How Joseph Lister Inspired Listerine and Louis Pasteur the Term Pasteurization

Originally published on ebrandme.biz September 26, 2019.

Today, I’ll introduce Louis Pasteur — an artist turned chemist born 1822 in Dole, France, who inspired Lister — and is best known for his explanation on how heat treatment made foods safer… from which the term pasteurization is derived. He is remembered for his breakthroughs in the causes and prevention of diseases, and created the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax.

In the 1860s, mortality rate in the hospitals was about 12% of all patients, and 50% for amputees. Louis Pasteur’s research showed that the growth of micro-organisms was responsible for spoiling beverages such as beer and wine. This led to the idea that micro-organisms infecting animals and humans cause disease.

Joseph Lister read Pasteur’s work on fermentation and questioned whether micro-organisms might cause infections in wounds in the same way that it ruined wine and decided to experiment with using one of Pasteur’s proposed techniques, that of exposing the wound to chemicals.

In 1865, he began to perform antiseptic operations with his instruments and hands cleaned with carbolic acid, and wounds covered in a bandage soaked in 5% carbolic acid solution and the rate of infection was greatly reduced.