Our Debt To Pasteur

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 94, 14 January 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

Our Debt To Pasteur

“Today, 50 years since the foundation of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and 43 years after Pasteur's death, all brandies of the medical profession throughout the world not only admit the debt to the Master, but are aware that the foundations of their arts and scientific practices are to be found in his discoveries. “‘Life comes only from life' was the dictum of Pasteur, and this led to the cause and methods of prevention and cure of virulent diseases. From these followed the germ theory of disease, and the principles of preventive medicine. Turn where they will nowadays, the surgeon and the physician will face the dominating figure of Louis Pasteur, but outside the hospital ward and the sick room his supremacy is no less assured. “The wider application of his discoveries has made it possible to transport foodstuffs in a fresh condition from one end of the world to the other, to combat the effects of climate and insects, and to bring prosperity to millions of people in one place, with a higher living standard to millions in another. “The work of the Pasteur Institute today is dominated by the method and the spirit of its founder as if he still were engaged in its control. His monument is that institute, but his abiding contribution to humanity is to be found in a cleaner, safer world.