Manuscript on an epidemic outbreak

Pasteur, Louis, French chemist and microbiologist (1822-1895). Autograph manuscript.

€ 25,000.00

Notes on silkworm disease. Pasteur compiled the present notes in the Swiss Alps in 1857 with the help of observations made by a silkworm breeder. They contain comparative information on the disease afflicting silkworms and diseases of vineyards and mulberry trees: "Note sur les éducations de vers à soie destinée à la confection de la graine, faite en 1857 dans la Suisse, les montagnes des Basses-Alpes et d'autres localités où l'épidémie n'a pas paru; par M. Guérin [illegible]. […]". Undoubtedly, Pasteur relied on these notes and other accounts when he travelled to the south of France in 1865 to investigate the diseases among silkworms wreaking havoc in the French silk industry, as he had no prior knowledge of the silkworm disease he was comissioned to investigate. Within three years he succeeded in isolating the bacilli of two distinct diseases and in finding a procedure to prevent contagion as well as in detecting diseased stock.

Slight marginal soiling, otherwise in mint condition.