Pasteur reported a series of “investigations into the relation between optical activity, crystalline structure, and chemical composition in organic compounds, particularly tartaric and paratartaric acids. This work focused attention on the relationship between optical activity and life, and provided much inspiration and several of the most important techniques for an entirely new approach to the study of chemical structure and composition. In essence, Pasteur opened the way to a consideration of the disposition of atoms in space.” (DSB)

First demonstration of the connection between a specific fermentation and the activity of a specific living micro-organism. This paper is often considered the beginning of bacteriology as a modern science. The above work is a very much abridged “Extrait par l’auteur” of the complete text of Pasteur’s full paper which underwent roughly simultaneous publication in Mémoires de la Société des Sciences, de l’Agriculture et des Arts de Lille, 2e sér., 1858, 5, 13-26, and in Ann. de Chim. et de Phys., 3e sér., 1858, 52, 408-18.

This and the preceding entry mark Pasteur’s commencement of the study of fermentation. This paper described Pasteur’s method of cultivating micro-organisms in a medium free of organic nitrogen to produce fermentations. The method was absolutely fundamental to his work, but not developed for his initial paper on lactic fermentation. He found that the conversion of sugar to lactic acid in fermentation is due to small corpuscles, isolated or grouped.

In these easily reproducible experiments, prefaced by an important historical introduction, Pasteur demonstrated beyond dispute that fermentation is caused by the action of minute living organisms, and that if these are excluded or killed fermentation does not occur. The heating process which Pasteur recommended for sterilization was the earliest form of “pasteurization”. The above paper marks the downfall of the theory of spontaneous generation. Pasteur’s researches on fermentation led him to the discovery of the bacteria and yeasts and hence to the germ theory of disease; from this all modern bacteriology and immunology have developed.

The discovery of strict anaerobiosis, important for general biology since it shows that oxygen gas is not a requisite for life.

Pasteur confirmed the fact, established by Schwann (No. 674) that putrefaction was a biological process.

Pasteur was the first to differentiate between aerobic and anaerobic organisms. (See also Nos. 2476-77.)

Although Pasteur’s method of preserving wine by partial heat sterilization (“pasteurization”) turned out to be a revival of Appert’s invention (No. 2467.1), Pasteur did rescue the method from oblivion and established on the basis of rigorous scientific experiments what had been only a poorly tested and entirely empirical technique.

Pasteur proved that a microorganism was essential to acetification and developed a patented method which greatly increased the efficiency of production.

This work saved the French silk industry, which had been crippled by the disease pébrine. After three years of research on the problem, Pasteur was able to show that the disease known as pébrine was caused by a parasite, and that the disease known as flacherie, which authorities had thought to be a manifestation of pébrine, was in reality a bacterial disease with its own character and etiology. He developed a screening method, still used today, that employs systematic microscopic examination to separate infected silkworm eggs from healthy ones.

Pasteur resumed his studies on fermentation in 1876, and in this book took into account the developments in this field since his previous publications on the subject. He described a new and perfected method of preparing pure yeast and acknowledged that a limited quantity of oxygen was important for brewing. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. English translation as Studies on fermentation. The diseases of beer, their causes and the means of preventing them.... A translation, made with the author's sanction (London, 1879). Digital facsimile of the English translation from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Discovery of Vibrion septique (Cl. septicum), the first pathogenic anerobe to be found. Pasteur and Joubert were probably the first to realize the practical implications of antibiosis. They noted the antagonism between Bacillus anthracis and other bacteria in cultures.

Pasteur confirmed Koch’s results regarding anthrax; with Joubert he carried the bacillus through 100 generations and succeeded in producing anthrax from the last, thus disposing of the idea of a separate virus.

In this speech Pasteur first introduced the term "germ theory" and defined its applications in medicine, surgery, and infectious disease. The speech was first published in condensed form in Comptes rendus...de l'Académie des Sciences, 86 (1878) 1037-1043. For that version authorship was expressed as "Pasteur, Joubert et Chamberland."

Digital facsimile of the separate printing from bnf.gallica at this link. Digital facsimile of the journal publication from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Description of the streptococcus of puerperal sepsis.

In this study of furunculosis (“boils”) and osteomyelitis Pasteur left the first recognizable descriptions of staphylococcus and streptococcus. The term streptococcus had been coined by Billroth in 1874; however, Pasteur did not use it here. Ogston (see No.2494) named staphylococcus in 1881.

