Louis Pasteur

Founded the germ theory of disease and developed the rabies vaccine.

Life

Beginnings in crystal chemistry

Pasteur was born into a tanner's family in a small town in eastern France. He studied chemistry early on and made his name with research on the symmetry of tartaric acid crystals. In the mid-19th century, "spontaneous generation" was still widely accepted, the true causes of fermentation and putrefaction were not understood, and hospital infections were often blamed on "miasma."

Fermentation and vaccines

He proved experimentally that fermentation is caused by microbes, refuted spontaneous generation, and invented pasteurization, a heat-sterilization method that saved France's wine and silk industries. He went on to propose the germ theory of disease, developed vaccines against anthrax and chicken cholera, and in 1885 successfully administered the rabies vaccine for the first time to a boy bitten by a rabid dog.

Institute and controversy

The Pasteur Institute subsequently promoted vaccination worldwide, and he was revered as the "father of microbiology." Some historians of science, however, point out that his laboratory notebooks show some of his results borrowed ideas from contemporary rivals and that his public accounts deliberately played down controversy, making his historical assessment more complicated.

Legacy

Pasteur, together with Koch and others, laid the foundations of microbiology and the germ theory of disease, moving medicine from empiricism to experiment and profoundly influencing disinfection, disease prevention and food safety; pasteurization is still widely used today, and the network of Pasteur Institutes spans the globe. Laboratory notebooks made public in the late 20th century showed discrepancies between his public accounts of some experiments and his original records, prompting historians to reexamine his scientific conduct.

Major works & achievements

• Proved fermentation is caused by microbes
• Refuted spontaneous generation with the swan-neck flask
• Invented pasteurization
• Developed anthrax and rabies vaccines
• Founded the Pasteur Institute

Did you know? Joseph Meister, the first boy to receive the rabies vaccine, later became the caretaker of the Pasteur Institute.

Key dates

• 1847Earned a doctorate at the École Normale Supérieure
• 1857Showed fermentation is caused by microbes
• 1862Refuted spontaneous generation
• 1865Invented pasteurization
• 1881Publicly tested an anthrax vaccine
• 1885Successfully administered a rabies vaccine
• 1888Pasteur Institute founded in Paris
• 1895Died near Paris