A Boy’s Bestfriend, vignette

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A Boy’s

BestfriendA Historical Vignette of Louis PasteurBy: MELISSA E. NANONG



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Historical vignettes

• are stories that describe a brief episode from thelife of a scientist which characterizes the nature of science, demonstrates scientific attributes, andprovides students with a historical perspective of

the topic illustrated.



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A Boy’s Bestfriend

• Louis Pasteur had beenknown to most people.What did Louis Pasteurcontribute to science?

(Most students will saypasteurized milk.) Well, Iwill tell you another storyabout Dr. Pasteur, few

people have heard. Howmany of you have a dog athome as a pet? (Wait andtally raised hands.) At theage of 63, Louis Pasteur

made a great discovery,



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• Let's listen on the conversation when Dr. Pasteur isconsulting with his two colleagues, Dr. Vulpain andDr. Grancher, about a young patient who wasbrought to him the previous day. "Pasteur, the boy

just arrived. He's been bitten quite severely by amad dog, (Ask: Does the word mad only meanangry? Wait for student answers and clarify.) That itwas mad was confirmed by our autopsy of the

animal. Its stomach contained wood and straw," Dr.Grancher reported.



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• "I still can't decide whether to go ahead andinoculate him with the rabies virus. It's never beendone before on humans. I have had success withdogs, but they are quite different from humans. I

can't decide. My friends, what do you think?"(Teachers note: the word inoculate means tointroduce living microorganisms in a host organismin order to treat a disease; in a vaccination, those

microbes are first killed, inactivated, or attenuatedbefore being introduced.)



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• At this point, stop the story. Ask your students toanalyze the situation. Possible questions are:Should Pasteur inoculate the child? Why or whynot? Why are other mammals (e.g. dogs, guinea

pigs, rats) often used as models of the humanbody? Should science use laboratory animals formedical research? All answers that students cansubstantiate with evidence should be entertained

at this point and students should be encouraged toraise questions and answer other students'questions. The objective is to get the listenerinvolved in the story and generate a discussionabout science. After sampling your students'

inferences, predictions, and the reasoning that



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• Dr. Vulpain, well-known among the doctors for hislogical thinking, suggested this: "We know thismuch. If the child remains untreated, he will die. If you do treat him, he may survive. I say take the

chance. Your previous experiments were carefullyperformed. You have used control animals andexperimental animals; you have kept accuratecords of your work. I have confidence in you and

faith in the treatment you are proposing."• "I completely agree," Dr. Grancher flatly stated.

"Proceed."



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• Pasteur became angry at the thought of the rabiesdisease claiming the life of such an innocent child.He decided he must not delay. The advice of hiscolleagues, his own diagnosis, his prognosis for the

patient, and the search he had done on thisdisease all led him to the same conclusion: he mustattempt to save the child's life. (Teachers note: aprognosis is a prediction of the probable course a

disease will take; a diagnosis is the identification of a disease by evidence or analysis.)



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• Pasteur had discovered that if the spinal cord of akilled rabid dog was preserved in dry air, thevirulence (or infective power) of the rabies virus inthe tissue decreased day by day. So, as he had

previously done with the laboratory dogs he hadtreated, he injected the child with an emulsion of the spinal cord of a dog that had died of rabies 15days earlier. A long and weary night passed, but at

dawn the child was still alive. On succeeding days,other inoculations were made with progressivelymore infectious spinal cord emulsions made fromdogs that had died from rabies more recently. Onthe 10th day, Pasteur injected the boy with an

emulsion made from the spinal cord of a rabid dog



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• The next months passed slowly for Pasteur, but hispatient continued to get stronger. After threemonths and three days, Pasteur triumphantlyannounced that the child was out of danger and

appeared to be in excellent health. Ever since,many lives have been saved because of Pasteur'swork in understanding how to prevent death fromrabies.



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• Possible questions include:

• What comparisons can be drawn between today'shealth care (biomedical) research and that done in

Pasteur's day?• What do you think would have happened if Pasteur

had decided against giving the boy the inoculation?

• What characteristics of a good scientist do you see

in this story?• What inferences about Louis Pasteur's character

can you draw from this story?

•

What did this vignette teach you about the natureof science?



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Thank you!

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A Boy’s Bestfriend, vignette