Louis Pasteur was a chemist who wanted to prove that germs cause disease. A famous veterinarian named Monsieur H. Rossignol thought Pasteur was crazy when he announced that you could vaccinate livestock by essentially giving them the disease that had been killing livestock all across Europe. Rossignol challenged Pasteur to do a public test of his theory. Pasteur had a attended a medical conference two years before and listened angrily as the doctors talked about a vague “miasm” that was killing mothers during childbirth. He explained to these doctors that there was no such “miasm” and the reason the mothers were dying was because the doctors and staff had germs on their hands from taking care of a sick woman, and then a healthy woman, and …show more content…
He was furious, and took it out on his assistant, Emile Roux, saying that he had prepared the vaccine wrong. Pasteur was going to make Roux go and face the public humiliation alone, but later that day, Pasteur received word that the sheep were recovering, so he decided he would attend the meeting. When Pasteur and his assistant arrived at the train station the next morning, they were met with loud cheers, telling them that their vaccine had been successful. By 2:00 that day, 23 of the unvaccinated sheep were dead, by 3:00 the 24th sheep died, and by 4:00 the 25th sheep died; all of the vaccinated sheep were healthy and well. Pasteur’s anthrax vaccine was the first effective protection in human history against infectious diseases. It also provided proof of his theory that germs cause diseases. Pasteur’s creation of the anthrax vaccine opened the door to fighting all sorts of infectious diseases including smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera, etc.
Because Pasteur questioned why women were dying during childbirth, decided it was due to germs on the doctor’s hands, and figured out a way to create vaccinations, it is now possible to be vaccinated against infectious diseases, saving millions of lives every