Pasteur's life and work in relation to the advancement of medical science.

  • Lewis Atterbury Stimson
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pasteur's life and work in relation to the advancement of medical science. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    from all quarters ; one of the largest gifts came from the Czar, in recognition of the saving of the lives of sixteen Russians who had been bitten by a rabid wolf; another came from the Emperor of Brazil, in recognition of the high scientific value of the work ; another from Alsace- Lorraine, from which had come Pasteur's first patient; and a multitude of others from corporations and in- dividuals throughout France. As has been said by a biographer, this time the prophet was not without honor in his own country. Far from it! In May, 1886, a festival was given at the Trocadero in aid of the Institut Pasteur, at which the greatest celebrities of the literary, musical, and theatrical world of Paris assisted ; and when Coque- lin recited a poem in honor of the Master, the audience rose and joined in the greatest ovation that had ever been offered to a man of science. But this subject, interesting as it is, must not now be followed further. The Institut Pasteur was established, and during the years 1886-1891 there were treated within it 11,029 individuals who had been bitten by rabid ani- mals. Of these 98 have died. I quote from a report of the Board of Health of the city of Paris.^ Comparing this mortality of less than one per cent (0.88 per cent) with the mortality among those not treated, as ascer- tained by the authorities of the city of Paris for the years 1887 (15.90 per cent) and 1888 (13.33 per cent), or with that given by medical writers (15 per cent), it appears that the work of this charity has already resulted in the saving of about 1,500 men, women, and children from death in one of its most terrible forms. In reply to a question addressed him a few weeks ago, M. Pasteur writes me that during the year 1891 201 persons living in Paris were treated at the Institut, with no deaths, and that during the same period, in the same city, four persons had died of hydrophobia from among the very limited ^ Rapport sur ]es cas de rage humaine constates dans le Departement de la Seine de 1880 a 1891. Conseil d'hygiene publique et de salubrite, 1892.