Page 109 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

io6 BfiGHAMP OR PASTEUR?
his will by the Professor's irrefutable proofs, there was
nothing for him but to turn a complete volteface, as he had
done before when Bechamp incontestably proved the
erroneousness of belief in spontaneous generation.
On the self-same 29th April, 1867, we find among the
1
Reports of the Academy of Science a letter from Pasteur
to Dumas, dated Alais, 24th April. In this Pasteur feebly
excused his mistake on the score that he had held his
erroneous view in good company with "many persons of
great repute," and he also pleaded the impossibility of
recognising the mode of reproduction of the corpuscles.
Instead of any acknowledgement to Professor Bechamp for
his full illuminating revelations, Pasteur coolly expressed
a hope that he himself would soon be able to present an
almost complete study of the disease. His omission to do so
then and there seems a noteworthy proof of a continued
want of clear understanding.
2
We .find among the Reports of the 20th May, 1867, a
letter addressed to the President ofthe Academy of Science
by Bechamp, dated the 13th May, on the subject of
Pasteur's Communication of the previous April. He
pointed out the error of Pasteur's former views and vindi-
cated his own priority in discovering the true nature of the
corpuscles and their mode of reproduction.
3—
On the same date, he brought forward "New Facts to
Help the History of the Actual Disease of Silk-Worms and
the Nature of the Vibrant Corpuscle." Here he claimed
that the corpuscles were air-borne and to be found on
mulberry leaves, the greatest care, therefore, being
necessitated in the preparation of leaves destined for the
food of the worms. But the most noteworthy fact of this
Memoir concerns the part in which Bechamp distinguished
another silk-worm disease from that of pebrine. Observa-
tions had already been made by the naturalist, M. N. Joly,
upon the presence of vibrios in the intestinal canal of
1
Comptes Rendus 64, p. 835.
2
C. R. 64, p. 1042.
3
C. R., p. 1043.