Louis Pasteur and his role in the development of microbiology. Pasteur's development of the scientific foundations for the specific prevention of infectious diseases

HISTORY OF MICROBIOLOGY

Zhdanov, Russian virologist. Proceedings on viral infections, molecular biology and classification of viruses, the evolution of infectious diseases.

3. The priority of domestic scientists in the discovery of pathogenic protozoa.

The works of Russian researchers M. M. Terekhovsky (1740-1796) and D. S. Samoilovich (Sushchinsky) were of great importance. The great merit of M. M. Terekhovsky is that he was one of the first to use the experimental method in microbiology: he studied the effect of electric discharges of different strengths, temperatures, and various chemicals on microorganisms; studied their reproduction, respiration, etc. Unfortunately, his work was little known at that time and could not have a great influence on the development of microbiology. The works of the outstanding Russian doctor D.S. Sa-moylovich received the widest recognition.

He was elected a member of 12 foreign academies of sciences. D.S. Samoilovich entered the history of microbiology as one of the first (if not the first) "hunters" for the plague agent. For the first time he took part in the fight against the plague in 1771 during its outbreak in Moscow, and then from 1784 he participated in the elimination of outbreaks of the plague in Kherson, Kremenchug (1784), Taman (1796), Odessa (1797), Theodosius (1799). Since 1793, he was the chief doctor of quarantines in the south of Russia. D.S. Samoylovich was a staunch supporter of the hypothesis of the living nature of the plague agent, and more than a hundred years before the discovery of the microbe, he tried to detect it. Only the imperfection of the microscopes of that time prevented him from doing this. He developed and applied a whole range of anti-plague measures. Observing the plague, he came to the conclusion that after suffering the plague

One of the main scientific merits of D.S. Samoilovich is the idea of the possibility of creating artificial immunity against the plague with the help of vaccinations. With his ideas, D.S. Samoilovich acted as a herald of the emergence of a new science - immunology.

A great contribution to the systematics of microbes was made by one of the founders of Russian microbiology, L. S. Tsenkovsky (1822-1887). In his work "On lower algae and ciliates" (1855), he established the place of bacteria in the system of living beings, indicating their proximity to plants. L. S. Tsenkovsky described 43 new types of microorganisms, found out the microbial nature of the cell (a mucus-like mass formed on crushed beets). Subsequently, regardless of Pasteur, he received an anthrax vaccine, and being a professor at Kharkov University (1872-1887), he contributed to the organization of the Pasteur station in Kharkov. The conclusion of L. S. Tsenkovsky about the nature of bacteria was supported in 1872 by F. Cohn, who separated bacteria from protozoa and attributed them to the plant kingdom.

P. F. Borovsky (1863-1932) and F. A. Lesh (1840-1903) are the discoverers of pathogenic protozoa, leishmania and dysentery amoeba. I. G. Savchenko established the streptococcal etiology of scarlet fever, was the first to use antitoxic serum for its treatment, proposed a vaccine against it, created the Kazan School of Microbiologists in Rossha and, together with I. I. Mechnikov, studied the mechanism of phagocytosis and problems of specific prevention cholera. D.K. Zabolotny (1866-1929) - the largest organizer of the fight against the plague, established and proved its natural foci. He created the first independent department of bacteriology at the St. Petersburg Women's Medical Institute in 1898.

A great contribution to the development of general, technical and agricultural microbiology was made by Academicians V. N. Shaposhnikov (1884-1968), N. D. Jerusalem (1901-1967), B. L. Isachenko (1871-1947), N. A. Krasilnikov (1896-1973), V. L. Omelyansky (1867-1928). S. P. Kostychev (1877-1931), E. I. Mishustin (1901-1983) and their numerous students. Medical microbiology, virology and immunology owe much to the research of such well-known domestic scientists as N. F. Gamaleya (1859-1949), P. F. Zdrodovsky (1890-1976), L. A. Zilber (1894 -1966), V. D. Timakov, E. I. Martsinovsky (1874-1934), V. M. Zhdanov (1914-1987), 3. V. Ermolyeva (1898-1979), A. A. Smorodintsev (1901 -1989), M. P. Chumakov (1909-1990), P. N. Kashkin (1902-1991), B. P. Pervushin (1895-1961) and many others. The work of domestic microbiologists, immunologists and virologists has made a major contribution to the development of world science, to the theory and practice of health care.

I.G. Savchenko and his role in the development of domestic microbiology. Development of microbiology in Russia. The role of medical microbiology in the implementation of preventive healthcare.

