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# Edelfelt's portrait of Louis Pasteur, the rabies vaccine and pasteurisation
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/kak-govoril-lui-paster-provesti-voskresnyi-den-v-laboratoriiakh-razve-mozhno-provesti-voskresene-luchshe/
- Published: 2024-09-29T06:56:08.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:36:03.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Art, Museums, Science, Paris, People

As Louis Pasteur said, a Sunday spent in the laboratory: could a Sunday be better spent?

In this portrait of the laboratory by the Finnish artist Albert Edelfelt (1885), from the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Louis Pasteur holds a flask containing the spinal cord of a rabbit infected with rabies. From this material the scientist would obtain the rabies vaccine.

Pasteur was not a physician, yet it was precisely his breakthrough research in medicine, vaccination above all, that brought him recognition. Louis Pasteur was the man who created the first bacteriological laboratory in history. His name is known across the world thanks to the process of pasteurisation, named in honour of its discoverer: originally the heating of wine and beer to 50-60 degrees to prevent their fermentation. Pasteur did not merely make an epoch-making discovery, but also took care that this knowledge should be available to the widest possible circle of interested parties, rather than fall into the hands of unscrupulous operators who would have patented it: he allowed his discovery to be used free of charge.

A splendid man!

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_13641@29-09-2024_09-56-08.jpg)