In 1854 was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, a post previously held by Louis Pasteur.

[1][2] In 1856, after receiving his medical degree, Béchamp took a position at the University of Montpellier, where he remained until 1876 when he was appointed Dean of the Catholic Faculty of Medicine at Université Lille Nord de France.

Béchamp retired under this cloud in 1886, briefly ran a pharmacy with his son, and ultimately moved to Paris, where he was given a small laboratory at the Sorbonne.

He died at the age of 91, his work having faded into scientific obscurity and Pasteur's version of germ theory dominant.

[1][2] A brief obituary in the British Medical Journal noted that Béchamp's name was "associated with bygone controversies as to priority which it would be unprofitable to recall.