Savchenko Ivan Grigoryevich (1862-1932), doctor of medical sciences, professor, head of the department of microbiology from 1920 to 1928. A student and associate of I. I. Mechnikov, Honored Worker of Science of the RSFSR. One of the organizers of the Kuban Medical Institute, the first head of the department of bacteriology and general pathology. In 1920 he organized a chemical and bacteriological institute on the basis of the city sanitary laboratory, which he led until 1932. He created a school of bacteriologists, whose representatives became heads of departments in various institutes of the country.

During this period, as Ivan Grigorievich wrote, the "brilliant research" of I. I. Mechnikov, his phagocytic theory and the controversy that flared up in the scientific world around it had a special influence on the direction of the work of I. G. Savchenko. Fortunately for the young researcher, Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov himself was a frequent guest in the laboratory of Professor VV Podvysotsky. Once he was present at the report of I. G. Savchenko on immunity against anthrax, became interested in his experiments and gave them a high rating.

“He asked me,” recalled I. G. Savchenko, “to set out in detail the protocol of experiments, show the preparations, and, having become acquainted with the work, recommended that it be published in a German journal,” where an article by the German scientist Chaplevsky was previously published, directed against Mechnikov’s theory of phagocytosis. .. "From this work, - continued Ivan Grigoryevich, - my acquaintance with the brilliant Mechnikov began, working for whom became my dream, which came true in 1895."

And here is I. G. Savchenko in Paris, at the Pasteur Institute, in the laboratory of I. I. Mechnikov.

At the institute, I. G. Savchenko worked on elucidating the physical nature and mechanism of phagocytosis. He established two phases: the first - the attraction of the object of phagocytosis to the surface of the phagocyte and the second - its immersion in protoplasm with subsequent digestion ... These studies on the study of the phagocytic reaction brought I. G. Savchenko universal fame in the scientific world.

After a business trip abroad, I. G. Savchenko, who adopted the best traditions of the Pasteur Institute and armed with vast scientific experience, returned to Russia at the end of 1896, arrived in Kazan, where his fruitful work began in the newly built bacteriological institute. He headed the new Institute and the Department of General Pathology at the oldest Kazan University (founded in 1804).

In 1905, I. G. Savchenko published a message about his discovery of scarlet fever toxin, and two years later he proposed his own method of combating scarlet fever - a therapeutic serum of an antitoxic nature. It is curious that only two decades later, the Americans Dickey followed the same path, without disputing, however, the priority of manufacturing such a serum from the Russian scientist and attaching great importance to his works. This method of preparing streptococcal anti-scarlet serum, proposed by Ivan Grigorievich, was very famous in the United States of America and was called "Professor Savchenko's method ..."

In 1919, the scientist moved from Kazan to the Kuban. A year later, the health department offers him to create a district bacteriological institute and sets him urgent tasks - to urgently produce vaccines on a "wide scale" for the army and the population.

The Kuban was engulfed in an epidemic of typhus and cholera. In 1913, a special two-story building for a chemical and bacteriological laboratory was built near the Senny Bazaar, where the famous microbiologist began to create miraculous vaccines in 1920. The necessary vaccines and preparations were created that bring salvation to people infected with cholera and typhus.

In 1923, a malaria station was established in Krasnodar, headed by Professor Ivan Grigorievich Savchenko. Efforts were directed to combat the malarial Anopheles mosquito. If in 1923 there were 6171 "painters" in Krasnodar, then in 1927 - 1533 people.

Malaria has been completely eradicated in the Kuban - and this is a considerable merit of the famous microbiologist I. G. Savchenko.

In terms of scientific research, in terms of the gigantic work carried out in the laboratories, the Kuban Institute of Chemistry and Bacteriology at that time ranked third in the USSR. In 1928, the scientist was awarded the honorary title of Honored Worker of Science (I. G. Savchenko was the first professor in the North Caucasus to receive the honorary title of Honored Worker of Science.)

- a wonderful French biologist and chemist who, through his activities, left a great contribution to the development. Fame came to Pasteur for the development of preventive vaccination techniques. The idea of prevention came to Louis when he studied the theory of the development of the disease as a result of the activity of pathogenic microbes. Biography of Pasteur, tells us about the originality of this person and iron willpower. He was born in 1822 in France, in the city of Dole. As a teenager, he moved to Paris and graduated from a local college. During the years of study, the young man did not succeed in showing himself, then one of the teachers spoke of the student as “mediocrity in chemistry”.

