Pasteur was the son of a tanner. He spent his childhood in the small French village of Arbois. As a child, Louis was fond of drawing and was an excellent and ambitious student. He graduated from college and then from teacher training school. Pasteur was attracted to a career as a teacher. He enjoyed teaching and was appointed as a teacher's assistant very early on, even before receiving his special education. But Louis's fate changed dramatically when he discovered chemistry. Pasteur abandoned drawing and devoted his life to chemistry and fascinating experiments.

Pasteur's discoveries

Pasteur made his first discovery while still a student: he discovered the optical asymmetry of molecules by separating two crystalline forms of tartaric acid from each other and showing that they differ in their optical activity (dextro- and levorotatory forms). These studies formed the basis of a new scientific direction - stereochemistry - the science of the spatial arrangement of atoms in molecules. Pasteur later established that optical isomerism is characteristic of many organic compounds, while natural products, unlike synthetic ones, are represented by only one of two isomeric forms. He discovered a method for separating optical isomers using microorganisms that assimilate one of them.

With his characteristic keen observation, Pasteur noticed that asymmetric crystals were found in substances formed during fermentation. Having become interested in the phenomena of fermentation, he began to study them. In a laboratory in Lille in 1857, Pasteur made a remarkable discovery; he proved that fermentation is a biological phenomenon that is the result of the vital activity of special microscopic organisms - yeast fungi. With this, he rejected the “chemical” theory of the German chemist J. Liebig. Developing these ideas further, he argued that each type of fermentation (lactic acid, alcoholic, acetic) is caused by specific microorganisms (“germs”).

Pasteur also discovered that the little “beasts,” discovered two centuries ago by Dutch glass grinder Antonie Leeuwenhoek, were causing food spoilage. To protect products from the influence of microbes, they must be heat treated. So, for example, if you heat the wine immediately after fermentation, without bringing it to the boiling point, and then seal it tightly, then foreign microbes will not penetrate there and the drink will not spoil. This method of food preservation, discovered in the 19th century, is now called pasteurization and is widely used in the food industry. This same discovery had another important consequence: on its basis, the physician Lister from Edinburgh developed the principles of antiseptics in medical practice. This allowed doctors to prevent wound infection by using substances (carbolic acid, sublimate, etc.) that kill pyogenic bacteria.

Pasteur made another important discovery. He discovered organisms for which oxygen is not only unnecessary, but also harmful. Such organisms are called anaerobic. Their representatives are microbes that cause butyric acid fermentation. The proliferation of such microbes causes rancidity in wine and beer.

Pasteur devoted his entire subsequent life to the study of microorganisms and the search for means to combat the causative agents of infectious diseases in animals and humans. In a scientific dispute with the French scientist F. Pouchet, he irrefutably proved through numerous experiments that all microorganisms can arise through reproduction. Where microscopic germs are killed and their penetration from the external environment is impossible, where there are no and cannot be microbes, there is no fermentation or putrefaction.

These works by Pasteur showed the fallacy of the view widespread in medicine of that time, according to which any disease arises either inside the body or under the influence of spoiled air (miasma). Pasteur proved that diseases that are now called contagious can only arise as a result of infection - the penetration of microbes into the body from the external environment.

But the scientist was not satisfied with discovering the cause of these diseases. He was looking for a reliable way to combat them, which turned out to be vaccines, as a result of which the body creates immunity to a certain disease (immunity).

In the 80s, Pasteur became convinced through numerous experiments that the pathogenic properties of microbes, the causative agents of infectious diseases, can be arbitrarily weakened. If an animal is vaccinated, that is, sufficiently weakened microbes that cause a contagious disease are introduced into its body, then it does not get sick or suffers a mild form of the disease and subsequently becomes immune to the disease (gains immunity to it). Since then, at the suggestion of Pasteur, such modified but immune-inducing strains of pathogenic microbes have been called vaccines. Pasteur introduced this term, wanting to perpetuate the great merits of the English doctor E. Jenner, who, not yet knowing the principles of vaccination, gave humanity the first vaccine - against smallpox. Thanks to many years of work by Pasteur and his students, vaccines against chicken cholera, anthrax, swine rubella and rabies began to be used in practice.

Today every schoolchild knows that cheese, cream and other products important for human life are made from pasteurized milk and cannot be eaten for long. But few people know that we owe such a discovery to the brilliant French scientist Louis Pasteur, whose biography will be discussed in this article.

The pasteurization process was invented by the French microbiologist and chemist Louis Pasteur many years ago; he was already a respected scientist during his lifetime. He discovered that microbes are responsible for the souring of alcohol, and during pasteurization the bacteria are destroyed by heating. His work led him and his team to create vaccines against anthrax and rabies. He is known for many achievements and discoveries, for example, modern medicine owes him fundamental developments in the field of maintaining and developing immunity. In the course of many years of experiments, he managed to develop vaccines against various animal diseases, and his vaccinations against rabies saved the lives of many people even then.

