PASTEUR INSTITUTE OF TEXAS. The Pasteur Institute of Texas was organized in 1903 for the diagnosis and treatment of rabies as a branch of the Austin Lunatic Asylum (now the Austin State Hospitalqv). Rabies victims from all parts of Texas were treated there before regional health facilities had access to the antirabies vaccine. In 1928 the institute was combined with the Laboratory of the Pure Food Commission and the Bacteriological Laboratory to become the Bureau of Laboratories. In 1958 the division became the section of laboratories of the State Department of Public Health (now the Texas Department of Healthqv), and the Pasteur Institute ceased to exist. The performance of laboratory tests necessary in diagnosing rabies, polio, encephalitis, and other diseases was taken over by that section.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Howard E. Smith, History of Public Health in Texas (Austin: Texas State Department of Public Health, 1974).