Page 116 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

DISEASES OF SILK-WORMS 113

menced his book on vinous fermentation with a foreword
to the Emperor, while a dedicatory letter to the Empress
in the same way prefaced his book on the disease of silk-
worms. We may search in vain through this for any
generous reference to the first great elucidator of these
1
troubles. Instead, he takes all the credit to himself and
even goes out of his way to deride Bechamp's arguments
2
in favour of creosote as a preventive.
But there is truth in the Yankee dictum that you may
fool all the people part of the time and part of the people
all of the time, but never all of the people all of the time,
and so Pasteur's selfish claims must completely fall to the
ground in face of the scientific reports, to which we have
given reference, and which are available to anyone, for
instance, in the Library of the British Museum. These in-
contestably prove that the man who made such gains for
France in regard to aniline dyes was also the man who
provided his country with the correct diagnosis of the silk-
worm diseases and suggested methods of prevention.
Unfortunately, practical measures were left to Pasteur,
and the best commentary upon these are facts in regard to
the sericultural industry put forward by Dr. Lutaud, 3 at
one time Editor of the Journal de Medecine de Paris.
At the commencement of the silk-worm trouble, about
1850, we are told that France produced annually about
30,000,000 kilogrammes of cocoons. In 1866-67, tne P ro "
duction had sunk to 15,000,000 kilogrammes. After the
introduction of Pasteur's "preventive method," produc-
tion diminished from 8,000,000 kilogrammes in 1873 to
even so low a figure as 2,000,000 kilogrammes of cocoons
in certain subsequent years.
"That is the way," says Dr. Lutaud, "in which Pasteur
saved sericulture! The reputation, which he still preserves
in this respect among ignoramuses and short-sighted
savants, has been brought into being, (1) by himself, by

1
Etudes sur la Maladie des Vers-a-Soie, par L. Pasteur p. 1 1.
2
ibid. p. 47.
3
Etudes sur la Rage, par le Dr. Lutaud, pp. 427, 428.
H