Pasteur and Roux test the rabies vaccine on Joseph Meister
- When
- 1885
- Where
- Unspecified location
- Episodes
- 3
In July 1885, Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux successfully tested their rabies vaccine on Joseph Meister, a nine-year-old boy bitten by a rabid dog. The treatment involved a series of injections using spinal tissue from rabid rabbits, marking the first successful human treatment for rabies, a disease with a high fatality rate.
Episodes
- Meister bitten by rabid dog
Nine-year-old Joseph Meister was badly bitten by a rabid dog in 1885.
- Successful treatment
Meister was likely the first person to be successfully treated for rabies, a disease with a high fatality rate.
- Vaccination treatment
Pasteur inoculated Meister with spinal tissue from rabid rabbits, starting on 6 July 1885.
Background and detail
Background. Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux developed the first rabies vaccination in 1885. Roux had been researching rabies with Pasteur since 1881, presenting his findings in a doctoral dissertation in 1883. Pasteur had previously used spinal tissue from rabid rabbits to prevent rabies in dogs, a method that formed the basis for the human treatment.
Treatment. Joseph Meister, a nine-year-old boy, was badly bitten by a rabid dog. After consulting with colleagues Alfred Vulpian and Jacques-Joseph Grancher, Pasteur agreed to inoculate Meister. The treatment began on 6 July 1885 with a subcutaneous injection, followed by 12 additional doses over the next 10 days.
People involved
- Louis Pasteur · Developer of the rabies vaccine
- Émile Roux · Collaborator in rabies research
- Joseph Meister · First person successfully treated for rabies
- Alfred Vulpian · Consultant
- Jacques-Joseph Grancher · Consultant
Sources
- Joseph Meister Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-06
- Louis Pasteur Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-02
- Rabies vaccine Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-06
- Émile Roux Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-06
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.