Beschreibung:

Louis Pasteur (1822-1895). Memoire sur la Fermentation alcoolique.[Bound with:] – Mémoire sur la Fermentation appelée lactique.. Paris: Mallet-Bachelier, 1858 (second work), 1860 (first work). First editions, including a presentation copy inscribed by Pasteur, of the rare offprint issues of two landmark papers in biochemistry. The 1858 paper, a presentation copy inscribed to fellow scientist Pierre-Guillaume-Camille Forthomme, is ‘often considered the beginning of bacteriology as a modern science’ (Garrison & Morton), while the 1860 paper presents Pasteur’s revolutionary discovery that ‘fermentation is the act of reproduction of the living germs that constitute yeast’ (Debré). ‘Pasteur’s concept of fermentation as a biological process challenged the chemical theory of fermentation put forth by Liebig, which Pasteur was able to disprove with his experiments on alcoholic and acetic fermentation’ (Norman). Much-abridged versions of the two papers appeared in the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences (1857); ‘Mémoire sur la Fermentation appelée lactique’ appeared almost simultaneously in the Mémoires de la Sociétédes Sciences, de l'Agriculture et des Arts de Lille, 2nd series, 5 (1858). Dibner 198; Garrison-Morton 2472 and Horblit 82 (abridged version); Norman 1653 (offprint), all for the earlier paper; Brock, Milestones in Microbiology, pp. 27-30. 2 works in one volume, octavo (219 x 135mm). A few illustrations in the text (first and final leaf of volume with some browning). Early 20th-century cloth with early card wrappers bound in (hinges cracked but firm, tear to front endpaper, repair to corner of front wrapper).