Page 78 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

THE SOLUBLE FERMENT 75

(1897) the discovery has been made by E. Buchner that a
soluble principle giving rise to the alcoholic fermentation
of sugar may be extracted from yeast cells, and for which
the name zymase is proposed. This important discovery
should throw a new light on the theory of fermentation."
But "this important discovery," as we have here seen,
was made nearly half a century before by a Frenchman!
It is true that Pasteur accused Bechamp of having taken
his ideas from Mitscherlich. Not only was Bechamp able
to disprove this, but he also showed that it was Pasteur who
had followed the German's views, and that, moreover, on
a point on which the latter appeared to have been
mistaken. 1
Thus it is clear that Bechamp was the first to give
tangible proofnot only ofthe air-borne origin ofyeasts and
moulds, but also of the means by which they are physio-
logically and chemically active. When he started work,
there was no teaching available for him to plagiarise, had
plagiarism been possible to such a deeply versed and
honest student of scientific history, who, step by step,
traced any observations that had preceded his own.
Unfortunately, it was he who was preyed upon by
plagiarists, and, sad to relate, foremost among these seems
to have been the very one who tried to detract from his
work and who bears the world-famous name of Pasteur!
Let us pause here to watch the latter's progress and the
way in which he gained credit for Bechamp's great dis-
covery of the invading hordes from the atmosphere, micro-
organisms with their fermentative powers.
1
Les Microzymas, pp. 76, 77.