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Pasteur vs Béchamp: The Germ Theory Debate

Louis Pasteur in lab

Story Highlights

  • Louis Pasteur’s “germ theory of disease” remains the basis of Western medicine, considering that disease is caused by specific microorganisms that invade the body from outside.
  • Antoine Béchamp believed instead that illness stems from an unhealthy system that triggered changes in minute particles of the body that lead to disease.
  • Western medicine has fully embraced germ theory and its dependence on drugs to treat symptoms, effectively minimizing the importance of nutritious food, fresh air, hygiene and sanitation.

“Louis Pasteur was a French chemist-turned-microbiologist, who proved the existence of microbes in air. His pioneering studies laid the foundation for the modern-day understanding of diseases, their etiology as well as vaccine development.”1

How that quotation is interpreted—whether as high praise or condemnation—depends on the perspective. Pasteur was not the only scientist who delved into the origins of disease. While he focused on the influence of invading microbes, or what has come to be known as the “germ theory,” his rival Antoine Béchamp, one of the period’s preeminent scientists, was promoting a different theory. Béchamp’s theory, referred to as the “microzymian” theory of disease, has since become known as the “cellular,”2 or “host”3 theory.4

By all accounts, Béchamp was a highly respected scientist whose teachings were accepted as fact by many of Pasteur’s contemporaries.5 So how is it that relatively few people today have even heard the name of Antoine Béchamp and that it is Louis Pasteur’s scientific conclusions that form much of the basis of contemporary medical thinking about infectious disease?

Origins of Germ Theory

The germ theory of disease holds that “specific microscopic organisms are the cause of specific diseases,” a statement that is so pervasive today that it seems self-evident. Historically, however, variations of the germ theory had been around for hundreds of years but had never taken hold. It was not until Pasteur’s work became publicized in the 19th century that it gained widespread acceptance. Reducing the idea of disease to a simple interaction between specific microorganisms and a host, the germ theory minimized the role of environmental factors on illness, conveniently dismissing social responsibility for disease, especially among the poor.

The work of Pasteur and his associates led directly to the acceptance of vaccines by “leading medical scientists—those longing for a sound and simple explanation for the inexplicable.”6

Host (Cellular) Theory Philosophy

Béchamp’s view was that disease-causing germs were essentially altered microzymas… a term he gave to minute particles he considered to be the common stuff of all living things capable of adapting to changing conditions in the body.7 Quoted as saying, “The microzyma is at the beginning and end of all organization. It is the fundamental anatomical element whereby the cellules, the tissues, the organs, the whole of an organism are constituted,”8 Béchamp maintained that disease developed in the presence of an unhealthy environment caused by an unbalanced state in the body. He held that disease could not take hold without a preexisting weakness.9

As summarized and greatly simplified by author Walene James10—and ridiculed by Mark Crislip11 in Science-Based Medicine—Béchamp’s basic message was that:

  1. Disease arises from micro-organisms within the cells of the body.
  2. These intracellular microorganisms normally function to build and assist in the metabolic processes of the body.
  3. The function of these organisms changes to assist in the catabolic (disintegration) processes of the host organism when that organism dies or is injured, which may be chemical as well as mechanical.
  4. Microrganisms change their shapes and colours to reflect the medium.
  5. Every disease is associated with a particular condition.
  6. Microorganisms become “pathogenic” as the health of the host organism. deteriorates. Hence, the condition of the host organism is the primary causal agent.
  7. Disease is built by unhealthy conditions.
  8. To prevent disease we have to create health.

Among those who rejected germ theory, instead championing the influence of diet, climate, ventilation, hygiene and sanitation in causing disease were Florence Nightingale and Rudolf Virchow.

