Page 84 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

RIVAL THEORIES AND WORKERS 8r

But, here again, such intricacies were beyond the com-
prehension of the general public. The Man in the Street
delved no deeper than the surface test that alterable sub-
stances could be preserved by excluding air, and that as
the atmosphere was said to be filled with living germs,
there was no need to cudgel his brains as to the possible
modern emergence of life from mere chemical sources.
The religious felt duly grateful for views that appeared to
controvert the materialistic tendencies of the nineteenth
century, and were blandly innocent of the superficial
character of the contradiction. Meanwhile, the talk of the
controversy and the exploits of M. Pasteur reached the
ears of the Emperor, who, like most rulers, felt it incum-
bent upon him to patronise contemporary science. Soon
after his election to the Academy of Science, M. Pasteur,
in the month of March, 1863, had the honour of being
presented to Napoleon III at the Tuileries.
As usual his numerous correspondents seem to have been
—
notified at once of the interview, for his son-in-law tells
us 1 : "Pasteur wrote the next day' 5 (to whom he does not
say), "I assured the Emperor that all my ambition was to
arrive at the knowledge of the causes of putrid and
contagious diseases."
Here we have an interesting illustration of the contrast
between the methods of Pasteur and Bechamp. As we
have seen, right up to i860, Pasteur's Memoirs contained
sponteparist opinions. It was now only 1863. He had but
recently changed his standpoint. Yet it is clear that al-
ready, before any proofs could have been brought into
bearing on the subject, Pasteur, in his mind, was con-
necting the ferments of the air with a former idea, voiced
by earlier workers, Linne, Raspail and others, that specific
organisms might be the cause of specific diseases. The best
and the worst of us invariably preach against our own
individual weaknesses; and therefore Pasteur rightly
quoted a great writer as having declared that "The
greatest derangement of the mind is to believe things
1
The Life of Pasteur, by Ren6 Vallery-Radot, p. 104.
p