Biography of Louis Pasteur: childhood

Louis Pasteur, the third of five children, was born on December 27, 1822 in the French city of Dole, where he lived with his parents and siblings for three years. After his family moved, he grew up and studied in the city of Arbois. In his early school years, Louis Pasteur, whose interesting biography we are considering, showed at first an unexpressed talent in the field of scientific subjects, but rather an artistic one, because he spent a lot of time painting portraits and landscapes. He studied diligently and attended school, then spent some time studying at the college in Arbois before moving to the Royal College in Besançon.

Education of the future great scientist

Every year, Louis Pasteur, whose biography is discussed in this article, increased his knowledge. As a result, his academic success did not go unnoticed, which is why he soon began teaching at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts (1840) and the degree of Bachelor of Science (1842) from the Royal College of Besançon, and the degree of Doctor of Science (1847) from the Ecole Normale in Paris.

Pasteur spent several years studying and teaching at the Dijon Lycée. Louis received his doctorate in 1847 in the field of natural sciences, for which he prepared two dissertations in chemical and physical fields. During his stay in Paris, he attended many lectures at the Sorbonne, and spent a particularly long time in chemistry classes.

The first discoveries in the field of chemistry

While still a student, Pasteur conducted several experiments to study the crystal structure and activity of tartaric acid. In 1849, a scientist tried to solve a problem regarding the nature of tartaric acid, a chemical found in the deposits of wine fermentation. He used the rotation of polarized light as a means to study crystals. When polarized light passed through the solution, the angle of the plane of light rotated. Pasteur noticed that another compound called tartaric acid was also found in the fermentation products of wine and had the same composition as tartaric acid. Most scientists assumed that the two compounds were identical. However, Pasteur noticed that grape acid did not rotate plane-polarized light. He determined that although the two compounds had the same chemical composition, they still had different structures.

By looking at grape acid under a microscope, Pasteur discovered the presence of two different types of tiny crystals. Although they looked almost identical, they were actually mirror images of each other. He separated these two types of crystals and began to study them carefully. When polarized light passed through them, the scientist saw that both crystals were rotating, but in the opposite direction. When both crystals are in a liquid, the effect of polarized light does not differ. This experiment established that studying composition alone is not enough to understand how a chemical behaves. Structure and shape are also important, which led the researcher to the field of stereochemistry.

Academic career and scientific achievements

Initially, Pasteur planned to become a science teacher, as he was greatly inspired by the knowledge and abilities of Professor Dumas, whose lectures he attended at the Sorbonne. He worked for several months as a professor of physics at the Lyceum in Dijon, then at the beginning of 1849 he was invited to the University of Strasbourg, where he was offered the position of professor of chemistry. From the first years of his work, Pasteur took an active part in intensive research activities, developed professionalism, and soon began to enjoy a well-deserved reputation in the scientific world as a chemist.

In the biography of Louis Pasteur (in English Louis Pasteur), 1854 is especially mentioned, when he moved to Lille, where the Faculty of Chemistry was opened only a few months ago. It was then that he became the dean of the department. At his new place of work, Louis Pasteur showed himself to be an extremely innovative teacher; he tried to teach students, focusing primarily on practice, which was largely helped by new laboratories. He also implemented this principle as director of scientific work at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, a position he took up in 1857. There he continued his innovative work and carried out quite daring experiments. He published the results of his research at that time in the journal of the École Normale Supérieure, the creation of which was initiated by himself. In the sixties of the 19th century, he received a lucrative order from the French government to study silkworms, which took him several years. In 1867, Louis Pasteur was called to the Sorbonne, where he taught as a professor of chemistry for several years.

Successful chemical discoveries and biography of Louis Pasteur

In addition to his distinguished academic career, Louis Pasteur also made a great name for himself in the field of chemical discoveries. Already in the first half of the 19th century, scientists knew about the existence of the smallest living creatures in the products of wine fermentation and during the souring of food products. Their exact origin, however, was not yet fully known. But Louis Pasteur, in the course of various experiments in his laboratory, found out that these organisms enter products through the air, cause various processes there, and also cause all sorts of diseases, and they can exist there without oxygen. Pasteur called them microorganisms or microbes. Thus, he proved that fermentation is not a chemical, but a biological process.

Practical benefits of Pasteur's scientific discoveries

His discovery quickly spread among specialists and also found its place in the food industry. The scientist began to look for ways to prevent wine fermentation or at least slow down this process. Louis Pasteur, whose biography is known to every scientist today, found out in the course of his research that when heated, bacteria are destroyed. He continued his experiments and found that by briefly heating to a temperature of 55 degrees Celsius, and then instantly cooling, he could kill the bacteria and at the same time obtain the characteristic taste of wine. So the chemist developed a new method of short heating, which today is called “pasteurization”. Today it is widely used in the food industry for preserving milk, products made from it, as well as vegetables and fruit juices.

