A boy bitten fourteen times had one experimental chance to live.

On July 6, 1885, a nine-year-old boy named Joseph Meister traveled from Alsace to Paris because a dog with rabies bit him 14 times. His mother brought him there because she was fearful that he would die without medical care. For most people at that time, rabies caused death if the person began to show symptoms.

An Untested Risk

Louis Pasteur was not a doctor, but he was performing experiments on animals with a rabies vaccine. To treat a human patient is a risk for medical and legal reasons and he had not done it before. After he spoke with physicians like Jacques Joseph Grancher, Pasteur agreed to treat the boy.

Ten Days of Injections

During the next 10 days, Joseph Meister received multiple injections - those injections contained material from the spinal cords of rabbits that held the rabies virus in a weakened state. With each dose, the virus material used was stronger than in the previous one. There are some sources that say there were 13 injections, while others describe the treatment as a 14-dose course over 10 days. Pasteur felt great stress while he waited for the results.

As a result of the treatment, Joseph did not become ill with rabies. In his later years, he was an employee at the Pasteur Institute. By working there, he remained connected to the organization. This event is an important moment in the history of medicine. It provides evidence that scientists are able to create vaccines in a laboratory to stop diseases.

A Disputed Death

But there is a claim that Joseph Meister ended his own life in 1940 because German soldiers ordered him to open the crypt of Pasteur. Due to a lack of evidence, this story is not certain.

According to more reliable sources, he reportedly committed suicide during the German occupation of Paris, with distress about his family being the cause, not the crypt.