In a message dated 8/17/99 3:26:02 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< The whole quote was "Bechamp avait reason, le microbe n'est rien , c'est
  le terrain qui est tout."

 Translation: "Bechamp was right, the germ is nothing,
 it's the terrain [environment...in the sense of host]
 that is everything."

 This is Pasteur's deathbed recantation of his life's work. "Pasteurization"
 is therefore an ironic joke because the inventor himself finally concluded
 it was useless to kill the germs, but the importance was to keep a healthy
 body instead {my interpretation}.
  >>
I think that you infer more than the recantation was intended to imply!