Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur

Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur

1. Robert Koch - German Doctor

   • More credibility than Pasteur
   • Built on theories of Pasteur
     • Applied them to human diseases
     • Found a way of staining and growing anthrax germs
       • Petri Dish
       • Proved that they caused disease using mice
         • Proved that germs cause disease in humans and animals
       • Won Nobel Prize in 1905
       • Also identified the germs causing TB and cholera
         • TB - 1882
         • Cholera - 1883
       • More precise than Pasteur
     • Used new technologies to help him (microscope - received in 1871)
   • Born in Germany, 1843
   • His success spurred on Louis Pasteur and they developed a rivalry
     • Inspired new generation of scientists to continue identifying germs and creating vaccines
     • Rivalry partly due to war that France lost to Germany (1870-1)
     • Advancements were faster as the governments gave the men money to beat the other country to the discovery
     • Koch got funding first and his own team
       • French retaliated and gave Pasteur funding to keep up

2. Preventatives greatly improved but not treatments

3. Louis Pasteur - French Chemist

   • Born in France, 1822
   • Disproved theories of miasma and spontaneous generation
     • Miasma - Bad air or infectious mist that infected people with disease (carried by wind)
     • Spontaneous Generation - belief that germs appeared because someone was ill, that being ill was the cause
   • Germ Theory
     • Approached by wine producer (1857)
       • Why is beetroot alcohol going sour?
       • Pasteur concluded that it was germs
     • Killed bacteria by gently heating liquid
       • Worked with beer and milk
       • Pasteurisation
     • Convinced germs came from the air
       • Germs can't infect what they can't reach so spontaneous generation was incorrect
         • Published Germ Theory in 1861
           • Only about liquids
     • French silk industry being ruined by disease
       • Pasteur proved that a germ was causing the disease, pébrine through a series of experiments
   • Lacked credibility
     • No one believed that something as small as a germ could affect something as large as a human
     • Experiments were limited
   • Vaccines
     • Discovered how they actually work and could be developed for different diseases
       • Began with chicken cholera
         • Chicken mistakenly injected with old germs and became resistant
     • Edward Jenner had discovered about small pox and cow pox
       • Was thought to be a coincidence
     • Used a vaccine for sheep anthrax to prove to everyone
     • Created rabies vaccine which was a major breakthrough that people from all over Europe came for
       • Gained credibility

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