[...]
[Viking Films Inc. presents]
[Music]
[With Roland Tirat as Pasteur]
[Music by Guy Bernard]
[Production by Cine France]
[Director of Photography, Marcel Fradetal]
[Micro-photography by, Jean Painleve' and Daniel Sarrade]
[Narrated by John Carradine]
[American version by Israel Berman]
[...]
[Narrator:] This is the world of the microbe.
A world discovered in a drop of water under the lens
of the first microscope.
[Music continues]
[...]
The man who first brought this world into focus
wondered what it meant and where its creatures came from.
[...]
But the only result of their speculations
was a catalog of strange monsters.
[Soft tense music]
And to explain their appearance, they revived the theory
that primitive forms of life were generated spontaneously
out of air and decaying matter.
For nearly two centuries, until 1857,
science came no closer to an understanding
of the microscopic world.
But in that year, chemist Louis Pasteur
proved that microbes were the sole cause
of the fermentation process.
[...]
That ferments were living organisms
which decomposed matters that fed on it.
[Whimsical music]
Multiplying by budding till they had chemically
transformed what they fed on.
[...]
It was a revolutionary concept, the first major clue
to the riddle of the microscopic world.
[Sinister tone]
[...]
But where did these beings come from?
Pasteur believed they were transported
by the dust in the air.
When they landed amid conditions favorable to their growth,
they began to feed and multiply, increasing their own kind
a billion fold.
[Music]
[Eerie music]
[...]
To test this theory,
Pasteur devised a simple experiment.
He pumped air from outside his window
through a filter of cotton.
[...]
Then he dissolved the cotton in alcohol,
leaving only the dust particles that were trapped in it.
[Music]
[Suspenseful music]
These he suspended in a drop of distilled water
and examined under a microscope.
And there, amid the scattered particles of dust,
were, indeed, the remains of living organisms.
[...]
Pasteur presented his findings before the French Academy
of Sciences.
Spontaneous generation is a mere illusion.
The microbes which appear to come out of nowhere
were, in reality, carried there by the atmospheric dust.
But Pasteur's opponents were unconvinced.
They regarded the theory as preposterous.
The experiments as vague and inconclusive.
Back in his tiny laboratory, Pasteur
determined to settle for all time
the question of where germs originate.
[...]
Preparing a liquid suitable to the growth of microbes,
he boiled it thoroughly to destroy all life within it.
[...]
A platinum tube, which was attached
to the neck of the flask, was then
heated to a very high temperature.
[...]
When the air had been driven from the flask by the boiling,
he turned off the flame to allow it to cool.
There upon, air began to flow back into the flask.
But as it passed through the red hot platinum tube,
all the microbes carried by the air were instantly burned up,
thus both the air and the liquid in the flask
were entirely free of living matter.
Pasteur immediately sealed it with a flame
and allowed it to stand at a temperature most favorable
to the growth of microbes.
[...]
Yet no life appeared in the flask.
It was entirely sterile.
[...]
Pasteur then performed the experiment in reverse.
Using the filter of noninflammable material
this time, he sterilized it, then pumped air through it
by the same method as before.
[...]
This filter, which was completely sterile
except for the dust particles drawn out of the air,
Pasteur placed in the flask that was
used in the previous experiment and had shown no sign of life.
[...]
The flask was immediately resealed and allowed
to stand at the same temperature as before.
to stand at the same temperature as before.
This time, the liquid began to cloud up.
Out of the dust particles, imprisoned in the filter,
a mold comprising billions of organisms emerged.
Soon it was a swarm with living matter.
[Whimsical music]
[...]
To show that the filter itself could not
have produced this growth, he repeated the experiment,
leaving out the dust particles.
Again, the liquid was unchanged.
But Pasteur's opponents now found a new objection.
[...]
[Speaker 1:] When you heated the air, you killed its creative force.
[...]
[Narrator:] Pasteur's reply was a flask with a long, twisted neck,
which he filled with the usual liquid and brought to aboil.
