Pierre-Victor Galtier

Pierre-Victor or Pierre Victor Galtier ( – ) was a veterinarian and professor at the , specialising in pathology of infectious diseases, health surveillance and commercial and medical legislation. He developed a rabies vaccine which had some experimental success in laboratory animals.
Early life and studies.
Galtier was born on 15 October 1846 in Langogne, Lozère to a farmer's family. In 1853, he was entrusted to the nuns who ran the local school. He escaped from this school twice, only to be placed with his grandmother who lived in Langogne. There, he attended secondary school, leaving after the tenth grade.
He read Greco-Roman studies at La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin in the "Petit Séminaire", the famous ecclesiastical secondary school of Bishop Felix Dupanloup, an outpost of the Seminar d'Orléans. He received his bachelor's degree with honours.
He studied for his master's degree and his veterinary license at Marvejols college. Around this time Lozère created a scholarship to help poor students to study to become veterinarians, which Galtier received and used to study at the . He came top of the class for four consecutive years, and graduated in 1873 as a valedictorian, receiving the "".
Career.
Galtier began his professional career as an associate of Monsieur Delorme, a veterinarian in Arles, whose daughter he married. He began teaching veterinary pathology and eventually became the Chair of Infectious Diseases. Aged 33, he began his work on rabies.
In 1876, he was appointed the Chair of Pathology and Internal Medicine in the veterinary science department at Lyon. In 1877, his department began to carry out studies on microbial pathology and microbiology. This led to the school supporting the idea of contagious diseases such as tuberculosis, the common cold, and rabies, as opposed to the National Veterinary School of Alfort which supported the idea of spontaneous generation.
In 1878 he was appointed professor of pathology of infectious diseases, animal health, trade and medical law. In the same year, Mr. Bouley, Inspector General of veterinary schools, created a new department that would separate the teaching of general pathology from that of communicable diseases. Pierre Victor Galtier was appointed to the department chair and held the position for 30 years.
In 1879, he made important discoveries about two deadly diseases: common cold and rabies. In 1883, he obtained a law degree.
For his work on rabies, Galtier was considered for the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. However, he died in La Mulatière on 24 April 1908, thereby preventing his nomination.
Work on rabies.
Pierre Galtier was notable for his work on rabies; he was the first to develop a vaccine for rabies. He also made important advances in the study of the common cold and on the infectiousness of viruses.
Galtier assumed that, because of the incubation period of rabies, the development of a vaccine could be used as curative for a disease like this.
1879.
His first publication on rabies was a thesis entitled "Studies on rabies" published in two veterinary journals and whose findings are published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences.
On 25 April 1879, the Academy of Sciences published his notes on rabies.
The article made clear his conclusions about rabies:
Galtier also had a brilliant idea: he began experiments to find an agent capable of neutralizing rabies virus. He thought that the discovery of an effective preventive was almost equivalent to the discovery of a cure, especially if it was effective when administered within a day or two of an infected bite. It is this 'genius idea which is the basis of preventive treatment for rabies by vaccination'.
1880.
In 1880, Galtier published a "Treaty of contagious diseases" which contains a chapter on rabies.
In this book, he wrote this sentence summarizing his first observations on immunity to rabies: "Rabies virus injected directly into the blood stream is ineffective, at least this is what I found in several experiences where I had injected into the jugular vein of the sheep a large amount of rabid drool". His experiments were published in several articles the following year.
Also in 1880, Louis Pasteur became interested in rabies and took note of Galtier's work, regarding him with a certain disdain, stating that these experiments "do not make it possible to reconicle, let alone identify the disease […] as rabies". Pasteur often denigrated his predecessors before taking over their work, and the credit for it; he also did this with Henri Toussaint and Antoine Béchamp.
1881.
In August 1881, Galtier sent a note to the Academy of Sciences. He noted his experiences of the intravenous inoculation of the rabies virus in the bloodstream.
He wrote:
The findings that emerge from these facts are the following:
This method provided immunity against rabies in sheep. In the Bulletin of the Academy of Medicine, he wrote: "I injected the rabies saliva into the jugular vein of sheep seven times, and never saw rabies, one of my test subjects was successively inoculated with saliva from a rabid dog, four months after this inoculation, the animal is alive and well; he seems to have acquired immunity. I inoculated him for another fortnight by putting eight cubic centimeters of rabid saliva in the peritoneum; it always went very well; then I would administer him another inoculation."
According to the science historian Jean Théodoridès, this is the first time in the history of medicine that the idea of immunization against rabies was supported by convincing experimental results.
1882.
