Book Blurbs

“Pasteur thus has the stature as the principal architect of a medical revolution that matches the political and industrial revolutions that had shaken Europe since the end of the eighteenth century. Others, like Claude Bernard, had prepared the ground, but without question it was Pasteur who redesigned the medical landscape in which we have been living and moving for more than century.

“Beyond discovering and mastering germs, he created the field of medical research and immediately gave it its full dimension. ‘The object of scientific research,’ he said, ‘is the improvement of human health.’ On the basis of this conviction, he sought to unify teaching and research in the pursuit of healing. And indeed, Pasteurian science revealed the medical effectiveness of disciplines that had developed outside the hospital. Medicine as healing and prevention thus entered a new era and became a scientific endeavor. This encounter between the scientist and disease was not fortuitous; it had occurred in the context of specific problems. From the culture broth to the vaccines, from the toxins to serotherapy, the achievements of Pasteur and his disciples led to the patients’ bedside.” (p. 499)