Louis Pasteur (The Afars and the Issas)

The stamp

This stamp shows Louis Pasteur. It was issued in the French territory of the Afars and the Issas in 1972. Previously French Somaliland, it is now Djibouti.

The doctor

Louis Pasteur was born on 22 December 1822 in Dole, Eastern France. He was a mediocre student, being more interested in sketching and fishing than in working, but he eventually got into the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris and gained a Masters in Science. He was Professor of Physics in Dijon, and then Professor of Chemistry in Strasbourg. 

He became interested in the science of fermentation of wine and beer, and worked out that microorganisms were the cause of food and drink going bad. This led to the "germ theory" in medicine and, along with the work of Koch, allowed Lister to introduce the concept of antisepsis.

Read more about the Germ Theory

The urology connections

Although Pasteur was not a urologist, his work on germ theory is so fundamental to all areas of medicine that we have included him in the BAUS stamp collection.

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