Louis over the years of his life proved to the teacher that he was wrong. He soon received his doctorate, and his research on tartaric acid made him a popular and well-known chemist. Having achieved some success, Pasteur decided not to stop, and continued research and experiments. Studying the process of fermentation, the scientist proved that it is based on the activity of microorganisms of a certain type. The presence of other microorganisms in the fermentation process can adversely affect the process. Based on this, he suggested that such microorganisms can also live in the human or animal body, which secrete unwanted products and negatively affect the entire body. Soon, Louis managed to substantiate the theory of infectious diseases, it was a new word in medicine. If the disease is caused by an infection, then it could therefore be avoided. To do this, you just need to prevent the penetration of the microbe into the human body. Louis believed that antiseptics should acquire special importance in medical practice.

As a result, the surgeon Joseph Lister began to practice antiseptic methods in his work. Also, microbes could enter the body through food and drink. Then Louis developed a method of "pasteurization", which destroyed harmful microbes in all liquids, with the exception of spoiled milk. At the end of his life, Pasteur began to seriously study the terrible disease - anthrax. As a result, he managed to develop a vaccine, which was a weakened bacillus. The vaccine has been tested on animals. The vaccine administered caused a mild form of the disease. It allowed the body to prepare for a severe form of the disease. It soon became clear to the scientific world that many life-threatening diseases could be prevented with a vaccine. Louis died in 1895 near Paris.

The scientist left behind a great legacy for mankind. We owe him the existence of vaccinations that help us teach the body to resist various diseases. Pasteur's discovery helped to increase life expectancy, his contribution to development can hardly be overestimated.

Pasteur Louis (1822-1895), French microbiologist and chemist, founder of modern microbiology and immunology.

Born December 27, 1822 in the city of Dole, Department of the Jura. The only son of a tanner. First he studied at the college of the city of Arbois, then at the Lycée Saint-Louis in Paris. In parallel, Pasteur attended lectures at the Sorbonne, in particular, he listened to the famous chemist Jean Baptiste Dudma.

After graduating with honors from the Lyceum, the young man was admitted in 1843 to the Ecole Normal - Higher Normal School, where he studied the natural sciences. At the end of the course (1847), he defended two doctoral dissertations within a year: one in physics, the other in chemistry. Then, as a professor, he taught at Dijon (1847-1848), Strasbourg (1849-1854) and Lille (since 1854) universities, and in 1857 he became dean of the faculty of natural sciences at the Higher Normal School.

Already at the age of 26, Pasteur was known for his work in the field of organic crystallography, which laid the foundation for stereochemistry (the science of the spatial arrangement of atoms in molecules). He revealed the optical asymmetry of molecules, separating from each other two crystalline forms (right- and left-handed) of tartaric acid. Since asymmetric crystals were found in substances formed during fermentation, the scientist became interested in this chemical process. In 1857, he discovered that fermentation is of a biological nature, being the result of the vital activity of special microorganisms - yeast fungi. Pasteur suggested that wine turns into vinegar under the influence of bacteria, and proposed processing wines by heating to 60 ° C (pasteurization).

In 1861, while investigating the causes of the death of silkworms, he found a way to sort silkworm eggs under a microscope. These works led Pasteur to the idea that the pathogenic properties of microbes, the causative agents of infectious diseases, can be arbitrarily weakened. An organism that has been vaccinated with a weakened bacterial culture (vaccine) subsequently acquires resistance to the disease itself, developing immunity.

Since 1867, Pasteur, then already a professor of chemistry at the University of Paris, and his students began many years of experiments, thanks to which it became possible to put into practice the vaccine against chicken cholera, anthrax, rubella in pigs and rabies.

One of the first Pasteur stations where such vaccination was carried out appeared in 1886 in Odessa on the initiative of the scientists I. I. Mechnikov and N. F. Gamaleya.

Of the 350 who applied for help, Pasteur was unable to save only a little girl who was bitten on the head by a dog 37 days before vaccination. However, this was enough for him to be accused of charlatanism. Even within the walls of the Academy of Sciences of France, accusations had to be heard that Pasteur did not cure, but spread rabies and that his methods were contrary to modern science.

The scientist heard rumors that in some cities an angry mob smashed the stations created for vaccination. All this could not but affect the health of the researcher.

When the famous Pasteur Institute was built in Paris with funds raised by international subscription (1888), Pasteur himself could no longer work in the laboratory.

