Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-04-06
HOW PASTEUR INCREASED
THE RICHES OF THE WORLD
Scientific Research Is Productive Of More
Wealth Than All the Gold and
Silver Mines

A NEW impetus is likely to be impaired
| "A to the study of science by the celebra-
! tions this year of the hundredth anniversary
| 81 the birth Of Louis Pasteur.
Or. Ernest La Place Is to deliver an ad-
dress tonight, at ST. Joseph's College on
| Pasteur and his work, when he will exhibit
one of the sealed TASKS of sterilizcd lamb
broth used by the great chemist seventy -four
years ago 70 prove that decomposition was
caused by the presence of what we loosely
call germs Pasteur insisted that II the
germs were destroyed by heat and the sub
stance were protected from the air, decom'
position would not set In. His theory was
at first rejected, but he finally forced It's
acceptance The broth In the flask that
Dr. La Place owns Is still unchanged after
seventy four years.
Th" young French chemist--he was only
twenty six years old at the time-had made
a discovery, the development Of which has
revolutonized medicine and surgery and has
had an unmeasurable effect upon industry.
Antiseps!s IN surgery has reduced the NOR
tality from wounds, and women can go TO a
maternity hospital now with the moral GER
tainty that they will return home alive.
In the old days the physicians used 10
talk Of hospital fever, and they used to think
that the air in the hospitals got contami-
mated after the building had been used for
long time In order TO get rid Of the fever,
hospitals were burned down and new ones
built but the fever persisted. No diStn-
fectants could prevent 1t. But as soon as
It was discovered that germs caused disease
and efforts were made TO kill the germs
Hospital fever" disappeared. Then scnrch
was made for the originating cause OF va
rious fevcrs.
Pasteur proved by his experiments that
chicken cholera and anthrax were caused by
germs. and he discovered an antitox!n Later
hn found an antitoxin for hydrophobia. His
successors have discovered prcventtves for
typhoid and typhuS fcy"rS. and they are
searching for. if they have not already
found. an antitoxin for yellow fever. Bur
they have learned what causes yellow fever
and can guard against It.
But so recently aS 1S!S. when the United
States went to Cuba, yellow fever was
mysterious disease supposed t" b. commune
Gated by poison in the air. Leonard WOOD
dlsinfected the whole city Of Santiago with
corrosive Subliunt". washing out all the
houses and public buildings and jails and
hospitals, in an effort to xii! tn" yellow
fever germ, but he paid Il" attention :" the
mosquitoes and the disease persisted. Then
the army surgeons, with Past"ur's great
discoveries IN mind. began Their expert
nents, with the result that tie scourge OF
the tropics has been virtually wiped out.
And all this has come about because
young French chemist used his microscope
and his test tubes and his Imagination III
an effort to find out why the fermentation
of beer and wine did not always produce
satisfactory results, and because he was able
70 convince others that his conclusions
were sound.
There is no longer any doubt among In
,elligent people that scientific investigation
PAYS, Huxley said years ago that the dis
covery by Pasteur Of the cause OF chicken
cholera and anthrax had saved France more
than the amount Of the indemnity which she
maid 10 Germany in 1871. What It has
Indirectly saved to the rest of the world
in money and IN suffering and death is be-
yond computation.
We talk about the mineral wealth Of the
country and are thrilled by the romance of
the search for gold and silver, while we pay
little or no heed to the quiet and patient
chemists and physicists who are working in
their laboratories, searching out the secrets
of nature which, when mastered, are worth
more 10 mankind than al! the silver and gold
that ever were mined.
II this centennial year Of Pasteur does
not see richer endowment Of the research
departments Of the colleges, It will not be be-
cause the money is not needed to maintain
experts while they 60 about the kind Of work
20 which Pasteur devoted his life.