CHAPTER 7 [The Blood and the Third Anatomical Element by Antoine Bechamp]

The fact of the spontaneous alterability of organic matters under the conditions which Macquer specified was admitted in science as an incontestable truth. I have described, in the first chapter, how this belief had been so generalized, that the spontaneous alteration of all proximate principles (even that of cane sugar) was admitted. But, as I have demonstrated, it is only through the action of germs of the air, whose existence, even notwithstanding the hypothesis of Spallanzani was denied, that this alteration occurred which had the appearance of being spontanteous. But at the same time that I demonstrated that Macquer was right as regards plants and animals, tissues and humors, I showed that of the three conditions specified by Macquer, suitable humidity, a certain temperature and momentary contact with the air, the first two only were essential, the air and its germs might be entirely suppressed.

M. Pasteur admitted the spontaneous alterability of organic matters in general and explicitly asserted that ferments, beer yeast, lactic yeast, vibrios, were spontaneously born of the albuminoid matter of the broth of sweetened yeast; M. Pasteur, having repeated my experiments, was so convinced that germs do really exist in the air and that he had been mistaken, thenceforward declared that the sole origin of the ferments, vibrios included, was these germs he had previously disregarded, and that consequently these germs were the first cause of the spontaneous alteration of all organic matters without exception. He experimented for the purpose of proving that without the germs of the air unputrefying corpses would accumulate upon the earth and even calculated the consequences of such accumulation. Thence to deny the microzymas and contest the consequences of their discovery was but a step which, later, he did not fail to make. In fact his own experiments on milk and on boiled urine, those upon blood and upon raw meat, were made by him, in the ardor of his new conviction for the purpose of combatting the doctrine of spontaneous generation by the same weapons I had employed, and not against the microzymas which I had not yet named. It was only in 1876 that M. Pasteur began to deny and to dispute the facts of the microzymian theory which had been nearly all published in 1871, and since 1874 had been verified and confirmed in France and abroad. But although verified and confirmed they were also interpreted; for the sake of history and comparison it is desirable that these interpretations should be known.

Charles Robin was the first to speak of microzymas as being things which by evolution may become bacteria. But the way in which he understood the existence of the microzymas in the animal body needs to be mentioned. He admitted without difficulty the two meanings attributed by M. Pasteur to his experiment upon the blood:

First: That the blood does not change of itself.

Second: That the bodies of animals are closed to germs from without, and, consequently, that within the body there is nothing which could become bacteria.

Ch. Robin even asserted that Pasteur had proved positively and beyond question that the human economy is absolutely closed to penetration by bacteria. Nevertheless, the observations of Davaine and Rayer, of Coze and Feltz, etc., had demonstrated that in certain diseases bacteria appeared in the blood.

Unwilling to admit that the microzymas existed in it as anatomical elements, they said that one of two things must be confessed; either that bacteria are the results of a spontaneous generation into the state of the microzyma, passing into the state of bacteria, or that the microzymas reach the blood by penetration in the same manner as granules of dust, etc.¹ The alternative exposed the perplexity of this savant's

1. Ch. Robin. "Lecons sur les humeurs."p. 255 (1874).

position. In fact, Ch. Robin was a protoplasmist, after a fashion; an anatomical element such as the microzyma passing, as he said, into the state of a bacterium, among the ordinary anatomical elements, which he knew so well, disarranged all his ideas. But with the loyalty of an impartial man of science, he did not hesitate to class the microzymas in the same category as the bacteria; thus in an article in the dictionary he asked whence come the microzymas into the living organism? It was doubtless the perplexity of which I have above spoken which caused him to compare the microzymas to the micrococcus of the botanist, Hallier, of Jena, or to identify them with the Bacterium punctum of Ehrenberg.¹

1. ibid,. loc. cit.. p. 230 (1874).

Two years later an honest savant, of Switzerland, stated as follows:

"It is within my knowledge that it was A. Bechamp who first regarded certain molecular granulations, which he named microzymas, as being organized ferments, and formulated the three following propositions, based upon researches which he had pursued jointly with Estor:

First. In all the animal cellules which have been examined there exist of necessity normal granulations, analogous to those named microzymas by Bechamp.

