Joseph Meister, mauled by a rabid dog near Alsace, was brought to Louis Pasteur, a chemist who had never treated a human patient but had developed a weakened rabies vaccine tested only on dogs. Facing certain death otherwise, Pasteur administered a series of injections over the following days. Meister survived, and the case became one of the most celebrated triumphs in the history of medicine.
Pasteur was not a physician and risked prosecution for practicing medicine without a license, but rabies was a death sentence with no other recourse, killing its victims through weeks of agonizing hydrophobia and convulsions. Meister's mother begged Pasteur to try his experimental treatment, developed by drying infected rabbit spinal cords to weaken the virus progressively. Over eleven days, Pasteur gave the boy thirteen injections of increasingly virulent vaccine, essentially racing the disease's incubation period.
Meister never developed symptoms. News of the cure spread worldwide within months, and grateful patients and donations poured in, funding the founding of the Institut Pasteur in Paris in 1888. Meister later worked as a gatekeeper at the institute for the rest of his life. The episode also marked a turning point in public trust in laboratory science, transforming Pasteur from a controversial chemist into a global hero and establishing the template for modern vaccine development.
Key people: Louis Pasteur, Joseph Meister