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08 - Louis Pasteur by Albert Keim, Louis Lumet · Louis Pasteur

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  Speaker 1: Section eight of Louis Pasteur by Albert Kim and Louis Lumay,
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  Speaker 1: translated by Frederick Taber Cooper. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain recording by Pamel Nagami, Chapter five The
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  Speaker 1: spirit of Patriotism. Pasteur was an ardent patriot, and the
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  Speaker 1: disasters of France affected him profoundly. Determined though he was
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  Speaker 1: to work in spite of the war, since he had
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  Speaker 1: nothing else than his work to give to his country,
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  Speaker 1: it was nevertheless hard for him to reconcile himself. So
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  Speaker 1: keenly did he share the high tension of public feeling.
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  Speaker 1: Retiring to his boyhood home at Arbois, he sought to
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  Speaker 1: content himself with studying the fermentation of tan bark. Yet
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  Speaker 1: all the while he was on the alert for news,
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  Speaker 1: and quivering in unison with the soul of the nation
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  Speaker 1: at the announcement of each new dey feet. When Paris
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  Speaker 1: was bombarded and shells reached the Museum of Natural History,
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  Speaker 1: Chevrou's eloquent and indignant protest in the name of the
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  Speaker 1: Academy of Sciences caused Pasteur to regret that he had
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  Speaker 1: not been in Paris in order to sign it together
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  Speaker 1: with his colleagues who were present, But he remembered that
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty eight he had received a diploma from
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  Speaker 1: the University of Bonn conferring upon him the honorary degree
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  Speaker 1: of Doctor of Medicine in recognition of his brilliant work,
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  Speaker 1: and he decided to return it to the Dean. He
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  Speaker 1: accompanied it with a letter pulsating throughout with the highest
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  Speaker 1: kind of patriotism, to Monsieur the Dean of the Faculty
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  Speaker 1: of Medicine of Bonn, Rhenish Prussia, Acbois Jura, January eighteenth,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one, Monsieur the Dean. In eighteen sixty eight,
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  Speaker 1: the Faculty of Medicine the University of Bunn did me
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  Speaker 1: the honor to confer upon me voluntarily the degree of
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  Speaker 1: Doctor of Medicine in recognition of my work in regard
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  Speaker 1: to fermentations and the role played by microscopic organisms. Among
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  Speaker 1: all the distinctions bestowed upon me by reason of the
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  Speaker 1: discoveries which I have been privileged to make since entering
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  Speaker 1: upon my scientific career twenty two years ago, there is
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  Speaker 1: none I acknowledge which caused me greater satisfaction. It was,
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  Speaker 1: in my eyes the confirmation of a secret hope of
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  Speaker 1: the truth of which I felt more and more convinced,
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  Speaker 1: namely that my researches were opening up new horizons to
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  Speaker 1: the study of medicine. I even hastened to frame under
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  Speaker 1: glass that honorary degree which bore witness to the decision
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  Speaker 1: of your faculty, and I adorned the wall of my
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  Speaker 1: private office with it. To day, the sight of this
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  Speaker 1: same parchment has become odious to me, and I feel
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  Speaker 1: that it is an insult to have my name, with
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  Speaker 1: the qualification of Wium clarissimum which you bestowed upon it,
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  Speaker 1: placed under the auspices of a name condemned henceforth to
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  Speaker 1: the execration of my country, that of Rex Gillelmus. While
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  Speaker 1: protesting loudly my profound respect toward you and all the
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  Speaker 1: other celebrated professors who signed their names at the foot
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  Speaker 1: of the document representing the decision of the members of
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  Speaker 1: your order, I must still obey the voice of my
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  Speaker 1: conscience and beg you to erase my name from the
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  Speaker 1: archives of your faculty, and to take back this diploma,
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  Speaker 1: as a sign of the indignation aroused in a French
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  Speaker 1: savant by the barbarity and hypocrisy of the man who,
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of satisfying a criminal pride, obstinately insists
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  Speaker 1: upon the massacre of two great nations. Since the Conference
