62 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



produced for the first time by Kestner at Thann in 1820, 

 through a mere accident in the manufacture of tartaric acid — 

 had suddenly ceased to appear, in spite of all efforts to obtain 

 it again. What then was the origin of it? 



Mitscherlich believed that the tartars employed by this 

 Saxony manufacturer came from Trieste. " I shall go to 

 Trieste," said Pasteur; " I shall go to the end of the world. 

 I must discover the source of racemic acid, I must follow up the 

 tartars to their origin." Was the acid existent in crude 

 tartars, such as Kestner received in 1820 from Naples, Sicily, 

 or Oporto? This was all the more probable from the fact that 

 from the day when Kestner began to use semi-refined tartars 

 he had no longer found any racemic acid. Should one conclude 

 that it remained stored up in the mother-liquor? 



With a feverish impetuosity that nothing could soothe, 

 Pasteur begged Biot and Dumas to obtain for him a mission 

 from the Ministry or the Academic Exasperated by red tape 

 delays, he was on the point of writing directly to the President 

 of the Republic. "It is a question," he said, "that France 

 should make it a point of honour to solve through one of her 

 children." Biot endeavoured to moderate this excessive 

 impatience. "It is not necessary to set the Government in 

 motion for this," he said, a little quizzically. " The Academy, 

 when informed of your motives might very well contribute a 

 few thousand francs towards researches on the racemic acid." 

 But when Mitscherlich gave Pasteur a letter of recommendation 

 to the Saxony manufacturer, whose name was Fikentscher and 

 who lived near Leipzig, Pasteur could contain himself no 

 longer, and went off, waiting for nothing and listening to no one. 

 His travelling impressions were of a peculiar nature. We will 

 extract passages from a sort of diary addressed to Madame 

 Pasteur so that she might share the emotions of this pursuit. 

 He starts his campaign on the 12th September. " I do not 

 stop at Leipzig, but go on to Zwischau, and then to M. 

 Fikentscher. I leave him at nightfall and go back to him the 

 next morning very early. I have spent all to-day, Sunday, 

 with him. M. Fikentscher is a very clever man, and he has 

 shown me his whole manufactory in every detail, keeping no 

 secrets from me. . . . His factory is most prosperous. It 

 comprises a group of houses which, from a distance, and 

 situated on a height as they axe, look almost like a little village. 