Famous researchers and scientists, discoverers who forever entered their names in the annals of science, were often ahead of their time and therefore remained misunderstood. Louis Pasteur, whose brief biography will be discussed below, is one of these personalities. He lived a difficult life, was forced to fight for the right to engage in science, but managed to win and give his descendants microbiology, immunology and other equally useful achievements. Let's take a closer look at his life path.

Birth and early years

Even a brief biography for the children of Louis Pasteur makes it possible to make sure that this person had extraordinary talents and a unique mindset. He was born in 1822, on December 27 in the small French town of Dole, in the family of a leather craftsman.

years of education

The future discoverer of microbiology began his studies at Arbois College, where he was the youngest student. Already in his first educational institution, Louis managed to achieve impressive success, becoming an assistant teacher. Then he realized that a lot depends on diligence and perseverance. Then he studied science in college at the Paris Lycée Saint-Louis and at the same time was a visitor to lectures at the Sorbonne. Having brilliantly graduated from college, the young Pasteur continued his education at the Higher Normal School, where he studied the natural sciences. In one year, he managed to defend two doctoral dissertations at once and receive the title of professor in physics and chemistry.

First steps in work

In a brief biography of Louis Pasteur, one should definitely talk about his early works. So, he worked at several universities with the rank of professor, then he received the position of dean in his own educational institution, the Higher Normal School. The researcher turns out to be a very strict leader, significantly tightening the rules for admission to the school and the requirements for the graduate, which made the educational institution more solid. Under the age of 40, Pasteur was already widely known in scientific circles for his pioneering work:

Works on organic crystallography laid the foundation for the modern science of stereochemistry.
He managed to study in detail the process of fermentation and reveal its biological nature. It was Louis Pasteur who established that living microorganisms, special yeast fungi, are responsible for the process of turning wine into vinegar.

In the future, the chemist continued to study pasteurization, proposing to treat wine with high temperatures to preserve it.

Research

The next stage in the life of Louis Pasteur, whose brief biography and photo are presented in this material, is work in the field of medicine. So, studying the causes of the death of silkworm worms, he learned to separate healthy individuals from sick ones under a microscope. This led the researcher to the idea that in the same way it is possible to influence pathogens in the human body. If you introduce a special serum to the patient, then you can weaken the effect of the microbe and even develop immunity to it in the patient.

Pasteur and his students set up numerous experiments that allowed a comprehensive study of the nature of vaccines. So, he managed to find cures for such serious diseases as anthrax, rabies and rubella of pigs, chicken cholera. In those days, these viral infections claimed many lives. The first success in the field of vaccination was the inoculation of a 9-year-old boy, who was thus saved from rabies.

accusations

Like any person ahead of his time, the brilliant scientist was accused of quackery. His doctrine of vaccination was not popular with researchers who did not want to open their minds to new trends. Therefore, hard times have come in a brief biography and discoveries of Louis Pasteur. While vaccinating, the scientist could not help a little girl bitten by a dog who came back after more than 35 days. The vaccine was powerless, and the child died. Therefore, absurd accusations rained down on Pasteur that the scientist does not bring good to people, but is engaged in the spread of rabies. In some cities where vaccination stations have been set up, mobs have gone on a rampage threatening to destroy medical facilities. All this undermined the health of the great scientist.

With his own funds, Pasteur founded the Pasteur Institute in Paris, but he could no longer work there.

Death

Louis Pasteur left this world in 1895, on September 28, at the age of 72. The cause of death of the researcher is called a series of strokes that almost completely destroyed his body.

Until his death, he remained true to his ideas and sought to help people. Louis Pasteur was buried in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, later his ashes were reburied in the crypt of the institute he created.

Features of teaching younger students

Of particular interest is a short biography of Louis Pasteur for grade 3. The teacher has a difficult but interesting task not only to tell about the discoveries of a great man, but also to display the key features of his personality. So, what should be the first thing to tell the third graders?

Born into a simple working-class family, Louis Pasteur did not follow in the footsteps of his father, a tanner, choosing a different path for himself.
It must be noted that this person studied and worked all his life, did not give up even in moments of illness and when his work was frankly not accepted, accusing the researcher of quackery.
Its role is truly great in such sciences as chemistry, physics, medicine and biology.
The brilliant researcher made his first discoveries as a student, ahead of not only teachers, but also his time.
Louis Pasteur had to endure both the recognition of his own merits and unfair reproaches, but nothing could break his craving for knowledge and thirst for discovery.
The scientist was friendly with many Russian researchers, who later continued his great work.

