German physician who identified the bacteria behind anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera
Joseph Lister
British surgeon who introduced antiseptic surgery in 1867
Ignaz Semmelweis
Hungarian physician who linked hand-washing to lower deaths in the 1840s
Plate 067
1860s
France and Germany
No photograph is shown for this exhibition. The museum displays an image only where it can show the object honestly.
About this date
Louis Pasteur showed in 1861–62 that microbes cause fermentation and spoilage, and developed gentle heating of wine in 1864. Robert Koch proved specific microbes cause specific diseases in the 1870s–80s.
About credit
Germ theory was built by many people. Semmelweis’s earlier findings were rejected in his lifetime.
Chapter II
The world before
Life before Pasteurisation and Germ Theory
Disease was blamed on bad air or imbalance. Surgery often ended in deadly infection.
II
The human achievement
How it came about
Pasteur’s swan-neck flask experiments showed that broth stays clear unless microbes enter. Heating wine to about 55°C killed spoilage organisms without ruining it. Lister used carbolic acid spray and cleaning to reduce infection in surgery, and Koch’s methods linked bacteria to disease.
III
Understanding the invention
How it works
Pasteurisation and Germ Theory, explained in two steps.
01
Step 01 of 02
Microbes are everywhere
Tiny organisms on hands, tools and in the air can grow in food and wounds.
Microbes are everywhere
Heat and disinfect
IV
The transformation
What changed for humanity
Food
Pasteurised milk reduced diseases such as tuberculosis and typhoid.
Hospitals
Sterile surgery became routine.
It transformed medicine, food safety and public health, and led to antiseptics, sanitation, vaccines and antibiotics.
V
Before and after
Life before and after Pasteurisation and Germ Theory
Before
Many patients died of infection.
After
Clean instruments and fewer deaths.
On larger screens, drag the divider (or use the arrow keys) to give more room to the world before or after.
VI
Its legacy
What came after
MHI 067
Pasteurisation and Germ Theory
Beyond the collection
Penicillin
Antibiotics fight bacteria directly.
Beyond the collection
Vaccines
Pasteur developed rabies and anthrax vaccines.
VII
Human stories
The people and the moments
The boy from Alsace
In 1885 Pasteur treated nine-year-old Joseph Meister, bitten by a rabid dog, with a new rabies vaccine. The boy survived, and the event made Pasteur famous.
Where accounts differ, this museum follows the documented record and says so.