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  Speaker 1: of Ferrier, France has sought for the respect of human dignity,
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  Speaker 1: and Prussia for the triumph of the most abominable of lies,
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  Speaker 1: namely that the future piece of Germany depends upon the
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  Speaker 1: dismemberment of France. Although every sane man knows that the
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  Speaker 1: conquest of Al Sassin Lorent is simply a prize of
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  Speaker 1: war carried to the bitter end, woe to the people
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  Speaker 1: of Germany if, being nearer than we to feudal servitude,
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  Speaker 1: they do not understand that France, while possessing the lands
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  Speaker 1: of Al Sa Saint Lorent, is not mistress of the
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  Speaker 1: consciences of their inhabitants. Sauvois would still be a part
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  Speaker 1: of Piermnt if its inhabitants had not consented by a
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  Speaker 1: free vote to become French. Such is the modern right
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  Speaker 1: of civilized nations, which your king is trampling under a foot,
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  Speaker 1: and in defense of which France has risen. Therefore, there
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  Speaker 1: is perhaps no epoch of her history in which France
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  Speaker 1: has better deserved to be called the great nation, the
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  Speaker 1: initiator of progress, the guiding light of other races. Here
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  Speaker 1: is a whole people which has arisen against you, ready
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  Speaker 1: to push onward to the ends of the earth and
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  Speaker 1: to dare everything because of her conviction of the justice
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  Speaker 1: and sanctity of her cause. Kindly accept, monsieur the dean
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  Speaker 1: on behalf of yourself and your distinguished colleagues, the expression
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  Speaker 1: of my sentiments of high consideration, Louis Pasteur, member of
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  Speaker 1: the Institute. In the white heat of conflict between two
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  Speaker 1: powerful nations, this reasonable and humane letter, couched in terms
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  Speaker 1: of such noble pride, could not be understood. Doctor Neumann,
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  Speaker 1: dean of the Faculty of Bunn, replied harshly with an
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  Speaker 1: affectation of disdain, under which he betrayed the irritation caused
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  Speaker 1: by this great and well merited Lesson. Pasteur, strong in
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  Speaker 1: the conviction that he and his nation were in the right,
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  Speaker 1: wrote a second letter, no longer indignant, but saddened and
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  Speaker 1: deploring the murderousness of war, which puts a barrier between
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  Speaker 1: men who were born to understand each other into joined forces.
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  Speaker 1: In the search of happiness, he wrote Monsieur the Dean,
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  Speaker 1: in rereading your letter and my own, I feel sick
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  Speaker 1: at heart to think that men like you and myself,
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  Speaker 1: who have consecrated their lives to a search after the
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  Speaker 1: truth and to the progress of the human mind, could
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  Speaker 1: address each other in such terms, and baste for my
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  Speaker 1: own part upon such acts. Nevertheless, we have there one
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  Speaker 1: other result of the character imprinted upon this war by
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  Speaker 1: your Emperor. You speak to me of degradation, Monsieur the Dean.
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  Speaker 1: There is degradation. Be assured of that, and there will
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  Speaker 1: continue to be, down to the remotest epochs of time
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  Speaker 1: attached to the memory of those who began the bombardment
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  Speaker 1: of Paris at a date when capitulation through famine was inevitable,
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  Speaker 1: and who continued this savage act when it had become
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  Speaker 1: evident to everyone that it would not hasten by a
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  Speaker 1: single hour the surrender of the heroic city Louis past.
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  Speaker 1: To the anguish of patriotism. There were added private anxieties.
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  Speaker 1: For Pasteur's son, who was only eighteen years old, was
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  Speaker 1: serving as quartermaster in the Army of the East under
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  Speaker 1: the command of Bourbaki. Having been for a long time
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  Speaker 1: without news pastor set out to seek for him among
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  Speaker 1: the demoralized troops in full retreat and destined finally to
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  Speaker 1: take refuge in Switzerland. He had the good fortune to
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  Speaker 1: find him in that disorganized crowd, emaciated, exhausted, but still living.
