| Antoine Béchamp | |
|---|---|
Antoine Béchamp
|
|
| Born | October 16, 1816 Bassing, Moselle, France |
| Died | April 15, 1908 (aged 91) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Fields | Biology |
Pierre Jacques Antoine Béchamp (October 16, 1816 – April 15, 1908) was a French chemist and biologist now best known as a rival of Louis Pasteur.[1] Béchamp did pioneering work in industrial chemistry, developing an efficient process to produce aniline dye which was central to the development of the synthetic dye industry. He also developed p-aminophenylarsonate, an organic arsenic compound used to treat parasitic diseases.[2]
Béchamp's later life was consumed by a bitter and protracted dispute with Louis Pasteur. Initially, their rivalry centered on credit for discovery of fermentation and later grew to encompass competing ideas on microbiology, pathogenesis, and germ theory.[1] Béchamp believed that living entities called "microzymes" created bacteria in response to host and environmental factors; he did not believe that bacteria could invade a healthy host and create disease on their own. Pasteur's competing vision became widely accepted by scientists, and Béchamp sank into obscurity, although his beliefs have been continuously promoted by a small fringe of dedicated advocates.[2]
Béchamp was born in Bassing, France in 1816, the son of a miller. He lived in Bucharest, Romania from the ages of 7 to 18 with an uncle who worked in the French ambassador's office. He was educated at the University of Strasbourg, receiving a doctor of science degree in 1853 and doctor of medicine in 1856, and ran a pharmacy in the city. In 1854 was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, a post previously held by Louis Pasteur.[1][2]
In 1856, after receiving his medical degree, Béchamp took a position at the University of Montpellier, where he remained until 1876 when he was appointed Dean of the Catholic Faculty of Medicine at Université Lille Nord de France. Béchamp's time in Lille was stormy, as his dispute with Pasteur led to efforts to have his work placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (the index of books prohibited by the Catholic Church). Béchamp retired under this cloud in 1886, briefly ran a pharmacy with his son, and ultimately moved to Paris, where he was given a small laboratory at the Sorbonne. He died at the age of 91, his work having faded into scientific obscurity and Pasteur's version of germ theory dominant.[1][2] A brief obituary in the British Medical Journal noted that Béchamp's name was "associated with bygone controversies as to priority which it would be unprofitable to recall."[3]
In the modern day, Béchamp's work continues to be promoted by a small fringe of alternative medicine proponents, including advocates of alternative theories of cancer,[4] who dismiss Pasteur's germ theory and argue that Béchamp's ideas were unjustly ignored.[1][2] They accuse Pasteur of plagiarising and then suppressing Béchamp's work, citing work such as Ethel Douglas Hume's "Béchamp or Pasteur: A Lost Chapter in the History of Biology" from the 1920s.[4]