This paper marked the beginning of Pasteur’s work on the attenuation of the infective organism. Noting that fowls inoculated with an attenuated form of the chicken cholera bacterium acquired immunity, he developed the idea of a protective inoculation by attenuated living cultures, and subsequently adopted this principle with anthrax, rabies, and swine erysipelas. His work laid the foundations of the science of immunology. Since 1979, the availability to scholars of Pasteur’s original laboratory notebooks has provided evidence that Émile Roux played a crucial and previously unacknowledged role in the development of the vaccine. See also his later paper in the same journal, 1880, 91, 673-80. Abridged English translation of both papers and discussion of Roux’s role in Bibel, Milestones in immunology (1988). Roux did receive credit from Pasteur for his work on anthrax. See No. 5169.

First use of attenuated bacteria for therapeutic purposes. See also the same journal, 1881, 92, 1378-83.

This paper marks the beginning of Pasteur’s studies on rabies. English translation in R. Suzor, Hydrophobia: An account of M. Pasteur’s system…London, 1887.

In his seminal 1880 paper, Sur les maladies virulentes, et en particulier sur la maladie appelée vulgairement choléra des poules, GM-2537, Pasteur developed the idea of a protective inoculation by attenuated living cultures, and subsequently adopted this principle with anthrax, rabies, and swine erysipelas. His work laid the foundations of the science of immunology. However, in that paper Pasteur did not reveal his method of attenuation until this paper presented in September 1882, and first published in 1883. The method developed by Pasteur and his team was  "heating the anthrax bacillus at exactly between 42 and 43 degrees centigrade for at least 5-6 hours.” Toward the end of his paper they stated, “It cannot be doubted that we possess a general method of attenuation…."

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Demonstration in the blood of the rabies virus. English translation in R. Suzor, Hydrophobia: An account of M. Pasteur’s system…London, 1887.

Pasteur’s papers describing his rabies vaccine, and the results he attained with it gave further proof of the value of attenuated virus as a protective inoculum against infective diseases in man and animals. This is considered Pasteur’s greatest triumph. A grateful public subscribed two and a half million francs and made possible the erection of the Institut Pasteur, Paris. English translation in R. Suzor, Hydrophobia: An account of M. Pasteur’s system.… London, 1887.

The author, qualified M.D. in both Edinburgh and Paris,  characterized himself on the title page of this work as "Commissioned by the Government of the Colony of Mauritius to study M. Pasteur's new treatment in Paris."  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

One of the founders of bacteriology, Pasteur's work on fermentation, the doctrine of spontaneous generation (which he exploded), virus diseases and preventive vaccinations, was fundamental. Digital facsimile of the complete works from BnF Gallica at this link. An early classic biography is René Vallery-Radot (1853-1933), La Vie de Pasteur, Paris, 1900. English translation, 2 vols., 1901. More recent scholarship includes Gerald Geison, The private science of Louis Pasteur (1995). One of the best modern biographies is Patrice Debré, Louis Pasteur, Paris: Flammarion, 1994. English translation by Elborg Forster, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998.

Edition and translation of about 60 letters mostly between Pasteur and his protegé Louis Thuillier in the Reynolds Historical Library at the University of Alabama. During the period involved in this correspondence "Thuillier conducted a series of vaccinations against anthrax in sheep and cattle in Germany and Austria-Hungary. It is believed that Pasteur intended to conduct the vaccinations himself, but was constrained by other responsibilities from doing the job in person. Relying on Thuillier as a surrogate prompted a steady stream of letters between protégé and mentor, detailing the successes, failures and obstacles faced in the project. Tragically, the relationship between Pasteur and Thuillier ended just over a month after the completion of the vaccination tests in Germany. As that project ended, Pasteur sent Thuillier with three other scientists to study a cholera epidemic in Egypt. Thuillier became ill, most likely from cholera and died on September 18, 1883 at age 27."

"His biography of Pasteur was viewed as an outstanding work of scholarship which penetrated the secrecy that had surrounded much of the legendary scientist's laboratory work. Geison used Pasteur's laboratory notebooks and published papers to described some of the most famous episodes in the history of science—including their darker sides, such as the human risks entailed in Pasteur's haste to develop the rabies vaccine. A reviewer wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that the book 'requires us to reevaluate our heroes and consider the complexities of science instead of merely clinging to comforting and heroic myths.' ^[3]"