Whose Vaccine Fights Rabies?

French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) developed the rabies vaccine by passing the virus through rabbit spinal-cord tissue to progressively weaken (attenuate) it. On 6 July 1885, he administered the experimental vaccine to nine-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been bitten 14 times by a rabid dog. Over 11 days, Pasteur injected increasingly virulent preparations of the attenuated virus, and Meister survived — becoming the first person to be successfully vaccinated against rabies. The triumph cemented Pasteur reputation and led to the founding of the Pasteur Institute in Paris in 1887.