PROMOTING OF ANTI-RABIES VACCINATIONS AS A CULTURAL AND INTELLECTUAL TRANSFER OF PASTEUR’S METHOD TO RUSSIA (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE “NIVA” WEEKLY JOURNAL)

The article deals with promoting of knowledge of anti-rabies vaccinations as the channel of dissemination of bacteriology achievements. This cultural practice became one of the conditions for the transfer to Russia of the rabies immunoprophylaxis developed in 1885 by L. Pasteur. The analysis by means of social and psychological approach of publications in “Niva” (the illustrated weekly journal) showed that this popular magazine was focused not on scientific search, but on its ready-made product, trying to abstain from the presentation of logical proofs and arguments. The most common forms of the journal content were: data on emergence of Pasteur stations and institutes — the materialized result of introduction of an innovation — and visualization of these objects, medical statistics, the appeal to authorities of the famous scholars and heads of states encouraging the French bacteriologist with awards and money. The weekly sought to form in the potential consumer of the vaccine an idea not so much about vaccinations in general (after immunization against smallpox, this was a passed stage), but about the specifics of anti-rabies vaccination, which was characterized by a course of numerous vaccinations, post-exposure vaccination, the use not of a lancet (as in smallpox vaccination), but injections. In addition, the weekly provided its reader with information important for assimilation of this transfer knowledge: on attenuation of microorganisms (in case of rabies, the weakening of the pathogen virulence was achieved by drying), on disinfection and sterilization, on the value of animal producers (rabbits) and laboratory animals for the emerging immunobiological industry.