Short Term Influences

Louis Pasteur had many short term influences during the 19th century. The first of his major influence was on the wine and silk industry in the 19th century. Wine was becoming sour very quickly and people could not figure out why. Pasteur discovered the reason why this was happening. He also realized a way that he could stop the wine from going bad. He discovered that by putting the wine in an area that was 55 degrees fahrenheit Pasteur realized that the harmful bacteria in the wine could be destroyed. Pasteur also saved the 19th century silk industry. Pasteur discovered that specific microbes were causing diseases in the silk worms and killing them. He decided that this could be stopped by destroying moths that were showing signs of disease. He was able to correctly identify which disease would be present in a silk worm and was therefore able to cure the disease and save the silk industry. Another huge influence Pasteur had was on surgery. Before Pasteur 19th century doctors did not sterilize their tools after surgery and many people got diseases and died after surgery. When doctors started using Pasteur's aseptic techniques death after operations dropped from 50 percent to 3 percent. Another big influence Pasteur had on 19th century society was the discovery of certain vaccines. He discovered the vaccine for anthrax and rabies. Anthrax was killing livestock during the 19th century. He created a vaccine to stop this from continuing. This saved many lives of livestock animals. Pasteur's vaccine for rabies also saved many people's lives that otherwise would of died.