You can also include in the learning process a selection of interesting facts and list the discoveries themselves. This will help schoolchildren to appreciate the contribution to science of this brilliant man.

We have already met with a brief biography of Louis Pasteur. Interesting facts are presented below:

He was not only an outstanding scientist and researcher, but also a gifted artist, so he managed to perpetuate portraits of his mother and sisters on his canvases.
Pasteur's wife bore him five children, but three of them died in infancy from typhoid fever, which was incurable at that time. This was one of the main reasons that prompted Pasteur to study methods of treating dangerous diseases.
He was a conscientious Catholic, fully accepting this religious teaching on faith.
For most of his life, Louis Pasteur was engaged in the treatment of patients, while not having a medical education.
He made his most significant discoveries when he was disabled: from a cerebral hemorrhage, 45-year-old Pasteur was left almost completely paralyzed in the left half, his arm and leg did not move. Nevertheless, the scientist continued his work and managed to save many lives.

The life of this outstanding person cannot be called easy, which is why his perseverance, diligence and determination are especially striking.

Discoveries

A short biography of Louis Pasteur in English or Russian necessarily highlights the discoveries made by this great man.

So, he managed to prove that specific microorganisms are responsible for fermentation, this became a new trend in the science of that time. Prior to Pasteur, it was generally accepted that fermentation was a chemical process.
It was this talented microbiologist who discovered the existence of microorganisms that can live without oxygen. It is they who cause butyric fermentation, leading to spoilage of wine and beer. Therefore, in order to save drinks, Pasteur proposed using oxygen, which is destructive for such organisms.
The brilliant scientist managed to refute another theory that prevailed in his time - about the spontaneous generation of bacteria. Thus, 19th-century explorers believed that an organism could arise from nothing, on its own. And Louis Pasteur, whose brief biography is coming to an end in our material, conducted an interesting experiment that proved the inconsistency of this concept. He placed the nutrient solution in a vessel with a curved neck, life did not appear there, despite all the necessary conditions, because the bacterial spores settled on the kinks of the neck. And if, ceteris paribus, the neck was removed, then soon they appeared in the nutrient solution. For this discovery, Louis Pasteur received an award from the French Academy of Sciences.
He helped winemakers fight product diseases by teaching them how to heat wine at high temperatures. Subsequently, the method was called pasteurization, and now it helps to extend the shelf life of many foods, while maintaining their taste and nutritional value. But pasteurized substances should be stored at low temperatures.
The first proposed preventive vaccinations, which are still being done today.

All this makes the scientist's contribution to the development of science and medicine invaluable.

We reviewed a brief biography of Louis Pasteur and his discoveries and saw that he was not just a man of outstanding intelligence, but also a very hardworking researcher who tried to get to the bottom of the truth, despite the ridiculous theories prevailing in his years, which many blindly accepted on faith. Now many educational institutions bear the name of the great microbiologist, as well as one of the craters of the Moon.

Professor V. D. Solovyov

On the fiftieth anniversary of death

Louis Pasteur in the laboratory. On the photo there is an inscription: “In memory of the famous Mechnikov, the creator of the phagocytic theory, from the sincerely devoted Pasteur.

Ru and I.I. Mechnikov (Paris).

In Paris, on Rue Dutot, in a low, modest building surrounded by a cast-iron fence, the Pasteur Institute is located - one of the most interesting scientific institutions in the world. The institute was created according to the plan of the great scientist, whose name it bears. It was built in the last years of Pasteur's life with funds raised by international voluntary subscription. The Pasteur Institute is the center of microbiological science in France and has played an exceptional role in the development of this science. The best French bacteriologists worked within its walls, as well as many outstanding researchers from other countries, including Russian scientists. The world famous Russian zoologist and microbiologist Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov was at one time the Scientific Director of this Institute. Here, during the lifetime of Pasteur himself, N. F. Gamaleya, now an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, studied bacteriological skills.

The great scientist forever, even after his death, remained at his Institute. On the ground floor, in a small chapel, is his tomb. Above the entrance there is an inscription: “Here lies Pasteur”, and on the sides there are two dates: “1822” and “1895” - the years of birth and death of this wonderful person! Inside, on the marble walls, the most important stages of Louis Pasteur's activity and the years of his discoveries are marked: 1848 - molecular asymmetry. 1857 - enzymes, 1862 - so-called spontaneous generation, 1863 - observations on wine, 1865 - diseases of silkworms, 1871 - observations on beer, 1877 - contagious diseases, 1880 - preventive vaccinations, 1885 - prevention of rabies. This short chronological list reflects the history of the creative life of the great scientist.

