Page 42 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

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PASTEUR'S MEMOIRS OF 1857 —
39
true, in the sense that I frankly associate myself with an
order of ideas 1 that, to speak correctly, cannot be
irrefutably demonstrated.'
We have, therefore, in Pasteur's own words, his con-
fession of non-comprehension of a problem that the rigid
experiments of another worker, Professor Bechamp, had
already, as we shall shortly see, solved by an irrefutable
demonstration. The reason why Pasteur should get the
credit for demonstrating that which he owned he could not
demonstrate is as much of a puzzle to the lover of historical
accuracy as was the phenomenon of fermentation to
Pasteur.
However, let us not deny ourselves a thorough examina-
tion of his work, and now consider his Memoir upon Alcoholic
Fermentation, of which his son-in-law, M. Vallery-Radot,
2
tells us that Pasteur said "The results of these labours (on
lactic and alcoholic fermentation) should be put on the
same lines, for they explain and complete each other."
We find the author's extract from this latter Memoir
among the Reports of the French Academy of Science of
3
the 21st. Dec, 1857.
Pasteur's procedure in this experiment was as follows:
He took two equal quantities of fresh yeast, washed in
water. One was left to ferment with pure sugared water,
and after having extracted from the other all its soluble
part by boiling it with plenty of water and filtering it to
get rid of the globules, he added to the limpid liquor as
much sugar as he used in the first fermentation and then
a trace of fresh yeast.
He expressed his conclusions as follows: "I am just
establishing that in beer-yeast it is not the globules that
play the principal part, but the conversion into globules of
their soluble part; because I prove that one can suppress
the globules that are formed and the total effect on the
sugar remains sensibly the same. Thus, certainly, it
1
A. de Ch. et de Ph. 3e se'rie, 52, p. 417.
2
The Life of Pasteur, p. 85.
3
Comptes Rendus, 45, p. 1032.