Page 43 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

BECHAMP OR PASTEUR?
40
matters little if one suppresses them by means of filtration
with the separation of their soluble part, or if one kills them
by a temperature of i oo° and leaves them mixed with this
soluble part." 1
In view of the fact that he was supposed to be reasoning
on the hypothesis that yeast is organised and living, there
was so much that was extraordinary in this that he
pauses to reply to inevitable criticism.
"But how, it will be asked, can the fermentation of sugar
take place when yeast is used that is heated to ioo°, if it is
due to the organisation of the soluble part of the globules
and these have been paralysed by a temperature of ioo°?
Fermentation then takes place as it does in a natural
sugared liquid, juice of the grape, of sugar-cane, etc., that
is to say, spontaneously. . . ."
Here is seen the prevalent idea ofspontaneous alteration,
though Pasteur goes on to state that "in all cases, even
those most liable in appearance to drive us from belief in the
influence of organisation in the phenomena of fermenta-
tion, the chemical act that characterises them is always
correlative to a formation of globules."
His final conclusions are held up for admiration: "The
splitting of sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid is an act
correlative of a vital phenomenon, of an organisation of
globules, an organisation in which sugar plays a direct
part by furnishing a portion of the elements of the sub-
stance of these globules." But far from understanding this
process, we find that Pasteur owns three years later, in
i860: "Now in what does this chemical act of decomposi-
tion, of the alteration of sugar consist? What is its cause?
I confess that I am entirely ignorant of it."
In any case, the critical mind inquires at once—How
can fermentation be explained as a vital act by the opera-
1
Comptes Rendus, 45, p. 1034. "Je viens d'etablir que dans la levure de biere,
ce ne sont point les globules qui jouent le principal role mais la mise en globules de
leur partie soluble; car je prouve que Von peut supprimer les globules formes, et
Veffet total sur le sucre est sensiblement le meme. Or, assurintent, il importe peu
qu'on les supprime de fait par une filtration avec separation de leur partie soluble ou
qu'on Us tue par une temperature de 100 degres en les laissant milis d cette partie
soluble"