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Pasteur communicates the memoir on so-called lactic fermentation

In 1857 Louis Pasteur communicated a memoir on lactic fermentation, arguing that a specific living organism, not a mere soluble catalyst, drove the souring process under study. In the causal graph this event strengthens the driver Industrial-Policy Activism.

Read the full account

In 1857 Louis Pasteur communicated a memoir on lactic fermentation, arguing that a specific living organism, not a mere soluble catalyst, drove the souring process under study. He was moving from Lille industrial questions toward a general claim that fermentations are life processes of particular microbes. Liebig’s chemical theory remained the rival. This Fact stores Pasteur’s 1857 lactic paper. Alcoholic fermentation, vinegar, and beer books are later rows.

Context

Beet-alcohol and dairy spoilage made fermentation a money question in the Nord. Pasteur’s move was to isolate, microscopically and by culture practice, an organism associated with lactic souring. The paper is not a complete Koch-style pure culture in the later German sense. It is also not a medical vaccine. Claude Bernard and other physiologists worked nearby on related metabolic questions; they did not sign this memoir.

Why it matters

Industrial-knowledge path: spoilage as biology. Modest weight because a memoir is not a plant. High confidence on the 1857 communication.

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Louis Pasteur

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.4 · verified

    He authored the memoir from Lille/Paris work. Distillers posed the spoilage questions; the Academy printed the note.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

    1. FactPasteur communicates the memoir on so-called lactic fermentation
    2. strengthensDriverIndustrial-Policy Activism

    impact weight 0.45 · Effect from 30 November 1857 · verified

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.FEMS Microbiology Reviews — Louis Pasteur, a child of the JuraOxford University Press / FEMS · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.Gallica — Bibliothèque nationale de FranceBibliothèque nationale de France · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Gallica at https://gallica.bnf.fr/ (opens in a new tab) holds the nineteenth-century French serials in which Pasteur’s fermentation memoirs circulated. The 2024 FEMS historical essay at https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/48/3/fuae010/7659358 (opens in a new tab) independently places the lactic memoir in the career that later reached Pouilly-le-Fort and rabies.

Established: Pasteur’s lactic-fermentation memoir belongs to 1857. Not established: that every later yoghurt works because of this paper, or that Liebig was experimentally silent. Contribution is recorded as He authored the memoir from Lille/Paris work. Distillers posed the spoilage questions; the Academy printed the note. The dated heading stays Pasteur communicates the memoir on so-called lactic fermentation on 1857-11-30, not a later statue, UNESCO listing, or school film.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Lactic souring is not wine heat and not anthrax. Mixed effects of Pasteur communicates the memoir on so-called lactic fermentation are separate paths.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

The contribution type is direct. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

Shared responsibility is part of Pasteur communicates the memoir on so-called lactic fermentation. Naming Louis Pasteur does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1857-11-30 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorLouis Pasteur
  2. contributed toFactPasteur communicates the memoir on so-called lactic fermentation
  3. strengthensDriverIndustrial-Policy Activism

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Pasteur communicates the memoir on so-called lactic fermentation. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/pasteur-lactic-fermentation-1857

https://factrail.ai/facts/pasteur-lactic-fermentation-1857

Accessed 16 October 2026.

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