PASTEUR LOUIS: (1822-1895) French chemist and microbiologist, renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination and pasteurisation. A.L.S., L. Pasteur, one page, 8vo, Paris, 10^th April 1882, to a gentleman, in French. Pasteur writes, in part, 'Je vous remercie de votre lettre et de votre dépêche de ce matin. Vous aurez la complaisance de me dire si les deux moutons morts a Forfry annoncés par votre dépêche, font partie des 3 mauvais qui ont reçu d'emblée le vaccin spécial ou des 45 qui ont reçu antérieurement le 1er vaccin' (Translation: 'I thank you for your letter and your telegram this morning. You will have the kindness to tell me if the two dead sheep at Forfry announced by your telegram, are part of the 3 ill ones who immediately received the special vaccine or of the 45 who have previously received the 1^st vaccine') and in a postscript remarks 'Retenez bien que le 7 avril vous avez inoculé chez M. Narest ; le 8 avril, chez Mr Longuet ; le 9 avril chez ? - je ne sais pas encore. Ne confondez pas les résultats dans ces trois cas-là' (Translation: 'Remember that on 7^th April you inoculated at Mr. Narest's; on 8^th April at Mr. Longuet's; on 9^th April at? - I do not know yet. Do not confuse the results in these three cases'). A few very light, minor creases and one small tear to the centre of the lower edge, otherwise VG

Pasteur had been trying to develop the anthrax vaccine since 1877, shortly after Robert Koch's discovery of the bacterium, but it was not until 21^st March 1881 that he announced the successful vaccination of sheep, and a public experiment was conducted a few months later in May. All of the vaccinated sheep survived, while unvaccinated ones died before the public viewers, and Pasteur's report to the French Academy of Sciences in June concluded '[by] looking at everything from the scientific point of view, the development of a vaccination against anthrax constitutes significant progress beyond the first vaccine developed by Jenner, since the latter had never been obtained experimentally'.