Henry Toussaint

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Jean-Joseph Henry Toussaint

Jean-Joseph Henry Toussaint (born April 30, 1847 in Rouvres-la-Chétive , † August 3, 1890 in Toulouse ) was a French doctor and veterinarian . He developed a method for vaccinating against anthrax , in which he weakened the pathogen with the antiseptic phenol . This was the first time a chemical attenuated or killed pathogens for a vaccine . In his famous experiment at Pouilly-le-Fort , in which he in turn presented an anthrax vaccine , Louis Pasteur deceived the public that he had adopted this idea from Toussaint.

Life

Henry Toussaint was born in a small Vosges village, the son of a carpenter and an embroiderer. In October 1865 he began studying at the School of Veterinary Medicine ( École nationale vétérinaire ) in Lyon and graduated in 1869 with a diploma in veterinary medicine . Until November 1876 he worked there as a veterinarian and at the same time at the veterinary school in Toulouse , where he passed the Baccalauréat in order to be able to apply for a teaching post.

In December 1876 he was appointed professor of anatomy, physiology and zoology at the veterinary school in Toulouse; later the chair was rededicated to the subjects physiology and therapy. He also received his doctorate in natural sciences and medicine in Lyon . The last degree also allowed him to be appointed as physiology professor in the human medicine department in Toulouse in 1878.

From 1881, his health deteriorated due to a nervous disease that was never properly diagnosed. His intellectual abilities deteriorated and in 1887 he was released from service. The Ministry of Agriculture provided him with a generous pension in recognition of his contributions to science. Despite his health, the learned societies of his time awarded him numerous awards. Thanks to this support, Toussaint did not become impoverished and could receive medical treatment until he died. After nine years of illness, he died in 1890 at the age of only 43.

plant

Anthrax studies

As a young professor at the Ecole vétérinaire in Toulouse, Toussaint first worked on the anthrax pathogen . The starting point was the work of Casimir Davaine , who had reported on it in numerous articles to the Academy of Sciences . His first two publications are from 1877.

In March 1878, in a new article, Toussaint proved the infectious nature of the anthrax pathogen and showed that the disease was identical in rabbits, guinea pigs and sheep. Blood from animals infected with anthrax could cause inflammation. To this end, he proposed a theory of how anthrax pathogens work.

In 1879 he traveled to Beauce to where the anthrax study. He published the results in a report to the Ministry of Agriculture. Here he was able to show that the disease is passed on through the food, that there is no spontaneous anthrax, and that absorption into the body is always the necessary condition for the disease.

In 1879 he summarized his work on anthrax in his doctoral thesis in the human medicine department of the University of Lyon. This work also includes a section on avian cholera . Toussaint proves here that the disease is excited by a microbe and resembles a septicemia . With this work, Toussaint also applied for the Bréant Prize of the Academy of Sciences, which he received the following year.

The vaccination against anthrax

At the beginning of 1880 Toussaint began his attempts to vaccinate against anthrax, for which he initially resorted to filtered blood. Because the filter technology was unreliable and test animals died, he changed the method by removing coagulation factors from the blood of animals suffering from anthrax and heating it to 55 ° C for ten minutes, and adding 0.25 percent phenol . In May 1880 he had worked out the process of heat sterilization and also found that he had to repeat the vaccination once for safe protection.

On July 12, 1880, Henry Toussaint deposited a sealed envelope with the Academy of Sciences. In it he wrote about the possibility of acquiring immunity to anthrax. At the request of some academy members, he quickly revealed the secret: On August 2, he wrote a letter requesting that the sealed envelope be broken. In the text he recommended that the defibrinated blood of animals infected with anthrax should be heated to 55 ° C for ten minutes. With this vaccine, he was able to immunize young dogs and mutton.

From August 6th to 8th, 1880, Toussaint organized a demonstration experiment on the premises of the veterinary school in Alfort near Vincennes , in which 20 mutton were double vaccinated. On August 19, Toussaint also presented his method to the congress of the French Society for the Advancement of Science in Reims : he attributed the protective effect of his vaccine to a weakening of the pathogens by the phenol, which gives the animal time to cope with new infections.

In 1881 Toussaint published one last article on questions of anthrax immunity and a new method of vaccinating against avian cholera. Four papers on tuberculosis followed . They became his final scientific publications because of his increasing health problems.

Pasteur's experiments on anthrax vaccination

By then, Louis Pasteur had weakened the pathogens for his live vaccine against avian cholera by taking long breaks in culture. In his opinion, the attenuation was due to the oxygen in the air. In May 1881, in Pouilly-le-Fort near Melun, a large attempt was made to vaccinate 50 mutton against anthrax. He divided them into two groups. The first group received two anthrax vaccinations 15 days apart with a vaccine prepared by Pasteur and his staff. Live anthrax bacilli were then injected into both groups. All the unvaccinated animals died; all vaccinated survived. This attempt contributed to Pasteur's fame.

