Pasteur

Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the

principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization. He was born in 1822

and came from the south of France. He created the first vaccines for rabies.

Vaccination against rabies is one of the most spectacular of Pasteur's inventions. The

scientist had already developed some vaccines but the rabies vaccine is the most famous in

the world.

Pasteur was not able to isolate the causative organism because the virus was not visible

with the microscope at his disposal at that time. But he managed to weaken the virus by

suspending a contaminated marrow in a jar where the air is dry.

On July the 6th of 1885, a fourteen year old Alsatian was bitten by a rabid dog, and he came

to Louis Pasteur’s laboratory.

The vaccine that was tested on animals seemed to give good results, but here it was a

human and not an animal. After a long hesitation, he decided to try the vaccination on the

teenager.

The experiment succeeded and the teenager did not contract rabies. Not much time after, in

October, a young shepherd was bitten by a rabid dog, and the vaccination was a success

again.

The news spread quickly: Pasteur, the grand scientific found a vaccine against rabies!

Patients came from everywhere and the Pasteur clinic for immunization against rabies

quickly became too small.

Then, an international subscription was launched for the construction of an Institute,

dedicated to the vaccination, training and research.

The institute Pasteur was inaugurated in Paris in November 1888.

One hundred twenty nine years ago, the disease of rabies was not curable and therefore

fatal. Louis Pasteur studied this disease, and was able to weaken the virus by isolating a

contaminated marrow in a jar emptied of air. That is how the vaccine was born. He tested

the vaccine on animals, and then it was tested on a human. The vaccine was effective. This

vaccine could save lives. Mortality has fallen quickly in the following years. It shows the

importance of this discovery.

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