• Question: Who do you think was more influential in the development of medicine, Louis Pasteur or Joseph Lister and why?

    Asked by alexvotier to Darren, Deuan, Duncan, Lori-An, Michelle on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Michelle Hudson-Shore

      Michelle Hudson-Shore answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I think they’re pretty even because Pasteur was concerned with vaccination and Lister was looking at anteseptic so both extremely important. Maybe Pasteur might just edge it as his pasturisation technique to stop milk and wine causing illness may have benefitted more people overall.

    • Photo: Darren Nesbeth

      Darren Nesbeth answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I would have to say Pasteur.

      I believe an Austrian surgeon discovered the advantages of sterilising surgical instruments before Lister, but was tragically ignored.

      Pasteur contributed to leaps in understanding and theory in chemistry and microbiology, as well as practical things like effective sterilisation of wine and milk.

      So that’s Pasteur by whisker.

    • Photo: Lori-An Etherington

      Lori-An Etherington answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      This is a difficult question to answer, however regarding the development of the germ theory of disease perhaps I would argue that Louis Pasteur was more influential as although Joseph Listers had observed that covering wounds after surgery was beneficial, it was only after Louis Pasteur suggested that decay was caused by living organisms in the air, which on entering matter caused it to ferment (in 1865) that Lister then made the connection with wound sepsis.

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