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In the 1860s, Louis Pasteur studied fermentation and the microorganisms that spoiled wine and beer. He showed that controlled heating, without boiling, could prevent unwanted microbial changes, and patented a process for preserving wine in 1865. The same principle was later applied to milk and other foods and became known, after him, as pasteurisation.

Louis Pasteur, 1864–1865

HealthScienceHistory

The story behind the card

Wine was one of France's great export industries, and unpredictable spoilage was a serious economic problem, so in 1863 Emperor Napoleon III asked Pasteur to investigate. Linking spoilage to specific living microorganisms gave strong early support to what became known as germ theory: the idea that particular microbes, not spontaneous decay or 'bad air', cause fermentation, rotting and disease. Over the next two decades Pasteur applied the same reasoning to human and animal illness, developed vaccines against anthrax and rabies, and helped found modern microbiology. Pasteurisation, heating a liquid enough to kill most harmful microbes without cooking it, is still used today, usually at higher temperatures for shorter times than Pasteur's method.

Türkçe oku
Louis Pasteur 1860'larda mayalanmayı ve şarapla birayı bozan mikropları inceledi. Sıvıyı kaynatmadan belli bir sıcaklığa kadar ısıtmanın istenmeyen mikropların işini bozduğunu gösterdi ve 1865'te şarabı bu yolla korumanın patentini aldı. Aynı ilke sonra süte ve başka yiyeceklere uyarlandı; yönteme de onun adından pastörizasyon denildi.

Şarap Fransa'nın en önemli ihraç ürünlerinden biriydi ve öngörülemeyen bozulmalar ciddi bir ekonomik sorundu; bu yüzden İmparator III. Napolyon 1863'te konunun araştırılmasını Pasteur'den istedi. Pasteur'ün bozulmayı belirli canlı mikroorganizmalara bağlaması, sonradan mikrop teorisi diye anılacak görüşün ilk güçlü kanıtlarından biri oldu. Bu görüşe göre mayalanmaya, çürümeye ve hastalıklara yol açan şey kendiliğinden bozulma ya da “kötü hava” değil, belirli mikroplardır. Pasteur sonraki yirmi yılda aynı düşünceyi insan ve hayvan hastalıklarına uyguladı, şarbon ve kuduz aşılarını geliştirdi ve modern mikrobiyolojinin kurucularından biri oldu. Pastörizasyon, yani bir sıvıyı pişirmeden zararlı mikropların çoğunu öldürecek kadar ısıtmak, bugün de kullanılıyor; ama genellikle Pasteur'ün yönteminden daha yüksek sıcaklıkta ve daha kısa sürede.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Pasteurization
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