In his 1938 published book A ombre de Pasteur l' pointed Adrien Loir - nephew of Pasteur - after that the excitation used for the production of the vaccine for the trial of Pouilly-le-Fort in fact, on a proposal of its employees Charles Chamberland and Émile Roux with a Antiseptic - in this case potassium dichromate - had been weakened. Pasteur's co-workers used a procedure similar to that of Toussaint, who had weakened the pathogens with phenol. Chamberland learned of the proceedings because he was one of the experts at Toussaint's demonstration attempt.

Pasteur's secret notes, which he himself deposited with the Academy of Sciences and which have been known since 1988, show that he had actually used a vaccine that was heated and attenuated with potassium dichromate. So he was pursuing an idea for which Toussaint had priority. In the report that Pasteur gives to the academy, however, he gives the impression that the pathogens in his vaccine have been weakened by oxygen in a tried and tested manner, and that the anthrax experiment with the mutton was therefore successful.

In 1883 Charles Chamberland and Émile Roux published a note in the Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences . Accordingly, under the guidance of Pasteur, they investigated the effect of a large number of antiseptics on anthrax pathogens, including phenol and potassium dichromate. Again, Toussaint is not given priority for the principle of attenuating pathogens for a vaccine with chemicals. Because of his nervous disease, he could no longer defend his claim to priority himself. It is true that Toussaint's teacher Auguste Chauveau had pointed out his pupil's claim to priority as early as 1882 ; However, this was subsequently forgotten in favor of Pasteur.

literature

From Toussaint

  • Jean-Joseph-Henry Toussaint: Anatomie comparée du nerf pneumogastrique, faite au point de vue des applications à la physiologie expérimentale. Thèse Ecole vétérinaire de Lyon, 1869.
  • Jean-Joseph-Henry Toussaint and Abbé Ducrost: Le cheval dans la station préhistorique de Solutré . Pitrat aîné, Lyon 1873.
  • Jean-Joseph-Henry Toussaint: De l'intervention des puissances respiratoires dans les actes mécaniques de la digestion. Dissertation (natural sciences), Lyon 1877.
  • Jean-Joseph-Henry Toussaint: Recherches expérimentales sur la maladie charbonneuse. Dissertation (medicine), Lyon 1879.
  • François Peuch and Jean-Joseph-Henry Toussaint: Précis de chirurgie vétérinaire comprenant l'anatomie chirurgicale et la médecine opératoire. Volume 1, P. Asselin, Paris 1876. (Toussaint contributed the anatomical part here)
  • François Peuch and Jean-Joseph-Henry Toussaint: Précis de chirurgie vétérinaire comprenant l'anatomie chirurgicale et la médecine opératoire. Volume 2, P. Asselin, Paris 1877.
  • Jean-Joseph-Henry Toussaint: Application de la méthode graphique à la détermination du mécanisme de la réjection dans la rumination par MJ-A. Toussaint. Gauthier-Villars, 1874.

