French chemist Louis Pasteur created modern germ theory during his experiments in the 1860s. He demonstrated that food spoilage results from an unseen bacterial infection rather than spontaneous creation. Pasteur affirmed that germs were to blame for illness and disease. Before Pasteur’s discovery, scientists thought sickness and other live things were the offspring of non-living things such as dirt or dust (Cavaillon & Chrétien, 2019). Although initially contentious, the germ theory transformed public health; Pasteur’s discoveries influenced Dr. Joseph Lister’s discovery of antiseptic surgery. This theory and discovery are critical because it is relevant and applicable to the current healthcare system.
He discovered through experimentation that a weak solution of a commonly-used vaccine of the day, called “scarlatina,” would kill bacteria. Pasteur’s discovery, however, applied only to some bacteria (Cavaillon & Chrétien, 2019). Scarlatina is a disease caused by the bacteria “Streptococcus pyogenes.” Nonetheless, he discovered that the similar bacteria that cause Scarlet Fever, which he found, could be killed through treatment with a weak solution of his newly-invented vaccine. Pasteur found that a diluted solution of this vaccine could kill what he saw as the single-celled micro-organism at the time, the Germ Theory. Consequently, his discovery helped but it was not William Jenner or Pasteur who coined the terms “pathogen” or “antigen.”
Additionally, the discovery is valuable today because it is a more direct answer to life being from non-life than the theory of abiogenesis. Nonetheless, Pasteur’s experiments demonstrate that life does “not” create itself from non-life, but this does not prove or disprove the legitimacy of abiogenesis (Cavaillon & Chrétien, 2019). His experiments also revealed that, at most, only some bacteria could be grown in culture, which is known. This has nothing to do with the creation of life from non-life.
Reference
Cavaillon, J. M., & Chrétien, F. (2019). From septicemia to sepsis 3.0–from Ignaz Semmelweis to Louis Pasteur. Microbes and Infection, 21(5-6), 213-221.