Among the sources that were examined for this bibliographic essay are eight primary sources, most of which were written either by Pasteur himself or by one of his contemporaries. Two of the primary sources, however, are photographic images rather than written works.
Fortunately, Pasteur was a fairly prolific writer, and he also kept excellent notes in his many notebooks. Therefore, the availability of authentic primary sources was not as problematic as is usually the case. Four of the primary sources-fully half-are by Pasteur and acquaint the reader firsthand with his ideas and approaches. The advantage of these sources is that Pasteur discusses his perspectives as well as recording his findings, so it is possible to "see into" his train of thought and how he viewed the prevalent theories on spontaneous generation.
Pasteur's Modern History Sourcebook: Louis Pasteur (1822-1895): Germ Theory and Its Applications to Medicine and Surgery, 1878, translated by H.C. Ernst contains a discussion of germ theory and its application to medicine and surgery, including Pasteur's work on fermentation and spontaneous generation. His experiments are described, along with what they proved and disproved.
In Pasteur's Experiments and new views on the nature of fermentations, of which an excerpt is available, he talks about the fermentation of beer and the roles of oxygen, yeast, and sugar. The excerpt does not specifically discuss spontaneous generation but lays the groundwork for subsequent discussion on that topic.
Pasteur's Investigation into the role attributed to atmospheric oxygen gas in the destruction of animal and vegetable substances after death discusses fermentation and again talks about beer yeast. Here he broaches the subject of spontaneous generation in his analysis of blood and urine as substances that are prone to putrefaction and explains his experiment with them after exposure to...