Second. In the physiological condition, the microzymas preserve the apparent form of a sphere.

Third. Outside of the economy, without the intervention of any foreign germ, the microzymas lose their normal form; they begin by becoming associated in chaplets, of which a separate genus has been made under the name of Torula, next they become lengthened so as to resemble bacteria isolated or associated; and he added: "It is evident that the subsequent researches of Billroth and of Tiegel are in their results only the confirmation of these three propositions."

Then, experimenting on the pancreas of ruminants and of freshly killed dogs, he declared there were always to be found the same molecular granulations, having the brownian movement, and which became vibrioniens by evolution. These molecular granulations, he exclaimed,

"Are evidently the microzymas of Bechamp, the coccos of Billroth and, without hesitation, he affirmed that they were the Monas Crepusculum of Ehrenberg."¹

1. Dr. M. Nencki, Ueber die Zersetzung der gelatine and des Eiweisses bei der Faeulniss mit Pankreas, p. 35. Berne Dalp'sche Buchhandlung (1876).

Again, later, M. Nencki, in collaboration with M. Giacosa, confirmed our observations generally, working upon the same tissues as we had done, but being unwilling to class the microzymas as anatomical elements to the extent that when the bacteria and vibrios were no longer to be regarded as animals they should be regarded as plants under the name of Schizomycetes, he came at last to hold that the microzymas are the spores of these infusorial plants.

Thus the facts were verified and confirmed in every sense; they exist in all the parts, down to the cellules of every living organism, ab ovo et semine of figured ferments and are capable of becoming bacteria; but instead of regarding them in such situations as autochthones (aborigines) they were regarded as being there, either the fruit of spontaneous generation according to one of the suppositions of Ch. Robin, or as foreigners under the names of Bacterium punctum, of Monas crepusculum, of Coccus, of Micrococcus, of pointed microbe, and finally of Spores of Schizomycetes. Nevertheless, if the microzymas are not what I contend they are, autonomous anatomical elements, the alternative stated by Ch. Robin remains; spontaneous generation or penetration! But then what becomes of the dogma of closure, and that of non-putrefiability? These will be abjured rather than admit the microzymas among essential anatomical elements! In fact, M. Cornil, before the admission of M. Pasteur, declared as follows, in 1886:

"M Pasteur has abundantly demonstrated that our tissues and interior media, like the blood, contain no microorganisms, no more than the urine, except such as have been introduced from without, and the experiments of our illustrious colleague have been confirmed in all countries."¹

Then M. Cornil, continuing to deny the facts I had advanced, but admitting the views of those who believed in parasitic microzymas, exclaimed:

"Messrs. Nencki and Giacosa regard the word microzyma as the synonym for micrococcus; if this synonymity be admitted, if the microzyma is merely a genus of the Schizomycetes, the word microzyma ought to disappear and the whole doctrine of M. Bechamp will vanish. "²

But after M. Pasteur's admission of the presence of microorganisms in the altered blood of his experiments, it was more than ever necessary to get rid of the annoying word microzyma; therefore went M. Cornil to Germany to call M. Nencki to the rescue. He replied (according to M. Cornil):

"The microzymas of M. Bechamp are in my opinion either the micrococcus or spores of bacteria and you are right in saying that for me the microzymas of M. Bechamp are spores of Schizomycetes."³

1. Bulletin de 1'Acad. de Med., 2nd Series, Vol. XV, p. 259 (1886).
2. Ibid.
3. M. Comil did not say spores, but genus of Schizomycetes. which though very different is erroneous none the less.

And this reply of M. Nencki was communicated by M. Cornil to the Academy of Medicine.