Work in the medical field

In the seventies of the 19th century, Louis Pasteur, whose biography and achievements are now known to every schoolchild, devoted himself to developing a method that is today known as immunization. He first focused his research on chicken cholera, a contagious disease that is fatal to humans. Working with experimental pathogens, he discovered that the antibodies formed by the animals helped to withstand the disease. His research helped in the coming years to develop vaccines against other deadly diseases such as anthrax and rabies.

An important medical breakthrough came from his idea of ​​rabies vaccination, which he developed in 1885 through his work with rabbits. The first patient to be saved in this way was a little boy who was infected by a rabid dog bite. Since Pasteur administered the vaccine before the disease began to penetrate the brain, the little patient survived. Pasteur's vaccine made him famous internationally and earned him a reward of 25,000 francs.

Personal life

In 1849, Louis Pasteur, whose biography and photos are discussed in this article, met Anne Marie Laurent, the daughter of the university rector, in Strasbourg, and married her in the same year. The happy marriage produced five children, of whom only two survived to adulthood. The death of his nine-year-old daughter Zhanna, who died of typhus, prompted the scientist to later study vaccination against this terrible disease.

The Decline of the Great Explorer

The biography of Louis Pasteur (in French Louis Pasteur) is rich in historical events and discoveries. But no one is completely immune from disease. Since 1868, the scientist was partially paralyzed due to a severe brain stroke, but he was able to continue his research. He celebrated his 70th birthday at the Sorbonne, where a number of prominent scientists took part, including the British surgeon Joseph Lister. During this time his condition worsened and he died on September 28, 1895. The biography of Louis Pasteur in English and many other languages ​​is today available for study by his descendants.

Professor V.D. Soloviev

On the fiftieth anniversary of his death

Louis Pasteur in the laboratory. In the picture there is an inscription: “In memory of the famous Mechnikov, the creator of the phagocytic theory, from the sincerely devoted Pasteur.

Ru and I. I. Mechnikov (Paris).

In Paris, on Rue Dutot, in a low, modest building surrounded by a cast-iron fence, the Pasteur Institute is located - one of the most interesting scientific institutions in the world. The institute was created according to the plan of the great scientist whose name it bears. It was built in the last years of Pasteur's life with funds raised through international voluntary subscription. The Pasteur Institute is the center of microbiological science in France and played an exceptional role in the development of this science. The best French bacteriologists, as well as many outstanding researchers from other countries, including Russian scientists, worked within its walls. The world-famous Russian zoologist and microbiologist Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov was at one time the Scientific Director of this Institute. Here, during the lifetime of Pasteur himself, N. F. Gamaleya, now an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, studied bacteriological skills.

The great scientist remained at his Institute forever, even after death. On the ground floor, in a small chapel, there is his tomb. Above the entrance there is an inscription: “Here lies Pasteur,” and on the sides there are two dates: “1822” and “1895” - the years of birth and death of this wonderful man! Inside, on the marble walls, the most important stages of Louis Pasteur’s activity and the years of his discoveries are marked: 1848 - molecular asymmetry. 1857 - enzymes, 1862 - so-called spontaneous generation, 1863 - observations on wine, 1865 - diseases of silkworms, 1871 - observations on beer, 1877 - infectious diseases, 1880 - preventative vaccinations, 1885 - prevention of rabies. This short chronological list reflects the history of the creative life of the great scientist.

The son of a tanner from Arbois, a small town in eastern France, and the great-grandson of a serf, Louis Pasteur began his scientific career by studying theoretical issues of chemistry and chemical crystallography. While still a student at the Ecole Normale in Paris, he began his research on two acids extracted from tartar - tartaric and grape. These two acids, similar in their chemical composition, differ in one feature: the salts of the first of them rotate the plane of polarization to the right, while the salts of the second are optically inactive. Studying the causes of this phenomenon, Pasteur found that during the crystallization of the double ammonium-sodium salt of grape acid, two types of crystals stand out, differing from each other by the presence of tiny areas or edges that had previously escaped the attention of researchers. These areas were only on one plane of the crystal and caused their incomplete symmetry: sometimes they were on the left, and sometimes on the right side. The pastor collected separately crystals of this salt with edges on the left side and crystals with edges on the right side. From these and other crystals he isolated free acid. It turned out that the solution of the first crystals rotates the plane of polarization to the left, and the solution of the second crystals rotates to the right.

In this way, for the first time in the history of chemistry, an optically active substance was artificially obtained from an inactive starting material. Previously, it was believed that the formation of optically active substances could only occur in living organisms. Pasteur explained the optical activity of right and left tartaric acids by the asymmetry of their molecules. Thus, the concept of molecular asymmetry was introduced into science.

