[...]
[Music]
[Pictorial Films presents,Louis Pasteur, The Benefactor]
[Narrated by Harold Baumstone; edited by J. Milton Salzburg]
[Music]
[ICI EST NE; Louis Pasteur, LE 27, Decembre 1822] [Plaque where Pasteur was born]
[Narrator:] In the year 1822, in the little town
of Arbois, France, was born a son
to the village tanner whose shop was right beside the river.
The boy was namedLouis, Louis Pasteur.
He was a plodding, careful boy with no particularly great talents.
But he did have an indomitable will,
a fiery temper, and a great capacity for work.
He became a chemist.
[Slow zoom into Pasteur examining a flask]
[...]
It was Louis Pasteur whoopened up [?]
its very existence.
He made us consciousfor the first time
of this vast andvital microscopic life
by his daring andoriginal experiments.
He, the chemist, mademodern medical science
possible by sweeping away theancient theories of disease
by such things as spirits,dispositions, and devils.
They were devils but ofa very different kind.
Concrete, living,destructive microbes.
He definitely and completelysmashed the belief
that microbes cameinto existence
by spontaneous generation.
His opponents shoutedand ranted against him.
But he performed his experimentsand silenced the unbelievers
with indisputable facts.
Microbes are bornfrom other microbes.
They do not come tolife automatically
and spontaneously from nowhere.
This did Pasteur prove.
[Facade of the Academe de Medecine]
The Academy of Medicine in Paris was
the citadel of the medicalprofession in France.
Among its members werethe most illustrious
physicians and scientists aswell as the most stubborn.
[...]
In the general auditoriumof this famous academy,
it was a custom for the members
to present their theories and discoveries to be discussed
by the other colleagues.
[...]
Many times had Pasteur facedthe men of this academy.
And many times hadthe meetings turned
into stormy argumentsbetween Pasteur,
the chemist, andthose prejudiced
and narrow-minded enoughto regard him as a quack.
[...]
How often had he presented his discoveries
only to shock the elders from their complacency.
How often had heroused them from
their small andunprogressive worlds
to vistas of that new universe of deadly as well as beneficial
microbes, at times to be applauded
and at times to be laughed at, despised,
and accused as a faker.
Before this assembly, he had presented his experiments
in fermentations, thus saving the wine industry for France.
And gave to the world the process now known
as pasteurization.
A simple method of heating.
From this platformhad he explained
how he had savedthe silk industry
by tracking down the microbe.
And in this auditorium
had he given science his most famous discovery.
Immunization.
By a process ofbuilding up a resistance
against a specificgerm, first by a week
and then by increasinglystronger injections
of that very same germ,
he had discovered that he could create immunity.
The first step in curing
many terrible diseases.
He had discovered thenature of vaccines.
He would make his patientjust a little sick
with a very weak germ andpermit him to recover.
Then he could withstandthe most deadly microbes
of the same species.
He had tamed microbesto fight other microbes.
The same one that killed was theone that guarded against death.
Tirelessly, he and hisfaithful assistants
searched, experimented,and searched again.
It needed the patience,ability, and imagination
of a true scientist and genius.
And Pasteur was all of that.
But these men onlyblustered their objections.
Pasteur's weaponswere his laboratory
and scientific truth.
These stubbornenemies of his are now
long since forgotten.
While Louis Pasteur will never be.
[...]
When Pasteur was 9 years old,he had seen a peasant suffering
from an attack by a mad dog.
He heard the groansof pain as the man
was tortured by the horribledisease, hydrophobia.
This memory, no doubt,prompted Pasteur
to find the cause ofthat scourge of mankind.
He drove his assistantsalmost to desperation,
but finally he knewhe had succeeded.
But the great proof stillremained to be shown.
Could Pasteur save humanlives, dare he
try his cure on the human body?
He faced a terrible choice.
And in a letter toa friend, he wrote,
he would inoculate himselfwith the frightful germ
and then try to cure himself.
[...]
But fate, mercifully relievedhim of such a decision.
A boy, Joseph Meister,was brought to him.
[...]
He had come froma nearby village.
[...]
The old grandfathertold Pasteur, how little
Joseph had gone out to thefield to play only two days ago.
He had often done so andnever before had there
been any danger.
[...]
Happily scampering downa familiar country road,
which had never heldany fears for him,
he had suddenly met astrange and raving mad dog.
