autres?' It may be worth 



