Louis Pasteur Recants His Germ Theory
On his deathbed Louis Pasteur said "Bernard was correct. I was wrong. The microbe (germ) is nothing. The terrain (milieu) is everything."
Was it real or apocryphal?
There are many variations of this recant. But the essential admission is intact. Bernard was Claude Bernard, who got the terrain theory from Antoine Béchamp (who called it the microzymian theory).
The Back Story
Three nineteenth century Frenchmen researched fermentation, microbes, and contagious disease:
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
Antoine Béchamp (1816-1908)
Claude Bernard (1813-1878)
Their work overlapped. Their conclusions sometimes agreed and other times disagreed with each other's. Pasteur adopted the germ theory while Béchamp formulated the microzymian theory, which was quite at odds with the germ theory. Bernard's work was aligned with Béchamp's. Bernard described milieu intérieur, the interstitial fluids regarded as an internal environment in which the cells of the body are nourished and maintained in a state of equilibrium, which he and others also called terrain.
Pasteur and Benard were very close and over long stretches of time took care of each other. A fourth man, Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval (1851–1940), Bernard's top student, was also close to Pasteur. D'Arsonval would have been a frequent visitor to Pasteur over the many months of his terminal illness.
Pasteur was hostile to Béchamp, whose work threatened Pasteur's reputation and income. Pasteur effectively promoted his own work, while Béchamp's modesty and devotion to his research kept himself out of the spotlight.
Pasteur's Deathbed
Pasteur suffered a stroke on October 18, 1868 which paralyzed his left side. One account said Pasteur never recovered the use of his left hand or leg. In 1887 he had a second stroke.
On November 1, 1894 "he was struck down by a violent attack of uremia" per The Life of Pasteur by Rene Vallery-Radot, 1900; Vallery-Radot was Pasteur's son-in-law. Other accounts describe the "attack" as a stroke. He was attended around the clock by two people at a time. His condition had improved by the end of December. At one point a tent was put up for him in the garden of the Pasteur Institute in which he often spent afternoons. By June his condition had deteriorated and the paralysis increased. He removed to Villeneuve D'Etang, his 300 acre estate outside of Paris. He died there on Saturday, September 28, 1895 at 4:40 in the afternoon, surrounded by his family.
His final illness lasted eleven months.
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