Albert Calmette

CALMETTE, Albert (born in 1863), the famous French bacteriologist and hygienist.

Upon graduating from the Paris Medical Faculty, he served for a number of years as a naval physician.

He was the director (from 1895 to 1919) of the Pasteur Institute in Lille; from 1898, he was a professor of hygiene and bacteriology at the Medical Faculty in Lille.

From 1917, he was the deputy director of the Pasteur Institute in Paris; he has been a member of the French Academy of Medicine since 1919 and a member of the Academy of Sciences since 1928.

Calmette's activity in the field of hygiene and bacteriology, as well as social hygiene, is unusually diverse. A number of studies of major scientific importance belong to him and his students.

From 1891 to 1914, he investigated the venoms of various poisonous snakes and proposed a serotherapeutic method for treating snakebites (see Snake Venom). Calmette studied the composition of snake venoms, their physiological action, the toxicity of the blood of certain reptiles, the natural immunity of certain animals, vaccination, the preparation of antitoxic serum, and the mechanism of venom neutralization by a specific antitoxin. The results of these studies were published by Calmette in a major work on snake venoms, poisonous animals, and antitoxic serotherapy (Les venins, les animaux venimeux et la serotherapie antivenimeuse, P., 1907).

In 1893–97, Calmette studied the epidemiology of the plague in Saigon and, together with Yersin, used anti-plague serotherapy for the first time. From 1905, Calmette began studying tuberculosis. He showed that 'animals from the bovine family, subjected to infection with tuberculosis even in a massive dose, and then isolated from any infection, are affected by tuberculosis to a very slight degree and recover from it or become resistant to new infections.' Calmette's research on tuberculosis is summarized in his book L'infection bacillaire et la tuberculose chez l'homme et chez les animaux (3rd ed., P., 1928).

Calmette's work in the field of tuberculosis led him subsequently to the preparation of a vaccine, named 'BCG' after him and his collaborator Guérin (see Bacteria, Calmette-Guérin bacillus) (La vaccination preventive contre la tuberculose par le BCG, P., 1927; Russian ed.—M.-L., 1929). During his time in Lille, Calmette was the first to organize a dispensary in that city (1901) for the fight against tuberculosis. He is also credited with the general promotion of the idea of fighting tuberculosis in France through the creation of dispensaries. Calmette was one of the initiators of the French Committee for the Fight Against Tuberculosis, of which he is currently the vice-president.

Calmette conducted a number of studies on smallpox vaccine and was the first to propose a method for purifying the vaccine of saprophytes by inoculating a rabbit, and then from the rabbit to a calf. Calmette's major work on hygiene is further represented by his studies on the biological purification of sewage, which remain the primary material on this subject to this day (Recherches sur l'epuration biologique des eaux residuaires, v. I-IX, P., 1905-14).

In addition to these works, Calmette conducted a number of studies on other issues of epidemiology and immunity, such as: plague, filariasis, ancylostomiasis, rabies, etc. The total number of works published by him exceeds 200. Among them is a well-known manual on microbiological and serological technique (Manuel technique de microbiologie et de serologie, 2nd ed., P., 1926; Russian edition—Moscow-Leningrad, 1928).