PASTEUR LOUIS Autograph Letter Signed

Sale 1952 - Lot 109

Price Realized: $ 3,450

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000

ON AN ANTHRAX VACCINE FOR AUSTRALIA PASTEUR, LOUIS. Autograph Letter Signed, to an unnamed female recipient, in French, regarding experiments with rabbits in Australia, writing that she should stop what she is doing as they need to determine if they are successful with a vaccine for Cumberland's Disease (i.e. anthrax) for both the rabbits sake and for the sake of the vaccine, wondering if it is possible that the Australian rabbits have an immunity to the vaccination, and informing her that he will be sending a box of the vaccine to Australia in July. 1 page, single 8vo sheet; framed. Paris, 28 May 1888

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In 1887 the government of New South Wales (Australia) offerred a reward of 25,000 pounds for a biological method to control the booming rabbit population. Pasteur decided to enter the contest theorizing that the micro-organism he discovered Pasteurella multocida might work. When his representatives arrived in Australia, they discovered that a local disease named Cumberland's Disease, which mostly affected sheep and cattle, was actually anthrax, for which Pasteur had developed a vaccine in 1881. An experiment with the vaccine was held in September 1888, with complete success. Pasteur's method for destroying the rabbits was rejected by the government on 3 April 1889.