The son of a tanner from Arbois, a small town in eastern France, and the great-grandson of a serf, Louis Pasteur began his scientific career by studying the theoretical issues of chemistry and chemical crystallography. While still a student at the Normal School in Paris, he began his research on two acids extracted from tartar - tartaric and grape. These two acids, similar in their chemical composition, differ in one feature: the salts of the first of them rotate the plane of polarization to the right, while the salts of the second are optically inactive. Studying the causes of this phenomenon, Pasteur found that during the crystallization of the double ammonium-sodium salt of tartaric acid, two types of crystals stand out, differing from each other in the presence of tiny areas or faces that previously eluded the attention of researchers. These areas were only on one plane of the crystal and caused their incomplete symmetry: sometimes they were on the left, and sometimes on the right side. The pastor collected separately crystals of this salt with facets on the left side and crystals with facets on the right side. From those and other crystals, he isolated the free acid. It turned out that the solution of the first crystals rotates the plane of polarization to the left, while the solution of the second crystals rotates to the right.

In this way, for the first time in the history of chemistry, an optically active substance was artificially obtained from an inactive starting material. Previously, it was believed that the formation of optically active substances can occur only in living organisms. Pasteur explained the optical activity of the right and left tartaric acids by the asymmetry of their molecules. Thus, the concept of molecular asymmetry was introduced into science.

Further developing his method of artificial breakdown of chemical compounds, Pasteur used the action of mold fungi. This was the beginning of his subsequent work on microbes. Thus, purely chemical research contributed to the creation of one of the most important branches of biology - microbiology. The creation of this science is inextricably linked with the name of Pasteur. What is the cause of contagious diseases, how the infection is transmitted to man - this became clear only when the brilliant mind of Pastor revealed the secret of the driving force of fermentation and directed the development of science along a completely new path.

In the pre-Paster era, that is, 60-70 years ago, mankind had a very vague idea of what contagious diseases were. There were known severe epidemics of cholera, smallpox, plague, which the people called the "black death"; they carried millions of people to the grave. Many other epidemic diseases were known, but what are the causes that cause them, and what should be the measures to combat them, no one knew. How powerless practical medicine was at that time can be seen from the example of the Crimean War of 1854. In the French army, which numbered more than 300,000 soldiers, about 10,000 were killed, and 85,000 people died from diseases and from infectious complications of wounds. In other words, in the army, recruited from the most healthy and hardy men, more than a quarter of the entire composition fell victim to disease. The imperfection of surgery of that time is indicated by the enormous mortality from purulent complications of wounds. For example, 92% of the operated patients died during hip amputation. The main reason for such terrible losses was the ignorance of those rules of hygiene, which now seem to us the most elementary.

By the age of 35, Louis Pasteur was already a famous scientist. His work on the biological theory of fermentation dates back to this time. Facts were established with impeccable accuracy, showing that all fermentation processes are not simple chemical phenomena, as previously thought, but the result of the action of microorganisms. Alongside brilliant research, Pasteur established the mechanism of various forms of fermentation, in which living beings of negligible size, belonging either to yeast fungi or bacteria, turned out to be the active principle.

Later, when studying the processes of decay, Pasteur showed that they are also due to the vital activity of microbes. He also understood the great importance that microorganisms have in the transformation of complex protein substances into a primitive state. “If microscopic creatures disappeared from the surface of the earth, then it would quickly be cluttered with dead organic waste and all kinds of animal corpses and plant remains,” Pasteur wrote. “Without their participation, life would soon cease, as the work of death would remain unfinished.”

Where do these microorganisms, which play such a big role in nature, come from, what is their origin?

Pasteur's subsequent classical studies provided a clear answer to this question. It has been proved that there is no spontaneous generation of micro-organisms, that wherever we find micro-organisms they have been introduced from outside. It turned out that it is completely within the power of a person not only to cause, but also to prevent any of the phenomena of fermentation or decay. It turned out that there are microorganisms that can be used by humans, for example, to convert wort into alcohol, alcohol into vinegar. There are also harmful microorganisms, i.e., those that cause contagious diseases.

These remarkable discoveries of Pasteur not only found practical application in industry and agriculture, but they illuminated the whole of medicine with a new light and laid the foundation for a new science that studies microorganisms - microbiology.