Galtier remarked "intravenous inoculation is ineffective. [But] immunity follows this inoculation in sheep", and he noted the absence of virus in the nerve centers.
This last point drew the attention of Louis Pasteur who saw a lack of sensitivity due to the subcutaneous inoculation technique. With his student Émile Roux, Pasteur developed an intracranial inoculation, by trepanning the skull of a dog. This isolated the virus in the nerve centers, and supported the idea that rabies is neurotropic, meaning that the virus preferentially develops in nerve cells, and spreads through nerve pathways from the peripheral inoculation point to the brain.
1883.
In 1883, Émile Roux published his medical doctorate thesis on "New acquisitions on rabies." According to Jean Théodoridès, the most striking thing about Roux's thesis is the frequent mention of the work of Galtier, whereas Pasteur referred to Galtier only incidentally.
1886.
In 1886, Galtier published an important book on rabies, "Rabies considered in animals and humans from the point of view of its character and its prophylaxis" (). It discussed:
It reviewed Galtier's research of 1879–1881, and reported that research was continuing as of 1886 (the date of publication of the book).
The book also dealt with health measures and forensics, dog control measures (wearing the collar, a muzzle, leash).
1887.
In 1887, Galtier received the Barbier Prize ("") from the for his work on rabies.
In its report on awarding the Barbier Prize to Galtier, Edmond Nocard wrote: "The discovery of Mr. Galtier, therefore, has a high importance not only from the scientific point of view but also in practical point of view; it is hoped that it will soon lead to the establishment of a simple, practical and effective treatment, saving the largest number of bitten animals."
The same year, he received the Bréant Price of the Academy of Sciences (December 1887) for his book on rabies. Bouchard, on behalf of the Commission consisting of Marey, Charcot, Brown- Séquard and Verneuil emphasized the importance of the work of several years preceding those of Louis Pasteur.
1888.
On 30 January 1888, Galtier published an article in the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. He insisted that "the rabies virus retains its activity in buried corpses, so that when doubts arise afterwards about the nature of the disease that caused the death, exhumation, and inoculation of the bulb are naturally indicated".
For Galtier (a veterinary professor, qualified in medical law and contagious diseases), the consequence of the persistence of the rabies virus meant that, in cases of question of the liability of animal owners, corpses could be exhumed to confirm a diagnosis of rabies.
On 16 April 1888, he again sent a note. He recalled his experiences in 1880–1881 showing that injection of the rabies virus in the veins of sheep and goats did not cause rabies, but instead conferred immunity. He noted that research in 1884 by Edmond Nocard and Emile Roux confirmed the validity of these deductions. These authors noted that intravenous injection can prevent rabies after inoculation into the eye, and after the bite of a rabid animal.
In his article, Galtier also related his experiments on sheep.
1891.
The second edition of Galtier's "On Contagious Diseases" was published in 1891. Galtier was disappointed, to the point of physical pain, by the negative remarks from Louis Pasteur about his research. Pateur stated that dogs did not acquire immunity, as Galtier found in sheep and goats, following intravenous injection of rabies. However, Edmond Nocard and Emile Roux had already confirmed in 1888 that their experiments of 1884 had confirmed Galtier's experiments of 1881.
1904.
In 1904, Galtier lost four of his eight children and his wife, and was strongly discouraged.
He published an article entitled "Pages of history" in which he wrote: "… I had studied first, from 1879-80-81, the effects of intravenous injection of the rabies virus. I was the first to demonstrate, in the most peremptory manner, its safety in herbivorous animals, and immunizing action. I established this first, before there was any thought of vaccination Pasteur or any others, that immunity against deadly rabies could be granted to certain animals by a particular method of inoculation … From 1881 onward, I had shown that virus injected into the veins of sheep and goats does not cause rabies, but confers immunity".
In this article, he promoted is pioneering rabies immunizations, stressing that the results achieved in small ruminants (sheep and goats) were confirmed by Edmond Nocard and Emile Roux in 1888.
1907.
In 1907, Galtier received a significant token of esteem from the Karolinska Institute of Stockholm, who asked him to send all his work on rabies to offer his candidacy Nobel Prize of physiology and medicine for the year 1908. However, Galtier was never nominated for a Nobel Prize; as his death most likely interrupted the nomination process.
Other work.
Galtier also wrote several works on the intimate nature of the tissues on the infectiousness of the virus.
He wrote two books on "Health regulation and legislation of its relationship with the pet trade" and on "The Treaty of contagious diseases and animal health."
Galtier focused mainly on infectious diseases of domestic animals: rabies, the common cold, tuberculosis, anthrax, and pneumococcal enteritis.