The life of Pasteur

by René Vallery-Radot

That sudden theory of phthisis, falling from the clouds, resembled Pasteur’s theory of germs floating in air. Was it not better, urged Pidoux the heterogenist, to remain in the truer and more philosophical doctrine of spontaneous generation? “Let us believe, until the contrary is proved, that we are right, we partisans of the common etiology of phthisis, partisans of the spontaneous tuberculous degeneration of the organism under the influence of accessible causes, which we seek everywhere in order to cut down the evil in its roots.”

A reception somewhat similar to that given to Villemin was reserved for Davaine, who, having meditated on Pasteur’s works on butyric ferment and the part played by that ferment, compared it and its action with certain parasites visible with a microscope and observed by him in the blood of animals which had died of charbon disease. By its action and its rapid multiplication in the blood, this agent endowed with life probably acted, said Davaine, after the manner of ferments. The blood was modified to that extent that it speedily brought about the death of the infected animal. Davaine called those filaments found in anthrax “bacteria,” and added, “They have a place in the classification of living beings.” But what was that animated virus to many doctors? They answered experimental proofs by oratorical arguments.

At the very time when Pasteur took his seat at the Academy of Medicine, Davaine was being violently attacked; his experiments on septicæmia were the cause, or the pretext. But the mere tone of the discussions prepared Pasteur for future battles. The theory of germs, the doctrine of virus ferments, all this was considered as a complete reversal of acquired notions, a heresy which had to be suppressed. A well-known surgeon, Dr. Chassaignac, spoke before the Académie de Médecine of what he called “laboratory surgery, which has destroyed very many animals and saved very few human beings.” In order to remind experimentalists of the distance between them and practitioners, he added: “Laboratory results should be brought out in a circumspect, modest and reserved manner, as long as they have not been sanctioned by long clinical researches, a sanction without which there is no real and practical medical science.” Everything, he said, could not be resolved into a question of bacteria! And, ironically, far from realizing the truth of his sarcastic prophecy, he exclaimed, “Typhoid fever, bacterization! Hospital miasma, bacterization!”

Every one had a word to say. Dr. Piorry, an octogenarian, somewhat weighed down with the burden of his years and reputation, rose to speak with his accustomed solemnity. He had found for Villemin’s experiments the simple explanation that “the tuberculous matter seems to be no other than pus, which, in consequence of its sojourn in the organs, has undergone varied and numerous modifications”; and he now imagined that one of the principal causes of fatal accidents due to septicæmia after surgical operations was the imperfect ventilation of hospital wards. It was enough, he thought, that putrid odours should not be perceptible, for the rate of mortality to be decreased.

It was then affirmed that putrid infection was not an organized ferment, that inferior organisms had in themselves no toxic action, in fact, that they were the result and not the cause of putrid alteration; whereupon Dr. Bouillaud, a contemporary of Dr. Piorry, called upon their new colleague to give his opinion on the subject.

It would have been an act of graceful welcome to Pasteur, and a fitting homage to the memory of the celebrated Trousseau, who had died five years before, in 1867, if any member present had then quoted one of the great practitioner’s last lectures at the Hôtel Dieu, wherein he predicted a future for Pasteur’s works:

“The great theory of ferments is therefore now connected with an organic function; every ferment is a germ, the life of which is manifested by a special secretion. It may be that it is so for morbid viruses; they may be ferments, which, deposited within the organism at a given moment and under determined circumstances, manifest themselves by divers products. So will the variolous ferment produce variolic fermentation, giving birth to thousands of pustules, and likewise the virus of glanders, that of sheep pox, etc....

“Other viruses appear to act locally, but, nevertheless, they ultimately modify the whole organism, as do gangrene, malignant pustula, contagious erysipelas, etc. May it not be supposed, under such circumstances, that the ferment or organized matter of those viruses can be carried about by the lancet, the atmosphere or the linen bandages?”

But it occurred to no one in the Academy to quote those forgotten words.

Pasteur, answering Bouillaud, recalled his own researches on lactic and butyric fermentations and spoke of his studies on beer. He stated that the alteration of beer was due to the presence of filiform organisms; if beer becomes altered, it is because it contains germs of organized ferments. “The correlation is certain, indisputable, between the disease and the presence of organisms.” He spoke those last words with so much emphasis that the stenographer who was taking down the extempore speeches underlined them.