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Institut Pasteur

U.S. Scientific Relations

Historic Relations

Institut Pasteur and U.S. Historic Relations

The history of scientific exchange between the Institut Pasteur and the United States is thoroughly intertwined with a rich history of American philanthropy towards the Institut Pasteur, both of which date to more than a century ago.

On December 1, 1885, just six months after Louis Pasteur treated his first rabies patient, Joseph Meister, four boys from Newark, New Jersey, were bitten by a dog suspected to be rabid.

A well-known physician, Dr. William O’Gorman, recommended that the children be sent to Pasteur for treatment and issued his appeal:

“I have such confidence in the preventive forces of inoculation by mitigated virus that were it my misfortune to be bitten by a rabid dog, I would board the first Atlantic steamer, go straight to Paris and, full of hope, place myself immediately in the hands of Pasteur.... If the parents be poor, I appeal to the medical profession and to the humane of all classes to help send these poor children where there is almost a certainty of prevention and cure. Let us prove to the world that we are intelligent enough to appreciate the advance of science and liberal and humane enough to help those who cannot help themselves.”
— New York Herald, December 4, 1885

In response to this appeal, contributions from people of all means began to arrive, from the great industrialist Andrew Carnegie and the former Secretary of State Frederick Frelinghuysen to four-year-old girls from the boys’ Newark neighborhood. In a matter of days, the fund had amassed $1,000 and the four boys left for Paris to be treated by Louis Pasteur.

Their story was followed closely by the local and national press, as documented in Dr. Bert Hansen's scholarly article “America's First Medical Breakthrough: How Popular Excitement About a French Rabies Cure in 1885 Raised New Expectations of Medical Progress” (American Historical Review in April 1998) and in his book, Picturing Medical Progress From Pasteur to Polio: A History of Mass Media Images and Popular Attitudes in America (2009).
           
Dr. Hansen describes this attention as the first time that medicine is seen as “hot news.” When the boys returned home in January 1886, they received a hero’s welcome in the port of New York.

The Newark boys’ story is the genesis of two enduring Pasteurian traditions:

First, it marks the beginning of American giving to the Institut Pasteur. Thanks to the coverage in the Herald and many papers throughout the country, the U.S. public was well aware of Louis Pasteur’s work. Therefore, several months later, when the French Academy of Sciences established an international fund for the construction of an institute that would bear the name of Louis Pasteur, contributions began to arrive from around the world. In the U.S., a small notice was published in the New York Herald, and many Americans, such as James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the publisher of the paper, showed their gratitude with their philanthropy. These people were the institute's first donors.

Second, this event marked the start of the institute's history of scientific collaboration with America. Following the visit of the Newark boys, Pasteur was pleased, for example, to welcome scientists from New York City and Chicago into his laboratory to demonstrate his rabies treatment. In time, this cooperation would give Americans quick access to a cure for the much-dreaded disease. By the turn of the century, at least six American Pasteur Institutes were operating and had provided Pasteur's treatment to more than 2000 Americans.

With the same cooperative spirit, the Institut Pasteur, during World War I, played an active role in the preparation and supply of vaccines and sera to the American Army and American Red Cross; some 800,000 doses were given to Allied Forces free of charge.

During the past half century, the Institut Pasteur has welcomed more than one thousand American researchers and hundreds of Pasteur scientists have come to the United States to pursue postdoctoral fellowships. The Pasteur Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship program seeks to perpetuate this tradition by creating three-year positions for American researchers at the Institut Pasteur.

If you are an American scientist interested in pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship in a Pasteur laboratory, please contact the Pasteur Foundation.

The Rapkine Fund: Our Precursor

Louis Rapkine (1935) for whom the Rapkine French Scientist Fund was namedThe precursor of the Pasteur Foundation, the Rapkine French Scientist Fund, was incorporated in 1951 in memory of the work of a remarkable Pasteur scientist and humanist, Louis Rapkine (1904-1948), shown here.

In August 1940, after France fell to the Nazis, Rapkine worked with the Rockefeller Foundation in New York to save an elite corps of French scientists from wartime persecution. Thanks to his efforts, some 30 scientists and their families successfully emigrated. Louis Rapkine was an exceptional and noble figure to whom the field of biochemistry owes a great deal.

Following the war, while France was rebuilding, French researchers needed materials. In 1951, three years after Rapkine's death and as a tribute to him, the Rapkine Fund was established in New York to purchase scientific materials for use in France. The Institut Pasteur was one of the fund’s primary beneficiaries.

A charitable organization in New York overseen by Bethsabée de Rothschild, the Rapkine Fund played an important role in establishing an enduring tradition of American philanthropic giving to the Institut Pasteur. In 1985, the name of the Rapkine Fund was changed to the Pasteur Foundation.

Photo: Louis Rapkine in 1935

Depicted clockwise from top left: The four American boys treated by Louis Pasteur - Eddie Ryan, Patrick Reynolds, William Lane, and Austin Fitzgerald

Four schoolboys from Newark, New Jersey, were sent by their community to be treated by Louis Pasteur for rabies in December 1885. Clockwise from top left: Eddie Ryan, Patrick Reynolds, William Lane, and Austin Fitzgerald.
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