Louis Pasteur could rightly be described as the first stereochemist, having observed in 1842 that salts of tartaric acid collected from wine production vessels could rotate plane polarized light, but that salts from other sources did not.
Louis Pasteur kan med rette betegnes som den første stereokemiker, da han i 1849 observerede, at salte af vinsyre indsamlet fra vinproduktionsvalser kunne rotere fladepolariseret lys, mens salte fra andre stoffer ikke kunne.