Father of bacteriology

1. On December 27, 1822, Louis Pasteur was born in the town of Dole, situated in Eastern France. His father was a tanner (дубильщик). In 1840, Louis earned his Bachelor of Arts degree and in 1842, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the Ecole Normale. He had five kids out of which only two survived into adulthood. Typhoid was the reason for his children’s death. Pasteur’s personal loss led him study the cause for incurable diseases.

2. Louis Pasteur helped resolve the mysteries of several deadly diseases like chicken cholera, anthrax (сибирская язва), rabies and silkworm (шелкопряд) diseases. 

He also contributed to the development of the very first vaccines. Pasteur’s first vaccine discovery was in 1879 with a contagious disease called chicken-cholera. After unexpectedly exposing chickens to the weakened form of a disease, he proved that they became immune to the actual virus. Pasteur continued to extend his “germ theory” to formulate vaccinations for various diseases including anthrax, smallpox and cholera.

3. During Pasteur’s period, the souring (прокисание) of wine and beer caused huge loss of money for wine producers in France. Pasteur, along with other scientists, found that heating up the sugar solutions to high temperatures eliminated the bacteria to avoid spoilage (порча товара). Then he applied the same concept to other products like milk, cheese, and other foods. This is how he came up with pasteurization. Having the name of the inventor, the entire process of pasteurization is still extensively used throughout the world today.

4. Pasteur suffered from brain-strokes which started in 1868. He passed away on September 28, 1895, at Saint Cloud. He was buried in Notre Dame Cathedral. Later, his body was placed in a crypt just below the Pasteur Institute, Paris. Many of his techniques are still in use today.

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How did Pasteur prove that people became immune to the actual virus?