Page 17 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

BfiCHAMP OR PASTEUR?
14
For indeed this astonishing chapter denies the prevalent
belief that Pasteur was the first to explain the mystery of
fermentation, the cause of the dis^a^es^r^^worms , and
the cause of vinous fermentation; moreover, it shows that
c :
his theories ot micro-organisms 3mel eTln^a3c"essentials
from those of the observer who seems to have been the real
originator of the discoveries to which Pasteur has always
laid claim. And so, since Truth is our object, we venture
to ask for patient and impartial consideration ofthe facts
that we bring forward in regard to the life-work of two
French scientists, one of whom is barely known to the
present generation, though much of its knowledge has
been derived from him, while the name of the other has
become a household word.
Twelve and a half years after the death of Pasteur, on
the 15th April, 1908, there passed away in a modest
dwelling in the student quarter of Paris an old man in his
ninety-second year. His funeral was attended by a platoon
of soldiers, for the nonogenarian,^Professor Pierre Jacques
Antoine Bechamp, had a right to thisTiolnourTas he Ead
been "^"Chevalier~of theTTegion~5F Honour. Otherwise
the quiet obsequies were attended only by the dead man's
two daughters-in-law, several of his grandsons, a few of his
old friends and an American admirer. 1 No pomp and
circumstance in the last ceremonies indicated the passing
of a great scientist, but, after all, it was far from the first
time that a man's contemporaries had neglected his
worth. Rather more than a^cxiUm^LJ^arlier, another
Antoine, whose surname was Lav^me£ Jh 1 a^^eendone
1
to death H5y TuT^countrymen, with the comment—^The
Republic ha^Tio^ie^orot savaritsP^~Axid now^witli^cant
public notice7^waTTaiorTnTts~Iast resting-place the body
of perhaps an even greater scientist than the great
Lavoisier, since this other Antoine, whose surname was
Bechamp, seems to have been the first clear, exponent of
fermelitMive" mysteries and the pioneer of authentic
discovery in the realm of "the immeasurably small."
1 Dr. Montague R. Leverson.