The famous English surgeon, Joseph Lister, having understood the full depth of the ideas of his contemporary Pastor, made the following practical conclusion from them: if purulent complications of wounds depend on the action of microorganisms that have got in from the outside, from the air, then it means that for successful treatment it is necessary to prevent microbes from entering the wound. Thus, a new method of treating wounds was introduced into surgery, called the non-septic or antiseptic method, which was later replaced by a more advanced one - aseptic. The aseptic method consists in maintaining strict cleanliness and in observing conditions that strictly prevent the penetration of infection, i.e. microorganisms, from the environment. “Let me,” Lister wrote to Pastor, “thank you from the bottom of my heart for having opened my eyes to the existence of pyogenic microbes with your brilliant research and thus made it possible to successfully apply the antiseptic method in my work. If you ever come to Edinburgh, then I am sure that in our hospital you will receive true satisfaction, seeing to what a high degree humanity has been benefited by your labors.

Pasteur became interested in medicine, studying the processes of infection and putrefaction. He was particularly interested in the idea of the uniqueness of some infectious diseases. What is the cause of immunity, i.e., the body's ability to resist the action of infectious diseases?

In 1880, while investigating a disease of chickens - chicken cholera, he discovered the remarkable property of the causative agent of this disease - not only to cause disease, but also to create immunity against it. If an artificial breeding or, as they say, a culture of a microbe has become less poisonous due to its long storage outside the body, then it can only cause a weak form of the disease. But after that, immunity is created - immunity to infection even by the strongest culture of microbes of a given disease. Thus, a method was found for the preparation of inoculations, or vaccines, that is, material for inoculations that protect against infectious diseases.

Although Pastor was already 58 years old at that time, it was precisely now that the period of his most outstanding discoveries began. The discovery of a vaccine against chicken cholera was followed by experiments on anthrax. Anthrax - a severe, often fatal disease of livestock, sometimes affecting humans as well - at that time brought enormous losses to livestock farms. Armed with his brilliant method of weakening the causative agents of a contagious disease and using them for vaccinations, Pasteur, after numerous laboratory experiments, began to manufacture a vaccine against anthrax. After hard and painstaking work, Pasteur managed to find the conditions under which anthrax microbes lose their toxicity, and to prepare a vaccine. It was tested in the famous public experiment on the Poulier-le-Fort farm in the spring of 1881. Having received 60 sheep and cows at his disposal, Pasteur made several preliminary vaccinations for half of them and then, in the presence of numerous spectators, infected both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. animals with anthrax in its deadliest form. All those present were warned that in 48 hours thirty animals would die, and the remaining half - previously vaccinated animals - would remain safe and sound. The prediction came true literally. The following picture presented itself to those gathered in Pouliers-le-Fort: 22 sheep lay dead, 2 died in front of the audience, and the remaining 6 animals died by the end of the day; 30 vaccinated remained alive and well.

The effect of this experience was exceptional. Newspapers around the world noted the unprecedented success of Pasteur. The method of inoculation developed by him received full recognition.

Following his victory over anthrax, Pasteur went ahead along the intended path. Now he took on a new, very difficult task - to find the germ of rabies. The mere name of this disease, always fatal to man, was terrifying. Medicine did not know any means of combating rabies, and it was well known; if a person is bitten by a rabid wolf or a dog and he falls ill, then there is no salvation, the bitten must die in severe torment of hydrophobia.

A long, intense search this time did not yield the usual result. The rabies microbe could not be found either in sick people or in sick animals. Now we know that the causative agent of this disease cannot be seen under a microscope, it belongs to the category of so-called filterable viruses and can only be detected by special research methods unknown in Pasteur's time. All the more, Pasteur's gift of foresight seems great: having not found a microbe that causes hydrophobia, he did not stop his research and, through the most ingenious experiments and logical conclusions, discovered a way to combat rabies.

When studying dogs with rabies, it was found that the receptacle of the infection is the nervous system - the brain and spinal cord. If you take pieces of nervous tissue, crush them and then use a syringe to inject a healthy animal under the cranial bone, then typical rabies breaks down in it. Thus, it is possible to induce disease at the will of the experimenter. Following further his principle of weakening the infectious principle with its subsequent use to create immunity, Pastor found a way to weaken the terrible poison of rabies. His talented assistants Roux and Chamberlain removed the spinal cord from a rabbit that had died of rabies and then dried it for 14 days in a glass jar. So 14 varieties of dried rabies poison were prepared, with different strengths, ranging from almost harmless to poison of one day's drying, capable of killing an unvaccinated dog. But if these 14 doses are injected successively into dogs, starting from the weakest, and after that the vaccinated animals are infected with the deadly poison of rabies, the vaccinated dogs will not get sick.

