30 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[February, 



known and appreciated for us to at- 

 tempt to further eulogize. His valu- 

 able contributions to the study of vin- 

 egar formation by aerial germs ; his 

 work on beer, with studies of the dif- 

 ferent yeast ferments, and the part 

 they, with other more minute organ- 

 pisms, lay in giving various flavors 

 to beer ; his mode of heating wine, 

 (Pasteurizing) ; his extensive studies 

 on the silkworm disease ; his experi- 

 ments on the cholera of fowls ; his 

 efforts to lessen the dii"e mortality in 

 animals from cattle plague, by the in- 

 oculation of a modified form of the 

 virus — all commercially attest to his 

 genius and the value of the mici"o- 

 scope. A list is given of the number 

 of animals vaccinated, compiled from 

 the combined labors of his assist- 

 ants — Chamberland, Roux, Thullier, 

 and others.* 



The above will suffice to induce 

 those interested to examine the vari- 

 ous forms of apparatus used in the 

 culture and preparation of sterilized 

 fluids. Among numerous flasks filled 

 with such liquids, notably there stands 

 a large flask — one of historical date — 

 with which he confronted Baron Lei- 

 big's theory of fermentation, and 

 showed that the minute living yeast 

 cell was capable of inducing molecu- 

 lar changes in inorganic media. In 

 1848 he was led, through the discov- 

 ery of left-hand tartaric acid, to the 

 constitution of racemic acid. There 

 are bottles of the right and left-hand 

 tartaric acids — pasteboard models of 

 the same — ' the one, if seen reflected 

 from a mirror, being the image of the 

 other.' In 1858 M. Pasteur found 

 that the right-hand tartaric acid in 

 neutral media will ferment through 

 the action of living ferments, and that 

 these act chiefly on the right-hand 

 acid. There is a phial of tartrate of 

 ammonia, procured from the fermen- 

 tation of racemate of ammonia, the 

 right-hand salt being decomposed and 

 the left remaining intact. It was sup- 



* Dr. Thullier unfortunately succumbed to cholera 

 during his study of this epidemic in Egypt ; Dr. Roux 

 and Dr. Strau.s are now occupied at Toulon in the 

 study of this serious malady. 



posed by M. Pasteur ' that the mo- 

 lecular dissymmetry of organic sub- 

 stances might have an influence on 

 actions of physiological and vital or- 

 der,' and was so stated. 



There is blood drawn from a healthy 

 rabbit into a sterilized tube, which 

 foryears has remained unaltered ; also 

 various culture liquids ; single and 

 double branched tube-flasks. The 

 doubly-branched tubes admit of the 

 sterilized fluid being infected in one, 

 while the other is kept normal for 

 comparison. There are also a self- 

 closing digester with manumometer 

 for sterilizing liquids ; an oven for 

 heating flasks; Schloesing's tempera- 

 ture regulator for water bath, which 

 works by the dilitation of mercury ; 

 funnels for the hot filtration of viscous 

 liquids; water bath and regulator; 

 funnel and water-bath ; Moitessier's 

 regulator for gas pressure ; D'Arson- 

 val's stove and thermosyphon ; D'Ar- 

 sonval's stove, with constant level 

 and temperature eftected by means of 

 the D'Arsonval regulator. This is 

 made by Weisnegg, and admits of 

 very minute estimation of tempera- 

 ture — ' to the yV^^^ '^^ ^ degree.' Pos- 

 sibly this might be useful, if modified, 

 forgelatine emulsion making. There 

 ai'e other cultivating stoves. 



Exhibited also is Pasteur's experi- 

 mental brewing apparatus without the 

 entrance of air ; a gas stove for steril- 

 izing and drying vessels, and hot bath 

 for sterilizing by heat up to 120° C. ; 

 a biscuit porcelain filter for filtration 

 in vacuo : a water filter, invented by 

 Dr. Chamberland. for filtering through 

 unglazed porcelain tubes at the nor- 

 mal water pressure. These can be 

 readily removed, cleaned, and even 

 rebaked for use when soiled. We 

 must not omit the historical flasks 

 opened by M. Pasteur at different 

 mountain heights. 



There are also various forms of ap- 

 paratus which have been required for 

 special purposes. There are beauti- 

 fully-made transfusion and vaccinat- 

 ing instruments ; the cautery of Dr. 

 Pasquelin for bloodless operations ; a 