The beast, ravaged bythe terrible rabies,
had attacked the boy andmangled him with 14 wounds.
"Save my boy!" pleaded the old man.
"It is still not too late."
Tenderly, Pasteur carried the boy to a bed.
Was this his opportunity to try his new vaccine?
Why hesitate?
And yet, he was experimentingwith a human life.
Such a young life too.
Should he or should he not?
The boy would surely diefrom the dread disease.
He might live if Pasteurwould try his vaccine.
It had worked on his animals.
He had proved thatbeyond a doubt.
There was no other protectionagainst this disease
that strangled its victims.
Only Pasteur couldsave him, maybe.
His faithful assistant, a physician
who could administer the cure, did not hesitate.
There was no choice.
It was sure deathor possible life.
The vaccine was preparedfor the final test.
[...]
That night, July 6, 1885,
the first inoculation
against rabies was made.
[...]
Then passed anxioushours, anxious days.
Each day Joseph Meister received an increasingly stronger dose
of the lifesaving vaccine, building up an immunity
against the time whenthe deadly germ should
strike its fatal blow.
Of what did Pasteur thinkas he paced the room?
Perhaps he rememberedhis many failures.
Perhaps he remembered howhis anthrax cure for cattle
had first proved to be a hugesuccess and then had failed.
That was four yearsbefore, in 1881.
When he had tried hisfirst vaccine for anthrax.
Would he failed now?
How often had hefumbled his way?
How often had he made mistakes?
He couldn't be wrong now.
He had been stubbornabout hydrophobia
and did not stop until hehad been absolutely sure.
Well, as sure as he could be.
[...]
On the 14th day, theunseen enemy was conquered.
[...]
All the world then paidtribute to this man of science,
this benefactor of mankind.
Institutes wereestablished in his name.
Streets were called after him.
Statues were built.
Louis Pasteur's name became known to the four corners
of the Earth.
He was the first manto make the world fear
and respect the almostinvisible microbe.
More dangerous than cannon were these tiny creatures, and yet,
more beneficial too, thanthe greatest of healers.
[Pasteur outdoors walking at his home in the country]
Pasteur's life hadbeen a busy one.
He had worked hard with his hand and his brain,
and nature began to take its toll.
[...]
[Visitors riding in a carriage]
[Man outdoors, waving]
[Visitors riding in a carriage]
[Pasteur outdoors walking at his home in the country]
His hair turned white, and age sat heavily upon his shoulders.
There was still muchwork to be done,
but his family and hisfriends persuaded him to rest.
Let others take up thetremendous tasks before mankind
where he had left off.
And so he heededtheir words and went
to live in his homein the country,
there to think and even toplan greater experiments
against the invisible enemies,
those hoards of vicious microbes.
[...]
Even when he himselfwas inactive physically,
he was in constant touchwith the work in progress
at the institute named in his honor. [Pasteur greets a visitor]
And his spirit was tireless.
[...]
Then, to crown a career as brilliant as
any man's in history,
whether king or philosopher,
France rose to pay a finaltribute to her native son.
A great meeting washeld in his honor
at the famous Universityof the Sorbonne in Paris.
[...]
It was in 1892, onPasteur's 70th birthday,
and this was a great day forFrance and for Louis Pasteur.
[...]
Men famous the world overwhere there to pay him homage.
Men from every walk of life.
Scientists, statesmen,teachers, poets, and students.
Representatives from everycivilized nation on Earth
were there to greet him. Andyet, among all those present,
there were none so famousand so revered as he himself.
He had shown mankindthe road to health.
He had shown mankind the pathto a greater freedom and a more
generous life.
He had opened another doorof knowledge and truth
and had shown the world agreater glory in the protection
of the human body.
[...]
Leaning on the armof the President
of the French Republic,Pasteur entered the great hall
cheered lustily by all present.
[...]
His final words wereto those young students
of the famous university.
And he said this.
[Pasteur:] Do not let yourselves betainted by a deprecating
and barren skepticism.
Do not let yourselfbe discouraged
by the sadness of certainhours which pass over nations.
Live in the serene peace oflaboratories and libraries.
Say to yourselves first, whathave I done for my instruction?
And as you graduallyadvance, what have I
done for my country?
Until the time comes, when youmay have the immense happiness
of thinking that you havecontributed in some way
to the progress andgood of humanity.
[Music]
[The End, a Pictorial Film]