Rudolf Virchow, an early opponent of the germ theory of disease, believed that germs do not cause disease but instead gravitate to the diseased area as scavengers, to feed on and clean up the dead tissue caused by the pathogenic process. Virchow stated in his later years, “If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat—diseased tissues—rather than causing disease.”12

Western Medicine Rules

Western medicine fiercely protects the germ theory of disease, scorning and dismissing Béchamp’s ideas out of hand. There is no doubt that much of what Béchamp was able to determine has been supplanted now by scientific resources unavailable to him at his time, but that can also be said of Pasteur’s theories. Such a narrow view of disease misses the gist of Béchamp’s teachings: the importance of supporting a strong internal defense system to ward off disease and attain true health rather than relying on drugs and vaccines as a sledgehammer to treat symptoms and attempt to destroy germs.

Many disease-causing microbes are normally present in the body and do not cause disease as a matter of course but are kept at bay in people who have healthy immune systems. Other infectious microbes can spread from person to person via water, air, insect bites or exposure to infected body fluids and have the potential to cause serious complications in an immune compromised host.


References:
1 A Brief Summary of Louis Pasteur’s Germ Theory of Disease. BiologyWise C 2018.
2 Pasteur vs. Bechamp: An Alternative View of Infectious Disease. Marone Family Wellness. (undated).
3 Olien, D. Pasteur Versus Béchamp: The History of Germ Theory. SuperLife July 22, 2016.
4 Bechamp A. The Third Element of the Blood. [out of print, excerpt from the book, published in 1912].
5 Louis Pasteur Vs Antoine Béchamp and The Germ Theory of Disease Causation. LaLeva.org. May 14, 2004.
6 
Ibid.
7 See Footnote 4.
8 
Young RO. Who Had Their Finger on the Magic of Life – Antoine Bechamp or Louis Pasteur? Int J Vaccines Vaccin Sept. 19, 2016.
9 
See Footnote 3.
10 James W. Germ Theories. Whale [Undated].
11 
Crislip M. “It’s Just a Theory”. Science-Based Medicine Nov. 7, 2008.
12 See Footnote 5.

37 Responses

  1. They are both partially right. Diseases can be caused by micro-organisms but they can be defeated by the host immune system. The black plague in medieval times killed many people but 2/3 of Europe lived. Polio for most people expresses as cold type symptoms. Some people are NEVER SICK, my wife and my self included. She said she used to have several colds a year, now none for about 10—she went off dairy and wheat, the 2 most allergy causing foods in human diet. Lots of D3, 5-10,000 IU’s daily is most important, and other micro nutrients are also. Read my blog—drchiptravis.com

    1. Dairy is an allergen because of the pasteurization process of killing all of the viable enzymes in the raw milk. I have reactions to store bought pasteurized milk and when I drink raw milk I don’t experience any mucus buildup or reactions.

  2. Speaking from my experience as a former US Army physician, director of the Orthomolecular Medical Society established by Dr Linus Pauling, and over 40 years of holistic medical practice,I wholeheartedly agree with the microzyme version and not with the germ
    hypothesis that has been advocated by the followers of Pasteur and the pharmaceutical industry.

    Dr. Lucidi

    1. Thank you for your input! Just wondering…are you a member of the Vitamin C and Orthomolecular Medicine for Optimal Health Facebook group? I know you would find many likeminded folks on it! Just FYI…(:

  3. Man discovering those submicroscopic species naturally became curious and the more it looked the more was found only to enhance his curiosity.Theories were invented as a natural consequences of.So the two opposing theories between Pasteur and Béchamp.Money was pumped into Pasteur’s concept by mainly Rockefeller(as far as i know) seeing the good yield for rewarding in this investment.Thus this is still standing for our great peril.Science deliberately ignoring the role of microbes,viruses, fungi etc.Their role and purpose in creation.If these were not, we would not be here either.They are doing nature’s recycling of old ,sick dying matter into a new source of food for the next generation of emerging life in biology.I observe this wisdom as I watch a malnourished, sickling plant for instance, becoming very quickly a host for insects and fungi as that plant has no vitality to resist,or immunity to diseases.This is life, biology.Same should apply to animals and humans too.It is said that we are carrying more germs by number than cells in our bodies.They not harming us until there is vigorous life in us. We became malnourished than sick and these little hosts become to turn against us , fulfilling their role in creation to start to decompose the cells,ending life cycle in death.

