1 janv. 1861 - Louis Pasteur: the Germ Theory

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Before Pasteur's experiments, people believed in the spontaneous generation theory - the idea that the microorganisms that could be observed in rotting matter were created by the decay. People still thought miasma was the main cause of disease.

Louis Pasteur was a trained French chemist who specialised in microorganisms and fermentation. In 1857, he was employed to investigate why vats of sugar beet at a local brewery kept souring, and he discovered it was due to the microorganisms in the beer, which he went on to call germs. His theory was that it was the germs that caused the decay - he also proved that germs were in the air, as sterilised water in a closed flask stayed sterile, whereas sterilised water in an open flask bred germs.
In 1861, Pasteur published his Germ Theory; in it, he argued that microbes in the air caused decay, not the other way around, and that some germs caused disease.

The Germ Theory was first met with scepticism, as people found it difficult to believe that tiny microbes caused disease. It didn't help that the germ responsible for each disease had to be identified individually, meaning that it took several years before the theory began to have an impact. However, Pasteur's Germ Theory opened up a gateway for the development of treatments and prevention of illness: it inspired Joseph Lister to develop antiseptics, proved John Snow's findings about cholera, gave an explanation for Jenner's vaccination, led to the findings of Robert Koch, and improved public health by linking disease to poor living conditions.

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