If M. Cornil was satisfied, he was satisfied with very little, since his correspondent could not go back on his interpretation of ten years before. In fact, the matter in question was not one of synonymy and interpretation, but of a principle disputed and of {acts denied by himself, following M. Pasteur. This principle and these facts, did M. Nencki deny them? That is the question. The principle disputed is the following, just as 1 had enunciated it in a letter to J. B. Dumas in 1865:

"Chalk and milk contain living beings already developed, a fact which observed directly is also proved by this fact, that creosote employed in a non-coagulating dose docs not prevent the milk from clotting later; nor the chalk from transforming, without outside help, sugar and fecula, into alcohol, acetic acid, lactic acid and butyric acid."¹

1. Annales de chimie et de Physique, 4th Series, Vol. VI, p. 248.

The following year (1866) I gave the name of microzymas to the living beings already developed in the chalk and milk, so as to mark the fact that they were figured ferments. It will be seen that this bringing together the chalk and the milk was intentional on my part.

It was this principle derived from experiment: that creosote which hinders the proximate principles from altering on contact with a limited quantity of air does not prevent natural organic matters from being altered in fermenting, which was disputed; and it was the presence of the microzymas, agents of these spontaneous fermentations, and their capacity to become bacteria by evolution, which was denied. But M. Nencki admitted both the principle and the facts; he had even avowed that M.M. Billroth and Tiegel had only confirmed the facts.

After that, it is of little moment, that they have said in turn that the microzymas are the Bacterium punctum, the Monas crepusculum, spores of bacteria, called Schizomycetes after having been regarded as animal-cules. I remark only that these various appellations prove merely that they do not know what to believe; but we shall see at the end of this chapter that the name microzyma has been well chosen, and that they are what they have been said to be, anatomical elements and living beings of a category not before suspected and without analogy.

Meanwhile the principle of the demonstration that the blood is a tissue whose change by fermentation, outside of the vessels, is spontaneous, as is that of every other tissue outside of the economy, is certain, both by the acknowledgment of M. Pasteur and by the declaration of M. Nencki obtained by M. Cornil. But if the principle is recognized, can it be asserted that the fact that the blood is a tissue has not been sufficiently proved? It is necessary to insist further.

I have already remarked that it is not enough that figured elements exist in a humor to entitle the humor to be regarded as a tissue. In the order of the ideas of Bichat, concerning elementary tissues, it is necessary to prove that these figured elements (i.e. having a certain form), regarded as anatomical elements, are really living; this is what I began doing; but even this is not enough, it must further be shown dial, as in tissues generally, these elements, almost in contact, are separated and yet connected among themselves by an intercellular substance in such wise that the smallest mass of the complex tissue contains them.

If the blood were a homogeneous liquid holding the microzymas in the condition in which they are isolated from the fibrin, that is to say, naked, in suspension with the globules, they would be separated and deposited notwithstanding the movement of the blood, because they are of greater density than it, in the same manner that rivers charged with argilacious mud deposit it notwithstanding the motion of the water. But the blood does not hold the microzymas naked, but surrounded by an atmosphere of special albuminoid mailer; in short, the blood contains the microzymian molecular granulations; and the albuminoid atmosphere, mucous, hyaline and swollen, gives to these granulations a density very little differing from, perhaps the sa hat of the intergranular and interglobular substance which connects them; in such wise that the molecular granulations with the globules pervade at once the entire mass of the blood.

The structure of the haematic-microzymian-molecular-granulations is precisely that which was needed to constitute the blood, with its globules a tissue. It is because of their mucous atmosphere, which swells enormously, that these innumerable microzymian-molecular-granulations occupy in the blood the entire space not occupied by the globules and the thin bed of the intergranular and interglobular liquid substance; and it is due to this special viscosity that the swollen mucous atmosphere of the microzymian molecular granulations, as well as to the mechanical obstacle which these present, that the globules remain uniformly disseminated and are not precipitated during coagulation outside of the vessels before the production of the clot; as to the special case of the blood of the solipedes, it is due to the great difference between the density of the globules of their blood, and to some peculiarity of the mucous atmosphere of their microzymian granulations, connected with the lower density of the intergranular liquid.

