518 
NATURE 
[Apri 1, 1897 
The action of light and air was discussed and illustrated, and 
the relation of nitrifying organisms to the enriching of the soil ; 
the effect of certain organisms which have the power of taking 
nitrogen from the atmosphere, and of conveying it to plants, was 
also illustrated. The history of Spontaneous Generation was 
touched upon, especially in so far as the study of this will-o’-the- 
wisp had led to the advances in our knowledge of bacteriology. 
In relation to disease, the part that bacteria play as ultimate 
causal factors was described as one of prime importance. If 
bacteriology had done nothing more for us than draw our 
attention to the concrete specific bacillus as a cause of cholera, 
or example, so as to allow us to concentrate our attention 
on special preventive measures, instead of leaving us to 
wander in the wilderness of ‘conditions of soil,” of ‘* atmo- 
spheric influences,” of ‘‘epidemic waves,” and the like, its 
value would have been amply demonstrated. Without under- 
valuing in the slightest degree the careful observations that 
have been made by eminent epidemiologists, whose work has 
a value which can only be enhanced by what can be added 
to it by the bacteriologist, it was pointed out that since 
Koch’s investigations have been accepted as trustworthy, and 
as the basis on which preventive measures may be founded, 
we in this country, at any rate, through our admirably consti- 
tuted Local Government Board, with its organised staff of 
medical officers and inspectors, have been able, without resorting 
to strict quarantine, to deal with the specific cases of cholera 
that rave been brought to, or have appeared on, our shores in a 
fashion that even a few years ago could never have been antici- 
pated. It was further insisted that whatever great predisposing 
causes may be at work, whatever subsoil, atmospheric, or other 
conditions may be necessary for the production of an epidemic 
disease in our midst, we have ample evidence that without the 
introduction of a special and specific causal agent from outside, 
we have never had an outbreak of this specific infective disease. 
Of course, in every outbreak there were men who came forward 
to show, on the one hand, that only Koch has right on his side, 
and, on the other, that all wisdom lies in Pettenkoffer’s theory. 
But few seem to act as if, whatever they may believe, the 
observations of both should receive serious consideration. 
Seasonal variations, temperature, drainage, rise and fall of 
ground water, all play an important part in determining the 
conditions of growth of bacteria; whilst, on the other hand, 
bad ventilation and filth, famine and illness, all predispose 
patients to attack. But without the specific organisms that 
actually set up infective diseases, no infective diseases will occur. 
Celsus, the great physician, taught that predisposing causes 
alone were insufficient to set up disease ; whilst, on the other 
hand, exciting causes by themselves were powerless to act. But 
when they came to act in combination, he maintained that they 
were both sure and far-reaching in the production of disease. 
The same applies to-day, whether we have to deal with 
diphtheria, typhoid, cholera, or tuberculosis. Pettenkoffer deals 
with predisposing causes and conditions, Koch with exciting 
factors—bacteria. When disease has not yet come amongst us, 
let us follow Pettenkoffer ; but when it is in our midst, or in our 
immediate vicinity, Pasteur, Koch and Lister are immediately 
advanced to the position of more trustworthy guides and 
leaders. 
Sixty years ago, the year of the accession of the Queen to the 
throne, the proof that the yeast plant was a living organism 
and the cause of the process of fermentation, was almost com- 
plete, whilst only a year later the germs of the silkworm disease 
were observed; but it was not until more than twenty years 
after that, that Pasteur was able to point out the full import of 
these discoveries. Pasteur’s work on fermentation and on 
disease, his experiments on attenuation of organisms, on pro- 
tective inoculation and on curative injection for hydrophobia, 
have already been referred to, and are so well known that it 
is unnecessary to do more than mention them. Koch was 
able, by his new methods of separating organisms and solid 
media, to go beyond Pasteur in isolating the anthrax bacillus, 
and in proving to absolute demonstration the relation of the 
anthrax bacillus to splenic fever. His ingenious methods of 
cultivating organisms, of staining them in tissues, and of separat- 
ing the different species, created a new era in bacteriology. 
