Louis Pasteur, a French chemist, is the man of all others to whom the civilized world today owes its health and its absolute certainly that the great epidemics of the past-cholera, the plague, ship fever (smallpox was conquered by an earlier genius) cannot recur. It is he who discovered the microparasitic origin of disease, or the germ theory, as it is popularly called, upon which almost the entire science of preventative medicine is founded, and which has shown the way to many of the greatest triumphs of the art of ***. It is as certain as anything *** *** in the domain of what has not *** *** happened that, were it not for the development and practical application of the truths established by Pasteur the world today would be mourning the tens of millions of men in every country in Europe and *** from the ravages of the plague; the loss in money alone would have been incalculable, while the paralysis of *** and of *** involved would have limited human progress for long years to come. (remaining document illegible)
Originally published in the Los Angeles Times on December 4, 1910