INDIAN NATIONAL LIFE 83 
which were undistinguished, he resolved to become a teacher. 
He then entered the training college at Paris and there 
manifested his first real interest in science. The subject 
which secured his interest was one that promised no practical 
fruit whatever. It was a peculiarity regarding a particular 
crystalline substance, viz. tartaric acid. By a scientific 
anomaly relating to this substance Pasteur’s curiosity was 
excited, and he made up his mind to explain the anomaly. 
In that way he first acquired his training as a scientific 
investigator in what may be called pure research. In time 
he obtained his post as a teacher, moving from one place 
to another until he settled down in the industrial centre 
of Lille, where he was very soon called upon to give his 
scientific assistance in connexion with an important industry. 
The industry which he was called to assist was the manu- 
facturing of alcohol from beetroot sugar. This is conducted 
by a process of fermentation. A large manufacturer, whose 
son attended Pasteur’s class, found that fermentation had 
a way of going wrong and producing an alcohol which was 
unfit for sale. Pasteur was appealed to. He took up readily 
the examination of the difficulty and he very soon found 
what was at its root. He gave his prescriptions. These 
prescriptions being followed, all difficulty disappeared, and 
in that way Pasteur had his interest aroused in the phenomena 
of fermentation. The phenomenon of fermentation up to 
that time was almost completely unexplored. It was after 
the birth of Pasteur that it was first recognized that the 
organism which produced fermentation was really an organism 
at all. It was realized, about 1836, that the yeast which was 
always found in fermenting liquor was really a living organism, 
which, if observed under the microscope, was found to grow. 
What was its relation to the process of fermentation no one 
knew, All that was supposed was based on little more than 
speculation. Pasteur resolved to take up this inquiry and 