Jn our own country we owe to Lord Lister the great advances 
that have been made in the treatment of wounds, by which 
thousands of lives are yearly preserved, advances which date 
entirely from his study of bacteria and bacteriology. Antiseptic 
surgery, like the antitoxic treatment of diphtheria, is based 
NO. 1431, VOL. 55] 
entirely upon the early researches on bacteriology, and its de- 
velopment has followed most closely the advances made in that 
subject. ‘‘ As yet no one can say that we have reached even a 
resting-stage, and it behoves all those who desire to see ad- 
vances made in the treatment and prevention of disease, 
whether in the department of protection and cure, with which 
medicine is specially concerned, or in the preventive depart- 
ment, with which you gentlemen as Civil Engineers have to 
deal, to continue to follow closely every new fact and every 
fresh theory arising out of new observations, in order that bac- 
teria and the forces with which they are endowed may be made 
our well-disciplined servants, instead of being allowed to waste 
their energies as uncontrolled and uncontrollable masters.” 
THE PASTEUR MEMORIAL LECTURE OF 
THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
A SPECIAL meeting of the Chemical Society was held om 
Thursday evening, March 25, when Prof. Percy Frank- 
land, F.R.S., delivered the Pasteur Memorial Lecture. Prof. 
Frankland commenced his discourse by pointing out that the 
consideration of Pasteur’s work was a subject specially befitting 
the Chemical Society, inasmuch as he owed the training which 
enabled him-to master so many and such various problems to that 
rigorous discipline to which in early years he was subjected in 
the pursuit of chemistry. Pasteur’s interest in this science was 
exhibited at a very early age, and even when he was a lad at 
the provincial college of Arbois, his master cherished the ambi- 
tion that he would one day occupy a chair at the famous Ecole 
normale in Paris. This hope was well justified, for it was 
there that Pasteur, as assistant to M. Balard, commenced 
those epoch-making discoveries which have stimulated re- 
searches in, and practically founded, that fascinating and im- 
portant branch of chemical science known as stereo-chemistry. 
Perhaps the most conclusive and eloquent testimony which we 
can have to the profound importance of Pasteur’s researches in 
this direction is the tribute paid to them by one of his greatest 
followers, Emil Fischer, who acknowledged but a short time 
since that, despite the immense amount of work which has 
been subsequently carried out in this field, ‘‘ there is hardly a 
new fact of fundamental importance which has been added to- 
his discoveries.” , 
It was at the Ecole normale also that Pasteur, many years 
later, carried out his brilliant researches on the etiology of 
diseases. ‘Pasteur was led to turn his attention to the study of 
fermentation phenomena by his removal to Lille, one of the 
leading industries of the district being the manufacture of 
alcohol from beetroot and grain ; and in his desire to bring the — 
work of his department into touch with local interests, he com- 
menced that classical series of researches which he continued 
over a period of twenty years. In this field of inquiry he had 
his first passage of arms with the great Liebig; it is needless to 
say how Pasteur emerged victoriously from this contest, and suc- 
ceeded in demolishing the chemical theory of fermentation pro- 
cesses which had been advanced and supported so eloquently by 
Liebig and other leading men of science of the day, and building up 
inits place that theory which the so-called ‘‘vitalists” had so long 
laboured ineffectually to establish. Pasteur’s researches on fer- 
mentation also proved of enormous commercial benefit to France 
and the whole world, by indicating improved methods for the 
manufacture of vinegar, wine, and beer. Moreover, it was in 
the course of these inquiries that he established that process of 
preserving liquids by means of heat, now widely known as 
Pasteurisation. The story of the famous spontaneous genera- 
tion controversy was told, and Prof. Frankland pointed out how, 
in pursuing the laborious investigations involved by his entering 
into this discussion, Pasteur was unconsciously preparing him- 
self for the great work with which his name will always be 
associated—the inauguration of the modern system of preventive 
medicine. Already in his researches on diseases in silkworms, 
undertaken at the pressing request of his friend and former 
teacher Dumas, Pasteur was specially attracted by the question 
of contagion; and the valuable experience he gained in this 
work may be gathered from the fact that in later years, when 
any one presented himself and begged the privilege of being 
allowed to work in his laboratory, he used invariabiy to ask 
them if they had read his volume on silkworm diseases, and tell 
them that that was the best preparation they could have for 
working with him. 
