STUDIES ON FERMENTATION
STUDIES ON FERMENTATION
THE DISEASES OF BEER
THEIR CAUSES, AND THE MEANS OF PREVENTING THEM
BY
LOUIS PASTEUR
MEMBER OF INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, ETC.
_A TRANSLATION, MADE WITH THE AUTHOR’S SANCTION, OF
“ÉTUDES SUR LA BIÈRE,” WITH NOTES, INDEX, AND ORIGINAL
ILLUSTRATIONS_
BY
FRANK FAULKNER
AUTHOR OF “THE ART OF BREWING,” ETC.
AND
D. CONSTABLE ROBB, B.A.
LATE SCHOLAR OF WORCESTER COLL., OXFORD
London
MACMILLAN & CO
1879
PARDON AND SONS, PRINTERS, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
TO
THE MEMORY OF
MY FATHER,
FORMERLY A SOLDIER UNDER THE FIRST EMPIRE,
AND
KNIGHT OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR.
THE LONGER I LIVE, THE BETTER DO I UNDERSTAND THE KINDNESS OF
THY HEART AND THE EXCELLENCE OF THY MIND.
TO THY EXAMPLE AND COUNSELS DO I OWE THE EFFORTS THAT HAVE
BEEN DEVOTED TO THESE STUDIES, AS WELL AS TO ALL THE WORK
I HAVE EVER DONE. AND NOW, HOW CAN I BETTER HONOUR THESE
FILIAL REMEMBRANCES THAN BY DEDICATING MY BOOK TO THY MEMORY?
L. PASTEUR.
AUTHOR’S PREFACE.
Our misfortunes inspired me with the idea of these researches. I
undertook them immediately after the war of 1870, and have since
continued them without interruption, with the determination of
perfecting them, and thereby benefiting a branch of industry wherein we
are undoubtedly surpassed by Germany.
I am convinced that I have found a precise, practical solution of the
arduous problem which I proposed to myself—that of a process of
manufacture, independent of season and locality, which should obviate
the necessity of having recourse to the costly methods of cooling
employed in existing processes, and at the same time secure the
preservation of its products for any length of time.
These new studies are based on the same principles which guided me in my
researches on wine, vinegar, and the silkworm disease—principles, the
applications of which are practically unlimited. The etiology of
contagious diseases may, perhaps, receive from them an unexpected light.
I need not hazard any prediction concerning the advantages likely to
accrue to the brewing industry from the adoption of such a process of
brewing as my study of the subject has enabled me to devise, and from an
application of the novel facts upon which this process is founded. Time
is the best appraiser of scientific work, and I am not unaware that an
industrial discovery rarely produces all its fruit in the hands of its
first inventor.
I began my researches at Clermont-Ferrand, in the laboratory, and with
the help, of my friend M. Duclaux, professor of chemistry at the Faculty
of Sciences of that town. I continued them in Paris, and afterwards at
the great brewery of Tourtel Brothers, of Tantonville, which is admitted
to be the first in France. I heartily thank these gentlemen for their
extreme kindness. I owe also a public tribute of gratitude to M. Kuhn, a
clever brewer of Chamalières, near Clermont-Ferrand, as well as to M.
Velten, of Marseilles, and to MM. de Tassigny, of Reims, who have placed
at my disposal their establishments and their products, with the most
praiseworthy willingness.
L. PASTEUR.
PARIS, _June 1, 1876_.
PREFACE TO ENGLISH EDITION.
My first idea of placing before English brewers a translation of “Études
sur la Bière” was meagre in the extreme, compared with the final
realization of it as it appears in the following pages.
Seeing the vast importance of Pasteur’s work from a practical point of
view, after writing a review of it for the _Brewers’ Journal_, I
determined to procure, at any rate for the use of my pupils, a literal
translation, illustrated by photo-lithographic copies of the original
plates, the thankless task of executing this preliminary translation for
so limited a number of readers being most kindly and generously carried
out for me by my friend Mr. Frank U. Waite, who, being engaged with me
at the time in practical brewing operations, shared my views as to the
value of the original work.
It was on the completion of this translation that my views and desires
expanded. The more I studied the work, the more I was convinced of its
immense value to the brewer as affording him an intelligent knowledge of
the processes and materials with which he deals, but over and above all
this, it was impossible not to feel that the researches of such a
devoted and accomplished _savant_ as Pasteur, possessed a scientific
interest much wider than their mere relation to the art of brewing would
imply. As the work of a skilful chemist and a laborious and accurate
observer, such a protracted and careful study of the lowest and simplest
forms of life, must necessarily be of first importance to the
biologist—to the beginner as an admirable introduction to the study of
practical physiology in general, as well as to the more advanced
student, from the suggestive light which it throws on the nature of
analogous phenomena in more complex organisms.
I determined accordingly _to publish_ the work if I could secure the
consent of its distinguished author, but at the same time I felt that
the publication of M. Pasteur’s “Studies” in the form in which Mr. Waite
had, at my request, translated it, and illustrated only with inferior
copies of the original plates, would not be either advisable or just;
but that I was bound rather to put the book before the English public in
as satisfactory and complete a form as lay within my power. Under these
circumstances I was induced to seek the aid of Mr. D. Constable Robb,
B.A., of The Oxford University Museum, who, in taking Mr. Waite’s
version as a basis, has so elaborated, annotated, and recast it, that I
feel bound to say that much of the value of “Studies on Fermentation,”
as it now appears, is due to the care that Mr. Robb has bestowed upon
the revision that he so kindly undertook; a revision the result of which
has created a feeling of confidence in the success of the translation as
it now stands, which I could not have had in any mere literal version.
To the practical worker the original illustrations alone, which appear
in this version, cannot but be of immense value in the microscopical
study of the changes in the liquids with which he deals; whilst the many
notes and additions, which are a feature peculiar to the English
edition, more particularly the rendering into the equivalents, with
which, unfortunately, practical men on this side of the channel are
still most at home, of the metric weights and measures and centigrade
temperatures, as well as the Index which Mr. Robb has compiled, will, I
trust, render the book of still greater service than it otherwise would
have been to many of those who may favour it with their attention.
The debt which we English brewers owe to M. Pasteur can hardly be
over-estimated, and I must be allowed here to express my personal
obligations to that distinguished worker for the permission which allows
this translation; and to the French publishers for their help with
regard to the interleaved illustrations.
The author’s preface and dedication are, of course, reproduced, the
former making it unnecessary for me to refer more in detail to the
contents of the translation.
FRANK FAULKNER.
THE BREWERY, ST. HELEN’S, LANCASHIRE,
_September, 1879_.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
AUTHOR’S DEDICATION v
AUTHOR'S PREFACE vii
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE ix
CHAPTER I.
ON THE INTIMATE RELATION EXISTING BETWEEN THE DETERIORATION OF BEER, OR
THE WORT FROM WHICH IT IS MADE, AND THE PROCESS OF BREWING 1