But this time, instead of sealing the flask,
he let the air flow back.
And when the dust particles attempted
to return with the air, they were stopped
by the curve of the neck.
So that the unheated, dust free air
could now mix freely with the liquid, yet remain clear.
Pasteur then turned the flask upside down,
allowing the liquid to gather up the dust particles
deposited in the neck.
[...]
And overnight, it clouded up with living matter.
But Pasteur's opponents were still unconvinced.
[...]
[Speaker 2:] Ah, but if there were so many germs in the air,
they would form a fog in the atmosphere as dense as fire.
[...]
[Narrator:] To answer this argument, Pasteur decided
to show that the number of germs in the air
varied with the locality.
He filled hundreds of thin, straight-necked flasks
with identical liquids, boiled them thoroughly, then sealed them,
leaving a vacuum in each.
[...]
[Gentle music]
The first location chosen for the experiment
was the dusty courtyard of the Paris Observatory.
Here, a number of the flasks were
snapped open with carefully sterilized instruments.
And quickly resealed.
[Gentle music]
And in every case, the flasks were invaded by microbes.
[Musical chime when each flask was highlighted]
But in the cellar of the observatory,
where the air, being motionless, carried little dust
in suspension, just two clouded up.
[Musical chime when two flasks were highlighted]
Finally, to show that the number of microbes in the air
decreases with the altitude, he climbed a high peak in the alps
and repeated the experiment there.
[...]
And of 20 flasks opened, only one clouded up.
[Musical chime when one flask was highlighted]
[...]
Yet, the debate went on, unresolved.
And Pasteur continued to press home
his attacks against the unyielding opposition.
[Pasteur:] Spontaneous generation is a myth!
In 20 years of research, I have never found a trace of it.
The air by itself cannot produce life.
It is the germs in the air, the germs
transported by the air that reproduce it.
[Narrator:] But while the scientists argued over his discoveries,
Pasteur was using them to revolutionize
the production of French wines, beer, and vinegar.
And his process of using heat to destroy harmful germs
was adopted the world over under the name of pasteurization.
[...]
Then a ruinous silkworm epidemic summoned Pasteur
to the south of France.
[...]
He knew almost nothing about silkworms at the time,
but he set up his headquarters in a silkworm nursery
and proceeded to prove that the epidemic was a combination
of two different diseases.
[...]
And that each was caused by a separate
characteristic microbe.
[...]
Pasteur and his colleagues then undertook
to fight the epidemic in the field.
Armed with microscopes, they toured the silkworm areas,
pointing out to the incredulous growers
the agents of the disease.
And outlining techniques
for stamping out the epidemic.
When the silkworms changed to moths,
they were made to lay their eggs on separate pieces of cloth.
[...]
Each moth was then crushed into a paste
and examined under a microscope.
If harmful microbes were detected,
all the eggs laid by that moth were to be destroyed.
[...]
[Music]
The unraveling of the silkworm epidemic
and the campaign in the field took six exhausting years.
Before it was finished, he suffered a stroke
that left him partially paralyzed for the rest
of his life.
Yet he continued to work, convinced
that in these studies of the microscopic world
he was approaching the secret of all infectious disease.
[Music]
[...]
By 1873, Pasteur was the acknowledged leader
of the two new sciences of microbiology and biochemistry.
And now his success in stamping out the silkworm epidemic
won him a place on the Academy of Medicine.
[...]
As a chemist untrained in medicine,
Pasteur had up to now hesitated to invade the province
of the medical man.
Now he resolved to make known his views
on the causes of infectious disease
and to campaign for reforms in controlling them.
[Music]
[Suspenseful music]
He began, therefore, to visit the hospitals
and investigate their practices.
[Music]
[Gentle music]
He denounced as myths the medical theories
of the day which blamed epidemics
on mysterious mists, putrid airs, and the like.
[...]
