July 6, 1885: Louis Pasteur's Rabies Vaccine

Louis Pasteur

July 6, 1885: Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux successfully test their rabies vaccine. The patient is Joseph Meister, a 9-year-old boy, who had been bitten by a rabid dog.

Born on December 27, 1822 in Dole, outside Bourgogne, France, Pasteur was the greatest biologist of all time. had already disproved the theory of spontaneous generation in 1862, and created the "pasteurization" process for keeping milk fresh in 1864. Roux, born on December 17, 1853 in Confolens, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, became his top assistant.

Pasteur produced the first vaccine for rabies by growing the virus in rabbits, and then weakening it by drying the affected nerve tissue. Roux had produced a killed vaccine using this method. The vaccine had been tested in 50 dogs before its first human trial.

Meister had bene badly mauled by a rabid dog. Pasteur gave him 13 inoculations over 11 days. After 3 months, he examined Meister, and found that he was in good health. In 1886, he treated 350 people, of which only one developed rabies. The treatment's success laid the foundations for the manufacture of many other vaccines. The first of the Pasteur Institutes was also built by Pasteur and Roux in 1887, on the basis of this achievement.

Pasteur lived until September 28, 1895, dying of a stroke at his home in Marnes-la-Coquette, near Paris. He was 72. Although the calendar year featured no major war, no major invention, and no major discovery, it was a more eventful year than appears at first. In addition to Pasteur, Frederick Douglass, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, José Martí, Friedrich Engels and Alexandre Dumas, fils died; while J. Edgar Hoover, Leroy Grumman, Lucian Truscott, Matthew Ridgway, Shemp Howard, Stanley Rous, Lorenz Hart, Rudolph Valentino, Fulton Sheen, Prescott Bush, Dorothea Lange, Hattie McDaniel, Irving Caesar, Carl Orff, Buckminster Fuller, Robert Graves, Gracie Allen, Harry Richman, John Diefenbaker, Paul Muni, Buster Keaton, Lewis Mumford, Rex Ingram, Levi Eshkol, Dolores "La Pasionaria" Ibárruri, King George VI, Jack Dempsey, George Stanley Halas, and George Herman Ruth Jr. were born.

Émile Roux lived on until 1933. Joseph Meister grew up to become a caretaker at the Pasteur Institute. On June 24, 1940, 10 days after Nazi Germany occupied Paris, he committed suicide rather than live under those bastards. He was 64.

*

July 6, 1885 was a Monday. These baseball games were played in the National League:

* The New York Giants beat the Chicago White Stockings, 7-4 at West Side Park in Chicago. The White Stockings went through some name changes before becoming the Cubs in 1903.

* The Buffalo Bisons beat the Philadelphia Quakers, 9-3 at Olympic Park in Buffalo. The Bisons went out of business at the end of the season, although several teams, in several sports, including minor-league teams in baseball, have taken up the name. The Quakers became the Phillies in 1890.

* And the St. Louis Maroons beat the Providence Grays, 5-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The Grays went out of business at the end of the season. The Maroons lasted until 1889.

And in the American Association, the Philadelphia Athletics beat the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, 8-0 at Recreation Park in Pittsburgh. This version of the A's folded after the 1890 season, and bears no connection besides name to the Philadelphia Athletics that began play in the American League in 1901. The Alleghenys joined the National League in 1887, and became the Pirates in 1891.