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Louis
Pasteur, Etudes sur la Biere, 1858
Dumas inspired Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) with
his vision of nature. Trained initially in
chemistry, Pasteur eventually strove to understand
the role of oxidation in fermentation, combustion,
and putrefaction and how these processes fueled
the “cycle of life.” Pasteur based
his investigations on the “law of the
universe that all that has lived disappears.”
For him, the “cycle of life” was
an “absolutely necessary exchange of
mineral and gaseous substances” from
living beings back to the soil and atmosphere.
Only death, and death’s effect, decay
could cause living organisms to release the
simple and mobile principles that made up
their bodies. Depicted in the book is a Geissler
chamber connected to bottles of a nutritive
solution and mounted on a microscope.
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Erasmus
Darwin, Zoonomia, 1793 |
Charles
Darwin, On the Formation of Vegetable Matter by Worms, 1881 |
Alexander
von Humboldt, Cosmos, 1858 |
Dumas
and Boussingault, Balance of Organic Matter, 1844 |
Ferdinand
Cohn, Bacteria, The Smallest Living Beings, 1872 |
Louis
Pasteur, Etudes sur la Biere, 1862 |
Selman
Waksman, Sergei Winogradsky, 1953 |
Selman
Waksman, Humus, 1939 |
Vladimir
Vernadsky, Principles of Biogeochemistry, 1960 |
James
Lovelock, An Homage to Gaia, 1985 |
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Lloyd
Ackert
Whitney Humanities Center
Yale University
53 Wall Street
P.O. Box 208298
New Haven, CT 06520-8298
Office: (203).432.3112
lloydackert@sbcglobal.net |
The
Sterling Memorial Exhibit is located in the Overflow Case
to the left of the circulation desk. The Sterling Memorial
Library is located at
120 High Street
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520
Map, Directions
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