XXXII 



LOUIS PASTEUR 

 1822-1895 



Louis Pasteur was born at Dole, France, December B'j, 1822, 

 the son of a tanner. Educated at Arbois, Bcsangon, and the Ecole 

 Nonnale, he was appointed assistant professor of chemistry at the 

 last-named institution. His first important work was in demonstrat- 

 ing the asymmetry of molecides. In i86j he investigated fermenta^ 

 tion and showed that it zt^as caused by the growth of bacteria and later 

 proved that it was also the cause of putrefaction, a suggestion which 

 Lister employed in developing antiseptic surgery. In 186^ Pasteur 

 discovered the bacillus which caused the silkworm disease. Taking 

 up the principle of inoculation he applied it to smallpox and later ex- 

 tended it to other infectious diseases. He died September 28, 18^^. 



INOCULATION FOR HYDROPHOBIA * 



Gentlemen : — Your Congress meetings are the place for the discus- 

 sion of the gravest problems of medicine ; they serve also to point out 

 the great landmarks of the future. Three years ago, on the eve of 

 the London Congress, the doctrine of micro-organisms, the aetiological 

 cause of transmissible maladies, was still the subject of sharp criti- 

 cisms. Certain refractory minds continued to uphold the idea that 

 ^'disease is in us, from us, by us." 



It w^as expected that the decided supporters of the theory of the 

 spontaneity of diseases would make a bold stand in London; but- no 

 opposition was made to the doctrine of ''exteriority," or external 

 causes, the fif st cause of contagious diseases, and those questions were 

 not discussed at all. 



* From Address delivered August 10, 1884 at the Copenhagen meeting of 

 the International Medical Congress. } 



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