BRIEF HISTORY OF BACTERIOLOGY. 
In 1862 *Louis Pasteur, of France, the fame of 
whose work at “Pasteur Institute,” Paris, is 
world wide, first began his experiments to prove 
that living organisms are in the air we breathe, 
in the food we eat, upon the clothing we wear, 
in the dust we tread beneath our feet, and that 
they may be found any place where dust settles. 
It had long been contended that the processes of 
fermentation and putrefaction were purely chem¬ 
ical processes and not the work of micro-organ¬ 
isms. It was proven also through the experi¬ 
ments of Pasteur that the reproduction of bac¬ 
teria takes place by processes similar to those 
which cause the reproduction of larger vegetable 
or plant life and not by spontaneous generation. 
Many other important discoveries are credited to 
the experiments of Pasteur. In fact, some scien¬ 
tific men of the present day go so far as to say 
that the real history of bacteriology dates no 
further back than to the experiments and discov¬ 
eries of Pasteur; that while it was not he who 
first discovered the existence of germ life, nor 
who first studied bacteria, nor who first suggested 
their connection with fermentative processes and 
with diseases, yet it is to his experiments we owe 
the placing of bacteriological study upon a firm 
basis, and that all the history of micro-organisms 
which antedates the experiments and discoveries 
of Pasteur is merely theoretical, more likely to be 
erroneous than otherwise. 
In 1872 Klebs began to teach that general 
sepsis is caused by bacteria invading the blood. 
Klebs is of German birth; he was born in 
♦Pasteur was born at Dole, Jura, France, in 1822; 
died in 1895. 
Pasteur’s 
Experiments. 
Errors 
Lessened by 
Pasteur. 
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