Page 31 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

28 BfiCHAMP OR PASTEUR?
upon the value of the results of work and not upon
pecuniary profit, which as often as not falls to the share of
,
plagiarists, at the expense of men of real worth.
And so, in 1908, came the April day when, worn out by
labour, Antoine Bechamp could no more rise from the
bed in his room where, on the walls, four crucifixes testi-
fied to self-sacrifice as the ladder by which mankind scales
upwards. His belief was proved, to quote his own words, 1
in Him, "whom the founders of science, the greatest
geniuses that are honoured by humanity from Moses to our
own day, have named by the name—GOD!" "My faith!"
was one of his last whispered utterances, as his life ebbed
away, and of faith he was well qualified to speak, he who
had delved so deeply into nature's marvels and the mys-
teries of the invisible world! Calm and confident to the
end, his trust was immovable. Well does the Moniteur
Scientifique prophesy that time will do justice to his dis-
coveries and that, the living actors once passed from the
stage and impartial judgment brought into play,
Bechamp's genius will be revealed to the world.
He taught that which was marvellous and complex, like
all nature's workings, and public ignorance eagerly
snatched instead at what was simple and crude. But error,
having the canker of destruction within itself, falls to
pieces by degrees. Already the need arises for a saner
solution of disease than the mere onslaughts of venomous
microbes and a fuller explanation of the processes of
biological upbuilding and disruption, of life and death.
And to whom could the world go better than, as we shall
see, to the inspirer of what was correct in Pasteur's teach-
ing, the true revealer of the mystery of fermentation, the
exponent of the role of invisible organisms, the chemist,
naturalist, biologist and physician, Professor Pierre
Jacques Antoine Bechamp?
1 Les Microzymas, par A. BJchamp, p. 926.