INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



Louis PASTEUR was born at Dole, Jura, France, December 27, 

 , and died near Saint-Cloud, September 28, 1895. His interest 

 in science, and especially in chemistry, developed early, and by 

 the time he was twenty-six he was professor of the physical 

 sciences at Dijon. The most important academic positions held 

 by him later were tiiose as professor of chemistry at Strasburg, 

 1849; dean of the Faculty of Sciences at Lille, 1854; science 

 director of the Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, 1857; professor 

 of geology, physics, and chemistry at the Ecole des Beaux Arts; 

 professor of chemistry at the Sorbonnc, 1867. After 1875 he car- 

 ried on his researches at the Pasteur Institute. He was a mem- 

 ber of the Institute, and received many honors from learned 

 societies at home and abroad. 



In respect of the number and importance, practical as well as 

 scientific, of his discoveries, Pasteur has hardly a rival in the 

 history of science. He may be regarded as the founder of modern 

 stereo-chemistry; and his discovery that living organisms are the 

 cause of fermentation is the basis of the whole modern germ- 

 theory of disease and of the antiseptic method of treatment. His 

 investigations of the diseases of beer and wine; of pebrine, a 

 disease affecting silk-worms; of anthrax, and of fowl cholera, 

 were of immense commercial importance and led to conclusions 

 which have revolutionized physiology, pathology, and therapeutics. 

 By his studies in the culture of bacteria of attenuated virulence 

 he extended widely the practise of inoculation with a milder form 

 of various diseases, with a view to producing immunity. 



The following papers present some of the most important of his 

 contributions, and exemplify his extraordinary powers of lucid 

 exposition and argument. 