He scolded the medical staffs for permitting infections
to be spread through unsanitary hospital beds and dressings.
[...]
But above all,
he strove to establish that standard hospital practices,
absolute cleanliness, flaming of instruments,
sterilization of dressings, and the unfailing use
of antiseptics.
[...]
While his opponents sneered that he
was beginning to see microbes in everything,
he brought to light the microbe which causes
many of the common illnesses.
The staphylococcus.
And when a childbed fever epidemic
broke out from the hospitals, he took the floor at the Academy.
[...]
[Pasteur:] The real cause of this epidemic is lack of sanitation.
The doctors themselves carry this disease
from the sick to the healthy.
[Speaker 3:] Maybe you're right, but I doubt if any of us
will live to see this microbe.
[...]
[Narrator:] But Pasteur had found it.
[...]
[Pasteur walks to a chalkboard and begins drawing]
[Pasteur walks to a chalkboard and begins drawing]
[Narrator:] There, there is your microbe.
[...]
This organism, which resembled a string of tiny beads,
was the deadly streptococcus.
[...]
[Music]
[Narrator:] Pasteur turned to animal diseases
to learn more about how infections are spread.
[...]
And his first choice was sheep anthrax.
A disease then ravaging flocks throughout Europe.
[Gentle music]
He found these rod-like microbes in the bloodstream.
Then proceeded to track down, step by step,
the path of the infection.
[Whimsical music]
When a sheep died of anthrax, the bacteria
survived by forming hard internal seeds called spores.
And as the bacteria disintegrated,
the spores were set free.
[Music]
[Dramatic music]
Though buried underground with the carcass of the dead animal,
the spores were sometimes brought back to the surface
by earthworms.
[Dramatic music]
There, they were picked up by healthy sheep.
And returning to the blood, they spread the disease anew.
[Music]
[...]
When the veterinarians refused to believe that a microbe could
cause anthrax, insisting that it was
a disease of the blood itself,
Pasteur offered this remarkable experiment.
[Music]
Taking one drop of blood from a sick sheep,
he mixed it with a broth favorable to the growth
of bacteria.
[Music]
[Dramatic music]
Slowly, a poisonous growth invaded the flask.
[Music]
[Dramatic music]
[...]
24 hours later, he withdrew a single drop from this culture
and mixed it with a fresh one.
[Music]
[Dramatic music]
[...]
The process was repeated over and over again
until the original drop of blood had
been diluted to the vanishing point,
yet its virulence was undiminished.
Proof that it was not
the blood that caused death, but a microbe
reproducing within the blood.
[Music]
At the same time, Pasteur was experimenting
with many other animal diseases, among them chicken cholera.
He had isolated the tiny microbe of this disease
and found it to be invariably fatal to chickens.
Then an inspired guess led him on to one
of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time.
[...]
Having found by chance an old culture of chicken cholera
bacilli in his incubator, it occurred to Pasteur
to experiment with these weak, outdated microbes.
[Pasteur examins the flask in curious, inquisitive manner]
He inoculated the birds.
But after becoming mildly ill, they recovered completely.
Thereupon, he ordered a second inoculation,
this one fresh and full strength.
But to his amazement, these deadly microbes
had no effect whatever.
The chickens had been immunized by the weakened organisms.
It was the first experimental vaccine.
[Music]
Following the same principle, Pasteur
tried to develop a vaccine for anthrax.
But here a difficulty occurred, for these bacteria
when aged turned to spores.
[Whimsical music]
Pasteur finally solved this problem
by finding a temperature at which the spores were
unable to form.
Then having fully tested the vaccine,
he decided to demonstrate it publicly on a dramatic scale.
[Sheep bleating]
At a farm called Pouilly-le-Fort,
he gathered 50 sheep and a number of cows.
Half were vaccinated, the other half remained unvaccinated.
Then all were to be inoculated with a deadly bacteria
of anthrax.
[Indiscriminate chatter]
This sensational experiment attracted a skeptical audience
from all parts of France.