  4. L. Pasteur was a genius and saved many lives. He proved to science of his time that Spontaneous Generation did not exist but was caused by faulty experiments, proof that Germs and viruses can live with out oxygen.much more than finding the cure for why some wines were ruined and others were not saving millions of $$ for the wine and beer industry.

    1. That’s the official white-washed version James. The truth is that Pasteur knowingly committed scientific fraud by falsifying the results of his experiments to make the results fit his theories.

      As the article points out, he was also a plagiarist and he did horrible things to living rabbits. He is in my eyes neither a genius nor a hero, but an overly ambitious and ruthless opportunist who cleverly beat a path to fame and fortune.

      His deeply flawed germ theory is what today’s criminal multi-billion dollar vaccine industry is founded on and which is a tool used to further the psychopathic elites global depopulation agenda under the guise of disease prevention.

  5. I read the book Bechamp or Pasteur?: A Lost Chapter in the History of Biology by Hume many years ago, and then did more indepth research on Pasteur. He was a MONSTER. He stole the work of the greater scientist, Bechamp, did everything after that to destroy Bechamp’s career and reputation, and then misunderstood and misinterpreted his work. He reportedly admitted at the end of his life that he was wrong, that germs react to their internal environment, wherein the key to susceptibility lies. The terrain, not the germ. Another scientist, Dr. Rosenow, of what became the Mayo Clinic was able to take harmless bacteria and change them into pathogenic organisms by changing their environment–food and temperature–and then back again, the scientific equivalent of changing dogs into cats and then back again. The germ theory was all wrong, the the consequences have been too horrendous to think about.

    1. Dianne – Some people consider it questionable that Pasteur eventually (allegedly on his death bed) admitted that the environment is more important than the germ, because he had too big an ego to make such an admission.

      1. When you’re dying you have nothing to lose. So I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happen. Besides Germ Theory is just that a theory. Only because it fit what Rockefeller wanted, so he can make money off of it by way of vaccines, is the only reason it was used. Germ Theory is a conspiracy theory point blank. And once it falls the whole house of cards will come down on these liars in the pharmaceutical industry. And I for one can’t wait.
        That’s the main reason we are dealing with the lie that is Covid19. Without Germ Theory it wouldn’t be possible.

  6. My journey to health and from my personal experiences , I am very much convinced that Bechamps theory is more scientific, Pasteur looked only on one side of the coin.

  7. Royal Raymond Rife developed the Universal Microscope and was the first to see the pleomorphic nature of cancer cells,which Rosenow also demonstrated.Rife also went on to develop an instrument to disintegrate any pathogenic organism with electromagnetic resonance,w/no harm to the host.He was discredited by the medical establishment and has been generally lost to scientific history,as has been James Beard,an embryologist who noted pancreatic enzymes inhibited cancer cell growth,a paper he published in London in 1904,which led to ~ 40 clinics in England adopting his discovery and curing people of various malignancies…another chapter lost in the Dark Ages.

  8. practical experience of generatins since, shows BOTH theories are true, with some exceptions a healthy organism can fight off or neutralize the invader, an unhealthy organism can’t. These invaders have been seen in microscopes and in electron microscopes, and in some diseases very clearly are transmitted and invade and take over regardless of prior health, rabies and smallpox come to mind, not to mentin the black death.

    its not either/or.

    1. Your point is well made and to my mind absolutely correct, much of this debate is naively founded on a false dichotomy

    1. What I wanna know is why are we then still believing in this Germ Theory garbage? Without Germ Theory their house of cards that was built on lies comes crashing down.