Further developing his method of artificially breaking down chemical compounds, Pasteur used the action of molds. This was the beginning of his subsequent work on microbes. Thus, purely chemical research contributed to the creation of one of the most important branches of biology - microbiology. The creation of this science is inextricably linked with the name of Pasteur. What is the cause of contagious diseases, how the infection is transmitted to humans - this became clear only when the brilliant mind of the Pastor revealed the secret of the driving force of fermentation and directed the development of science along a completely new path.

In the pre-Paster era, i.e. 60-70 years ago, humanity had a very vague idea of ​​what infectious diseases were. There were known severe epidemics of cholera, smallpox, and plague, which the people called the “Black Death”; they carried millions of people to their graves. Many other endemic diseases were known, but what were the causes that caused them, and what should be the measures to combat them, no one knew. How powerless practical medicine was at that time can be seen from the example of the Crimean War of 1854. In the French army, numbering more than 300,000 soldiers, about 10,000 were killed, and 85,000 people died from diseases and infectious complications of wounds. In other words, in an army recruited from the healthiest and hardiest men, more than a quarter of the entire army fell victim to disease. The imperfection of surgery at that time is indicated by the enormous mortality rate from purulent complications of wounds. For example, 92% of those operated on died during hip amputation. The main reason for such terrible losses was ignorance of those rules of hygiene that seem to us now the most basic.

By the age of 35, Louis Pasteur was already a famous scientist. His works devoted to the biological theory of fermentation date back to this time. Facts were established with impeccable accuracy showing that all fermentation processes are not simple chemical phenomena, as previously thought, but the result of the influence of microorganisms. Through a series of brilliant studies, Pasteur established the mechanism of various forms of fermentation, where the active principle was living creatures of negligible size, belonging either to yeast fungi or bacteria.

Later, when studying the processes of decay, Pasteur showed that they were also caused by the activity of microbes. He also understood the enormous importance that microorganisms have in the transformation of complex protein substances into a primitive state. “If microscopic creatures disappeared from the surface of the earth, it would quickly become cluttered with dead organic waste and all kinds of animal corpses and plant remains,” wrote Pasteur. “Without their participation, life would soon cease, since the work of death would remain unfinished.”

Where do these microorganisms, which play such a large role in nature, come from, what is their origin?

Pasteur's subsequent classic studies provided a clear answer to this question. It has been proven that there is no spontaneous generation of microorganisms, that wherever we find microorganisms, they were introduced from outside. It turned out that it is entirely within the power of man not only to cause, but also to prevent any of the phenomena of fermentation or decay. It turned out that there are microorganisms that can be used by humans, for example, to convert wort into alcohol, alcohol into vinegar. There are also harmful microorganisms, that is, those that cause infectious diseases.

These remarkable discoveries of Pasteur not only found practical application in industry and agriculture, but they illuminated all of medicine with new light and laid the foundation for a new science that studies microorganisms - microbiology.

The famous English surgeon, Joseph Lister, having understood the depth of the ideas of his contemporary Pastor, made the following practical conclusion from them: if purulent complications of wounds depend on the action of microorganisms that have entered from the outside, from the air, then for successful treatment it is necessary to prevent microbes from entering the wound. Thus, a new method of treating wounds was introduced into surgery, called the putrefactive or antiseptic method, which was later replaced by a more advanced one - aseptic. The aseptic method consists of maintaining strict cleanliness and observing conditions that strictly prevent the penetration of infection, i.e. microorganisms, from the environment. “Allow me,” Lister wrote to Pastor, “to thank you from the bottom of my heart for opening my eyes with your brilliant research to the existence of pyogenic microbes and thereby making it possible to successfully apply the antiseptic method in my work. If you ever come to Edinburgh, then I am sure that in our hospital you will receive true satisfaction from seeing to what a high degree humanity has been benefited by your labors.

Pasteur became interested in medical issues, studying the processes of infection and decay. His attention was especially occupied by the idea of ​​the uniqueness of some infectious diseases. What is the reason for immunity, i.e. the body’s ability to resist the effects of infectious diseases?

In 1880, while researching a disease of chickens - chicken cholera, he discovered the remarkable property of the causative agent of this disease - not only to cause the disease, but also to create immunity against it. If an artificial breeding or, as they say, a microbial culture has become less toxic due to its long-term storage outside the body, then it can cause only a weak form of the disease. But after this, immunity is created - immunity to infection by even the most powerful microbial culture of a given disease. Thus, a method was found for preparing inoculations, or vaccines, i.e., material for vaccinations that protect against infectious diseases.

