Joseph Meister

Joseph Meister (c. 1876 - 1940) was saved as a boy from rabies by Louis Pasteur and later served as a caretaker at the Pasteur Institute.

In 1885, the nine-year-old Meister was bitten by a rabid dog. Pasteur decided to treat the boy with a rabies virus grown in rabbits and weakened by drying, a treatment he had earlier tried on dogs. The treatment was successful and the boy did not develop rabies.

Meister later served as caretaker of the Pasteur Institute. When Meister, then 64-years-old, was unable to prevent the Nazis from entering Pasteur’s crypt in 1940, he went home, took out his World War I service revolver and shot himself.

External links

• Pasteur's report about the treatment of Meister