United States or Greece ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Pouchet and all on his side were finally so far as there can be finality in such a matter disposed of by Pasteur, of whose distinction as a man of science and devoutness as a Catholic nothing need be said. It is quite unnecessary to devote any consideration here to the character of Pasteur's experiments, for they have become a matter of common knowledge to all educated persons.
For my own part, I conceive that, with the particulars of M. Pasteur's experiments before us, we cannot fail to arrive at his conclusions; and that the doctrine of spontaneous generation has received a final 'coup de grace'.
Pasteur's personal discoveries had demonstrated the relation of certain lower organisms, notably the bacteria, to the contagious diseases, and had shown the possibility of giving immunity from certain of these diseases through the use of cultures of the noxious bacteria themselves.
The result of M. Pasteur's experiments proved, therefore, in the most conclusive manner, that all the appearances of spontaneous generation arose from nothing more than the deposition of the germs of organisms which were constantly floating in the air.
Then, on May 31 st, all sixty of the animals were inoculated, a protected and unprotected one alternately, with an extremely virulent culture of anthrax microbes that had been in Pasteur's laboratory since 1877. This accomplished, the animals were left together in one enclosure to await the issue.
What a grand triumph of medical art, also, following Jenner's vaccination, and Pasteur's later investigations, is the protection afforded against the dangers of scarlet fever, measles and whooping-cough, by inoculation with a modified virus, appropriate to each! But, more than these, the waste of human life has been abridged by the sweeping reform effected in regard to the abuse of alcohol.
A new era in medicine dates from those two publications. Ed. At the middle of the last century we did not know much more of the actual causes of the great scourges of the race, the plagues, the fevers and the pestilences, than did the Greeks. Here comes Pasteur's great work.
The result of M. Pasteur's experiments proved, therefore, in the most conclusive manner, that all the appearances of spontaneous generation arose from nothing more than the deposition of the germs of organisms which were constantly floating in the air.
This was the great service of Joseph Lister. Impressed with Pasteur's studies on fermentation, Lister saw an analogy between this process and the putrefaction of wounds, a condition which he was eager to prevent.
It has been observed that as the recent mortality from consumption has decreased cancerous diseases have become more frequently fatal. Whether or not there be anything vicarious in the action of these two great maladies we know not; but statistics show that since the beginning of Pasteur's discoveries the one disease has diminished and the other increased in almost a corresponding ratio.
Word Of The Day