Page 64 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije
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CLAIMS AND CONTRADICTIONS 61
which he made claim that it illumined "with a new day
the phenomena of fermentation."
Bechamp's criticism of it may be found in the Preface to
-j
his book, Le Sang. There he explains that the formation of
lactic acid, following upon the original alcoholic fermenta-
j
tion, was due to an invasion by atmospheric germs, in this
case lactic yeast, their subsequent increase resulting in the
starvation of the beer-yeast, which had been included at
the start of the experiment. He maintains that Pasteur's
deductions prove his lack of real comprehension of "the
chemico-physiological phenomena of transformation,
called fermentation, which are processes of nutrition, that
is to say, of digestion, followed by absorption, assimilation,
excretion, etc.," also his want of understanding of the
living organism and how it would "at last reproduce itself
if all conditions dependent upon nutrition are ful-
1
filled."
Over and above Bechamp's scientific criticism of this
Memoir, any critic must be struck by the inexactitude of
the detailed descriptions. For example, if we turn to the
third section, we find that for these observations, Pasteur's
medium included the ashes of yeast, and that he makes
mention of the addition of fresh yeast. Yet as a heading to
one such experiment, he gives the following misleading
description: "Production of yeast in a medium formed of
sugar, of a salt of ammonia and of phosphates." 2 All
reference to the original inclusion of yeast, admitted on
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p. 383, is omitted in this heading and in his final sum-
mary: "All these results of a most rigorous exactitude,
though the majority were obtained by acting upon very
small quantities, establish the production of alcoholic and
lactic yeast and of special fermentations corresponding to
them, in a mediumformed only of sugar, a salt of ammonia
and of mineral elements." 3 The actual medium detailed
only a couple of pages back, consisted of:
1
Le Sang,par A. Bkhamp, Preface, p. 41.
* Annates de Chimie et de Physique, $e sirie, 57-58, p. 381.
3
ibid. 3e sirie, 57-58, p. 392.