Louis Pasteur French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822. One of his several monumental contributions to science and industry was pasteurization, the process of heating wine, beer and milk to kill microorganisms that cause fermentation and disease. Pasteur also developed important vaccines and his work on molecular asymmetry led to the science of stereochemistry. He was the first to vaccinate animals for anthrax and chicken cholera, and in 1885 he proved that his rabies vaccine could be used successfully on humans when he saved the life of a 9-year-old boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog. The Pasteur Institute was formed in Paris in 1888 for research on rabies. Pasteur ran the institute until his death in 1895.
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