ALS in French, signed “L. Pasteur,” three pages, lightly-lined on two adjoining sheets, 5.25 x 8, July 15, 1888. Letter to his colleague, Professor Bouchard. In full (translated): “Next Tuesday Mr. Proust will make a report on foreign students candidates as academy of medicine corresponding members. Allow me to inform you of all the wishes I am expressing in favor of professor Cantani from Naples, not only for his personal value and scientific titles, but because he has been and still is exposed to all kind of oppositions and affronts from Semmola and others who are irritated about the initiative that he took from the start about applying my prophylaxis method for rabies after a bite. Cantani had established at his own expense the antibiotic laboratory headed by one of his students, Dr. Di Vestea. This could not have lasted under these conditions. There was therefore service cessation for rabies until Government and municipalities had decided to allow subsidies to Cantani. Several cases of human rabies having occurred during service interruption, 9,000 F was finally granted and Doctors Vestea and Zagari are presently taking care of redoing the trepanned rabbit series and of [illegible].
At this time word is spread that Cantani is anti French, very favorable to the German school, etc. etc. You can be informed about this by Mr. Charcot who had some sharp conversation in Milan with Mr. Semmola who has jeopardized Cantani as he could. I know a lot about this Semmola and I am sure that Mr. Charcot did not waste time in judging him. I have several letters from Semmola to which I have not replied, and through which he wanted to force me to a public talk with him while I was in Bordighera [?]. His letter served to confirm me the opinion that several doctors and scientists from Italy suggested to me about him.
Anyway, I repeat to you that I am expressing the most legitimate wishes in favor of Mr. Cantani. The Medicine Academy owes him amend in a way. At the request of his enemies from Naples, [illegible] put on [month illegible] 23, 1887 on the desk of the Paris academy a document acknowledged to be apocryphal, falsely signed by the Naples Academy of Medicine’s President and targeted against Cantani who upon learning this infamy gave his immediate resignation as member of this Academy. 8 days later apologies and homage to Cantani by President [?] and refusal to accept this resignation, etc. etc.” After his signature, Pasteur adds a postscript in French, which reads, “I spend a few days each week at Villeneuve-L’Etang where our dog is. In this inaction at Villeneuve kennel he has put on an alarming plumpness. I strongly engage you to take him back. No later than after his vaccination we have tested his immunity by inoculation on the brain surface and he has resisted it perfectly. Mr. Charcot is willing to write me that he will not oppose Cantani since ‘During his lengthy stay in Milan he had obtained favorable information about Cantani’. What have I said already? “
Horizontal fold, some edge toning, a few spots of soiling, and faint pencil notations, otherwise fine condition.
Pasteur expresses his support of another colleague, Professor Arnoldo Cantaini of Naples, who “had established at his own expense the antibiotic laboratory headed by one of his students” and who had been vilified by his colleague for his practical application of Pasteur’s method of prophylaxis against bites from rabid dogs. In his research, Cantani had inoculated 347 persons, of whom 296 had been bitten by a rabid animal with a mortality rate of only 1.72 percent. Despite his successes, researchers who were critical of Pasteur’s work also targeted Cantani, making the Italian scientist the object of malicious rumors that “Cantani is anti French, very favorable to the German school, etc.” Such opposition would halt his research into the deadly disease. Despite such reports, “I repeat to you that I am expressing the most legitimate wishes in favor of Mr. Cantani.” Pasteur goes on to explain his correspondent that the Academie de Medecine should support his efforts. Indeed, while Cantani’s Antirabic Institute was closed for lack of funds, nine people died of rabies in Naples. Pasteur’s sympathy for Cantani reflects his own experience. In 1886, Pasteur was also the target of a hostile press and colleagues, despite the scientist’s overwhelming evidence of the safety and effectiveness of his anti-rabies vaccination. Superlative content as Pasteur references one of his greatest discoveries. RRAuction COA.
