Louis Pasteur: brilliant scientist or great fraud?

Critics or envious?

Louis Pasteur entered the history of official medicine as a brilliant scientist, founder of several sciences, whose contribution to the preservation of human health can hardly be overestimated. However, history has repeatedly heard voices claiming the opposite, Pasteur was called the great cheat, falsifier and careerist of modern medicine. What is it: the rumblings of envious people, those eternal companions of geniuses, or the lonely cries of the fighters for truth who dared to debunk a false idol?

The first statements about falsifications and fraud of Louis Pasteur sounded even during the scientist’s lifetime. Thus, a professor at the veterinary school of Alphora Colin challenged Pasteur’s data on 1,700 Frenchmen bitten by rabid dogs during a year and several months. He argued that the figure reflected the total number of people bitten by dogs, but that not all animals suffered from rabies. Colin cited statistics from the French Ministry of Agriculture showing that the number of people bitten by rabid dogs averaged about 350 per year. At the same time, the number of deaths from rabies during the year before the use of vaccination did not exceed 20-30 people. In 1886, with the appearance of the vaccine, contrary to expectations, their number did not decrease, but, on the contrary, reached 35, and 18 of them were introduced Pasteur vaccines…

In 1883, accusations against Pasteur were made by his associates Rooks and Chamberland. They claimed that during the experiment on vaccination of sheep against plague, conducted in 1881 in Puilly de Fort, Pasteur in the strictest secrecy added to the vaccine potassium bicarbonate. It was this substance, not the vaccine itself, that destroyed the plague germs.

Another scandal associated with Pasteur’s name was his rivalry with Antoine Béchard. Today, official sources speak of Béchard as an opponent of Pasteur and his theory of pathogenic microbes. However, some researchers radically disagree with this opinion. Moreover, they argue that many of the discoveries attributed to Pasteur were actually made by Béchard. For example, a number of researchers believe that it was Béchard who discovered the microbial nature of silkworm diseases. The government-authorized Pasteur, on the contrary, spoke of congenital disease, insisting that the “little bodies” carrying the disease were nothing but diseased cells of the worm itself. Subsequently, Béchard’s merits were attributed to Pasteur.

Some misconceptions of Louis Pasteur are also recognized by official historians of medicine. For example, the scientist’s groundless theories about the effects of magnetism on living beings and the infectious nature of epilepsy are widely known. Although the debate about the authorship and scientific value of the scientist’s discoveries is still raging today, even the most ardent opponents of the scientist, perhaps, would not dare to deny the fact that the figure of Louis Pasteur is one of the brightest and most important in the history of medicine and pharmacology.

The six great discoveries of Louis Pasteur

Fermentation 

In 1857, Pasteur began to study fermentation processes. At that time, despite the widespread use of fermentation in industry, there was no unified view of the nature of these processes. Experiments showed that each type of fermentation was caused by certain microorganisms and, therefore, their nature was specific. The further path of Louis Pasteur’s research was not cloudless. Studying oil-acid fermentation, he discovered the hitherto unknown phenomenon of anaerobiosis, i.e. life without molecular oxygen. The statement that some species of bacteria, yeasts and protozoa are able to live in the absence of atmospheric oxygen and obtain energy by oxidizing organic and inorganic substances or using the energy of light sounded fantastic at the time, causing a real storm in the scientific community. To defend his discovery, Pasteur had to endure more than one battle with the most famous scientists of the time. Today, even high school students know about anaerobic oxidation!

 

Spontaneous generation

Pasteur’s confirmation of the fact that microorganisms are the causative agents of fermentation and putrefaction processes was the impetus for renewed discussion of so-called spontaneous generation. As early as in the 17th century, the invalidity of the hypothesis of spontaneous generation was confirmed for higher organisms, but the debate continued with regard to microorganisms. Since the discovery of microbes by Levenguc, the last word alternately remained with the adherents of one or the other theory. It was not until more than two centuries later that Pasteur’s research finally reconciled the opposing camps. The scientist convincingly proved the complete invalidity of the theory of spontaneous origin of life.

 

Wine and beer diseases

In 1865, a group of French wine producers asked Pasteur, whose work had by then become widely known, to study “wine diseases”. These “diseases” killed a considerable part of wine stocks, causing serious damage to the industry. The scientist found that they were also caused by microbes that disrupted normal fermentation processes. Having established the causes, Pasteur went further and developed a reliable way to protect the drink from ailments. He discovered that when wine is heated to 55 ° C, the microbes in it die. The method of preserving products developed by the scientist took root in various branches of the food industry and was called “pasteurization”.

 

Diseases of silkworms

In 1868, thanks to Pasteur, the entire silk industry in the south of France was saved. Diseases and deaths of silkworms were causing considerable losses to production. Pasteur’s research allowed him to identify several infectious diseases of silkworms and to specify methods of controlling them. It was the discovery of the microbial nature of silkworm diseases that was decisive in Louis Pasteur’s life. At that time, science was dominated by Virchow’s theory, which stated that the essence of disease lies in the abnormal functioning of the body’s cells. However, on the basis of his own experiments, Pasteur came to the conclusion that it was microorganisms that caused various animal and human diseases. This conclusion predetermined the scientist’s further activity.

 

Contagion and vaccine

While the 18th century was marked by Jenner’s discovery of smallpox inoculation, which required natural material, the 19th century belonged entirely to Louis Pasteur’s discovery of microbial attenuation, which allowed the researcher to prepare the vaccine himself. At attenuation (from Latin attenuatio – reduction) under the influence of various factors there is an artificial persistent weakening of virulence of pathogenic microorganisms, but they retain the ability to form a specific immune response when introduced into the body in the form of vaccines. Pasteur himself wrote: “As a result of a simple change in the conditions of cultivation of the parasite, due to only more infrequent crossings, we have at our disposal a method that allows us to gradually reduce the virulence of viruses, a method that eventually allows us to obtain a real virus-vaccine, which does not kill, but causes a mild disease and protects against fatal disease.” During his lifetime, Pasteur created vaccines against chicken cholera, swine rubella, sheep plague, anthrax, and rabies. The method developed by Louis Pasteur is still used to produce vaccines today. 

 

Protection against rabies

In 1868, thanks to Pasteur, the whole silk industry in the south of France was saved. Diseases and death of silkworms were causing considerable losses in production. Pasteur’s researches allowed to establish several infectious diseases of silkworms and to specify methods of their control. It was the discovery of the microbial nature of silkworm diseases that became decisive in the life of Louis Pasteur. At that time, science was dominated by Virchow’s theory, which stated that the essence of disease lies in the abnormal work of cells in the body. However, on the basis of his own experiments, Pasteur came to the conclusion that the cause of various diseases of animals and humans are microorganisms. This conclusion predetermined the scientist’s further activity.