Most prominent of whom
were the opponents of Pasteur.
Certain this time that he had overreached himself,
they turned out in a body.
[Indiscriminate chatter]
[Sheep bleating]
But most skeptical of all were the veterinarians
who watched every move with suspicion, anticipating a hoax.
[Sheep bleating]
Pasteur, however, was unruffled, confident
that the vaccine already proved in the laboratory
would work as well in the field.
[Speaker 4:] Will you permit me?
[...]
[Speaker 4:] Voilà. There you are.
[Sheep bleating]
[...]
[Speaker 4:] Would you mind giving this one a triple dose?
[Pasteur:] Not at all.
[...]
[Speaker 5:] Monsieur, would it be possible to inoculate in turn
a vaccinated and an unvaccinated animal?
[Pasteur:] Certainly, if you wish.
[...]
[Narrator:] After the inoculations, the animals
hovered for days between life and death.
Finally, a pattern emerged.
One by one, the unvaccinated ones died.
Those who were vaccinated recovered.
[...]
[Sheep bleating]
[Indiscriminate chatter]
It was a stunning victory for the principle of vaccination
and a triumphant vindication of the germ theory of disease.
[Men cheering]
Pasteur returned to Paris a national hero.
[Men cheering]
[Music]
[...]
[Narrator:] Though rapidly failing in health,
Pasteur now plunged into a study of the dreaded
disease of rabies.
Because the disease is communicated
through the saliva, he began by hunting
for a microbe in the mouths of rabid dogs.
But though the search failed, Pasteur refused to giveup,
surmising that the organism might simply
be too small to be detected even under a microscope.
He stocked his laboratory with rabid dogs.
And by studying the effect of this disease on livingtissue,
[Music, sinister tone]
tracked the invisible virus to the nervous system.
[...]
[Music continues]
Then removing a diseased spinal cord,
he placed it in a dried jar to age
till its virulence was reduced to that of a vaccine.
[Soft dramatic music]
[Dramatic music]
[...]
In the outskirts of Paris, Pasteur
managed to obtain the use of a vacant estate
for another mass experiment.
[Dogs barking]
Here, in improvised kennels, techniques for immunization
were perfected.
Under Pasteur's humane care, hundreds of dogs
were vaccinated and rendered safely immune to rabies.
[Dogs barking]
[...]
But could the vaccine prevent hydrophobia in a human being?
[...]
[Music]
The decision to experiment was forced upon him
one day by a mother and child in distress.
For the boy had been severely attacked
some days before by a mad dog.
[Music]
[Soft dramatic music]
[...]
The thought of injecting a rabid virus into the boy
was terrifying to Pasteur.
Still, judging from the severity of the bites
that hydrophobia and death were almost inevitable,
he agreed to vaccinate.
[Music]
[Dramatic music]
With most of the medical world standing by,
Pasteur made a series of injections
of the untried vaccine.
[Soft uplifting music]
The dose was stepped up continuously
till, on the 14th day,
he could pronounce the boy cured.
Hydrophobia, one of the most dreaded of all human diseases,
had been conquered.
[Music]
[Emotional music]
Pasteur died in 1895.
Exhausted by a lifelong struggle
against the microorganisms of disease
and the prejudice of his time.
[Music]
[Intense musical buildup]
But he had lived to see his name and work perpetuated
by a great institute of research, [Institut Pasteur sign]
the entire course of medicine recharted by his discoveries
in the world of the infinitely small.
[...]
The life-saving vaccines and antibiotics
that succeeding generations of scientists are giving the world
were pioneered by these studies of ferments, silkworms,
anthrax, chicken cholera, and rabies.
[Music]
But Pasteur left to science a legacy surpassing even these.
It was a system, a logic, and a scientific method
which are the basis of medical research
and which promised to secure for us the miracles of the future.
[Music]
[Uplifting music]
[The End]
[Uplifting music continues]
[...]