Hume, E: Béchamp or Pasteur? -

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Résumé :
Excerpt from B?champ or Pasteur?: A Lost Chapter in the History of Biology

The progress of natural science, like all other depart ments of knowledge, is associated with the personalities of its workers, and it often happens that the study of a man's life is the surest guide not only to the history of the science, but also to the discovery of neglected records made in days gone by. It is always a matter of absorbing interest to know how and by whom the foundations of natural truth, upon which we build our own more modern structures, were laid. We have long been accustomed to build on stones placed in position by the world-famed Pasteur, but it is not commonly recognized that many of these stones rest upon the deeper foundations laid by Pasteur's con temporary, Antoine B?champ. It is fitting that one should hesitate to disturb stones set by those already gone from us, but when a substructure has once been revealed, there can be no question as to the liberty of extending the in vestigation. Probably no reader of this book will at first be prepared to accept much that is said in criticism of Pasteur and in worship of B?champ, but as the perusal proceeds, his eyes will be opened to many references for which the author is in no way responsible except for their collation. It is greatly to be desired that the fundamental work of B?champ should be far more widely recognized, and a debt is due to the author for throwing the limelight on his work.

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