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  Speaker 1: After a few days of repose at Geneva, this son,
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  Speaker 1: well worthy of his father, returned with him to France
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  Speaker 1: and re entered the service in the Army of National Defense.
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  Speaker 1: International war was soon followed by civil war, and Pasteur,
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  Speaker 1: being unable either to enter Paris or to return to Aarcbois,
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  Speaker 1: which was occupied by the enemy, proceeded to install himself
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  Speaker 1: early in eighteen seventy one in the house of his
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  Speaker 1: friend and collaborator E. Mil d'u clo, who at that
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  Speaker 1: time was professor of chemistry in the faculty of Clermont Ferrand.
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  Speaker 1: He wrote to him on the twenty ninth of March
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  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one. I have my head filled with the
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  Speaker 1: finest projects for work, but the war has forced my
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  Speaker 1: brain to lie fallow. I feel ready now to become
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  Speaker 1: productive again, although alas I may be deceiving myself. In
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  Speaker 1: any case, I shall try. Ah, why am I not
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  Speaker 1: rich a millionaire. I should then say to you, and
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  Speaker 1: to Rola and Gernay and Fantigam and the rest come,
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  Speaker 1: we are going to transform the world by our discoveries.
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  Speaker 1: How fortunate you are to be young and in good health. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: if I could only recommence a new life of study
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  Speaker 1: and toil, poor France, dear motherland, if I could only
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  Speaker 1: contribute to relieve you from your disasters. At Clermont, Ferran
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  Speaker 1: Pasteur hesitated between several paths. Should he continue to devote
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  Speaker 1: himself to silkworms or commence some new researches. Chance and
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  Speaker 1: the desire to do away with French consumption of an
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  Speaker 1: almost exclusive product of German industry, turned his attention to
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  Speaker 1: the study of beer. Why should we not make good
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  Speaker 1: beer in France, Pasteur asked himself, and he straightway set
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  Speaker 1: to work to find an answer to his own question.
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  Speaker 1: There was a small brewery at Chamillier, near Clermont, and
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  Speaker 1: it was there, at the home of the proprietor, Monsieur Kuhn,
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  Speaker 1: that he conducted his first experiments. Afterwards verified in Duke
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  Speaker 1: Close Laboratory and the Faculty of Sciences, the microscopic examination
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  Speaker 1: of malts, yeasts and beers soon convinced him that the
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  Speaker 1: latter acquired a bad taste through diseases analogous to those
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  Speaker 1: of wines and due to certain microbes. In brewing, just
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  Speaker 1: as in all industries where fermentation plays the principal role,
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  Speaker 1: the manufacture was purely empirical, without method or science, and
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  Speaker 1: the results, whether good or bad, were often due to
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  Speaker 1: pure chance. Pasteur resolved to place brewing on a firm
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  Speaker 1: basis established through experiments, to the end that it should
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  Speaker 1: yield nothing but perfect products. Since beer was spoiled by
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  Speaker 1: the introduction of harmful germs, and its quality corresponded to
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  Speaker 1: the quality of the yeast which caused the fermentation, it
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  Speaker 1: was necessary on the one hand to eliminate germs and
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  Speaker 1: on the other hand, to obtain a thoroughly, lively and
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  Speaker 1: perfectly pure yeast. These were the problems to which Pastor
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  Speaker 1: applied himself, and during his sojourn at Clermont he manufactured
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  Speaker 1: beer according to his own rules, and was able to
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  Speaker 1: send a dozen bottles of it to Duma, but the
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  Speaker 1: brewery at Chamelier was too restricted a field. In September
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  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one he set out for England, and he
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  Speaker 1: reduced the great London brewers to a point of stupefaction
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  Speaker 1: by pronouncing upon the quality of their different beers, those
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  Speaker 1: that were good and those that were bad, simply by
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  Speaker 1: examining them under a microscope. With their practical temperament, the
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  Speaker 1: English grasped the great benefit which their manufacture could derive
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  Speaker 1: from the method of the French scientist, and the microscope
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  Speaker 1: became a frequently consulted instrument in their breweries. Upon returning
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  Speaker 1: to Paris, and once more installed in his laboratory at
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  Speaker 1: the ex Collnormal, Pasteur still continued his studies of beer.
