The legacy of Lous Pasteur

Abstract

Several qualities of Louis Pasteur are emphasized in this paper, namely: his artistic gift, his capacity for concentration and reflection and his perseverance in working to achieve his goals; a sinthesis of his life is presented through his scientific achievements: to establish the bases of stereochemistry, to prove that fermentations are due to the action of living organisms and that no spontaneous generation exists, to elucidate the etiology of several human and animal diseases and to propose solutions for them including the production of vaccines that culminated with the success of rabies vaccination. Pasteur had been born at a time of great unhealthiness and high risk of death due to infectious diseases; through his life-Iong research he considerably improved such situation.