i 3 6 SCIENCE REMAKING THE WORLD 



fessorship at the University of Lille, where he served 

 for two years. Then he went back to Paris, which 

 was the central location of his work for the rest of 

 his life. 



When Pasteur went to Lille he fully expected to con- 

 tinue his studies in chemical and physical problems 

 relative to crystals. The brewers and wine makers 

 about Lille were having great difficulty since they could 

 not be certain to secure the kinds of fermentation speci- 

 fically needed in different cases, in order to produce the 

 different specific results they desired. The wine and 

 beer "went wrong," fermentation could not be con- 

 trolled, and the industry was suffering great financial 

 losses, said to exceed #20,000,000 yearly in certain 

 years. Pasteur was known as a chemist, and as a mani- 

 pulator of the crude microscopes of that day. The 

 manufacturers appealed to him to solve their problems, 

 and he reluctantly agreed to the temporary diversion 

 from his chosen studies, for he saw in this study great 

 possibilities of new knowledge. Through the studies of 

 famous German students, much had recently been 

 learned about the yeasts which produce fermentation 

 and about certain bacteria, but application of these 

 studies had not been made in the brewing industries. 

 There was still extended belief that the living organisms 

 of fermentation came into existence spontaneously 

 (spontaneous generation of life, as it was called), and 

 that such organisms spring into existence in the wine 

 and beer because of "a vital force of nature," and thus 

 injure it. Pasteur, and others even more than Pasteur, 

 proved that if nutritive liquids are sterilized and con- 