To Toussaint

in alphabetical order

  • Saturnin Arloing : Les virus. 1891, pp. 301-306.
  • Antonio Cadeddu: Les vérités de la science. Pratique, récit, histoire: le cas Pasteur. Leo S. Olschki (Ed.), ISBN 88-222-5464-3 , 2005.
  • Jean-Baptiste Chauveau : Eloge de Henri Toussaint, sa vie et son œuvre. Discours prononcé in the séance solennelle du 25 octobre 1900 by A. Chauveau. Asselin et Houzeau, Paris 1900.
  • Charles-Ernest Cornevin: Necrology. MH Toussaint . In: Journal de médecine vétérinaire et de zootechnie. 3rd series, Volume 14, 1890, pp. 438-441.
  • Philippe Decourt: Les vérités indésirables. Les archives internationales Claude Bernard, 1989, ISBN 2-903279-15-2 , pp. 210–239 and 285–297.
  • Philippe Decourt: Note documentaire. In: Marie Nonclercq: Antoine Béchamp (1816–1908). Maloine, 1982, ISBN 2-224-00854-6 , pp. 235-246.
  • Cécile Dorbec: Jean Joseph Henry Toussaint, sa vie, son œuvre. Dissertation Ecole nationale vétérinaire, Lyon 1998.
  • François Renaud, Willy Hansen and Jean Freney: Dictionnaire des précurseurs en bactériologie. ISKA, 2005, ISBN 2-7472-0710-2 .
  • Adrien Loir: A l'ombre de Pasteur. Le mouvement sanitaire, 1938, pp. 17-18 and 160.
  • Gerald L. Geison: The private science of Louis Pasteur. Princeton University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-691-03442-7 .
  • N. Jussiau-Chevalier: Henry Toussaint. 1847-1890. L'œuvre d'un microbiologiste pionnier. Dissertation, Lyon 1998.
  • Louis Georges Neumann: Biographies vétérinaires, avec 42 portraits dessinés par l'auteur. Asselin et Houzeau, Paris 1896, pp. 383-386.
  • Pierre-Yves Laurioz: Louis Pasteur, la réalité après la légende. De Paris, 2003, ISBN 2-85162-096-7 .
  • Jean-Pierre Morat: H. Toussaint, son œuvre. In: Lyon médical . Volume 65, 1890, pp. 55-65.
  • Jean Théodoridès: Un grand médecin et biologiste Casimir-Joseph Davaine. Pergamon Press, 1968, pp. 97, 119 and 145.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Henry Toussaint: Sur la bactéridie charbonneuse . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences . Volume 85, 1877, pp. 415f.
    Henry Toussaint: You mécanisme de la mort consécutive à l'inoculation du charbon au lapin . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences . Volume 85, 1877, pp. 1076f.
  2. ^ Henry Toussaint: Preuves de la nature parasitaire du charbon. Identité des lésions chez le lapin, le cobaye et le mouton . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences . Volume 86, 1878, pp. 725f.
  3. ^ Henry Toussaint: You charbon chez le cheval et le chien. Action phlogogène you sang charbonneux . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences Volume 86, 1878, pp. 833f.
  4. ^ Henry Toussaint: Théorie de l'action des bactéridies dans le charbon . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences . Volume 86, 1878, pp. 978f.
  5. ^ Cornevin: Henry Toussaint, nécrologie . In: Journal de médecine vétérinaire et de zootechnie . 3rd series, Volume 14, 1890, p. 439.
  6. ^ Jean-Joseph-Henry Toussaint: Recherches expérimentales sur la maladie charbonneuse . Thèse de Doctorat en Médecine, Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie (Lyon), 1879, 127 pages.
  7. ^ Henry Toussaint: Recherches expérimentales sur la maladie charbonneuse. Sur le choléra des oiseaux de basse-cour. Etude au point de vue du microbe parasite de cette maladie . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences . Volume 88, 1879, pp. 1127f.
  8. ^ Henry Toussaint: De l'immunité pour le charbon, acquise à la suite d'inoculations préventives . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences . Volume 91, 1880, pp. 135f.
  9. ^ Henry Toussaint: Note contenue dans un pli cacheté et relative à un procédé pour la vaccination du mouton et du jeune chien . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences . Volume 91, 1880, p. 303.
  10. ^ Roland Rosset: Pasteur et les vétérinaires . In: Bulletin de la Société Française d'Histoire de la Médecine et des Sciences Vétérinaires . Volume 2, No. 2, 2003, pp. 1-23.
  11. ↑ H. Toussaint: Vaccinations charbonneuses. Séance du 19 août 1880 . In: Association française pour l'avancement des sciences: Compte rendu de la 9e session, Reims 1880 . Paris, 1881, pp. 1021-1025. Available on Gallica .
  12. ^ Henry Toussaint: Sur quelques points relatifs à l'immunité charbonneuse . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences . Volume 93, 1881, p. 163 f.
  13. ^ Henry Toussaint: Sur un procédé nouveau de vaccination du choléra des poules . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences . Volume 93, 1881, p. 219 f.
  14. ^ Henry Toussaint: Contribution à l'étude de la transmission de la tuberculosis. Infection par les jus de viandes chauffés . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences . Volume 93, 1881, pp. 281 f.
    Henry Toussaint: Infection tuberculeuse, par les liquides de sécrétion et la sérosité des pustules du vaccin . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences . Volume 93, 1881, p. 322 f.
    Henry Toussaint: Sur le parasitisme de la tuberculose . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences , Volume 93, 1881, pp. 350 f.
    Henry Toussaint: Sur la contagion de la tuberculose . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences . Volume 93, 1881, pp. 741 f.
  15. ^ Adrien Loir: A l'ombre de Pasteur . Le mouvement sanitaire, 1938, pp. 18 and 160.
  16. ↑ Pierre-Yves Laurioz: Louis Pasteur. La réalité après la legend. éd. de Paris, 2003, ISBN 2-85162-096-7 , p. 61.
  17. ↑ In detail, Gerald L. Geison: The private science of Louis Pasteur . Princeton University Press, 1995, pp. 146-176. According to Geison, there is nothing to indicate that Toussaint used potassium dichromate.
  18. ↑ C. Chamberland and E. Roux: Sur l'atténuation de la virulence de la bactéridie charbonneuse, sous l'influence des substances antiseptiques . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences , Volume 96, 1883, pp. 1088-1091.
  19. ↑ Hervé Bazin: L'histoire du vaccin. John Libbey Eurotext, Paris 2008, p. 173, ISBN 978-2-7420-0705-9 .

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personal data
SURNAME Toussaint, Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Toussaint, Jean-Joseph Henry (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French doctor and veterinarian
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Rouvres-la-Chétive
DATE OF DEATH August 3, 1890
Place of death Toulouse