Belgians Under the German Eagle

by Jean Massart

This longing to exalt his own country is accompanied by a corresponding desire to abase all others. Hardly is a discovery of any kind made in a neighbouring country than a German appropriates it in order to give it a new trade-mark. One example will suffice.

All the world knows that Louis Pasteur was the founder of the science of bacteriology, a science whose consequences, in the spheres of hygiene and medicine, are incalculable. Germany ignores Pasteur and has heard only of Koch. A Belgian, who attended the Berlin celebrations in honour of Koch, returned disgusted with the fact that the name of Pasteur was systematically suppressed throughout the ceremonies. In an obituary notice devoted to Koch a Belgian bacteriologist, M. Jules Bordet, remarked with great justice, in speaking of the German biographies of the scientist who had just died:—

"They made Koch the absolute creator of modern medicine: all other glory pales before his; he is the founder of bacteriology. Their obituary articles, emanating, for the most part, from disciples of the master, and which are, one feels, steeped in pious gratitude, and also, perhaps, to a certain extent, in a somewhat exclusive patriotism, attribute to him the honour of having shown the organic origin of contagious diseases." "It would be," said Herr Pfeiffer, the distinguished Breslau bacteriologist, "a real act of justice were posterity to divide the history of medicine into two periods, one before Koch and the other after him."

Reading such notices it would almost seem as though Pasteur had never lived!

We think M. Bordet shows himself far too indulgent toward the German biographers when he says, in conclusion: "And one could not take it amiss of these disciples if, in their filial solicitude, they left on the tomb of their Master a few leaves from the laurels of Pasteur."

Here is another example of boasting, interesting principally by reason of the charlatanesque manner in which it was published. Every one has heard of the Cooper-Hewitt mercury-vapour lamp, with its strange blue-violet light, so rich in ultra-violet rays. The most summary treatises on physics explain that quartz will allow the ultra-violet rays to pass, and that the Cooper-Hewitt quartz lamp is in constant employment in the laboratories. But if you read the communication which the Germans imposed upon L'Ami de l'Ordre on the 27th December, 1914, you will see that the Germans invented the whole affair.

If you want to be initiated into the perfections of the German, Herr Momme Nissen, in Der Krieg und die Deutsche Kunst, will enumerate them for you. "The qualities of the German," he says, "integrity and courage, profundity of mind and fidelity, insight and the sense of inwardness, modesty and piety, are also the ornaments of our art."

The Germans compare themselves with their Allies.

Here is a last point to be considered. The Germans do not merely consider themselves to be superior to their adversaries; they are equally modest on behalf of their allies. To their minds, and in their writings, the present war is "the German war." The most complete chronological compilation which has appeared hitherto is entitled Chronik des Deutschen Krieges. The official publications deliberately ignore the Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs, Croats, Turks, etc. The first of the pamphlets of propaganda distributed by the Germans (Journal de la Guerre) begins thus: "The name this war will one day bear in history is already determined; it can only be the German War, for it is a war destined to establish the position of the German nation in the world." By what name shall we call the German's sense of superiority over all other nations: is it pride, presumption, or impudence?