No one knew what caused infections
when Louis Pasteur was a boy in the early 1800s. No one knew that germs spread
disease. There were no antibiotics or other drugs. Many people died from
infections.
Pasteur discovered that bacteria
cause many diseases. He showed that bacteria get into living things and then
multiply. He proved that diseases could be cured by stopping the spread of
bacteria. This important discovery is called the germ theory of disease. It led
to antibiotics and other medicines that kill bacteria. Pasteur’s discovery has
saved the lives of many people.
HOW PASTEUR HELPED INDUSTRY
Louis Pasteur was born in France in
1822. He studied physics and chemistry in Paris. As a professor of chemistry, he
worked on problems that affected French industry. The wine-making industry in
France was in trouble during the mid-1800s because much of the wine was
spoiling. Pasteur discovered that germs were getting into the wine and turning
it sour. He found that heat killed these germs and prevented the wine from
spoiling. Pasteur later applied his discovery to milk. His way of heating foods
to kill bacteria is now called pasteurization.
Pasteur also helped the French silk
industry. In the mid-1800s, a disease was killing off silkworms before they
could spin silk threads. Pasteur showed that the disease was in the silkworm
eggs and that getting rid of any infected eggs could keep the disease from
spreading. Pasteur became a national hero in France for saving the wine and silk
industries.
HOW PASTEUR PREVENTED DISEASE
Pasteur then discovered how to
make vaccines to protect people and animals against disease. He observed that
animals infected with a disease sometimes became immune to the disease—that is,
protected from getting the disease again. Pasteur found that he could weaken
germs in his laboratory. When he put weakened germs into the bodies of animals,
the animals became immune to the disease caused by the germs. Pasteur made a
vaccine to protect sheep against a disease called anthrax.
One of Pasteur’s most important
discoveries was a vaccine against rabies. People can get this deadly disease if
they are bitten by an animal infected with rabies. In 1885, a mother begged
Pasteur to treat her young son who had been badly bitten by a dog with rabies.
The vaccine worked, and the boy lived. Pasteur then became an even greater
national hero. In 1888, the Pasteur Institute in Paris was founded in his honor.
Pasteur became its director. He worked there until he died in 1895.
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