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.