Margaret Avery
Q: Describe the early life of Pasteur.
A. Pasteur was born in quite humble circumstances, at Dole in the Jura district of France in 182. When he was two years old, he moved to Arbois with his family and joined the communal college, where he developed an interest in studies.
Q. Give some instances of Pasteur’s patriotism.
A. In 1848, Pasteur enrolled himself in the National Guard. Once, he devoted all his worldly wealth of 150 francs to the fund. In 1870, when Germany and France were on the verge of war, he hurried to Paris from Germany and was disappointed when military authorities refused to enrol him in the National Guard on account of paralysis. These events show Pasteur’s patriotism.
Q. What do we mean by spontaneous generation?
A. ‘Spontaneous generation’ means the primitive outlook of some scientists that living things may get birth from non-living things. Pasteur experimentally proved the theory wrong.
Q. How did Pasteur prove that spontaneous generation was not a fact?
A. Pasteur destroyed all the germs in his specimen with heat. As a result, no germs were produced later. He thus proved that spontaneous generation was not a fact.
Q. Describe the importance and popularity of the silkworm industry in France.
A. Keeping silkworms was one of the chief home industries of the French peasantry. Almost every family set aside the best room in the house for rearing and tending silkworms. “How are your silkworms doing?” became the common greeting when meeting friends.
Q. What help did Pasteur render in curing the silkworm disease in his country?
A. Pasteur suggested keeping only those silkworms derived from healthy parents. In addition, he directed the silkworm rearers’ attention to the need of avoiding overcrowding, uncleanliness, overheating and unhealthy conditions generally, since these weakened the insects and made them more liable to the disease.
Q. How did Pasteur discover the treatment for the cattle disease, Anthrax?
A. Pasteur cultivated anthrax bacillus in such a way that it became mildly poisonous and found that these weakened germs introduced into an animal’s blood gave rise to only slight symptoms of anthrax and protected the animal from taking the deadly form. Thus, the protective treatment of anthrax was discovered.
Q. How did Pasteur discover the method of vaccines?
A. While studying fowl cholera, he went on holiday and, when he returned, found his cultivations dead or dying. He inoculated birds with those dead or dying germs. The birds showed signs of illness but recovered. When fresh lots of virulent germs were inoculated, the birds resisted the disease, but they died who were not inoculated with exhausted germs. Thus, vaccination was discovered.
Q. Give an account of Pasteur’s treatment of hydrophobia and how he cured the first patient suffering from it?
A. In animals or dogs, hydrophobia was treated by introducing attenuated spinal cord in dogs. Joseph Meister, a boy, was first treated for hydrophobia by the inoculation method.
Q. How did Pasteur show the way to other scientists? Give an account of the discoveries.
A. Following in Pasteur’s footsteps, the germs of consumption (tuberculosis), diphtheria, typhoid, lockjaw (tetanus), cholera, and Malta fever were discovered between 1880 and 1890. In 1896-97, protective inoculation treatments for typhoid and plague were discovered. Similarly, malaria, sleeping sickness, and many other diseases were studied using the same methods. Pasteur showed other scientists the way by introducing new treatment methods.