After careful control of these experiments, the commission of the French Academy of Sciences came to the following conclusion: "if a dog is immunized with gradually increasing doses of the poisonous spinal cord of rabid rabbits, it can never get sick with rabies."

Victory seemed to be in Pasteur's hands, but there was still another question to be settled. Is it possible with such vaccinations to save from the disease not only before the penetration of the infection, but also after the bite of a rabid animal? In other words, is it possible not only to prevent the disease, but also to cure it? And this issue was soon resolved. The poison of rabies acts slowly. From the moment of the bite to the appearance of the first signs of the disease, it takes several weeks, and sometimes months. Therefore, it turned out to be possible to follow this deadly poison, slowly moving towards the central nervous system, to send a poison weakened, but with a faster effect. It is ahead of a strong poison and prepares the nervous system, making the body invulnerable.

This bold and brilliant idea of Pasteur was brilliantly realized and confirmed by numerous experiments. But experiments on animals, no matter how good they are, are still not enough to judge the benefits of vaccinations for humans. And on July 4, 1885, the first injection of a weakened poison of rabies into a person was made. It was nine-year-old Josef Meister, an unfortunate boy who had been severely bitten by a mad dog. Day after day, the first patient received all 14 shots. Vaccinations saved the boy from a fatal disease.

At this time, Pasteur was 63 years old. This was the pinnacle of his scientific activity and fame; His name became the property of all mankind.

Pasteur's services to science are great, and it is impossible to convey in a brief essay the full significance of his discoveries. Microbiology, of which he is rightfully considered the founder, has now developed into a vast independent branch of the natural sciences, playing an exceptionally important role not only in medicine, but also in veterinary medicine and agriculture.

In medicine, Pasteur's work, as we have already seen, is of great importance for the development of surgery and for the fight against infectious diseases. Modern immunology, that is, the doctrine of immunity to infectious diseases, is entirely based on the method of immunization discovered by Pasteur: the use of pathogens weakened in their toxicity for vaccinations that protect against infection. The method of protection against rabies developed by Pasteur saved mankind from the horrors of this terrible disease. All over the world, special institutions are organized, the so-called Pasteur stations, where they prepare material for vaccination against rabies. It is interesting to recall that the second Pasteur station in the world, after the one in Paris, was organized in Russia by Russian scientists I. I. Mechnikov and N. F. Gamaleya.

The importance of Pasteur in medicine is also great because he widely introduced the experimental (experimental) method of research into the study of medical issues. This method has armed scientists with that exact knowledge of disease processes, which was completely absent in the pre-Pasterian era, and has brought so many brilliant successes to the present time.

Half a century of Pasteur's scientific activity, full of hard work and endless searches, passed under the banner of the creative power of thought and the amazing ability to turn his ideas into undeniably proven facts through a long series of experiments. He taught his students: “Don't say anything that you can't prove simply and beyond doubt. Bow before the spirit of criticism. By itself, it does not reveal new ideas or inspire great deeds. But without it, nothing is solid. He always has the last word. This demand, which I present to you, and you will present to your students, is the heaviest one can be presented to a researcher who is making discoveries. To be sure that you have discovered an important scientific fact, to burn with a feverish desire to notify the whole world about it and to ask yourself for days, weeks, sometimes years; to enter into a struggle with oneself, to exert all one's strength in order to destroy the fruits of one's own labors and not to proclaim the result obtained until one has tried all the hypotheses that contradict it - yes, this is a difficult feat. But, on the other hand, when, after so much effort, you achieve complete certainty, you experience one of the highest joys that are only available to the human soul.

Pastor's life is a perfect confirmation of his words. Devotion to science and selflessness were excellent traits of his character. “In the midst of one of his works,” recalls K. A. Timiryazev, “which, as always, absorbed all his physical strength, since intensified mental work was usually complicated by insomnia, the doctor who treated him, seeing that all exhortations were in vain, turned out to be forced to threaten him with the words: "You are threatened, perhaps by death, and a second blow, probably." Pasteur thought for a moment and calmly replied: “I cannot interrupt my work. I already foresee its end: come what may, I will fulfill my duty.

Pasteur died on September 23, 1895 at the age of 73. Since then, 50 years have passed. Over the years, natural science has gone far ahead in its development. And in the progress of science, which we are witnessing, the unfading glory of the name of Luke Pasteur illuminates the way for new searches and new discoveries.