The designing of anti-diphtheria serotherapy at the Institut Pasteur (1888-1900): the role of a supranational network of microbiologists

Abstract

The development of anti-diphtheria serotherapy at the Institut Pasteur immediately follows the crisis known as the Pasteur-Koch debate. Research on diphtheria in Paris is indicative of the importance granted by Pasteurian scientists to Koch’s school criticisms. After 1887, relations between French and German bacteriologists become more relaxed. A scientific and social network develops between them. It later extends to other fields of research at the Institut Pasteur, particularly therapeutic chemistry. The evolution of Franco-German relations at the Institut Pasteur is placed in the general framework of the way French universities considered German science.