Page 82 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije
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RIVAL THEORIES AND WORKERS                   70

      name of fermentation. But, on the contrary, more or less
      everyone had heard, so widely had the subject been venti-
      lated, of the controversy as to whether life, in its lesser
      forms, sprang invariably from antecedent life, or whether
      chemical combinations could produce life independently
      of parents. The public, too, could follow the account of
      M. Pasteur's holiday tour in pursuit of the question. Very
      little cudgelling of brains could make anyone understand
      the history of the flasks that he unsealed, some by a dusty
      roadside, some on an Alpine summit.  Since visible dust
      could cloud a fluid,  it was easy to realise that invisible
      aerial germs could also affect the contents of the scientist's
      phials. Minute living things afloat in the atmosphere were
      not hard to imagine, and Pasteur commenced so enthus-
      iastically to discourse of these that it was not remarkable
      that an impression was created that he had been the first
      to demonstrate them; especially since the obstinacy with
      which a number of scientists declined to endorse his views
      made him appear a special champion to confound the
      Sponteparists whose opinions he had cast off so recently.
        All this time, in spite of M. Biot's influential patronage,
      Pasteur had remained outside the select circle ofAcademi-
      cians. But at the end of 1862, as we have said before, he
      was at last nominated by the Mineralogical Section. No
      sooner was his candidature commenced than exception
      began to be taken to his early conclusions on crystal-
      lography. None the less, by 36 out of 60 votes, he secured
      his coveted place in the Academy of Science; and, advised
      to drop crystallography, he proceeded to experiment further
      in connection with his new views on air-borne organisms.
       To secure matter free from atmospheric dust, he made
      observations upon muscle, milk, blood, etc., taken from
      the interior of bodies. From the start, he cannot but have
      been handicapped by his lack of medical training.  His
      view-point was that of the chemist.  According to his
      conception,  as Bechamp  points  out, 1  the marvellous
      animal body was likened to wine in the cask or beer in the
       1
        Les Microzymas, p. 754.
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