Louis Pasteur

• scientists not a doctor
• 1850


  brewery asked why beer was bad -> used a microscope and found a particular organism growing quickly - GERMINATING.

  he developed the idea that GERMS CAUSED the problem

  he solved it by boiling the germs (killing them) - PASTEURISATION
• 1860


  French academy wanted to disprove spontaneous generation

  1861 - he proved GERM THEORY was correct -> microorganisms fall from the air and cause decay:

  1. the air contains germs
  2. the germs are not evenly distributed in the air
  3. germs cause decay
  4. germs can be killed by killing them
• he wondered if germs could go into the body, grow and cause disease

  the french silk industry was being ruined by a disease affecting the silkworm - Pasteur investigated -> he found a particular group of germs were causing the infection
• book - Germ Theory of Infection in 1878
• low impact on GB in 1860-70

  • he was french - british hated the french
  • was a scientist not a doctor
  • people listened to Dr Henry Bastion - HE WAS WRONG