REMEMBERING LOUIS PASTEUR: 06 JULY 1885

LEST WE FORGET !

(THIS DAY IN 1885 ,LOUIS PASTEUR VACCINATED JOSEPH)

Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries

of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization. 

He was born on December 27, 1822, in the small town of Dôle, France. His father was a tanner, a person who prepares animal skins to be made into leather. The men in Pasteur's family had been tanners back to 1763, when his great-grandfather set up his own tanning business. Part of the tanning process relies on microbes (tiny living organisms). In tanning, microbes prepare the leather, allowing it to become soft and strong. Other common products such as beer, wine, bread, and cheese depend on microbes as well. Yet, at the time Pasteur was a child, few people knew that microbes existed.

Pasteur's parents, Jean-Joseph Pasteur and Jeanne Roqui, taught their children the values of family loyalty, respect for hard work, and financial security. Jean-Joseph, who had received little education himself, wanted his son to become a teacher at the local High School. Pasteur attended the primary school, and in 1831 entered  Collège . He was regarded as an average student, who showed some talent as an artist. Nonetheless, the headmaster encouraged Pasteur to prepare for the Teachers College located in Paris. 

With this encouragement he dedicated himself totally to his studies. He swept the school prizes during the 1837 and 1838 school year.

In August 1840 he received his bachelor's degree in letters from the Collège Royal de Besançon and was appointed as a  tutor at the Collège. In 1842, at age twenty, he received his bachelor's degree in science. 

In the autumn of 1843, his doctoral thesis   on crystallography(Study of forms and structures of crystals) became talk of the nation.In 1888 a grateful France founded the Pasteur Institute. It was destined to become one of the most productive centers of biological study in the world.

In 1892 Pasteur's seventieth birthday was the occasion of a national holiday. A huge celebration was held at the Sorbonne. Unfortunately Pasteur was too weak to speak to the delegates who had gathered from all over the world. His son read his speech:-

"Gentlemen, you bring me the greatest happiness that can be experienced by a man whose invincible belief is that science and peace will triumph over ignorance and war.… Have faith that in the long run … the future will belong not to the conquerors but to the saviors of mankind."

On September 28, 1895, Pasteur died in Paris. His last words were: "One must work; one must work. I have done what I could." 

He was buried in a crypt in the Pasteur Institute. Years later Joseph Meister, the boy Pasteur saved from rabies, worked as a guard at his tomb.

(JOSEPH)

(Joseph Meister (21 February 1876 - 24 June 1940) was the first person to be inoculated against rabies by Louis Pasteur on 06 July 1885, and the first person to be successfully treated for the infection. Meister was played by Dickie Moore in the 1936 film The Story of Louis Pasteur. The story of Meister's potentially dangerous inoculation against rabies by Pasteur was also featured in an episode of the TV series Dark Matters: Twisted But True.)