Although Pastor was already 58 years old at this time, it was now that the period of his most outstanding discoveries began. The discovery of a vaccine immunizing against chicken cholera was followed by experiments in the study of anthrax. Anthrax - a severe, often fatal disease of livestock, sometimes affecting humans - brought enormous losses to livestock farms at that time. Armed with his brilliant method of weakening the causative agents of infectious diseases and using them for vaccinations, Pasteur, after numerous laboratory experiments, began to produce a vaccine against anthrax. After persistent and painstaking work, Pasteur managed to find the conditions under which anthrax microbes lose their toxicity and prepare a vaccine. It was tested in a famous public experiment at the Poullier-Le-Fort farm in the spring of 1881. Having received 60 sheep and cows at his disposal, Pasteur gave half of them several preliminary vaccinations and then, in the presence of numerous spectators, infected both vaccinated and unvaccinated animals with anthrax in its most deadly form. All present were warned that after 48 hours, thirty animals would die, and the remaining half - the previously vaccinated animals - would remain unharmed. The prediction came true literally. Those gathered at Pouglier-les-Forts were presented with the following picture: 22 sheep lay dead, 2 died in front of the spectators, and the remaining 6 animals died by the end of the day; 30 vaccinated people remained alive and well.

The effect of this experience was exceptional. Newspapers around the world noted Pasteur's unprecedented success. The vaccination method he developed received full recognition.

Following his victory over anthrax, Pasteur moved forward along the intended path. Now he took on a new, very difficult task - to find the rabies microbe. The very name of this disease, always fatal to humans, inspired horror. Medicine did not know any means of combating rabies, and it was well known; If a person is bitten by a rabid wolf or dog and falls ill, then there is no salvation; the person bitten must die in the grave torments of hydrophobia.

A long, intense search this time did not yield the usual result. The rabies microbe could not be found either in sick people or in sick animals. We now know that the causative agent of this disease cannot be seen under a microscope, it belongs to the category of so-called filterable viruses and can only be detected by special research methods unknown in Pasteur’s time. All the more so, Pasteur’s gift of foresight seems great: not having found the microbe that causes hydrophobia, he did not stop his research and, through the most ingenious experiments and logical conclusions, discovered a way to combat rabies.

When studying dogs with rabies, it was discovered that the reservoir of infection is the nervous system - the brain and spinal cord. If you take pieces of nervous tissue, crush them and then use a syringe to inject them under the skull bone of a healthy animal, then it will develop typical rabies. Thus, it is possible to induce illness at the will of the experimenter. Following further his principle of weakening the infectious principle and then using it to create immunity, Pastor found a way to weaken the terrible poison of rabies. His talented assistants Roux and Chamberlant removed the spinal cord from a rabbit that had died of rabies and then dried it for 14 days in a glass jar. In this way, 14 varieties of dried rabies poison were prepared, with varying strengths, ranging from almost harmless to one-day dried poison that could kill an unvaccinated dog. But if you inject dogs sequentially with these 14 doses, starting from the weakest, and then infect the vaccinated animals with the deadly rabies poison, the vaccinated dogs will not get sick.

After careful monitoring of these experiments, a commission of the French Academy of Sciences came to the following conclusion: “if a dog is immunized with gradually increasing doses of the poisonous spinal cord of rabid rabbits, it can never again contract rabies.”

Victory seemed to be in Pasteur's hands, but another issue had to be resolved. Is it possible with such vaccinations to save from the disease not only before the infection penetrates, but also after the bite of a rabid animal? In other words, is it possible not only to prevent a disease, but also to cure it? And this issue was soon resolved. Rabies poison acts slowly. From the moment of the bite to the appearance of the first signs of the disease, several weeks and sometimes months pass. Therefore, it turned out to be possible, after this deadly poison, slowly moving to the central nervous system, to send a weakened poison, but with a faster effect. It anticipates strong poison and prepares the nervous system, making the body invulnerable.

This bold and brilliant idea of ​​Pasteur was brilliantly implemented and confirmed by numerous experiments. But experiments on animals, no matter how good they may be, are not yet enough to judge the benefits of vaccinations for humans. And so on July 4, 1885, the first injection of weakened rabies poison was made to a person. It was nine-year-old Joseph Meister, an unfortunate boy who was brutally bitten by a rabid dog. Day after day, the first patient received all 14 vaccinations. Vaccinations saved the boy from a fatal disease.

At this time Pasteur was 63 years old. This was the pinnacle of his scientific activity and fame; His name became the property of all mankind.

Pasteur's services to science are great, and it is impossible to convey in a short essay the full significance of the discoveries he made. Microbiology, of which he is rightfully considered the founder, has now developed into a vast independent branch of the natural sciences, playing an extremely important role not only in medicine, but also in veterinary medicine and agriculture.

In medicine, Pasteur's works, as we have already seen, are of great importance for the development of surgery and for the fight against infectious diseases. Modern immunology, i.e., the doctrine of immunity to infectious diseases, is entirely based on the immunization method discovered by Pasteur: the use of pathogenic microorganisms weakened in their toxicity for vaccinations that protect against infection. The method of protection against rabies developed by Pasteur saved humanity from the horrors of this terrible disease. All over the world, special institutions have been organized, the so-called Pasteur stations, where they prepare material for vaccinations against rabies. It is interesting to remember that the second Pasteur station in the world, after the Paris one, was organized in Russia, by Russian scientists I. I. Mechnikov and N. F. Gamaleya.

