Louis Pasteur and the Germ Theory of Disease Emily Palmer and Moriah Brooks

Overview Before the Germ Theory. Biography on Louis Pasteur. Pasteur’s discoveries. Spontaneous Generation. The Germ Theory of Disease. Medical Advances. Antibiotics. Pasteurization. Life in the hospital after Pasteur’s discoveries. Because of the Germ Theory…

Before the Germ Theory Conditions were quite dirty. People did not understand the concept of hygiene. The poor people lived in their own sewage.

Continued… Medical procedures were more like torture than a medical practice. Doctors used drugs or alcohol to dull their patient’s pain in any way they could. Before performing surgeries, doctors did not wash their hands.

Biography Born in Dole, France on December 27, 1822. He married Marie Laurent. Together they had five children, three of which died of typhoid fever. Some say that this was his motivation to help save people from diseases.

Discoveries Pasteurization. Vaccines for: rabies, chicken cholera, and anthrax. The disease that the silk worms were infected with. Silk Worm Disease: Silk worms could not produce good silk due to what was called, pebrine. Chicken Cholera: Anthrax:

Spontaneous Generation Common belief was that germs spontaneously generated. Pasteur disproved this between 1860-1864. Spontaneous generation was a key to the development of the Germ Theory of Disease. Explain.

History of Spontaneous Generation This idea was synthesized by Aristotle. He expanded on the work of prior natural philosophers and the various ancient explanations of the appearance of organisms; it held sway for two millenia. Say what this actually means.

Continued… The experiments of Needham and Redi helped support Pasteur in his experiment that disproved spontaneous generation.

The Germ Theory of Disease The Theory said that microorganisms are the cause of many diseases. The Theory revolutionized the practice of medicine and the understanding of disease.

Continued… Discovered in 1862. Pasteur discovered that weak forms of a disease could be used as an immunization against stronger forms of that disease.

Medical Advances Pasteur’s medical advances contributed to the advances in medicine such as; childbirth, antiseptic surgery, antibiotics, and vaccines.

Medical Advances 1882 Robert Koch isolates microorganism responsible for tuberculosis which was the leading cause of death then. 1897 George Nuttall demonstrates that flies can spread plague bacilli.

Continued… 1911 German researcher Paul Erhlich tests salversan, first treatment effective against syphilis; regarded as the birth of modern chemotherapy. 1950 American and British researchers publish papers presenting evidence that smoking causes lung cancer.

Antibiotics We began to look for and develop antibiotics in the late 1800s. The word “antibiotic” came from the word “antibiosis” a term coined in 1889 by Louis Pasteur’s pupil Paul Vuillemin which means a process by which life could be used to destroy life.

Pasteurization Pasteurization is a method that slowed the development of microbes in milk, wine, and beer. He discovered this with the help of Claude Bernard.

In the Hospital After the Germ Theory of Disease Sanitary measures were put in place at hospitals. Doctors and their assistants were forced to wash their hands. They also sanitized their instruments.

Continued… Being admitted to a hospital was no longer a death sentence.

Because of the Germ Theory… Homes became cleaner. Cities became better to live in. People started to bathe more and change their clothes more often. Better hygiene caused marked drops in the rate of disease and death.

Conclusion… Had the germ theory not emerged as an explanation for the common cause of death in the 19th century, it is hard to imagine that major killers would have been overcome in any other way.

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Continued… “Invisible Killers." BMJ, Januray 2007. Web. 22 Oct 2010. <http://www.bmj.com/content/suppl/2007/01/18/334.suppl_1.DC2/milestones.pdf   "Timeline." Duke University Libraries, 01/02/2008. Web. 22 Oct 2010. <http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/mma/timeline.html "Louis Pasteur." Zephyrus, 2010. Web. 22 Oct 2010. <http://www.zephyrus.co.uk/louispasteur.html>. "Germ theory of disease." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 2010. Web. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germ_theory>.