1

Profound People In Medical History
Lori Guzman
Stevens-Henegar/ Medical Terminology and Law and Ethics

2

Profound People in Medical History When I think of two major contributors to the medical profession, the first two people that come to mind is Louis Pasteur and Florence Nightingale. They had a huge impact in the medical field. First of all, Louis Pasteur was one of the most important founders of medical microbiology. Also, Florence Nightingale was the founder of nursing and hero to many people. Finally, without these two important people, the medical field would not be what it is today. Louis Pasteur discovered that microorganisms cause fermentation and disease. He originated the process of pasteurization, he saved beer, wine and silk industries in France. He also developed vaccines against anthrax and rabies. In 1854 Pasteur was appointed the professor of chemistry and the dean of science at the University of Lille. When he worked at Lille they asked him to help solve problems about alcohol production at the local distillery. It was then that he began a series of studies on alcohol fermentation. After Pasteur left Lille in 1857, he returned to Paris so he could take a job as the director of scientific studies at the Cole Normale Superieure. Also that year he presented evidence for the participation of living organisms in all fermented processes therefore showing that a specific organism was associated with each particular fermentation. Furthermore, Pasteur saved the wine and beer industries in France. This was because of the problems associated with production and contamination that happened during exporting it. 3
In 1867, he resigned from administrating duties and became a professor of chemistry. The first important discovery in the study of vaccinations was in 1879. It was for the disease called Chicken Cholera. From then on Louis Pasteur focused on his experimental work on the problem of immunization. He began investigating anthrax in 1879. At that time anthrax was a epidemic in France and other parts of Europe. Anthrax was responsible for killing a large number of sheep, plus it was attacking humans as well. In the spring of 1881 he received financial support mostly from farmers, so he could conduct a public experiment of the anthrax immunization. Pasteur immunized seventy animals and it was a complete success. The next vaccine that he discovered was Rabies and this was in 1882, and of course this was a success. During Pasteur’s career he worked on finding many problems in the medical field. A simple description of his achievements does not do him justice. Louis Pasteur never accepted defeat. To this day the Pasteur Institute in Paris still exists. Florence Nightingale from a very young age helped the ill and poor people in the village by her family’s estate. Florence Knew by the age sixteen that nursing was her calling. It was her “devine purpose”. In 1844 she enrolled as a nursing student at the Lutheran hospital in Germany. In the early 1850’s she went to London to take a nursing job that took care of sick governesses. The people where so impressed with Nightingale that they offered her a promotion to be the superintendent. This was just a year after she started. Nightingale’s mission was to improve hygiene and she succeeded as the death rate in the hospital went down. October of 1853 was the start of the Crimean war. A year after the war started Nightingale received a