Page 150 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

A PLAGIARISM FRUSTRATED 147

vinous fermentation and the results ofhis experiments were
published in 1864, when he stated clearly that from the
outside of the grape comes the mould that causes must to
ferment and that the stalks and leaves of vines bear
organisms that may produce a fermentation injurious to
the vintage. He showed here his extensive view of fer-
mentative phenomena. Not only did he understand the
part played by air-borne organisms and the role of in-
dwelling cellular elements, but he was also able to point to
organisms found on external surfaces. Subsequently, from
the year 1869 to 1872, two other experimenters, Lechartier
and Bellamy, bore out his views by demonstrating that the
intracellular elements of fruits ferment and furnish alcohol
when protected from air, the fermentation being in relation
to the vegetative activity.
While this solid work was quietly progressing, Pasteur,
on his part, was gaining great public attention. We have
seen, how, at the start, he was fortified with the Emperor's
blessing, and he dedicated to Napoleon III the book for
which he was given the grand prize medal ofthe exhibition
of 1867, Indeed, to receive it, he made a special pil-
grimage to Paris, where, as his biographer naively sug-
1
gests, "his presence was not absolutely necessary." One
would have imagined that, after so much worldly success,
he would have been ready to give credit where credit was
due in regard to views diametrically opposed to his in-
cessant invocation ofatmospheric germs in sole explanation
of fermentative phenomena. But we fear that even his
admirers must admit that to give place to others was
scarcely a habit of Pasteur's; that is, not unless the others
acknowledged him to be the sun, when he, in return, was
ready to shed lustre on them as his satellites. Had
Bechamp first bowed the knee to him, he might have been
ready to accord a meed of praise to the Professor; but as
the latter outstripped and criticised him, the two were
always at variance, even on points where their views might
have been assimilated.
1
Life of Pasteur, by Ren6 Vallery-Radot, p. 141.