, 1891-08-08
LOUIS
from "NaMf c"

1922. at Doe, where his father, an OLD sol
der ylo i i been decorated on the iA.d OF
battle. wO ktl hard as q tanner He was IN
earneS., Industrious and thoughtful mtn,
fond OF reading, and Very DESTROYS tEtt rs
son should be well educated and sdOuIi
gain ren0wn in som branch Of lrac1in9.
Father and InOther, alike in their enthusiasm
and ambition, devoted themselves to Their
son-tlley would 'FIEako Il man OF nun,
they said.
In 1928 they removed to Arbois, and as
soon as he was old enough TO b3 admitted
as ii day boy, Pa ,teur began his studies IN
the Communal College, ana there, atler the
first year or two, rs worked hard ana gam
ed distinction. IlenCe no projected TO
BeSancOn, and l!itnce after \ years success
tul study, to the Ecole Normale IN PARIS, TO
which after gaining a high place in the en-
trance rXa u@ination, he was admitted IN
1913. lis devotion to Chemistry had begun
while he was a pupil of Prof. Darlay at BE-
sancon, a,. now he studied it under Dumas
ut the Sorb0nne, aud Ballard at the EcoIe
NOrmale. His love Ol science observation-disclosures:
he spent every day in attendance on the
lectures, in reading, and i'll practical work
IN both chemistry and phys cS.
Among the teachers IN The EcoIe by whom
he was most encouraged was M. DeIatoSSe,
who was especially studying molecular ply
sizes, and it was after a conversation Wl'l
him that Pa,teur was guided to the carPIni
study Of crystals, and to the enquiry which
led him 10 his first important discovery.
1t was ka0wn that the ~tartrat9 and the
paratarirate Of soda and ammonia, th0u5l
exactly lSOmeric, similar IN then atGmlcc com
position, specific gravity, and crystalline
form, yet differed, not only in many OF their
chemical relations, but as Blot had shown, IN
the fact that d Watery solution 0ftl2 tdrtrdto
detected the plane Of polarlzed Ijg1', &1t
that of the paratartrate did not. PaStrur
could not believe that bodies apparently
Identical ii atomic composition and constru .
ton could thus differ in their relations 70
light. He had already observed il dlSSImI-
larity between the crystals OF the tdrtarlc
and Of the paratlrtaric acids, in tldt the
latter were, and the former were aDt, sym
metricdl and he found the sumo difference
between the crystals of their salts. Now by
a lab0rious study and repeated measure
mentS ofthe cryi ais of these and other 81
milar compoulIs, he showed that in the
paratartaiic (nOE called raSpmet) aci there
are two distinct forms Of tlrtdriC aC,d, 81
which the one (dextro-tartaric) is i1entlct,
with the ordinary t~artarlc, and like it, IN
solution, defects light to the right the
other lBvO-tartaric) defects il to the lett.
The two III combination, rs they occur IN
the ordinary paratartariC acid, neutrailZ
one another in their influences on pOlarlzel
light, and do not delecr in either direction.
Similarly, he next found that the crystals
Ofthe TWO acids and Of their respective salts
are different in their forms; those OF the
(dextro-tartaric) AMI its salts are similar to
those Of the ordinary iartaric aud its salts
in their disSymmet"y those of the leVo-
tartarIc are also dissymm"trical, but i'll the
opposite direction; those of the two com
bined in the paratartaric and its salts are
symmetrical.
Thus was explained the seeming anOma-
~ OF SO distinct a difference between bodies
exactly isomeric. A gcelr problem was
solved and it was among It's results THAT,
gradually, the way was made clearer by
which the SyntheSes of organic alkalolds
and of sugars has been achieved.
These researches had occupied six years,
and Pasteur had gained by them an early
high renoWn, and he hoped that, by c%ontlnu-
ing TO work on the same lines, he might ob-
tain results yet more important, especially
III the contrast of the symmetrical forms Of
crystals derived from the chemistry OF dead
substances. and the dissymmetrical of those
derived from the chemiStryOf living bodies.
He had invented instruments and methods
for experiments. Butt it CHANGED that at this
period of his work, h0 was, in 1854, appointed
nnoO Of tha Fanulfu of GojaOooSn ~ T ;1lo ou6