He prevented the spread of the silkworm illness and saved the silk industry

One of the interesting facts about Louis Pasteur is that he prevented the spread of the silkworm illness and saved the silk industry. After being elected to the Académie des Sciences in 1862, Pasteur was appointed professor of chemistry, physics, and geology at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris the following year. Shortly after being assigned, Pasteur focused on the French silkworm pupae dilemma. A strange sickness afflicted silkworm nurseries in the middle of the 19th century. Because the disease has spread throughout Europe and into the Caucasus region of Eurasia, China, and Japan, as well as throughout the rest of Europe, silkworm pupae cannot be produced in France or imported from other nations. By 1865, the silk industry in France and, to a lesser extent, the rest of Western Europe had been absolutely gutted.

Despite the fact that Pasteur understood very little about silkworm pupae, he agreed to the project at the urging of his former professor Dumas and embraced the chance to advance his understanding of infectious diseases. He quickly gained expertise in growing silkworm pupae and discovered the germs that cause sickness in the young silkworms. After five years of study, he developed a technique that retained healthy silkworm pupae eggs and shielded them from infection by pathogenic microbes, preserving the silk industry. This custom became well-known in Europe within a short period of time, and it is still followed in nations that produce silk today.