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.

 Source: Microsoft ® Encarta

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