GREAT SCIENTIST

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 413, 23 July 1928, Page 13

GREAT SCIENTIST

BACTERIOLOGY’S PIONEER ADDRESS ON PASTEUR -As tins is the season uf colds,” 1 thought it would bo well to say something about Pasteur, the pioneer of bacteriology," said Professor Sperrinjohnson at to-day’s Rotary Club luncheon. Pasteur, he said, was a man of poor health, and a philanthropist tilled with intense sympathy for the suffering. Toward the end of the 19th century he be g an to co-ordinate the knowledge then available, and with his own experiments, pave the way to bacteriological science. He later put forward the germ theory of disease, established points about infection, and with extraordinary pertinacity forced his way to triumph through contemporary criticism. The speaker went on to say' that the name of Pasteur had been perpetuated in the proceeds of pasteurisation which freed milk from bacteria. The original research had been made in an effort to prevent the putrefaction of wine. Pasteur found that by taking wine half-way to boiling point, no damage was done, and the desired result was achieved. The speaker also gave a detailed account of the investigations which led tip to Pasteur’s germ theory of dis-