The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1897-11-25
PASTEUR'S IDEA STOLEN.
French Scientist Got His Start
from an American.
Moi. Mellon, OF st. Louis, Claims to
De the DiscOverer-Nill Ask
Congress to Adequately
Reward Him.

i Maj. John s. Mellon, of st. Louis, will
appear in Washington this winter with
bill against the United States gov
ernment for services rendered humani-
ty as original discoverer of the germ
theory. According to the grizzled vet
eran 1t was he who laid the foundation
stones to the elaborate structure of bac-
tefiology. Pasteur, he claims, caught
his first glimmering of the germ idea
from an article which appeared in the
old St. Louis Times in the year 1866.
The item was written by the late Maj.
John N. Edwards and was built upon
material furnished by Mr.. Mellon. It
stated that Maj. Mellon made the dis
covery that cholera and diphtheria were
caused by what he termed a parasite.
In order to cure the disease it was nec-
essary to kill the parasite. Maj. Mel
Ion offered recipe which he claimed
would accomplish that result.
Years passed and Pasteur became q
brilliant star in the medical and scien-
tic armament. An American scientist
who had been working along the same
line pursued by Pasteur wrote to him
and made the statement that he was
stealing some of his thunder. Pasteur
wrote back and very caustically in
formed him that he had obtained his
idea from the same source that he had
namely, from an article concerning
oRe Mellon, which had appeared in the
st. Louis Times. Both of these letters,
Maj Mellon claims, were published at
the time. They were clipped. and shown
to him by his friend Edwards, who re-
marked to him that he (Mellon) had
the honor of paving the way to the
greatest discovery known to science.
Edwards then wrote letter to Pasteur
and asked him if he had received his
first inkling of the germ theory from
the article which appearedin the Times.
Pasteur responded in very sharp and
snappy manner. "Yes." he wrote, 'tbut
what are you going to do about it?"
Armed with these documents, he will
appear in Washington and request
Uncle Sam to give him as much for the
discovery as the French republic award
ed Pasteur. He thinks that he should
receive at least 500, 900 as a slight rec
ognition of the inestimable good he has
accomplished for humanity.
Maj. Mellon discovered what he
termed parasites as early as 1886. He
applied the new theory to the treat
ment of horses for bolts. For the first
time in the history of that disease he
was able to cure horses afflicted with it.
His upsetting of the theory that "what
K. killed bolts killed the horse" gained
him quite an amount of celebrity in
the neighborhood where the cures were
effected. Later on, in 1s47, he noticed
that cholera was caused by little para
sites. They appeared on the bodies ot
people who had succumbed to that af.
Fiction almost Immediately after death
With a good magnifying glass the
bacilli were very easily discernible
upon people who were sick with the dis
ease. Based upon the two observations
he concluded that whatever would kill
the parasites of cholera would cure that
disease, as in the case of horses afflicted
with the bolts. He hit upon prepara-
tion which he believed would accom-.
plish the result
Later he applied the same principle to
diphtheria and gave the recro which
he believed would kill diphths A para.
sites. Those prescriptions. based upon
his parasite theory, he believes are re.
sponsible for the great stride which
Pasteur made in medicine.