Description:

Notes penned by Pasteur in his laboratory shortly before discovering that fermentation is caused by biochemical action of tiny organisms, but they must be the right tiny organisms, saving France's wine and beer industries

Autograph Manuscript (unsigned) in French, 2p, 7.25" x 9.5". No place, June 19-28 [1857]. Not translated. Handwritten in pencil at top edge, in unknown hand, “(fermentation de l’acide Tartrique) From his laboratory / notebook / tartaric acid.”

Seven groups of 11 numbered items, possibly test tubes, have been handwritten by Pasteur: One group on June 19th, four groups on June 22nd, and two groups on June 28th. In his notes to the right of the June 19th group, Pasteur brackets Numbers 1 and 2 and, in French, compares numbers 5 and 7 with 8 and 9, concluding "In the same way N. 8 and 9 during the 24 first hours." He then pens "Report of N.3 and 4 / N.1 and 2 = 4, 6." On June 22nd, Pasteur brackets four additional pairs of numbers and "Report = 4, 3." There are numerous brackets on the second page.

Pasteur found that although tiny organisms were essential in fermentation they must be the right ones. He showed brewers how to culture the right organisms for good beer and demonstrated to the wine industry that if wine is gently heated to sixty degrees Celsius for a short time, the growth of harmful bacteria would be prevented and the wine would not go sour in bottles or barrels.

From the U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health website: "Nearly a decade after discovering molecular chirality in 1848, Louis Pasteur changed research direction and began investigating fermentations. Conflicting explanations have been given for this switch to microbiology, but the evidence strongly suggests that Pasteur's appointment in 1854 to the University of Lille--an agricultural-industrial region where fermentation-based manufacturing was of great importance--and an appeal for help in 1856 by a local manufacturer experiencing problems in his beetroot-fermentation-based alcohol production played a significant role. Thus began, in late 1856, Pasteur's pioneering studies of lactic and alcoholic fermentations. In 1857 ƒ he found that in incubations of ammonium (+/-)-tartrate with unidentified microorganisms (+)-tartaric acid was consumed with considerable preference over (-)-tartaric acidƒ"

On August 3. 1857, five weeks after he write these notes in his laboratory, Louis Pasteur delivered his historic paper to the Lille Society in Lille announcing he had discovered that fermentation is caused by biochemical action of tiny organisms.

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