Excerpt from Germ Hunter A Story About Louis Pasteur by Elaine Marie Alphin

"Rabies!"

Nine-year-old Joseph Meister had been savagely bitten by a rabid dog on July 4. Instead of going to a doctor, his mother brought him to Louis Pasteur two days later. She begged the scientist to help.

Louis still believed in his injections. Would they stand a better chance of success because Joseph's bite's were recent? Without the injections, the boy would almost certainly die. Louis agreed to try to cure him.

Louis insisted that he could treat Joseph best if he could control his environment - hospitals still weren't sterile enough to be safe. So Joseph stayed with Louis and Marie for the course of treatment. He got thirteen injections in ten days, each stronger than the one before.

The last injection contained the strongest form of rabies created in the laboratory. The night before it was given to Joseph, Marie wrote to Marie-Louise and Jean-Baptiste, "Your father has had another bad night; he is dreading the last inoculations [injections] on the child. And yet there can be no drawing back now!

The night after Joseph received the last injection, Louis paced, unable to sleep. He had done everything he could to defeat rabies and save the boy, but the last injection was so strong that it would kill a laboratory animal in seven days.

Would Joseph Meister live or die?

Copyright ©2003 by Elaine Marie Alphin