Pasteur and rabies vaccination. Illustration showing an anti-rabies vaccination being given at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France. French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895, standing at right) used rabbits to prepare a rabies virus which was milder and had a shorter incubation period than the wild virus. A person who has been bitten by a rabid animal is inoculated with the vaccine, which rapidly stimulates immunity to the wild strain. The first human patient was successfully treated in 1885. This engraving is based on a 1887 painting by Lucien Laurent Gsell (1860-1944). Titled 'La vaccine de la rage', the original is held at the Institute of Bacteriology at the Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, France.