Louis Pasteur (December 27, 1822 - September 28, 1895) was a French chemist and bacteriologist who founded the science of microbiology. Pasture discovered that disease could be caused by bacteria transmitted from person to person (the germ theory of disease). He also developed vaccines for rabies and anthrax. Pasteur also found that lightly heating food and beverages could preserve them from souring. This pasteurization process is now widely used in the food industry. As a chemist, Pasteur discovered that some crystals had two forms, one which would rotate plane-polarized light to the left, and the other would rotate light to the right. This led to the study of stereochemistry. In 1887 he founded the Pasteur Institute. He died in 1895, at the age of 72, from complications of a series of strokes that had started in 1868. He was buried in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, but his remains were reinterred in a crypt in the Institut Pasteur, Paris, where he is remembered for his life-saving work.