Pasteur's importance in medicine is also great because he widely introduced the experimental (experimental) method of research into the study of medical issues. This method armed scientists with that precise knowledge of disease processes, which was completely absent in the pre-Pasteur era, and has brought so many brilliant successes to date.

Pasteur's half-century of scientific activity, full of hard work and endless searches, took place under the banner of the creative power of thought and the amazing ability to transform his ideas through a long series of experiments into indisputably proven facts. He taught his students: “Do not say anything that you cannot prove simply and beyond doubt. Bow to the spirit of criticism. By itself, it does not reveal new ideas and does not inspire great deeds. But without it nothing is strong. He always has the last word. This demand, which I make of you, and which you will make of your students, is the most difficult one that can be made of a researcher making discoveries. Be sure that you have discovered an important scientific fact, burn with a feverish desire to notify the whole world about it and ask yourself for days, weeks, sometimes years; to enter into a struggle with oneself, to strain all one’s strength in order to destroy the fruits of one’s labors oneself and not to proclaim the result obtained until one has tried all the contradictory hypotheses - yes, this is a difficult feat. But, on the other hand, when after so much effort you achieve complete certainty, you experience one of the highest joys available to the human soul.”

The Pastor's life is an excellent confirmation of his words. Devotion to science and selflessness were excellent traits of his character. “In the midst of one of his works,” recalls K. A. Timiryazev, “which, as always, absorbed all his physical strength, since intense mental work was usually complicated by insomnia, the doctor who treated him, seeing that all admonitions were in vain, turned out to be forced to threaten him with the words: “You are threatened, perhaps, with death, and certainly with a second blow.” Pasteur thought for a minute and calmly replied: “I cannot interrupt my work. I already foresee its end: come what may, I will fulfill my duty.”

Pasteur died on September 23, 1895 at the age of 73. 50 years have passed since then. Over these years, natural science has gone far ahead in its development. And in the progress of science, which we are witnessing, the unfading glory of the name of Pasteur's Luke lights the way for new searches and for new discoveries.

HISTORY OF MICROBIOLOGY

Zhdanov, Russian virologist. Works on viral infections, molecular biology and classification of viruses, evolution of infectious diseases.

3. Priority of domestic scientists in the discovery of pathogenic protozoa.

The works of Russian researchers M. M. Terekhovsky (1740-1796) and D. S. Samoilovich (Sushchinsky) were of great importance. The great merit of M. M. Terekhovsky is that he was one of the first to use the experimental method in microbiology: he studied the effect of electrical discharges of different strengths, temperatures, and various chemicals on microorganisms; studied their reproduction, respiration, etc. Unfortunately, his work was little known at that time and could not have much influence on the development of microbiology. The works of the outstanding Russian doctor D. S. Samoilovich received the widest recognition.

He was elected a member of 12 foreign academies of sciences. D. S. Samoilovich went down in the history of microbiology as one of the first (if not the first) “hunters” of the plague pathogen. He first took part in the fight against the plague in 1771 during its outbreak in Moscow, and then from 1784 he participated in the elimination of outbreaks of plague in Kherson, Kremenchug (1784), Taman (1796), Odessa (1797), Feodosia (1799). Since 1793, he was the chief quarantine doctor in the south of Russia. D. S. Samoilovich was a convinced supporter of the hypothesis about the living nature of the plague causative agent and, more than a hundred years before the discovery of the microbe, tried to detect it. Only the imperfection of the microscopes of that time prevented him from doing this. He developed and applied a whole range of anti-plague measures. Observing the plague, he came to the conclusion that after suffering the plague

One of the main scientific merits of D. S. Samoilovich is the idea of ​​​​the possibility of creating artificial immunity against the plague using vaccinations. With his ideas, D. S. Samoilovich acted as a herald of the emergence of a new science - immunology.

One of the founders of Russian microbiology, L. S. Tsenkovsky (1822-1887), made a great contribution to the taxonomy of microbes. In his work “On lower algae and ciliates” (1855), he established the place of bacteria in the system of living beings, pointing out their proximity to plants. L. S. Tsenkovsky described 43 new types of microorganisms and found out the microbial nature of the cell (a mucus-like mass formed on crushed beets). Subsequently, independently of Pasteur, he received the anthrax vaccine, and being a professor at Kharkov University (1872-1887), he contributed to the organization of the Pasteur station in Kharkov. The conclusion of L. S. Tsenkovsky about the nature of bacteria was supported in 1872 by F. Cohn, who separated bacteria from protozoa and classified them in the plant kingdom.

