The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)

Actors: Otto Hoffman (actor), Herbert Heywood (actor), Halliwell Hobbes (actor), Raymond Brown (actor), George Beranger (actor), Wheaton Chambers (actor), Richard Alexander (actor), Frank Darien (actor), Eddie Dew (actor), Bill Elliott (actor), Alphonse Ethier (actor), William Burress (actor), Otto Fries (actor), Porter Hall (actor), Walter Kingsford (actor),

Plot: In 1860 Paris, chemist Louis Pasteur is considered a quack within the medical community for advocating that doctors and surgeons wash their hands and boil their instruments to destroy microbes that can kill their patients. He came across this belief when discovering microscopic organisms in sour wine, the organisms which could be killed if heated sufficiently. The belief among the scientific community at large is that the organisms are the result of disease and not the cause. This belief is despite the fact that thirty percent of women die in childbirth due to child bed disease, accounting for twenty thousand annual deaths in Paris alone. The debate takes Pasteur all the way to a meeting with Emperor Napoleon III and his physician, Dr. Charbonnet, who is one of the leading opponents of Pasteur. Several years later - France now a republic - much of Pasteur's reputation changes as a government sanctioned experiment with anthrax and sheep shows that a vaccine created by Pasteur proves effective. As Pasteur begins work on finding the cause and a cure for rabies, which proves a more difficult challenge, he still has his detractors, including Dr. Charbonnet. This continuing debate brings about his biggest challenge: proving that microbes are the cause of all disease. Through it all, he is supported not only by his family, but Dr. Jean Martel, who was once a junior physician in the emperor's court and a physician within the republic's government, but who now works with Pasteur and is his son-in-law. But an act of bravado by Charbonnet may ultimately prove to be the breakthrough for which Pasteur is looking. Moving the experimental treatments from animals to humans proves a bigger obstacle, as is Charbonnet's need to win at all cost in the court of public opinion.

Keywords: 1800s, 1860s, 19th-century, académie-nationale-de-médecine, anthrax, bacteriologist, boiling-water, caged-animal, carriage, ceremony
Genres: Biography, Drama, History,

Quotes:

Dr. Louis Pasteur: Jean, how many dogs have we left?::Dr. Jean Martel: Ten.::Dr. Louis Pasteur: Are they well? Healthy?::Dr. Jean Martel: In perfect condition. They've never been exposed.::Dr. Louis Pasteur: Give them hydrophobia.::Dr. Jean Martel: [in disbelief] You mean...?::Dr. Louis Pasteur: Give them hydrophobia.

[about Pasteur]::Dr. Charbonnet: You remember a few years ago, he was the cause of a slight controversy on the subject of sour wine.::Napoleon III: Oh, yes, I recall.::Dr. Charbonnet: He claimed to have found little animals in it... infinitesimal beasts.::Napoleon III: But are there such creatures? Do they really exist?::Dr. Charbonnet: Your Majesty, microscopic organisms have long been observed. They spring into being of their own accord wherever there is putrid matter or fermentation. They are the result rather than the cause of disease. By heating wine to certain temperature, Monsieur Pasteur was able to destroy them. I presume he plans to cure blood poisoning in the same manner: namely, by boiling our blood.::Napoleon III: Heaven forbid.::Dr. Charbonnet: It's not unlikely, I assure you.::Napoleon III: But, I won't have it, Charbonnet. I won't tolerate such practices. We're not living in the Middle Ages. This is France... Paris... the nineteenth century.::Empress Eugenie: I think Monsieur Pasteur should be allowed to defend himself.::Dr. Charbonnet: But, your Majesty...::Empress Eugenie: I, too, have read the pamphlet, Doctor Charbonnet. It said nothing about boiling blood - merely to boil the instruments that you surgeons use.::Dr. Charbonnet: Your Majesty, if I did anything so absurd as to boil my instruments or scrub my hands, they'd think I was a witch doctor resorting to charms and laugh me out of the hospital.::Empress Eugenie: That would be a novelty, Monsieur. Most people who go to hospitals are CARRIED out... dead.::Napoleon III: Yes, Cahrbonnet. Why?

Dr. Louis Pasteur: [to his assistants] Remember our aim: Find the microbe - kill the microbe.

Dr. Louis Pasteur: [speaking to the Emperor] Sire, the hospitals of Paris are pesthouses. There's scarcely a doctor in the city who's not carrying death on his hands and instruments.::Dr. Charbonnet: Because of microbes, Monsieur? Your private menagerie of invisible beasts?::Dr. Louis Pasteur: Exactly. Doctor Charbonnet could see them for himself if he took the trouble to use his microscope. He could watch them multiply into murderous millions. They breed in filth. They may start from the gutters of Paris tonight and by tomorrow claim some mother from this very court.::Dr. Charbonnet: Preposterous! To think that a human being could be destroyed by an animal ten thousand times smaller than a flea. It's as though an army of ants were to overthrow your Majesty's empire.

Dr. Louis Pasteur: Will you try and explain to Dr. Radisse what we are doing? [sarcastically] He's a member of the Academy of Medicine, so you'll have to use very simple language.::Dr. Emile Roux: We're convinced, Doctor - after eight years of experimenting - that this vaccine, when injected into the animal, will set up an immunity.::Dr. Radisse: Ridiculous! It would take eighty years to convince me.::Dr. Louis Pasteur: Eighty? Aren't you a little optimistic?

[last lines]::[addressing The Academy of Medicine - directing his remarks to the young men in the balcony]::Dr. Louis Pasteur: You young men - doctors and scientists of the future - do not let yourselves be tainted by apparent skepticism; nor discouraged by the sadness of certain hours that creep over nations. Do not become angry at your opponents, for no scientific theory has ever been accepted without opposition. Live in the serene peace of libraries and laboratories. Say to yourselves, first, "What have I done for my instruction?" And as you gradually advance, "What am I accomplishing?" Until the time comes when you may have the immense happiness of thinking that you have contributed in some way to the welfare and progress of mankind.