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

PASTEUR LOUIS: (1822-1895) French chemist and microbiologist, renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination and pasteurisation. A significant A.L.S., L. Pasteur, three pages, 8vo, Paris, 19th July 1888, to [Charles Bouchard] (´Mon cher confrere´), in French. Pasteur commences his letter stating ´Mardi prochain, M. Proust fera le rapport sur les candidats étrangers au titre de correspondant de l’Académie de médecine. Permettez-moi de vous informer de tous les vœux que je fais en faveur du professeur Cantani de Naples, non seulement pour sa valeur personnelle et ses titres scientifiques, mais parce qu’il a été et est encore en butte à toutes sortes d’oppositions et d’avanies de Semmola et autres qui sont irrités de l’initiative qu’il a prise dès le début de l’application de ma méthode de prophylaxie de la rage après morsure´ (Translation: ´Next Tuesday, Mr Proust will report on the foreign candidates for the title of correspondent to the Académie de médecine. Allow me to inform you of all the good wishes I have for Professor Cantani of Naples, not only because of his personal merit and scientific qualifications, but also because he has been and still is subject to all sorts of opposition and abuse from Semmola and others who are irritated by the initiative he has taken since the beginning of the application of my method of rabies prophylaxis after bites´) and explains ´Cantani avait institué à ses frais le laboratoire antirabique que dirigeait un de ses élèves le docteur di Vestea. Cela ne pouvait durer, dans ces conditions. Il y a donc eu cessation de service de la rage jusqu’à ce que l’état et la municipalité se fussent décidé à des subsides à Cantani. Plusieurs cas de rage humaines s’étant produits pendant l’interruption du service, une allocation de 9.000 fr a été enfin accordée et les Dr Vestea et Zagari s’occupent présentement de refaire la série des lapins trépanés et des moules´ (Translation: ´Cantani had set up, at his own expense, an anti-rabies laboratory run by one of his students, Dr di Vestea. Under the circumstances, this could not continue. The rabies service was therefore discontinued until the state and the municipality decided to provide Cantani with subsidies. As several cases of human rabies had occurred during the interruption of the service, an allocation of 9,000 fr was finally granted and Dr Vestea and Zagari are now busy redoing the series of trepanned rabbits and moulds´), further writing ´En ce moment on répand le bruit que Cantani et anti français, très favorable à l’école allemande etc etc. Vous pourrez en être informé par M. Charcot qui, à Milan, a eu de piquants entretiens avec Semmola lequel a desservi Cantani comme il a pu. J’en sais long sur ce Semmola et je suis persuadé que M. Charcot n’a pas tardé à le juger. J’ai de Semmola plusieurs lettres, auxquelles je n’ai pas répondu, et par lesquelles il voulait m’obliger à une discussion publique avec lui pendant que j’étais à Bordighera. Ces lettres n’ont fait que me confirmer dans l’opinion que m’ont suggéré à son sujet plusieurs médecins et savants de l’Italie´ (Translation: ´At the moment there are rumours that Cantani is anti-French and very favourable to the German school etc etc. You can find out about this from Mr Charcot who, in Milan, had some lively discussions with Semmola, who did Cantani all he could. I know a lot about this Semmola and I am convinced that Mr Charcot was quick to judge him. I have several letters from Semmola, to which I did not reply, and by which he wanted to force me into a public discussion with him while I was in Bordighera. These letters only confirmed the opinion that several Italian doctors and scholars had suggested to me about him´). Pasteur concludes his letter stating ´Bref, je vous le répète, je forme les vœux les plus légitimes en faveur de M. Cantani. L’Académie de médecine lui doit en quelques sortes une réparation. À la sollicitation de ses ennemis de Naples, Peter a déposé, le 23 fév[rier] 1887 sur le bureau de l’académie de Paris, un document reconnu apocryphe, signé faussement du président de l’académie de médecine de Naples et dirigé contre Cantani, qui à la nouvelle de cette infamie, donna immédiatement sa démission de membre de cette académie. 8 jours après excuses et hommages à Cantani par le président Tommasi et refus d’acceptation de cette démission etc. etc.´ (Translation: ´In short, I repeat, I have the most legitimate wishes for Mr Cantani. The Académie de Médecine owes him a reparation of sorts. At the request of his enemies in Naples, Peter deposited, on 23 Feb[ruary] 1887 on the desk of the Paris Academy, a document acknowledged to be apocryphal, falsely signed by the President of the Naples Academy of Medicine and directed against Cantani, who on hearing of this infamy immediately resigned as a member of the Academy. 8 days later the president Tommasi apologised to Cantani and refused to accept his resignation etc. etc.´). In a lengthy postscript Pasteur refers to the specifica case of a dog and the method (inspired by Roux's experiments) of inoculating increasingly virulent rabies marrow by trepanning, in order to make the dog resistant to the rabies virus, ´Je passe quelques jours chaque semaine à Villeneuve-l‘Etang où je trouve votre chien. Dans cette inaction du chenil de Villeneuve il a pris un embonpoint inquiétant. Je vous engage beaucoup à le reprendre. Vous savez qu’après sa vaccination on a éprouvé son immunité par inoculation à la surface du cerveau et qu’il y a résisté parfaitement´ (Translation: ´I spend a few days each week in Villeneuve-l'Etang where I find your dog. In this inactivity at the Villeneuve kennels he has become worryingly overweight. I urge you to take him back. You know that after his vaccination his immunity was tested by inoculation on the surface of the brain and that he resisted perfectly´). A letter of important content demonstrating the high level of tension within the Franco-Italian scientific community and also illustrating Pasteur´s exasperation at the means used by his detractors to hinder the work of his colleagues on rabies prophylaxis. VG

