PASTEUR LOUIS: (1822-1895) French chemist and microbiologist, renowned for his discoveries of the pr

PASTEUR LOUIS: (1822-1895) French chemist and microbiologist, renowned for his discoveries of the pr

A year after successfully developing his vaccine for rabies,  

Pasteur treats a man and his young child at his personal expense.

 

PASTEUR LOUIS: (1822-1895) French chemist and microbiologist, renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination and pasteurisation. A good A.L.S., L. Pasteur, to one side of his correspondence card, Rue d'Ulm, Paris (the site of Pasteur's laboratory), 18^th May 1886, to an unidentified correspondent, in French. Pasteur writes to certify that Mr. Metlitsky and his young child 'are undergoing at this moment the preventive treatment for rabies and that they are without resources', further proposing to pay the expenses in Paris, totalling 55 francs, for the man and his child if they do not receive any money from any Russian charitable society. Letters by Pasteur making reference to rabies are rare and highly desirable. Some light, minor splitting of the paper, otherwise VG

 

Through his development of a vaccine for rabies, Pasteur is credited of having saved the lives of millions of people. The vaccine's first human trial was performed by Pasteur on 9-year-old Joseph Meister in July 1885. As a result of the treatment the boy was restored to good health within months and Pasteur was hailed as a hero. In 1886, the year of the present letter, Pasteur treated 350 individuals, of which only one developed rabies. The treatment's success laid the foundations for the manufacture of many other vaccines and the first of the Pasteur Institutes was also built on the success of this achievement.