Pasteur and rabies vaccination. 1885 illustration showing the French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) administering an anti-rabies vaccination. Pasteur found that fermentation is caused by micro-organisms, and also proposed the germ theory of disease. He developed a vaccine against rabies, which led to the founding of the Pasteur Institute, France, in 1888. He saved the French silkworm industry by identifying diseases that were decimating the worms. He discovered the anthrax bacterium and developed a vaccine against it. He also discovered that gentle heating of wine and beer preserves them from souring: the process of pasteurisation which is now widely used in the food industry.