Beschreibung:

PASTEUR, Louis (1822-1895). Examen critique d'un crit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation . Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1879. 8 o (227 x 145 mm). 2 engraved plates by Felizat, with tissue guards, text illustrations. Original gray printed wrappers, uncut (broken). Provenance : Louis Pasteur (his signature on front wrapper). FIRST EDITION, AND THE AUTHOR'S COPY. Pierre Bertholet, an opponent of Pasteur's controversial theory of fermentation, published a posthumous and unauthorized version of some notes by Claude Bernard, a supporter of Pasteur's, which claimed to have isolated a soluble chemical produced by yeast that caused fermentation, in contrast to Pasteur's theory. Pasteur's bitter reply strengthened his conviction that fermentation was life without air, a belief he held until Eduard Buchner isolated a soluble alcoholic ferment in 1897. Cushing P142; Heirs of Hippocrates 1900; Osler 1552; Norman 1660.