  9. I am a bit (a lot) baffled by the diversity in theory. Very much new to me. Can anyone explain to me how – in the context of the terrain-theory – sick people seem to make other (healthy seeming) people sick as well. Doesn’t that look like it supports a germ-theory of sorts? This interaction between people – that seems responsible for epidemic outbreaks – is somewhat ignored by this Bechamps guy, not? Forgive me my ignorance.

    1. Not a dumb question at all!
      People in relatively limited spaces are subjected to similar environmental stress/toxins.
      Depending on strength of immune system, bodies react.
      Majority will share common symptoms.
      The weak will suffer more than the strong.
      Looks like “contagion” but it’s NOT.
      Rather a result of “being the wrong place, at the wrong time.”
      Rockefeller pumped GAZILLIONS into science to backup Pasteur (IMO opinion should go down in history as THE source of term “DOUCHEBAG” as applied to human beings.
      Then again, even that term is way above him.
      He’s the ant-version, and refers to a bag that hangs from a BUTT vs. vagina.
      So, more appropriate term might be, “ANT SHITBAG.”
      Even better, “PARASITE, GROUND ZERO.”

      1. I understand the people in the same environments would experience the same symptoms. That does seem logical. But, what about the Ebola case? There was a man who traveled from Africa to the US with Ebola and one of the nurses in the US came down with Ebola as well. They were in a new situation and environment, not Africa.

        1. That’s called a news story for the purposes of propaganda. Don’t believe it for a second.

          Ebola does not exist. SARSCov2 does not exist. HIV does not exist. None of these alleged viruses has ever been isolated. Therefore they have not been proven to exist. Period.

          Ebola is a fraud perpetrated by the WHO in Africa to destroy land values in certain communities and generate fear. Governments go along with the scam because they can use the concept of contagion to exert control.

          Read The Contagion Myth by Dr. Tom Cowan. Read the work of Dr. Stefan Lanka. Watch the videos of Dr. Andrew Kaufman.

          There are no infectious diseases. The dis-ease state is internal not external. There are no exogenous entities jumping from host to host.

          1. Along with this comes the knowledge that many of the large flu epidemics occurred in conjunction, or at the time when new electromagnetic technologies were implemented worldwide. The Spanish Flu, which could not be transmitted from an infected group to a group of 100 healthy individuals via mouth, throat, lung swabs and also blood transfusions and coughing and breathing in the healthy volunteers faces. The Boston Health Authority ran these experiments, but could not convey ‘the Spanish Flu’ from person to person. It also couldn’t be conveyed this way to dogs, meaning it was not a virus or a pandemic. AT that time radio antennas and transmitters had just been proliferated worldwide with the discovery of radio and WWI in progress. All the militaries were using it. The belief of people of that era, who I think were way ahead of us in understanding was that the new radio wave emitting transmitters disrupted the electrical properties of the lower atmosphere, in-flu-encing peoples’ health and causing influ-enza! The idea was that the extra radio waves or other EMF wavelengths associated with a given technology prevent people from properly discharging electricity, thus it accumulate and affect their body’s energy system in an adverse or chaotic way. People in the 1850s and up through the early 1870s were fascinated with the properties and power of electricity but nowadays it is only tangentially used and understood in medicine, but has huge potential of course.

  10. Yes, both theories have validity. But all people in the presence of disease organisms do not catch the disease, only a percentage. Not everyone died form the Plague. Huge numbers of people were exposed and did not die. Immunity always wins out.

    Everyone falls on a spectrum of strength of immunity. And now there are studies that show that emotional issues play a large part in cellular immunity. This is a very complex subject and so many people just focus on small subset of data.

    Populations governed by the western profit making medical model have shown a big decrease in health and immunity for the last 150 years or so. Chemical drugs do not make people healthier. Factory farms do not make people healthier. Polluted environments do not make people healthier. Why? Because the degrade our immune function.

