If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat — diseased tissue — rather than being the cause of the diseased tissue; e.g. mosquitoes seek the stagnant water, but don't cause the pool to become stagnant. - Rudolph Virchow, Father of Pathology
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🧠 Memory Hole 🕳️
Pasteur said "The terrain is everything, the germ is nothing" (translated from french).
It was actually Claude Bernard, Father of Experimental Medicine, who famously in front of a group of physicians and scientists, made the statement "The terrain is everything, the germ is nothing" and then proceeded to drink a glass of water filled with cholera. He had some serious balls.
You're correct. I left off the beginning of the Pasteur quote. He actually said: "Bernard was right, the terrain is everything, the germ is nothing." I first read about this in "Cured" by Dr Jeffrey Rediger. He said that Pasteur's son-in-law wrote his biography and that Pasteur had made that statement towards the end of his life.
Very interesting! I've seen his words quoted many times in both french and translated to English, but never say that first part. That would make a lot of sense. I must read that biography sometime.