Hospital and City Animals: the Example of Rabies and Antirabies Institute of the Ospedale Maggiore of Milan

Abstract

The Archive of the Ospedale Maggiore (Major Hospital) of Milan (Italy), active continuously for nearly 600 years, can provide outstanding documentation illustrating the link between animals and hospital. Even animals in the city can be in contact with the humans hospital. We refer to the creation into the Milanese Hospital, in the last years of the nineteenth century, of the Istituto Antirabico (Antirabies Institute) for administering the Pasteurs antirabies therapy. This paper analyzes specifically this hospital institution, whose archive was recently reorganized. 

Key words: Antirabies institute - Ospedale Maggiore of Milan - XIX century