  11. you’re misusing ‘theory’ when you mean ‘hypothesis.’ in science, a ‘theory’ has been tested and substantiated

  12. James, I have been wandering about this as well. One view is that our bodies are constantly adjusting, second by second to new environmental information – cold, heat, the food we eat. Millions of events occur within us all the time in order to respond/adjust to these things. If we are in the presence of someone who, say has ‘flu, we also have to adjust to that – they are breathing out, their skin in exhaling, and, if we were a dog we would probably be able to smell them. Our body then starts to adapt and adjust – if we are healthy and strong we do not need to mount much of a response, but if we are not, at that moment, robust, then we need to mount a more robust response and then our body starts producing the same immune response as the person with the ‘flu. Then we have ‘flu. (Dogs are being trained to sniff out e.g. Parkinson’s Disease and can pick it up before the individual starts displaying symptoms – they are now training sniffer dogs to detect Covid – interesting eh?}

  13. James Woods, you’re misusing ‘hypothesis’ and ‘theory’. In science, a ‘fact’ has been tested and substantiated – the other two are (and here’s a new word for the mix) merely ‘conjecture’. This is the same with a ‘belief’ and ‘knowing’ – they mutually exclude one another.

  14. Germ theory has not been tested or substantiated. Christine and Barry are both incorrect. If the germs that allegedly cause disease (and death) are also found in the healthy person the theory is false.

    The idea that the body is constantly fighting off germs is ludicrous. Under that theory, we would all be dead because as soon as we were in a weakened state we would succumb to these microbes. Rather, microbes are found at the site of dis-ease to clean up damaged or poisoned tissue and break down toxins.

    If the alleged viruses are never found because they can never be isolated and purified to prove their existence, that disproves germ theory.

    Contagion has never been successfully demonstrated or shown in any experiment or study. For germ theory to be valid contagion must exist. And it does not.

  15. GERM THEORY MAKES BILLIONS, THE TERRAIN/MICROZYMAL THEORY CANNOT BE PATENTED and is about NATURAL HEALING.

  16. The terrain theory encourages the person to be self responsible. The germ theory creates a dependency on external factors. The pharmaceutical company’s have made a ‘killing’ on promoting the germ theory. We absolutely shouldn’t trust an industry that is dependent financially on our being sick.

  17. Such a fascinating thread. How about taking the rotten apple as an example. When it is in the vicinity of other apples it accelerates the others to rot too. So can we draw a parallel here and hypothesise that when a diseased person is very close to a non diseased person, if that person has not got a high level of vitality (and low level of emotional trauma) there could be a transference of rot / disease to the healthy person? Either by way of the information field (Rupert Sheldrake) or through the same germs virus fungus etc taken in to the healthy person via an orifice?

  18. I am late to the party, but have enjoyed reading the conversation. I am dubious of any side that has funding backing a decision, especially with names like Rockefeller. The Spanish flu was not a flu, but a bacteria included in a Meningitis vaccine Rockefeller sold to a number of countries at the start of WWI. It was administered as soldiers loaded on transports. Fifty million people died from this stunt, but it gave reason to present petroleum based medicine to Legislators (along with cash), to approve his new position on medicine which would make him rich.

    He paid schools big grants to teach his theories and provided books written to espouse the same. Don’t follow the dictum in school and you were out. Don’t follow it in practice and lose your AMA certification.

    Rockefeller went on to crush Royal Rife among others that blocked his path to greater wealth. Future generations of Rockefeller followed the same path. So much so that we have finally lost faith in the medical field. Hospitals are not built to cure, they are revenue generating machines first. Doctors no longer have the freedom to think and treat on their own volition, but must succumb to the dictates of the Hospital, insurance protection and Big Pharma.

    The FDA, CDC, NIH and NIAID to name a few are paid off and of little value.

    I have been ill for the last two weeks. I am very healthy otherwise with a good diet, organic food, no processed foods with added toxins. Vitamins and plenty of fruit and vegetables. I exercise regularly and for my age (73) am consider amazingly healthy.

    Did I get a virus (that no one can see)? Did I get a roving bacteria waiting to attack me? Did my environment changes or did something in me weaken? It is now fall moving into winter as such the sky is Gray and I hide inside or in long sleeves staying off the chill. I am certainly generating less vitamin D from the available sunlight.

