Louis Pasteur Book

"Debré in this fine biography traces the steps in the transition and illuminates Pasteur's many achievements in the field." -- Scientific American

David S. Barnes

This unabashedly worshipful biography retraces all of the familiar steps in Pasteur's career, from the molecular asymmetry of crystals to the beginnings of immunology. The author narrates in great detail the pivotal moments of inspiration and innovation that made the French chemist and microbiologist one of the most revered and chronicled figures in the history of science. The purpose is to illuminate the process of scientific discovery and innovation by examining in detail the life and work of a legendary scientist. The audience is history of medicine scholars, scientists, students, and general readers. The author pays special attention to discoveries that had immediate or long-term ramifications in medicine (e.g., the attenuation of microbial virulence through oxygenation, the development of the anthrax and rabies vaccines), but does not neglect Pasteur's earlier work on spontaneous generation, silkworms, beer, and wine. Emphasis is placed throughout the narrative on the often vicious conflicts between Pasteur and his detractors (especially in the medical world), on Pasteur's genius and perseverance, and on the epic and fateful dimensions of scientific progress. With this book, the author joins a long and illustrious tradition of physician-biographers, paying homage to the past giants of medical science. There is certainly a place for this kind of biography, which is often enjoyable, edifying, and inspiring. However, it should not be mistaken for serious historical analysis. Moreover, few lives in the history of science have been so thoroughly chronicled and picked over as that of Louis Pasteur, and after a certain point, one must confront the fact that there is little worthwhileterritory left to be covered. In cases such as this, the scholar or biographer must present either new source material or a novel interpretation in order to make a significant contribution to the literature as Latour's The Pasteurization of France (Harvard University Press, 1988) and Gelson's The Private Science of Louis Pasteur (Princeton University Press, 1995) have done in recent years. Apart from the chronological occasion of the 1995 centenary of Pasteur's death (for which the original French version of this book was written), it is difficult to see any justification for yet another lengthy biographical veneration of this titan of nineteenth-century science.