Biology and Its Makers / With Portraits and Other Illustrations

by William A. Locy

In 1857 Pasteur went to Paris as director of scientific studies in the École Normale, having previously been a professor in Strasburg and in Lille. From this time on his energies became more and more absorbed in problems of a biological nature. It was a momentous year (1857) in the annals of bacteriology when Pasteur brought convincing proof that fermentation (then considered chemical in its nature) was due to the growth of organic life. Again in 1860 he demonstrated that both lactic (the souring of milk) and alcoholic fermentation are due to the growth of microscopic organisms, and by these researches he developed the province of biology that has expanded into the science of bacteriology.

After Pasteur entered the path of investigation of microbes his progress was by ascending steps; each new problem the solution of which he undertook seemed of greater importance than the one just conquered. He was led from the discovery of microbe action to the application of his knowledge to the production of antitoxins. In all this he did not follow his own inclinations so much as his sense of a call to service. In fact, he always retained a regret that he was not permitted to perfect his researches on crystallography. At the age of seventy he said of himself: "If I have a regret, it is that I did not follow that route, less rude it seems to me, and which would have led, I am convinced, to wonderful discoveries. A sudden turn threw me into the study of fermentation, fermentations set me at diseases, but I am still inconsolable to think that I have never had the time to go back to my old subject" (Tarbell).

Although the results of his combined researches form a succession of triumphs, every point of his doctrines was the subject of fierce controversy; no investigations ever met with more determined opposition, no investigator ever fought more strenuously for the establishment of each new truth.

He went from the study of the diseases of wines (1865) to the investigation (1865-1868) of the silkworm plague which had well-nigh crushed the silk industry of his country. The result was the saving of millions of francs annually to the people of France.

His Supreme Service.—He then entered upon his chief services to humanity—the application of his discoveries to the cure and prevention of diseases. By making a succession of pure cultures of a disease-producing virus, he was able to attenuate it to any desired degree, and thereby to create a vaccinating form of the virus capable of causing a mild affection of the disease. The injection of this attenuated virus secured immunity from future attacks. The efficacy of this form of inoculation was first proved for the disease of fowl cholera, and then came the clear demonstration (1881) that the vaccine was effective against the splenic fever of cattle. Crowning this series of discoveries came the use of inoculation (1885) to prevent the development of hydrophobia in one bitten by a mad dog.

The Pasteur Institute.—The time had now come for the establishment of an institute, not alone for the treatment of hydrophobia, but also for the scientific study of means to control other diseases, as diphtheria, typhoid, tuberculosis, etc. A movement was set on foot for a popular subscription to meet this need. The response to this call on the part of the common people was gratifying. "The extraordinary enthusiasm which accompanied the foundation of this great institution has certainly not been equaled in our time. Considerable sums of money were subscribed in foreign countries, while contributions poured in from every part of France. Even the inhabitants of obscure little towns and villages organized fêtes, and clubbed together to send their small gifts" (Franckland). The total sum subscribed on the date of the opening ceremony amounted to 3,586,680 francs.

The institute was formally opened on November 14th, 1888, with impressive ceremonies presided over by the President of the Republic of France. The establishment of this institute was an event of great scientific importance. Here, within the first decade of its existence, were successfully treated more than twenty thousand cases of hydrophobia. Here has been discovered by Roux the antitoxin for diphtheria, and here have been established the principles of inoculation against the bubonic plague, against lockjaw, against tuberculosis and other maladies, and of the recent microbe inoculations of Wright of London. More than thirty "Pasteur institutes," with aims similar to the parent institution, have been established in different parts of the civilized world.

Pasteur died in 1895, greatly honored by the whole world. On Saturday, October 5th of that year, a national funeral was conducted in the Church of Notre-Dame, which was attended by the representatives of the state and of numerous scientific bodies and learned societies.

Koch.—Robert Koch (Fig. 93) was born in 1843, and is still living, engaged actively in work in the University of Berlin. His studies have been mainly those of a medical man, and have been crowned with remarkable success. In 1881 he discovered the germ of tuberculosis, in 1883 the germ that produces Asiatic cholera, and since that time his name has been connected with a number of remarkable discoveries that are of continuous practical application in the science of medicine.