SERVICES TO MANKIND

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 76, 25 February 1930, Page 2

SERVICES TO MANKIND

PASTEUR’S DISCOVERIES. ADDRESS TO ROTARY CLUB. The effect on mankind of the discoveries of the French scientist Pasteur and his contemporaries in the field of bacteriological science, formed the topic of an interesting and instructive address delivered by Professor Sperrin Johnson, proiessor of bioloev at Auckland University College, at the Rotary Club luncheon yesterday. Professor Sperrin Johneon said that dust and disease were closely allied with the name of the famous French scientist Pasteur, whose name was perpetuated in pasteurisation, a modern process that had added materially to the economic welfare of the civilised world. There wero three great generations with which Pasteur’s name was associated, and these were milestones in modern bacteriology. In the middle of the nineteenth century they were only groping toward the light. The people up to that period had no explanation of putrefaction, fermentation and wound infection. There were a few theories held, but they were negligible. No one could say definitely how these changes came about, though they had been going on since there was life on the earth. It was for Pasteur, who was born in 1822 and died in 1895, to make the great discovery. Tindor, a British scientist, conducted important experiments with dust in 1881. He noticed the fine particles suspended in the air, particularly when reflected in a ray of light, and observed that where this dust occurred there was putrefaction. He therefore constructed a large glass box, equipped with shutters for the admission ot rays of light, and put dishes containing such material as boiled cabbage, turnip juice and beef-tea inside. He then pumped dust-iaden air into the chamber and noticed that putrefaction occurred. The scientist then put fresh material in the box and coated the inside walls with glycerine. Air was allowed to pass through and it was noticed, by the ray of light, that it was dust-tree. -The food showed, no sign of putrefaction. Thus the conclusion was arrived at by this simple experiment that if living microbes were kept away from penshable matter there would be no decay. The same applied to wounds. Until 1881 no one knew why wounds festered. Pasteur was originally a professor of chemistry in a 1 Tench provincial university, said the speaker. His studies gradually led him to the field of bacteriology, public health and the application of these principles to surgical practice. One oi his greatest discoveries was made by chance. A peasant came to him saying that the juice of his sugar-beet, used for the manufacture of alcohol, was turning into vinegar and other liquids. Pasteur put these under the microscope and after lengthy research and experiment, arrived at the conclusion that if the beet juice were boiled no fermentation took place. . This might not sound an important discovery, said the speaker, but it was from this experiment that pasteurisation grew. Pasteur found out the meaning of fine cultures, and what kinds of yeasts or fermenting agents gave vinegar and what kind gave alcohol. He separated the fine cultures and, by adding them to sugar, knew what he would get. In the same manner, putrefaction was found to be caused by microbes. By boiling some comodities and freezing or chilling others, they were tendered immune. Putrefaction and fermentation came under the same heading. Two centuries ago the medical men of the world were only groping with wound-infection. In the 17th century it was ascertained that there \vere microbes in the tartar of the teeth, but this was not associated with microbes as they were known to modern science. A friend and pupil of Pasteur discovered bacteria in tho blood of a sheep suffering from anthrax and introduced a new line of thought by asking the professor whether this had anything to do with the disease. Pasteur injected the affected blood into a healthy sheep, which, after the period of incubation, contracted anthrax. This led to the germ theory of infection, or the germ theory of communicable disease. Surgeons in the hospitals of that period found that more patients died from post-operative infection than of the actual operations. There was no such thing as sterilisation and infection came perhaps from the surgeon s knife. The hospitals in the middle of the nineteenth century were charnelhouses. . ,11 It was for Lord Lister, who had absorbed Pasteur’s work, to make a definite move. He used carbolic acid in tho wounds, and the mortality rate went down. Thin in turn led to the antiseptic method. It was observed that carbolic acid was dangerous, in that it killed the tissues, ihe complicated “tissue warfare” then began and from it arose the present system. This branch of science was greatly accelerated by ihe experience gained in the "" Summing up, Professor Sperrin Johnson said that to the middle ot the nineteenth century there was no explanation of fermentation, putrefaction and wound-infection. The discoveries of Pasteur and his successors had been of wonderful benefit to mankind generally and had a great effect on commerce and social life. They also had. a colossal economic application. Thanks were expressed by Dr. E. L. Barnett and the chairman.