Roux, Pierre-Paul-Émile (1853-1933)
French physician and bacteriologist
Soon after becoming a doctor, Émile Roux began doing research on bacterial diseases for Louis Pasteur. It has taken a century, however, for Roux's contribution to Pasteur's work—specifically his experiments utilizing dead bacteria to vaccinate against rabies—to be acknowledged. Roux is also credited, along with Alexandre Yersin, with the discovery of the diphtheria toxin secreted by Corynebacterium diphtheriae and immunization against the disease in humans. Both colleague and close friend to Pasteur, Roux eventually became the director of the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
Roux began his study of medicine at the Clermont-Ferrand Medical School in 1872. In 1874 Roux moved to Paris where he continued his studies at a private clinic. In 1878 he helped create lectures on fermentation for Emile Duclaux at the Sorbonne, Paris. Duclaux introduced Roux to Louis Pasteur, who was then in need of a doctor to assist with his research on bacterial diseases.
In 1879 Roux first began assisting Pasteur on his experiments with chicken cholera. The cholera bacillus was grown in pure culture and then injected into chickens, which would invariably die within 48 hours. However, one batch of culture was left on the shelf too long and when injected into chickens, failed to kill them. Later, these same chickens—in addition to a new group of chickens—were injected with new cultures of the cholera bacillus. The new group of chickens died while the first group of chickens remained healthy. Thus began the studies of the attenuation of chicken cholera.
In the 1880's Pasteur and Roux began research on rabid animals in hopes of finding a vaccine for rabies. Pasteur proceeded by inoculating dogs with an attenuated (weakened) strain of the bacteria from the brain tissue of rabid animals. Roux worked on a similar experiment utilizing dead rather than weakened bacteria from the dried spinal cords of infected rabbits.
On July 4, 1885, a 9-year-old boy named Joseph Meister was attacked on his way to school and repeatedly bitten by a rabid dog. A witness to the incident rescued Meister by beating the dog away with an iron bar; the dog's owner, Theodore Vone, then shot the animal. Meister's wounds were cauterized with carbolic acid and he was taken to a local doctor. This physician realized that Meister's chance of survival was minimal and suggested to Meister's mother that she take her son to Paris to see Louis Pasteur, who had successfully vaccinated dogs against rabies. The vaccine had never been tried on humans, and Pasteur was reluctant to give it to the boy; but when two physicians stated that Meister would die without it, Pasteur relented and administered the vaccine.
Pasteur stated that he utilized the attenuated strain of the vaccine; his lab notes, however, confirm that he treated Meister with the dead strain that Roux had been working on. (Why Pasteur maintained that he used his attenuated strain is not clear.) In any case, Meister received 13 shots of the rabies vaccine in the stomach in 10 days and was kept under close observation for an additional 10 days. The boy survived and became the first person to be immunized against rabies.
In 1883 Roux became the assistant director of Pasteur's laboratory. He undertook administrative responsibilities to help establish the Pasteur Institute, which opened in 1888 with Roux serving as director (from 1904) and teaching a class in microbiology.
Also in 1883 Roux and Yersin discovered the diphtheria toxin secreted by Corynebacterium diphtheriae. The two scientists filtered the toxin from cultures of the diphtheria bacterium and injected it into healthy laboratory animals. The animals exhibited the same symptoms (and eventual death) as those infected with the bacterium. Other data to support their discovery of the diphtheria toxin included urine obtained from children infected with the microorganism. Toxin excreted in the urine was sufficient to produce the same symptoms of the disease in laboratory animals. In 1894 Roux and Louis Martin began to study the immunization of horses against diphtheria in order to create a serum to be used in humans. The outcome of their research led them to successfully treat 300 children with the serum.
Beginning in 1896 Roux researched different aspects of diseases such as tetanus, tuberculosis, bovine pneumonia, and syphilis until he became the director of the Pasteur Institute in 1904. At that time Roux ceased all personal research and focused solely on running the Pasteur Institute until his death from tuberculosis in 1933.