P. F. Borovsky (1863-1932) and F. A. Lesh (1840-1903) were the discoverers of pathogenic protozoa, leishmania and dysenteric amoeba. I. G. Savchenko established the streptococcal etiology of scarlet fever, was the first to use antitoxic serum for its treatment, proposed a vaccine against it, created the Kazan School of Microbiologists in Russia and, together with I. I. Mechnikov, studied the mechanism of phagocytosis and the problems of specific prevention cholera. D.K. Zabolotny (1866-1929) - the largest organizer of the fight against the plague, established and proved its natural focality. He created the first independent department of bacteriology at the St. Petersburg Women's Medical Institute in 1898.

Academicians V. N. Shaposhnikov (1884-1968), N. D. Ierusalimsky (1901-1967), B. L. Isachenko (1871-1947), N. A. Krasilnikov made a great contribution to the development of general, technical and agricultural microbiology (1896-1973), V. L. Omelyansky (1867-1928). S. P. Kostychev (1877-1931), E. I. Mishustin (1901-1983) and their many students. Medical microbiology, virology and immunology owe much to the research of such well-known domestic scientists as N. F. Gamaleya (1859-1949), P. F. Zdrodovsky (1890-1976), L. A. Zilber (1894 -1966), V. D. Timakov, E. I. Martsinovsky (1874-1934), V. M. Zhdanov (1914-1987), 3. V. Ermolyeva (1898-1979), A. A. Smorodintsev (1901 -1989), M. P. Chumakov (1909-1990), P. N. Kashkin (1902-1991), B. P. Pervushin (1895-1961) and many others. The works of domestic microbiologists, immunologists and virologists have made a major contribution to the development of world science, to the theory and practice of healthcare.

I.G. Savchenko and his role in the development of domestic microbiology. Development of microbiology in Russia. The role of medical microbiology in the implementation of preventive healthcare.

Savchenko Ivan Grigorievich (1862-1932), doctor of medical sciences, professor, headed the department of microbiology from 1920 to 1928. Student and associate of I. I. Mechnikov, Honored Scientist of the RSFSR. One of the organizers of the Kuban Medical Institute, the first head of the department of bacteriology and general pathology. In 1920, he organized a chemical-bacteriological institute on the basis of the city sanitary laboratory, which he directed until 1932. He created a school of bacteriologists, the representatives of which became heads of departments in various institutes of the country.

During this period, the direction of I. G. Savchenko’s work was particularly influenced, as Ivan Grigorievich wrote, by the “brilliant research” of I. I. Mechnikov, his phagocytic theory and the controversy that flared up in the scientific world around it. Fortunately for the young researcher, Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov himself was a frequent guest in the laboratory of Professor V.V. Podvysotsky. Once he was present at I. G. Savchenko’s report on immunity against anthrax, became interested in his experiments and highly appreciated them.

“He asked me,” recalled I. G. Savchenko, “to outline the experimental protocol in detail, show the preparations, and, having become acquainted with the work, recommended that it be published in a German journal,” where an article by the German scientist Chaplevsky, directed against Mechnikov’s theory of phagocytosis, had previously been published. .. “From this work,” continued Ivan Grigorievich, “my acquaintance with the brilliant Mechnikov began, working for whom became my dream, which came true in 1895.”

And here I. G. Savchenko is in Paris, at the Pasteur Institute, in the laboratory of I. I. Mechnikov.

At the institute, I. G. Savchenko worked on elucidating the physical nature and mechanism of phagocytosis. He established two phases: the first - the attraction of the object of phagocytosis to the surface of the phagocyte and the second - its immersion in protoplasm with subsequent digestion... These studies on the study of the phagocytic reaction brought I. G. Savchenko universal fame in the scientific world.

After a business trip abroad, I. G. Savchenko, having adopted the best traditions of the Pasteur Institute and armed with vast scientific experience, returned to Russia at the end of 1896, arrived in Kazan, where his fruitful work began at the newly built bacteriological institute. He headed the new institute and department of general pathology at the oldest Kazan University (founded in 1804).

In 1905, I.G. Savchenko published a report on his discovery of scarlet fever toxin, and two years later he proposed his own method of combating scarlet fever - a therapeutic serum of an antitoxic nature. It is curious that only two decades later the Americans followed the same path, Dickey, without however challenging the priority of producing such a serum from the Russian scientist and attaching enormous importance to his works. This method of preparing streptococcal anti-scarlet fever serum, proposed by Ivan Grigorievich, was very famous in the United States of America and was called “Professor Savchenko’s method...”

In 1919, the scientist moved from Kazan to Kuban. A year later, the health department invites him to create a district bacteriological institute and sets urgent tasks for him - to urgently produce vaccines on a “wide scale” for the army and the population.

Kuban was engulfed in an epidemic of typhus and cholera. In 1913, a special two-story building was built near the Sennaya Bazaar for a chemical and bacteriological laboratory, where the famous microbiologist began creating miraculous vaccines in 1920. The necessary vaccines and drugs have been created to bring salvation to people infected with cholera and rash.

