Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine

[5] By 1885, Pasteur had developed the Rabies vaccine and had tested it on 9-year-old Joseph Meister, on 6 July 1885, after the boy was badly mauled by a rabid dog.

[5] In April 1886, the British government formed a commission presided by James Paget to enquire about the subject.

[6] Several members of the commission visited Pasteur and brought some vaccine back which was tested by Victor Horsley at the University of London and found to be efficacious.

[6] The government formed a select committee that reported back in August 1887 with practical advice to muzzle rabid dogs.

[7] On 1 July 1889 a meeting was held in Mansion House, presided over by the Mayor James Whitehead and attended by many prominent physicians and scientists including Joseph Lister where it was agreed to send a sum of money to the Pasteur, as an expression of gratitude for his work.

[7] A further discussion was scheduled, leading to the formation of an executive committee where it was decided that an institute should be founded in London, like those in Paris and Berlin.

[9] The institute was first hosted at rooms at the College of State Medicine in Great Russell Street in London between 1893 and 1898 as well as a farm in Sudbury where the diphtheria anti-toxin was developed.

Evans was unable to avoid closure of the Chelsea Laboratory and there was the need for major expenditure to modernise the Elstree, Hertfordshire, production facilities.

Professor Albert Neuberger became involved as chair of the governing body in 1973–74, at which point he became aware of the difficult financial problems.

This raised enough money to annually endow a number of Senior Research Fellowships,[10] which is the institute's legacy.

He made outstanding contributions to the study of plague and its transmission and he created a new post of resident statistician for Major Greenwood, the first of its kind in Britain.

Greenwood conducted statistical investigations of tuberculosis, infant mortality and hospital fatality rates.

The discovery of co-enzymes by Sir Arthur Harden FRS and his colleagues was recognised by the co-award to him of the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1929.

The institute played a major part in defining the role of vitamins in post-war nutritional deficiency diseases that were widespread in Europe and elsewhere.