Louis Pasteur discovered that microbes were responsible for souring alcohol and came up with the process of pasteurization, where bacteria is destroyed by heating beverages and then allowing them to cool. His work in germ theory also led him and his team to create vaccinations for anthrax and rabies. In 1848, he became a professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, In 1854, Pasteur was appointed professor of chemistry and dean of the science faculty at the University of Lille. Working with the germ theory, which Pasteur did not invent but further developed through experiments and eventually convinced most of Europe of its truth, he demonstrated that organisms such as bacteria were responsible for souring wine, beer and even milk. He then invented a process where bacteria could be removed by boiling and then cooling liquid. Today the process is known as pasteurization. Pasteur’s first vaccine discovery was in 1879, with a disease called chicken cholera. After accidentally exposing chickens to the attenuated form of a culture, he demonstrated that they became resistant to the actual virus. Pasteur went on to extend his germ theory to develop causes and vaccinations for diseases such as anthrax, cholera, TB and smallpox. During the next decade, Pasteur developed the overall principle of vaccination and contributed to the foundation of immunology. Pasteur had been partially paralyzed since 1868, due to a severe brain stroke, but he was able to continue his research. At that time, his paralysis worsened, and he died on September 28, 1895.
