The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1939. HUMANITY'S DEBT TO PASTEUR

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 94, 14 January 1939, Page 8

The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1939. HUMANITY'S DEBT TO PASTEUR

Celebrations in November last of the jubilee of the famous Pasteur Institute in Paris have brought into prominence humam y great debt to the founder. Louis Pasteur was a member of that great company of research workers in the field of med science who, by their signal sacrifices of time and energy—and even, in individual instances, of their hves-have made notab e contributions to the cause of suffering humanity. To the medical profession itself, the results of his research work have been of incalculable v; a u .. “He was born,” says a contemporary writer, into a world sunk in disease; it is his glory that he cleansed that world. Pasteur, who was the son of a tanner* commenced the most important part of his career in the laboratories at the University o Lille. It was an investigation into the processes of fermentation i beetroot alcohol that led him to the basis of his future research wor —that fermentation was a phenomenon of life. Thereafter he devoted himself to the study of micro-organisms, and came to the conclusion that fermentation and putrefaction were caused by varieties ot that microscopic life which we call bacteria or germs; when these were excluded or killed, disease could be successfully dealt with. It was Pasteur who grappled with and laid bare the mystery of. hydrophobia, and discovered the preventive. Once terribly rife, it is now regarded as a minor disease. His investigations of anthrax in sheep and chicken chplera resulted in methods of immunization which, in money value alone, estimated Professor T. H. Huxley, equa led the entire sum of the indemnity paid by France, to Germany after e war of 1870. Pasteur himself elected to remain poor. He gratefu y acknowledged his debt to Jenner, the discoverer of smallpox immunization, while Lord Lister,, famous for his pioneer work on behalf of antiseptic surgery, paid similar tribute to Pasteur. It was Pasteur, however, who really established the germ theo y of disease as a special field for investigation, providing a basis ot research work that has been developed with extensive ramifications, and brought distinction to many brilliant explorers in the laboratories of medical science. His philosophy of life and work was well expressed in a speech delivered by him at the open ng of the 1 asteur Institute in Paris in November, 1888:

Two opposing laws seem to rtie now in contest. The one, a law of blood and death, opening out each day new rn Mes of destruction, forcing nations to be always ready for the battle, •■he.otlie , a law of peace, work, and health, whose only aim is to deliver man from the calamities which beset him. The one seeks violent conquests; the other the relief of mankind. The one sacrifices hundreds of thousands of lives to the ambition of a si D S le individual ; the other places a single life above all victories. The law of which we are the instruments strives even through the carnage to cure the wounds due to the law of war. Treatment by our antmeptic methods may preserve the lives of thousands of soldiers. M Inch o these two laws will prevail, God only knows. But of this we may be sure, that science, in obeying the law of humanity, wi • always labour to enlarge the frontiers of life. The discoveries of Pasteur gave a strong impulse to the study of preventive medicine. Out of this has been developed modern practice in conserving the public health. Efficient drainage systems, pure water supply, pure foods legislation, inoculation, against infectious disease, pasteurized milk, are some of the outstanding results. Pasteur worked on the principle that prevention is better than cure. llus principle in community practice is less expensive than elaborate hospital organization for treatment of the sick, and is of especial importance in keeping down the cost of health insurance. ■ It is sound statesmanship in the sphere of public health which recognizes the virtue of this principle and frames its legislation in accordance with the spirit of it. Heavy expenditure on hospital accommodation, viewed in this light, is a confession of failure. As Pasteur declared in effect, tie aim should be to keep people out of the hospitals by keeping them well, and he has earned a grateful salute for his brilliant efforts to show how, in large measure, this can be done.