Louis Pasteur: Spontaneous Generation Theory

Nar Tamang

Scott Blitch

Bio3 Term Paper

9th April, 201 Louis Pasteur Biography

Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895), born in Dole, Eastern France, was a renowned microbiologist and French chemist who came up with cures and antidotes to numerous dangerous ailments like rabies and anthrax. Also, he successfully designed a technique to pasteurize milk as well as free it from tuberculosis (Pettinger). Louis also demonstrated how from contamination germs grew and invalidated the Spontaneous Generation theory (Lecture 1).

In his early years, Louis Pasteur was a hard-working and meticulous student, although not seen as brilliant. At some point a professor called him ‘mediocre’, but ended up graduating in 1847 with a doctorate degree (Pettinger). He later spent considerable amount of time researching Chemistry aspects after receiving posts at Paris, Strasbourg, and Lille. One of his important findings related to tartrate acid research demonstrated that crystals had isomers left-handed and right-handed mirror image.

First Huge Chemistry Contribution

Louis Pasteur, in 1849, was trying to find a solution to an issue regarding the tartaric acid’s nature —a chemical present in fermenting wine sediments. Scientists were employing the polarized light rotation

First, he discovered that there were greater chances of anthrax infection if sheep killed by the disease were buried in the fields. He managed to convince farmers to avoid burying dead animals in regions where cattle might graze in the near future. Pasteur performed an experiment in 1881, to apply his anthrax vaccine, and it turned out to be a success. In 1880, the year earlier a veterinary surgeon known as Jean-Joseph-Henri Toussaint utilized carbolic acid to destroy anthrax microorganisms (Pettinger). Though Pasteur employed the same approach, he earned the most credit and commercial demand owing to his bigger