| Date | 1863 |
| Author | Pasteur |
| Contribution | c. Wrote letter to Napoleon III expressing interest in finding cause of infectious diseases. |
| Reference | Collard |
| Notes | Collard, as a reference for this item, needs to be checked. From what I have seen it is not clear that Pasteur said anything about germs in this letter -- though it is sometimes cited as evidence for Pasteur's belief in a germ theory of systemic mammalian diseases prior to his active experimentation on anthrax in 1877. Possibly a better piece of evidence would be the 1861 passage cited by Rene Dubos in his "Pasteur and Modern Science" (Anchor Books edition, 1960, page 96). An even earlier supporting document is the note Pasteur reportedly wrote in 1859 for transmittal to Napoleon III (see 1859 Pasteur). |
| Category | Causation |
| Pathogen Class | General |
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