31/10/2025
๐ฆ๐๐๐๐ข๐ก - ๐๐ก๐ง๐๐ฅ๐๐ฆ๐ง๐๐ก๐ ๐ง๐๐๐ก๐๐ฆ ๐๐๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ง ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ง๐
Calmette Street, Calmette Bridge, those names may be familiar to Saigonese today, and we all probably know of him through his success in developing the vaccine against tuberculosis. But that was after he returned to France and became the first director of the Pasteur Institute in Lille, following his years of work in Indochina.
โ In 1890, Albert Calmette arrived in Saigon. One could say his greatest legacy for Saigon in particular and Vietnam in general was founding the very first Pasteur Institute outside of France (since before that, all institutions bearing the Pasteur name were within French territory). However, few may know that because he had to personally cover the costs of equipment and materials necessary for the instituteโs operation without any support from the colonial authorities and was even assigned by the colonial government to generate revenue for the state budget instead of producing rabies vaccines, Calmette began to turn his attention to o***m research. Why?
๐ In 1882, the colonial government established an o***m monopoly, which became a key pillar of French rule in Indochina, theoretically contributing up to one-third of annual state revenue. Calmette tried to study how to speed up the fermentation process of o***m in hopes of increasing production and, consequently, revenue. However, according to records, this experiment was not successful.
Following the o***m monopoly came the alcohol monopoly. Calmette then shifted his research to rice wine production and fermentation, and this time, he was far more successful. He managed to cut distillation time by half and double productivity. Moreover, Calmette delved deeply into the economic side of things, laying the groundwork for the French to replace the Chinese monopolists who had previously controlled rice wine production โ a move that would help develop French industry and increase the colonial governmentโs revenue.
๐ According to La Dรฉpรชche coloniale illustrรฉe, January 15, 1908:
โ... Il en serait certainement encore ainsi, si le savant Dr. Calmette, directeur de lโInstitut Pasteur de Lille, nโavait mis ร profit le sรฉjour quโil fit ร Saรฏgon pour faire, parmi tant dโautres travaux remarquables, une รฉtude approfondie de la fameuse levure chinoise employรฉe dans tout lโExtrรชme-Orient pour la fermentation du riz.โ
๐ Rough translation:
โ... It would certainly still be the case today, if the eminent Dr. Calmette, Director of the Pasteur Institute of Lille, had not made use of his stay in Saigon to carry out, among many other remarkable works, an in-depth study of the famous Chinese yeast used throughout the Far East for rice fermentation...โ
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To elaborate a bit: until 1902, rice wine production in Cochinchina and Cambodia was entirely in the hands of the Chinese, while in Tonkin and Annam it was handled by the Vietnamese. A few daring Frenchmen had tried multiple times to replace the traditional Asian techniques with European methods, but all had failed due to technical difficulties. Thus, Calmetteโs success strengthened the French monopoly on alcohol, displacing the Chinese and other local producers.
In 1894, Calmette returned to France and, by 1899, became the first director of the Pasteur Institute in Lille. It was there that he collaborated with veterinarian Camille Guรฉrin to research tuberculosis, a partnership that spanned twenty years and led to the discovery of an effective vaccine bearing their names: BCG (Bacille de Calmette et Guรฉrin).
At Lille, he also continued his research on Indochinese rice wine, and his long-standing partnership with the โking of rice spirits,โ A.R. Fontaine, made him a wealthy man. Both he and his brother, Gaston Calmette, were members of the board of directors of the Sociรฉtรฉ Franรงaise des Distilleries de lโIndochine (SFDIC), the French Company of Distilleries in Indochina.
30 October 2025.
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Sources:
๐ Monopoly of Alcohol and the French Colonial Regime in Indochina โ Gรฉrard Sasges
๐ฐ La Dรฉpรชche coloniale illustrรฉe โ 1908
๐ Website of the Institut Pasteur de Lille
https://pasteur-lille.fr/fondation/histoire/
