Page 103 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

CHAPTER IX
Diseases of Silk-Worms

At the commencement of the year 1865, the epidemic
among silk-worms had become so acute that the seri-
cultural industry of France was seriously threatened.
Eggs, worms, chrysalides and moths were all liable to be
affected. The trouble was characterised by the presence
of a microscopic object called the "vibrant corpuscle," or
"Corpuscle of Cornalia," after the scientist who first
observed it; while the malady became popularly known as
"pebrine" from the patois word pebrS, pepper.
It appears to have been through the advocacy of M.
Dumas that M. Pasteur was appointed by the Minister of
Agriculture to investigate the matter, and no one can
have attended a popular lecture on the subject without
having been informed that Pasteur's work redeemed for
his country more money than the war indemnity wrung
from France by the Germans after 1870. What really
happened was that Pasteur's luck stood him in extra-
ordinarily good stead. Had Professor Bechamp not pro-
vided him with the elucidation of the silk-worm mystery,
a very different story might have been told.
Nothing better illustrates the remarkable acuteness of
Bechamp' s intellect than the rapidity with which he solved
the cause ofpebrine and suggested a preventive. Although
he was entirely unassisted and obliged to defray any en-
tailed expenses out of his own pocket, already in the year
1865, he was able to state before the Agricultural Society
of Herault that pebrine was a parasitical disease and that
creosote could be used to prevent the attack ofthe parasite.
Meantime, however, M. Pasteur had been intrusted by
the Government with an investigation, and no one who
understands anything of departmental red tape will
wonder that, instead of at once accepting Bechamp's
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