    I can “cure” a cold or flu in 6 hours using D3 and Zinc… or am I boosting an bodily imbalance that requires I have a specific levels of D3 and or Zinc. Is my body yelling at me to beef up my nutrients. We know our body causes all the symptoms of a cold or flu. Maybe it is better to say our body is yelling at us when we are ignoring it. If we take more D3 and Zinc in the fall and winter months we do not get the cold or flu. I do not take D3 or Zinc on a regular basis. What ever happened recently was a sinus issue, which may have been from cutting and splitting wood of a huge oak tree we fell this fall. It was dying and may have had a fungus within.

    I have my own small lab and far too many medical books dating back the last 300 years. The newer the books get the more BS I find and lost initial concepts that were discovered.

    It is amazing Bechamp after all these years must be PROVEN right. In 1998 a distant relative of Pasture submitted his public and private journals to Princeton University where his private notes clarify the fraud he was. It proves he is wrong, not necessarily that Bechamp is right. Maybe Bechame is more correct. Some cities in the mid 1800s were filled with disease, they were also human sewers with rotting food and human waste running freely down streets and into water systems. People and animals excreted fluids everywhere, Coal or wood burned clogging the air in the winter. When these places were cleaned up the disease vanished.

    The same is true when studying early wars. Disease followed troop movements as their human mass left a trail of death, human waste and garbage. If we follow history and the diseases looking to the environment Bechamp is closer to the truth. With modern science we may find some tuning to his theories. But in general his is correct..

    The Covid PLANdemic was a fake virus that so many believed in and took what may be a horrible vaccine/mRNA. Even with proper intervention this could be the biggest extension event beyond that of the dinosaur. Once again from a hijacked medical field focused on dollars and not the plight of mankind. Every war has been at the hands of profiteers with selfish reasons to thin the herd.

    Where would we be today without the fraud. What would have changed if proper treatments were brought forth.

    What is our future with the promises of hidden science reveled in the near future. We may be astounded by what is possible simply because hidden truths are finally free.

  19. 85% of our health is determined by the environment we live in.
    The germ theory is a supperstious idea that by some unlucky unknown evil hit us from random direction that requires a poison to kill this evil.
    We are that sick because we do not have enough poisons to deal with this evil. The Big Pharma has every poison on the shelf to KILL THIS EVIL INVADER.
    BOTH MY PARENTS WERE KILLED WITH MORIPHINE.

  20. Dairy is an allergen because of the pasteurization process of killing all of the viable enzymes in the raw milk. I have reactions to store bought pasteurized milk and when I drink raw milk I don’t experience any mucus buildup or reactions.

  21. Is anyone able to answer this, why did these scientists (Mayer, Beijerinck, Pasteur, Koch etc.) who had no evidence of so-called “viruses” perpetuate this myth of the viral theory? I see constantly a connection between the wanting of proving that there are invisible microorganisms (viruses) to the try and explain the origins of life through evolution. What were they really after? The fountain of youth? The devil never reveals his true plans but there has to be connection to what the “higher-ups” were trying to accomplish with this whacked out science

  22. My view is between the two poles. Over time what happens to human cells is that they incorporate various bacterial, fungal, and other pathogens inside through various mechanisms. This is similar to the fact that mitochondria were derived from bacteria incorporated within cells that have become the energy source for many cellular activities. Other organisms, some pathogenic, some commensal, also get incorporated at various times to provided needed nourishment missing at some time in the cell’s history. These components become part of the cell’s genetic material, similar to plasmids in bacteria. By existing inside cells they can counterbalance the spread of infections through quorum sensing and similar signals. Wattenburg and Patterson noted for example that fungal genetic material was found in some cancer cells. Imagine for example fungal DNA competing with human DNA to guide the cells reproduction.

    So yes, both Pasteur and Béchamp are correct.

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