Louis Pasteur is one of the fathers of modern medicine. Without his work and discoveries in the field of microbiology it is doubtful that we would have the world we have today. His work identified the causes of many diseases that were responsible for the massive child and infant mortality figures of previous centuries, and led directly to vaccination and the eradication of many diseases.

Louis Pasteur was born on December 27th 1822 in Dole, France. He was the son of a poor tanner and if not for the recognition by his headmaster it is doubtful he would have become the great man he did. His headmaster recommended he apply to the Ecole Normale Superieure, one of the first European universities, which accepted him. Following his graduation he became professor of Physics in Dijon until 1848. Pasteur's early work was concerned with crystallography and it was his work identifying that natural crystal could exist in two mirror image forms that formed the basis of his doctoral thesis.

This attracted the attention of a M.Puillet and with his help he became Professor of Chemistry at Strasbourg in 1849.

Here he met his wife Marie Laurent, the daughter of the university rector. Between them they had five children, of whom only two survived to adulthood. This may well have driven his later work.

In 1854 he returned to the Ecole Normale Superieure as Dean of Life Sciences. This was the scene of his greatest work. In 1864 Pasteur demonstrated that the process of fermentation was due to microscopic organisms. His greatest demonstration however was that these microorganisms reproduced, and were not due to spontaneous generation.

The seemingly simple experiment he did to prove this is still done over the world in high schools today. Bottles with curved necks and sealed necks containing broth were boiled and left. Nothing grew in them, proving life had to be introduced into them from outside. This was the last great nail in the coffin of the spontaneous generation theory. Experiments of this nature had been conducted before but it was Pasteur's reputation as a scientist, and his rigorous scientific methods along with his vigorous publicity of his theories that convinced most of the scientific community.

Pasteur then took his work further, demonstrating that microorganisms were responsible for food spoilage. Starting in 1862 he, along with Claude Bernard, developed a process for heating and cooling milk to destroy bacterial and fungal contamination. This process

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Louis Pasteur's contributions to medical microbiology?
We want to hear your view. Write now!