Item #002544 Examen critique d'un écrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation. Louis PASTEUR.
Examen critique d'un écrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation.
Examen critique d'un écrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation.
Examen critique d'un écrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation.
Examen critique d'un écrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation.
Examen critique d'un écrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation.
Examen critique d'un écrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation.
Examen critique d'un écrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation.
Examen critique d'un écrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation.
Examen critique d'un écrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation.

Outstanding presentation copy, signed by Pasteur and dedicated to Victor Hugo

Examen critique d'un écrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation.

Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1879.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Item #002544

8vo (224 x 139 mm). xxiv, 156 pp., text illustrations and two engraved plates by Felizat. Original printed wrappers bound in. Fine cherry-colour full morocco binding by Canape.R.D dated 1926, spine with 5 raised bands gilt-lettered in first compartment, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, morocco turn-ins with gilt-ruled borders. Provenance: Victor Hugo. Carte de visite by Louis Pasteur and small portrait photograph sticked to second blank leaf. ----

Norman 1660; Cushing P142; Heirs of Hippocrates 1900; Osler 1552. - FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY PASTEUR on the half-title: "A monsieur Victor Hugo, de l'Academie francaise, Hommage de profond respect, L. Pasteur."
A rare instance, linking two of the greatest French men of the 19th century: one of the founders of modern medicine, Louis Pasteur, and the literary giant Victor Hugo, author of Les misérables or Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Louis Pasteur arguably was a great admirer of Victor Hugo. In a manuscript dated February 7, 1885, just a few months before the death of the great poet, he writes: "L'enfant sublime, comme l'a nomme Chateaubriand, a merite d'etre appele le sublime vieillard. Devant cette glorieuse longevite, la France donne un beau spectacle. Son acclamation est un cri de patriotisme."
Whereas Victor Hugo was elected a member of the Academie francaise on January 7, 1841 at the age of just 39, Pasteur became a member of this academy rather late, on December 8, 1881, a few days before his 60th birthday. The academy was an exclusive society made up of 40 of France's most important people. We know of at least one other copy of this book containing a dedication by Pasteur to a member of the Academie, Émile Littré, with an almost identical wording: "A monsieur Littre, de l'Academie francaise, Hommage de profond respect, L. Pasteur." Could it be possible that Pasteur presented copies of his book to members of the Academie to gain support for his election campaign?
Regarding the book itself, 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.

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