The demonstration that the blood is a tissue, and a flowing tissue, follows from the relation of the three anatomical elements and the intercellular liquid substance special to each species. There is not in it any sort of mere hypothesis.

But the blood, as a tissue, belongs to a special anatomical system of organs whereof it is the content; but if it be true that the various anatomical systems are differentiated by their microzymas as they are by their form and structure, must it not be the same with the circulatory system? and in fact that is the case.

TABLE I.

Microzymas and tissues obtained from the blood of the several regions of the circulatory apparatus or dependent thereon.

                                                                                                                                            Oxygen Set Free.
Microzymas of fibrin (sheep or ox) ................................................                                            23 c.c.
                    of blood (not defibrinated) .........................................                                           25 "
                    of defibrinated blood, that is to say, of the globules ................................................20 "
                    of the lungs of a sheep ...............................................                                            27 "
                    of the lungs of a dog (the lung was antracosed) ..............................................        29 "
                    of sheep's liver (the liver had been drained)..........................................................   21 "
                    of sheep's liver (with bacteria, the microzymas having partially evolved)   ................22 "
                    of spleen of a dog.......................................................                                           10 "
                    of heart-muscle of a dog ............................................                                           12 "
Chopped muscle, well washed, of heart of dog .................. ;........................                              8 "
Microzymas mixed with bacteria, of human urine ............................. ........................................14 "
Control—Tube of mercury only................................................................................................. 0.5 "
Tube containing dust from laboratory   ........................... ...........................................................0.5 "

TABLE II.

Microzymas and various tissues not belonging to the circulatory system.

Oxygen Set Free.

Microzymas mixed with bacteria of human saliva .....................................................................................2    c.c.
                    of the gastric glands of a calf.................................................................................................0.4 "
                    gastric, of a dog obtained by means of a fistula—they were isolated from the gastric juice...   6    "
        "           pancreatic of a dog ............................................................................................................3    "
                    of an ox   ................................................................... ........................................................3    "
        "           of brain of a dog .................................................................................................................2.8 "
Pulp of a dog's brain ........................................................................................... .....................................1.3 "
Crystallin of ox ........................................................................................................................................0.3 "
Cornea of ox.............................................................................................................................................2    "
Vitreous humor of ox ................................................................................................................................0.7 "
Ciliary processes of ox   .............................................................................................................................2.5 "
Sheep's periosteum .....................................................................................................................................0.8 "
                bone   ................................................................................................... .....................................0.8 "
                hoof.............................................................................................................................................0.6 "
Costal cartilage of calf ................................................................................................................................0.6 "
Nails of man   ..............................................................................................................................................0.4 "
Vitellin microzymas of fowl ...........................................................................................................................3    "

TABLE III.

Microzymas and various tissues of plants.

                                                                                                  Oxygen Set Free.
Microzymas of sweet almonds ................................................... 24    c.c.
Tissues of sweet almonds finely divided (cotyledon and embryo)    8
Microzymas of beer yeast (isolated by braying)   ............................3.6
Ditto        ditto        (another sample)   ......................................... 11
Beer yeast, quite fresh, pure......................................................... 22
Green leaf, brayed.......................................................................   3.8
Crushed (brayed) yellow petals of a lily   ...................................... 2
Red petals .of a cruciferous plant (brayed) .................................... 1
Pollen of an iris (in 20 minutes) .................................................. 14

A comparison of the results of these three tables is very instructive.

From a comparison of the first two, which relate to the tissues of animals, it is seen that the microzymas of the circulatory system, including therein those of the urine, are those which decompose oxygenated water with the greatest energy, setting free the most oxygen, and at the same time, that it is the hematic microzymas and those of the lung and of the liver which are most active; and these are the organs which are most directly concerned in the circuit. This I wish especially to make clear, to demonstrate that the circulatory system was differentiated from the other anatomical systems by a special property of its microzymas; a property so special that one might almost think that the other tissues owe their like power only to the hematic microzymas which they retain. But this cannot be, for the microzymas of the thoroughly drained liver are as active as those of the blood, etc.