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  Speaker 1: The problem to be solved was a very delicate one.
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  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, a beer may be good,
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  Speaker 1: even perfect, and yet be unpalatable, for the question of
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  Speaker 1: taste intervenes quite aside from the quality of the manufacture.
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  Speaker 1: Now for the purpose of carrying on this work of
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  Speaker 1: adaptation and of detail, writes Monsieur Duclot, Pastor had none
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  Speaker 1: of the essential requisites. He did not like beer, and
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  Speaker 1: although by force of will he succeeded in acquiring sufficiently
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  Speaker 1: trained palette and a sense of taste, he remained unable
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  Speaker 1: to detect differences pointed out by the brewers themselves, and
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  Speaker 1: which he was sometimes amazed to find keenly appreciated by
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  Speaker 1: his friend Berton, who lived next to him in the
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  Speaker 1: e col Nochmale as assistant director, and who was frequently
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  Speaker 1: invited into the laboratory for conferences over the relative flavor
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  Speaker 1: of samples. In the face of the enthusiastic appreciations sometimes
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  Speaker 1: expressed by his friend, Pastor remained bewildered, feeling that they
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  Speaker 1: were leading him into regions where he did not like
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  Speaker 1: to venture, and he would forthwith have renounced this labor
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  Speaker 1: of Sisyphus if he had not had the imprudence to
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  Speaker 1: solicit the pecuniary aid of a certain society for investigations,
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  Speaker 1: a very large and generous society toward which he had
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  Speaker 1: thus contracted a moral obligation to succeed in his enterprise
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  Speaker 1: in order to arrive at the conclusion which he wished.
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  Speaker 1: The laboratory did not suffice his needs. Accordingly, Pasteur went
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  Speaker 1: to continue his researches at the great breweries belonging to
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  Speaker 1: the two tailed brothers at the Ville. Above all else,
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  Speaker 1: he recommended the most scrupulous cleanliness in all the manipulations
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  Speaker 1: and all the implements of manufacture, let us here introduce
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  Speaker 1: a parenthesis for the purpose of pointing out the extent
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  Speaker 1: to which Pasteur insisted upon cleanliness in all the details
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  Speaker 1: of daily life. He never seated himself at table without
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  Speaker 1: carefully wiping his plates, his glass, his knife and fork,
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  Speaker 1: examining them all with the most severe attention. He never
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  Speaker 1: ate fruit that was not peeled, and he even scraped
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  Speaker 1: off the crust from his bread for fear that it
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  Speaker 1: might be infected with microbes. These habits were well known
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  Speaker 1: to his family, but they could not have failed to
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  Speaker 1: astonish his hostesses. When he dined away from home after
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  Speaker 1: a short sojourn at the Tuchtel brother's brewery, in company
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  Speaker 1: with his assistant Monsieur Greney, Pasteur announced that all the
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  Speaker 1: disease zes of beer arose from microbes, which could be
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  Speaker 1: avoided through precautions in the course of manufacture, that it
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  Speaker 1: was necessary to make careful selection of yeasts, and that
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  Speaker 1: of bottled beer was heated to the point of one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty two degrees fahrenheit, it was rendered unalterable.
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  Speaker 1: His method and his processes have enabled France to cope
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  Speaker 1: successfully with foreign competition, and the Congress of French brewers
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  Speaker 1: held in eighteen eighty nine, attributed all the merit of
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  Speaker 1: their products to his labors. After the close of the war,
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  Speaker 1: the world of science so highly appreciated the genius of
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  Speaker 1: Pasteur that the celebrated Englishman Huxley did not hesitate to
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  Speaker 1: declare that his discoveries were worth the five billion ransom
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  Speaker 1: of France. And yet this was only the first part
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  Speaker 1: of his work, the part which, according to Duclaux, had
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  Speaker 1: won him fame, while now he was about to enter
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  Speaker 1: upon the second part devoted to human maladies, which was
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  Speaker 1: destined to assure him immortality. And of section eight