After the procedure, Meister was able to walk and remained in good health for his lifetime. On March 1, 1888 the Pasteur Institute was established as a private, state-approved clinic for rabies treatment, a research center for infectious diseases and teaching center. The last years of his life he dedicated to the Institute and enjoyed the fame and publicity. He died in 1895 and was buried as a national hero, by government in cathedral of Notre Dame and transferred to his tomb in Pasteur Institute in Paris. In a tragic note to history, Joseph Meister, the first publicly treated person from rabies, returned to Pasteur Institute and worked there as a gatekeeper. In 1940 after Nazi occupation of France, he was asked by occupiers to open Pasteur’s crypt. Rather than comply, Joseph Meister committed suicide!
“Pasteur’s work is not simply sum of his discoveries. It also represents the revolution of scientific methodology. Louis Pasteur was a humanist, always working towards the improvement of the human condition. He was a free man who never hesitated to take a issue with the prevailing yet false ideas of his time.”.