During the mid-19th century, humans had still not discovered the science behind some natural processes. For instance, what turned grape into wine? And why did it acquire a sour taste?
A French chemist, Louis Pasteur, found that microorganisms are responsible for this. He also proved that, rather than polluted air, diseases were transmitted by these invisible organisms. Before Pasteur, invasion by invisible organisms were thought to be responsible for decay and disease.
In 1864, the French Academy of Sciences officially accepted Pasteur’s conclusions. Three years later he was provided with his own laboratory in France’s Ecole Superieure, a graduate school in Paris. Pasteur’s ‘germ’ theory soon received wider acceptance. He revolutionized medicine and the food industry by establishing the reality of germs. He also developed the earliest vaccines against fowl cholera, anthrax, and rabies. Pasteur became a household name after he invented the technique for treating milk and wine to prevent bacterial contamination. This process is now called pasteurization.
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