Makers of Modern Medicine

by James J. Walsh

One of the great mysteries of medicine, the varying virulence of disease, had been thus solved by what seemed an accident. There are no accidents in the lives of great investigators. There are surprises, but genius knows how to reconcile their occurrence with the principles they are working out. Pasteur understood at once the wonderful utility there might be in this discovery for the protection of men and animals from disease. He proceeded to practical applications of the new theory by providing old cultures for the inoculation of fowls in districts where chicken cholera produced serious ravages. Then, working on the same lines as for chicken cholera, he proceeded to elaborate vaccine material for anthrax.

Vaccine was the name deliberately selected for the inoculating substance in order to honor the genius of the English physician Jenner, who had discovered the power of vaccination to protect from smallpox. The weakening of the germs of anthrax, so as to produce only a mild form of the disease, was a much more intricate problem than for chicken cholera, [{311}] because the anthrax bacillus does not weaken with age, but enters a resting or spore stage, resembling the seed stage in large plants. After a patient series of investigations Pasteur accomplished his object by some ingenious methods that served to show, perhaps better than any other details of his career, how thoroughly practical was his inventive genius.

Unfortunately the absorption in his work proved too much for his health. He was seized by a series of apoplectic attacks which for a time threatened to put an end to his invaluable career. When he did begin to recover his health one of the most serious problems in his regard was to keep him from hindering his convalescence by a return to his old-time absorption in the important problems of the cure and the prevention of disease, at which he had been so happily engaged. The keynote of Pasteur's life was to prevent human suffering as far as possible, and any time not given to this important duty seemed to him to be utterly wasted. With regard to this unfortunate break in Pasteur's work Dr. Christian Herter, in his address on the "Influence of Pasteur in Medical Science," delivered before the Medical Society of Johns Hopkins University, [Footnote 15] has an interesting passage, in which he discusses the significance of the master's work up to this time, and the interest that his illness awakened among all the distinguished medical scientists of Europe at the time:

[Footnote 15: New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1904.]

"It is likely that excessive work and mental stress in some degree contributed to the onset of the series of paralytic seizures which in October, 1868, threatened the life of Louis Pasteur. During the critical period of his illness, many of the most distinguished scientific men of France vied with each other to share with Mme. Pasteur the privilege of nursing the man they loved so well and of rescuing the life [{312}] that had already placed science and a nation under enduring obligation through discoveries which were either of the greatest practical utility or appeared susceptible of almost unlimited development. Had Pasteur died in 1868, he would have left a name immortal in the annals of science. Others would in some degree have developed his ideas. Already inspired by the researches on fermentation, Lister would have continued to develop those life-saving surgical methods which will forever be associated with his name. But we may well question whether investigations in biology and medicine would not have been for a time at least conducted along less fruitful paths. Who shall say how soon the great principle of experimental immunity to pathogenic bacteria, the central jewel in the diadem of Pasteur's achievements, would have been brought to light?"

When Pasteur recovered sufficiently to resume work, it was soon clear to apprehensive friends that he had no intention of leaving his ideas to be worked out by other men. The miseries of the Franco-Prussian War deeply affected him, and could not fail to inhibit his productiveness, but after a time the unquenchable love for experimental research was once more ascendant and there began a new epoch, the epoch of great discoveries relating to the origin and cure or prevention of the infectious diseases of man and the domestic animals. As in the case of Ignatius Loyola, it seems as if the lamp of the genius shone with a larger and more luminous flame after the onset of bodily infirmity in defiance of the physical mechanism which is too often permitted to master the will.

After his illness Pasteur devoted himself even more than before to the study of the various biological problems connected with human diseases. There was one exception to this, in his series of studies on beer, undertaken shortly after [{313}] the Franco-Prussian War. Pasteur was an ardent patriot, so much so, indeed, that after the war he sent back to the German government certain decorations and diplomas that had been conferred upon him. He thought that his country had been overreached by a scheming, political statesman, bent on the aggrandizement of the kingdom of Prussia. To the end of his life this feeling of hostility never entirely vanished. It was his hope, then, that by improving the character of French beer it might not only be made more wholesome in the best sense of the word, but also that the French brewing industry might be made a serious rival of its German competitors. Pasteur's discoveries are the most important for the brewing industry that have ever been made. The Germans proved, however, even more capable of taking advantage of them than his French compatriots.

After this Pasteur devoted himself without further interruption to the study of the microbic diseases of man. His greatest practical triumph was undoubtedly with regard to hydrophobia, or, as it is more properly called, rabies. The mystery of the disease was most illusive. Pasteur could not succeed in finding the germ of the disease. Even down to our own day it has not been satisfactorily demonstrated. In spite of this lack of an important element of knowledge, which might be supposed absolutely essential for the successful therapeutics of rabies from a biological standpoint, Pasteur succeeded in producing material that would protect those bitten by rabid dogs from developing the affection.

Long and bitter was the opposition to the introduction of his method of treatment. The greatest living German bacteriologist said that it was idle to provide "remedies of which we know nothing for diseases of which we know less." The reference was to the failure to find the germ of the disease and the claim, nevertheless, of having discovered [{314}] a cure. Wherever the Pasteur treatment for rabies was introduced, however, the number of deaths following the bites of mad animals fell off. In Russia, where the mad wolves of the Steppes so often inflict fatal bites, the power of the new treatment was soon recognized. In Hungary its value was appreciated without delay. Then the British government, after a most careful investigation, introduced it into the Indian army. Then Austria took it up officially. At the International Medical Congress at Moscow, in 1897, Americans, who expressed doubts as to the efficiency of the Pasteur treatment for rabies, were laughed at by the medical representatives of nations who have the most opportunities for studying the disease. Shortly after the Moscow congress the German government officially announced its intention of treating all persons bitten by rabid animals by the Pasteur method. A Pasteur institute for the treatment was opened in connection with the University of Berlin. With this the last serious opposition disappeared. The Germans are now enthusiastic advocates of the value of the Pasteur treatment. The statistics of the Berlin Pasteur Institute are pointed to as demonstrating beyond doubt the possession of power to cope with one of the most fatal diseases man is liable to. Alas, that this should not have come during the master's lifetime! It would have been the happiest moment of Pasteur's life to have had his ideas triumphant in Germany. Unlike the generality of great men, however, Pasteur enjoyed the meed of almost unstinted appreciation during life.

Geniuses are often said to be neglected by their contemporaries. The expression is exemplified much less frequently in our own time than formerly. The rapid diffusion of ideas, and the consequent control and confirmation of scientific claims by many minds, enable the present generation to recognize merit before its possessor has starved. [{315}] Pasteur's career was certainly an exemplification of the fact that true genius, though it may meet with opposition, will be well rewarded. The son of the poor tanner of Dole, by the mere force of his intellectual energy, lifted himself to the level of earth's great ones. His funeral obsequies were a pageant in which French officialdom felt itself honored to take part. The President of the French Republic, the members of both houses of the legislative department, the officials of the city of Paris, the members of the faculty of the university, of the French Academy, and of the various scientific societies of the French capital, gathered to honor their mighty dead. Never has it been given to anyone without family prestige or political or ecclesiastical influence to have a great world-capital and a great nation accord such glorious obsequies, while all the world extended its sympathy and added paeans of praise.