PASTEUR AND FARMERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19149, 15 October 1925, Page 18

PASTEUR AND FARMERS.

TH E VALU E OF SCIENCE. Milk, or wine becomes sour on exposure to air. Pasteur showed that when organisms from the air are excluded, no change takes place. In the the grape no germs exist. Jiut erus the grape and expose it to ordinary atmospheric agencies, and fermentative and putrefactive changes run their course The application of these facts to surgical operations in the able hands of Lister revolutionised surgical practice. _ 1 astcur's discoveries in fermentation inaugurated a new era in wine-making and dairvnig industries. Empiricism, hitherto the .»]v guide, was replaced by exact scientific knowledge, and the connection of the phenomena of disease with a controllable cause was thus established. After a study of the diseases of wines which had a most important practical bearing, an opportunity"carno which not only changed the course of his career, but had a great, influence ori the development of medical science. His friend Dumas urged him in 1865 to investigate an epidemic fatal disease in silkworms in southern France —a disease which had almost ruined the French silk industry. He succeeded in determining the cause of the disease and in suggesting methods of preventing its recurrence. His work resuscitated the silkworm industry of France. It was the first of his victories in the application of the experimental methods of thg. trained chemist to the problems of biology.