Ernest Duchesne
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Ernest Duchesne (30 May 1874 – 12 April 1912) was a French
Ernest Duchesne | |
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Born | May 30, 1874 |
Died | April 12, 1912 | (aged 37)
Burial place | Cimetière du Grand Jas |
Nationality | French |
Occupation | Physician |
Spouse | Rosa Lassalas (1901-1903) |
Life and work
Duchesne entered l'Ecole du Service de Santé Militaire de Lyon (the Military Health Service School of Lyons) in 1894. Duchesne's thesis,[1][2] "Contribution à l’étude de la concurrence vitale chez les micro-organismes: antagonisme entre les moisissures et les microbes" (Contribution to the study of vital competition in micro-organisms: antagonism between molds and microbes), that he submitted in 1897 to get his doctorate degree, was the first study to consider the therapeutic capabilities of molds resulting from their anti-microbial activity.
In his landmark thesis, Duchesne proposed that bacteria and molds engage in a perpetual battle for survival.
V. Il semble, d'autre part, résulter de quelques-unes de nos expériences, malheureusement trop peu nombreuses et qu'il importera de répéter à nouveau et de contrôler, que certaines moisissures (Penicillum glaucum), inoculées à un animal en même temps que des cultures très virulentes de quelques microbes pathogènes (B. coli et B. typhosus d'Eberth), sont capables d'atténuer dans de très notables proportions la virulence de ces cultures bactériennes.
Translation: V. It seems, on the other hand, to follow from some of our experiments – unfortunately too few and which it will be important to repeat anew and to check – that certain molds (Penicillum glaucum), inoculated into an animal at the same time as very virulent cultures of some pathogenic microbes (E. coli and typhoid), are capable of reducing to a very considerable degree the virulence of these bacterial cultures.— Ernest Duchesne, Contribution à l’étude de la concurrence vitale chez les micro-organismes: antagonisme entre les moisissures et les microbes, p. 54.
While only weakly conclusive given the number of the experimental trials, this proves Duchesne understood, concluded, and published information about the effect of the Penicillium glaucum mold as a therapeutic agent in animals. Because he was 23 and unknown, the Institut Pasteur did not even acknowledge receipt of his dissertation.[9]
Duchesne served a one-year internship at
Recognition
Duchesne was posthumously honored in 1949, 5 years after Alexander Fleming had received the Nobel Prize.
A history of antibiotics[10] contains a suggestion on why it was forgotten:
- While Fleming generally receives credit for discovering penicillin, in fact, technically, Fleming rediscovered the substance. In 1896, the French medical student Ernest Duchesne originally discovered the antibiotic properties of Penicillium but failed to report a connection between the fungus and a substance that had antibacterial properties, and Penicillium was forgotten in the scientific community until Fleming's rediscovery.
See also
References
- ^ Ernest Duchesne, Contribution à l'étude de la concurrence vitale chez les micro-organismes : antagonisme entre les moisissures et les microbes [Contribution to the study of the vital competition in microorganisms: antagonism between molds and microbes], (Lyon, France: Alexandre Rey, 1897).
- ^ Duchesne 1897, Antagonism between molds and bacteria. An English translation by Michael Witty. Fort Myers, 2013. ASIN B00E0KRZ0E and B00DZVXPIK.
- ^ (Duchesne, 1897), p. 37: "Dans toutes les expériences qui précèdent, ce que nous constatons c'est le résultat brutal de la lutte; …" (In all of the preceding experiments, what we see is the brutal result of the battle; … )
- ^ (Duchesne, 1897), pp. 35–36.
- ^ (Duchesne, 1897), p. 37: " … mais rien ne dit qu'avant de périr elles n'aient porté une atteinte quelconque à la virulence des microbes et peut-être à leurs propriétés pathogènes." ( … but nothing says that before perishing, they [i.e., the molds] hadn't struck some blow at the microbes' virulence and perhaps at their pathological properties.)
- ^ (Duchesne, 1897), pp. 38–40.
- ^ (Duchesne, 1897), p. 47: "Nous avon vu (chapitre 1er) que, dans l'antagonisme qui existe entre les bacilles du pus bleu et la bactéridie charbonneuse, ce sont les toxines de la premiere espèce microbienne qui ont tué la seconde ; en est-il de même pour les moisissures?" (We saw (chapter 1) that, in the antagonism that exists between bacilli of blue pus [i.e., Pseudomonas aeruginosa] and Bacillus anthracis [i.e., anthrax], it is the toxins of the former microbial species which killed the second [species] ; is it likewise for molds?)
- ^ (Duchesne, 1897), p. 51.
- ISBN 9783642544613.
- ^ O'Connor, Pat (27 November 2005). "History of Antibiotics". Retrieved 6 June 2013.