In 1923, a malaria station was created in Krasnodar, headed by Professor Ivan Grigorievich Savchenko. Efforts were aimed at controlling the malaria-carrying Anopheles mosquito. If in 1923 there were 6,171 “painters” in Krasnodar, then in 1927 there were 1,533 people.

Malaria has been completely eradicated in Kuban - and this is due in no small part to the famous microbiologist I. G. Savchenko.

In terms of its scientific research and the enormous work carried out in laboratories, the Kuban Chemical-Bacteriological Institute at that time occupied third place in the USSR. In 1928, the scientist was awarded the honorary title of Honored Worker of Science (I. G. Savchenko was the first professor in the North Caucasus to receive the honorary title of Honored Worker of Science.)

New Year is coming soon - a very good time to remember the services of the great French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur to humanity: firstly, he was born on December 27, and this year we celebrate the 193rd anniversary of his birth. Secondly, his contribution to the development of science cannot be overestimated, and stories about such people and their achievements are usually inspiring and charged with enthusiasm. Agree, on the eve of the New Year this is very important.

Exposing the theory of spontaneous generation of life

In 1862, the French Academy of Sciences awarded Pasteur a prize for finally resolving the question of the spontaneous generation of life. The theory of the origin of living beings from inanimate matter has been taken for granted since the times of the Ancient World. This was believed in Ancient Egypt, Babylon, China, India, and Greece. It was believed, for example, that worms are born from rotten meat, and frogs and crocodiles are born from river silt.

Only in the Middle Ages did some scientists begin to question this theory, proving that spontaneous generation does not occur in a boiled and sealed flask with a nutrient solution. However, for every argument of scientists, adherents of the theory found a counterargument, coming up with either a “life-giving” force that died when boiled, or the need for natural unheated air.

Louis Pasteur conducted an ingenious experiment with a sterile nutrient medium, which he placed in a flask with an S-shaped neck specially made for this purpose. Ordinary air flowed freely into the flask, but microorganisms settled on the walls of the neck and did not reach the nutrient medium. Therefore, even after several days, no living microorganisms were found in the laboratory glassware. That is, despite ideal conditions, spontaneous generation did not occur. But as soon as the walls of the neck were rinsed with the solution, bacteria and spores began to actively develop in the flask.

This experiment by Pasteur refuted the prevailing opinion in medical science that diseases arise spontaneously inside the body or come from “bad” air (“miasms”). Pasteur laid the foundations of antiseptics, proving that infectious diseases are transmitted by infection - pathogens must penetrate into a healthy body from the outside.

Even before Pasteur refuted the theory of spontaneous generation of life, he studied the processes of fermentation. He proved that this is not a chemical process, as another outstanding chemist, Liebig, claimed, but a biological one, that is, the result of the reproduction of certain microorganisms. At the same time, the scientist discovered the existence of anaerobic organisms, which either do not need oxygen to exist, or it is even toxic to them.

In 1864, at the request of French wine producers, Pasteur began researching wine diseases. He discovered that they are caused by specific microorganisms, each disease having its own. To prevent wine from spoiling, he advised heating it to a temperature of approximately 50-60 °C. This is enough to kill harmful bacteria without affecting the quality of the product itself.

This method is now called pasteurization and is widely used in laboratories, food production and some non-food products. Currently, several types of pasteurization have been developed:
- long-term - 30-40 minutes at a temperature of no more than 65 °C;
- short - ½-1 minute at t 85-90 °C;
- instantaneous - a few seconds at 98 °C;
- ultra-pasteurization - a few seconds at temperatures above 100 °C.

Vaccination and the theory of artificial immunity

Beginning in 1876, Pasteur focused on the study of infectious diseases. He managed to isolate the causative agent of anthrax, cholera, puerperal fever, chicken cholera, swine rubella, rabies and some other infectious diseases. For treatment, he proposed using vaccinations with weakened cultures of microorganisms. This method became the basis of the theory of artificial immunity and is still used today.

The rabies vaccine brought particular fame to the scientist. After the first successful experiment on a person in July 1885, people from all over Europe began to come to Paris, hoping for a cure for a previously fatal disease. For example, in a group of 19 Russian peasants, 16 were cured, although a full 12 days had passed since the infection. Ilya Mechnikov, who worked with Pasteur, called the development of the rabies vaccine his “swan song.”

All over the world, Pasteur stations began to be organized that provided rabies vaccinations. In Russia, the first such station began operating in 1886.

Paris Pasteur Institute

In 1889, Pasteur headed the private institute he organized in Paris, funds for which were collected by subscription all over the world. He managed to gather the best biologists of that time at the institute and organize a scientific school of microbiology and immunology, from which many famous scientists emerged, including 8 Nobel laureates. For example, from the very beginning until his death, the 1908 Nobel Prize winner Ilya Mechnikov worked at the Pasteur Institute, whom Pasteur personally invited to head one of the laboratories.