Pasteur: one of the most important scientists of all time.
Human beings have made many large advances that have benefited society as a whole, especially
in the field of biology. Darwin's theory of evolution, creation of vaccines by Edward Jenner and the
founding of modern genetics by Gregor Mendel to name but a few. However I think that the most
important Biological advance of all time was the discovery of microbes by Louis Pasteur in the
1860s.
In the eighteen hundreds the idea of microbes that could harm human beings was pretty much
unheard of. In the 1800s understanding of disease was primitive. Many people, including the
members of the medical profession, thought that disease came about from an imbalance in the
body that could be caused by a number of different things, like evil spirits for example. Sanitation
procedures were poor, with doctors not washing hands before performing surgery or between
dealing with different patients. All of this led to high death rates in hospitals and rising infant and
adult mortality rates.
In 1854 Louis Pasteur was appointed Head of Chemistry at the University of Lille. Part of the
University’s job at the time was to find practical solutions for problems in local industry, particularly
in the manufacturing of alcoholic drinks. The main problem of the alcohol production industry was
the beer and wine becoming sour during the fermentation process. His research led him to find
thousands of tiny microorganisms and he became
convinced that these were the culprits of the sour
taste. He widened his research to milk and vinegar.
He became convinced that these microbes caused
the souring effect and came from the outside
environment. The medical profession at the time
ridiculed Pasteur, deeming his ideas as just too
fantastical. However Pasteur was not deterred and
carried on research and proved that the air contains
living organisms that cause putrefaction and they
are not evenly distributed. At the time this was
disputed. Many people subscribed to the belief of
spontaneous generation, for example maggots
could come into being from the flesh they devour. However in 1864 the French Academy of
Scientists accepted Pasteur’s results.
He then went off to find that if you heat the substance this souring effect disappears and the
microorganisms are eliminated. Pasteur then developed the process known as sterilisation, which
in turn was used to clean medical facilities, reduced infections and saved millions of lives.
Today we take for granted pasteurised milk, a process that takes its name from its inventor Louis
Pasteur.
Not stopping there, Pasteur also wanted to build on the work of Edward Jenner’s smallpox
vaccination which was the only viable treatment by the Government in 1840. Pasteur believed that
if a vaccination could be found for smallpox then all diseases could be vaccinated against.
However he didn't know how Jenner’s vaccination worked, so he had to proceed to try and find a
vaccination for chicken cholera. He found the vaccination purely by chance. A man called
Chamberlin had inoculated some chickens with chicken cholera germs from an old culture and
they didn't die. So Pasteur asked Chamberlin to expose that group to a new culture of chicken
cholera and do the same for a control group. The control group died and the pre-exposed group
didn't. Pasteur then published and was ridiculed once again. However his findings were later
validated and a range of vaccines developed.
In conclusion, I think that Pasteur’s discoveries have revolutionised the world of modern Biology
and the medical profession, saving countless lives in the process. I also think Pasteur was
impressive because he never gave up even when he was ridiculed by the scientific community of
the time. His dedication and conviction makes Pasteur one of the most important scientists and his
discoveries rank amongst the most significant of all time, in my opinion.
By Callum Panton U6