Lieutenant-Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Sir David Semple (6 April 1856 – 7 January 1937) was a
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
officer who founded the
Pasteur Institute
The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines f ...
at
Kasauli
Kasauli is a town and cantonment, located in Solan district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The cantonment was established by the British Raj in 1842 as a Colonial hill station,Sharma, Ambika"Architecture of Kasauli churches" ''The Trib ...
in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The institute later came to be known as the
Central Research Institute (CRI).
Semple was born in
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
, the son of William Semple of
Castlederg,
County Tyrone
County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...
. He was educated at
Foyle College
Foyle College is a co-educational non-denominational voluntary grammar school in Derry, Northern Ireland. The school's legal name is Foyle and Londonderry College. In 1976, two local schools, Foyle College and Londonderry High School, merged und ...
and earned his
MD and
MCh degrees at
Queen's University Belfast
, mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back?
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, type = Public research university
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, followed by his
Public Health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
degree from Cambridge in 1892.
In 1911, he developed a nerve-tissue based
rabies
Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. Early symptoms can include fever and tingling at the site of exposure. These symptoms are followed by one or more of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, vi ...
vaccine
A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifie ...
from the brains of sheep first made rabid and then killed. The 'Semple' vaccine however is known to have side-effects such as paralysis with high risk of other diseases, being just a crude form of churned brain-tissue. It needs administration around the stomach in a series of very painful injections administered over a period of seven to 14 days, a course that many do not complete. Moreover, it is not reliable and the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
(WHO) has been advocating its total disuse since 1993. (WHO literature )
He was given a knighthood in 1911,
London Gazette issue 28469
/ref> and is buried in City of Westminster Cemetery, Hanwell
City of Westminster (Hanwell) Cemetery is a cemetery located in Hanwell, Ealing, west London. It is owned and managed by the City of Westminster's Parks Service.
History
By the 1840s, the cemeteries of London were full and almost overflowing. ...
.
References
External links
Chiron Vaccines Rabies Information Site
Hanwell Cemetery
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Semple, David
1856 births
1937 deaths
British immunologists
Royal Army Medical Corps officers
Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal
Knights Bachelor