Charles Bouchard (1837-1915) French physician, anatomopathologist, prolific biologist and renowned clinician. He is known, among other things, for the concept of auto-intoxication and medical antisepsis.

Adrien Proust (1834-1903) French doctor, the father of Marcel and Robert Proust. He was elected a full member of the Académie Nationale de Médecine in 1879, where he served as annual secretary from 1883-88, and inaugurated the Pasteur monument in Chartres shortly before his death in 1903.

Arnaldo Cantani (1837-1893) Italian doctor and politician. His research led to significant advances in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. As the present letter demonstrates, Cantani, a fervent supporter of Pasteur's work, set up a microbiology laboratory in Naples, recognised as the first Italian institute for rabies therapy. In Italy, Cantani and his pupils were pioneers in the treatment of certain infectious diseases with germs less pathogenic than those responsible for rabies. In 1887, Pasteur reported that the development of pathogenic micro-organisms could be inhibited by the presence of other non-pathogenic germs in the culture.

Mariano Semmola (1831-1896) Italian physician, philosopher and politician. The scientific differences between Cantani and Semmola were already very pronounced at the time of the cholera epidemic that swept through the Naples region in 1884.

Michel Peter (1824-1893) French physician, elected to the Académie Nationale de Médecine in 1878. Known as one of Pasteur's main critics, he attacked Pasteur's theories and experiments, particularly the rabies vaccine, both in France and abroad. The long controversy between the two men led to the conclusion that it was not always enough for an infectious germ to enter an organism for an infectious disease to develop (the healthy carrier theory).

Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) French neurologist and professor of pathological anatomy, responsible for the discovery of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (the neurodegenerative disease to which he gave his name). He became a member of the Académie de Médecine in 1873. Bouchard and Charcot devoted themselves to neuropathology, and more specifically to spinal cord sclerosis lesions. Together they discovered the origin of intracerebral haematomas, the rupture of small milliary aneurysms on the wall of cerebral arterioles, which would later be called ‘Charcot and Bouchard micro-aneurysms’.

Pasteur´s discovery of the rabies vaccine in 1885 earned the scientist worldwide acclaim. Subsequently, the Académie des Sciences proposed that he set up an establishment to treat rabies: the Institut Pasteur opened its doors in 1888, the same year as the present letter.