Page 49 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

4 6 BfiCHAMP OR PASTEUR? —
Professor Bechamp took particular note of the moulds,
and found it significant that none had appeared in the
solutions to which he had added zinc chloride and calcium
chloride, moreover, that the change in rotation in these
had been so slight as to be almost negligible, or, as he puts
it: "The plane of polarisation underwent no change other
than accidental variations." 1
Bechamp published this experiment in the Report of the
2
French Academy of Science on the 19th February, 1855.
He mentioned the moulds, without attempting to explain
their appearance. He reserved their further consideration
for future experiments; feeling it important to find the
explanation as a probable clue to the cause of what had,
up to that time, been regarded as evidence of spontaneous
generation. He was also anxious to discover what was the
chemical mechanism of the alteration of sugar, and why a
change had not been effected in the solutions to which the
chlorides had been added.
Meanwhile, another observer, M. Maumene, was also
experimenting, and though Bechamp disagreed with his
conclusions, he was much struck by the observations that
were presented to the Academy of Science on the 7th
April, 1856, and published in the Annates de Chimie et de
3
Physique in September, 1856.
M. Maumene's experiments were also concerned with
polarimetric measurements. The following table II on
page 47 gives a brief resume of his principal results:

1
Les Microzymas, par A. Bichamp, p. 48.
2
Comptes Rendus 40, p. 436.
3
A. de Ch. et de Ph. 3$ serie, 48, p. 23.