Paul Ambroise Remlinger: A Pasteurien in Turkey and His Studies on Rabies

Abstract

Although the science of modern microbiology started in Turkey at the beginning of the 20th century, one of its roots historically dates back to the foundation of the first medical and veterinary schools in 1827 and in 1842 respectively and the other to the discovery of the rabies vaccine by Louis Pasteur in 1885. After this discovery, a health mission was sent from Turkey to Paris to learn anti-rabies immunization techniques. When the mission returned, the Rabies Vaccine Laboratory was founded in Istanbul in 1887 and the head of the health mission, Dr. Zoeros Pasha, became the first director of this establishment. After him, this Laboratory was successively directed by three Pasteuriens, A. C. Marie, P. A. Remlinger and P. Simond till the beginning of World War I. Dr. Marie's successor, Paul Ambroise Remlinger, carried out remarkable studies on rabies during his directorship between the years 1900-1910 and became a world-class expert on this subject. This review deals with Remlinger's studies on rabies from the point of view of 1900's Istanbul.