Page 20 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

ANTOINE BfiCHAMP 17

literary labours. All the while, he continued his University
course at the Academy of Strasbourg until he became
qualified as a chemist. On obtaining his degree, he set up
independently at Benfeld in Alsace, where he met and
married Mile. Clementine Mertian, the daughter of a
retired tobacco and beet-sugar merchant, who made him
a capable wife. Science claimed so much of her husband's
time that the training of their four children and the whole
management of the household were left almost entirely to
Mme. Bechamp.
Soon after the marriage, Antoine returned to Strasbourg
to set up as a chemist; but this work did not nearly satisfy
his vigorous energy and he now prepared himself to occu-
py a Professor's Chair. He soon realised his aim. In a
short time he acquired the diplomas of Bachelor of
Science and Letters and of Doctor of Medicine and was
nominated Professor at the School of Pharmacy in the
Faculty of Science, where for a time he took the place of
his colleague, Pasteur.
These notable rivals both worked in the full flush of early
enthusiasm in the capital of Alsace. But a difference al-
ready marked their methods. Pasteur seems never to have
left an effort of his unrecorded; every idea as to the tartaric
and racemic acids, about which he was then busied,
appears to have been confided to others; letters detailed
his endeavours; his invaluable patron, the scientist, Biot,
was especially taken into his confidence, while his ap-
proaching honour and glory were never allowed to absent
themselves from his friends' minds. He wrote to Chappuis
that, on account of his hard work, he was "often scolded
by Mme. Pasteur, but I console her by telling her that I
shall lead her to fame." 1
From the start, Antoine Bechamp was utterly indifferent
to personal ambition. Never of a pushing temperament,
he made no effort to seek out influential acquaintances
and advertise his successes to them. Self-oblivious, he was
entirely concentrated upon nature and its mysteries, never
1
The Life of Pasteur, by Rene Vallery-Radot, p. 58 (Pop. Ed.).