Leçons de chimie professées en 1860 par MM. Pasteur, Cahours, Wurtz, Berthelot, Sainte-Claire Deville, Barral et Dumas. Sujets des leçons : Recherches sur la dissymétrie moléculaire des produits organiques naturels. - Histoire des radicaux organiques. - Recherches sur les glycols. - De la synthèse en chimie organique. - Des lois des nombres en chimie et de la variation de leurs constantes. - De l'influence exercée par l'atmosphère sur la végétation. - Pièces historiques concernant Lavoisier et N. Le Blanc

Rare first edition of Louis Pasteur’s text: "Recherches sur la dissymétrie moléculaire des produits organiques naturels" (pp. 1–48, also issued separately as an offprint).

The other papers included in this volume are: "Histoire des radicaux organiques", "Recherches sur les glycols", "De la synthèse en chimie organique", "Des lois des nombres en chimie et de la variation de leurs constantes", "De l’influence exercée par l’atmosphère sur la végétation", and "Pièces historiques concernant Lavoisier et N. Le Blanc".

Some scattered foxing, notably to the edges.

Half black shagreen binding, spine with four raised bands decorated with gilt fillets and double blind-stamped panels, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, small tears to the edges, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Periodical publication of the Société chimique de Paris, founded in 1857 (now the Société chimique de France): seven issues were published (for the years 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864–65, 1866–67, and 1869, each appearing one year later).

The present volume contains an early contribution by Louis Pasteur: "Recherches sur la dissymétrie moléculaire des produits organiques naturels"; the text was reprinted in 1922 and again in 1986.

As early as 1849, Jean-Baptiste Biot (to whom the present text is dedicated) had pointed out to Pasteur that amyl alcohol deflected the plane of polarized light and therefore possessed the property of molecular dissymmetry.

The young chemist thus conjectured that the molecular dissymmetry of amyl alcohol was due to the action of fermentation.

Having become convinced (under Biot’s influence) that molecular dissymmetry was closely linked to life, he saw in this observation the confirmation of certain preconceived ideas concerning the cause of fermentation, placing him among the advocates of the living ferment.

These were the beginnings of his discoveries on fermentation.