76 Background of Work and Study in Public Health 



free from infection.^**^ His study of the disease of the morts-flats, 

 or flacherie, took him into "the domain of pathology [and] led 

 him to examine a host of new problems " which, Duclaux ^^^ indi- 

 cated, " had clearly a reflex action on his later discoveries." To 

 employ Dr. Herter's interpretation, Pasteur, by these researches, 

 entered ''* 



the realm of animal pathology, and . . . thus the vestibule of modern 

 medicine. For it is true that the laws governing the propagation and 

 development of the flacherie disease have the most striking analogies to 

 those of the diseases of man. The varying susceptibilities of different 

 individuals to the same microorganisms, the influence of the path of infec- 

 tion and the fact that flacherie organisms acquire increased virulence after 

 passage through the bodies of living silku'orms foreshadow discoveries in 

 human pathology. The two volumes dealing with the diseases of silk- 

 worms and dated 1870, are works whose contents should be familiar to 

 every independent student of the infectious diseases. 



Pasteur's researches were not without other practical and ap- 

 plied value. Notably from his study of acetic acid fermentation 

 came his recommendations to the wine industry of methods to 

 prevent the spoiling of wine. Valuable scientific information was 

 also supplied vinegar manufacturers. But for our purposes, his 

 contributions to pure science are of more moment. Considering 

 the subject of the mediation of living organisms in fermentation. 

 Dr. Herter stated: '"' 



[Pasteur's] first notable paper in the long series which solved one of the 

 most pressing questions in biology deals with lactic acid fermentation. . . . 

 This research ended, as is well known, in the discovery of a specific lactic 

 acid organism or ferment, and in die cultivation of this and other organ- 

 isms in an artificial medium free from albuminoids. Pasteur was not slow 

 in forming the hypothesis that difi^erent types of fermentation are depen- 

 dent on different types of microorganisms and this idea of specificity soon 

 established in relation to the ordinary decompositions ultimately became 

 the basis of our modern knowledge of the infectious diseases. 



The research on lactic acid fermentation thus gave the coup de grace to 

 the chemical theory of fermentation at the same time it marked the birth 

 of the promising science of bacteriology. The development of a method 

 designed to secure pure cultures from fluid media, the use of culture media 



^^ndem, 329. 



^^'^ Pasteur, The history of a mind, op. cit., 179 f. 



^^* The influence of Pasteur on medical science, op. cit., 329. 



"' Op. cit., 328. 



