Museum
Charles Nicolle (1866-1936), Director of the Institut Pasteur de Tunis and laureate of the 1928 Nobel Prize in Medicine
To mark the 160th anniversary of his birth, on September 21, 2026, the museum looks back at the career of Charles Nicolle, a physician and microbiologist whose research at the Institut Pasteur de Tunis improved our understanding of infectious diseases.
Norman roots at the Institut Pasteur de Tunis
Charles Jules Henri Nicolle was born in Rouen on September 21, 1866 to a family in which science was part of everyday life. His father, Eugène (1832-1884), was a physician and natural history professor, and his older brother Maurice (1862-1932) was to become a microbiologist. His younger brother, Marcel (1871-1934), was the only one to choose a different career as an art critic.
After brilliant studies at Pierre-Corneille school in Rouen, he began training as a physician in 1884. In 1887, he came to Paris for his residency and was a frequent visitor to the Institut Pasteur. He trained under Émile Roux (1853-1933) and Ilya Mechnikov (1845-1916) from 1890 onwards. He defended his thesis on chancroid in 1893 before returning to his home city of Rouen.
Yet his return to Normandy proved difficult. Despite founding the Oissel region's first sanatorium with Dr. André Halipré (1868-1949) in 1898, Nicolle's plans to open a microbiology teaching center similar to the Institut Pasteur in Paris failed. In addition, progressive hearing loss gradually prevented him from performing auscultation, and so he moved to laboratory work permanently. In 1902, he left Rouen for the Institut Pasteur de Tunis, following in the footsteps of Louis Pasteur's nephew, Adrien Loir (1862-1941).
Tunisian intuition: solving the mystery of typhus
Upon arrival in Tunis in 1903, Nicolle turned a modest laboratory into an internationally renowned research center. This is where he made his most famous discovery.
Watching patients arriving at Sadiki hospital, he noticed a disturbing fact: the epidemic typhus contagion stopped spreading immediately once patients had been undressed, shaven and washed. In 1909, with his colleagues Charles Comte (1869-1943) and Ernest Conseil (1879-1930) he provided experimental proof that body lice were the sole vector of the disease. This discovery helped to curb outbreaks thanks to simple hygiene measures, saving thousands of lives particularly during the First World War. This discovery earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1928.
It was also at the Institut Pasteur de Tunis that Nicolle hosted and trained some of the most talented researchers of his time, including Hélène Sparrow-Germa (1891-1970)
A researcher with many discoveries to his name
Nicolle's work in Tunis was not confined to typhus. His scientific investigations extended to a number of areas:
• Toxoplasmosis: In 1908, with Louis Manceaux (1865-1934), he discovered a new parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, in gundis, small rodents from southern Tunisia. The parasite, long considered harmless, is now recognized as a major global public health threat.
• Leishmaniasis: He identified the role of dog as reservoir hosts for infantile leishmaniasis and developed NNN culture medium, which is still used today.
• Asymptomatic infection: In 1919, he formalized this fundamental concept: some contagious diseases present no visible symptoms, making their carrier undetectable. He considered this observation as his most important contribution.
• Influenza: In 1918, with Charles Lebailly (1880-1945) he showed that the influenza agent is a "filterable virus" and suggested the term "inframicrobes".
A humanist visionary
Charles Nicolle was also a prolific writer and humanist scholar, penning novels such as Le Pâtissier de Bellone (1913) and philosophical essays. In Destin des maladies infectieuses (1933), with remarkable insight he prophesied the emergence of "novel diseases" that would be unpredictable and undetectable at their origin. This vision foreshadowed the emergence of health crises half a century ahead of their time.
Charles Nicolle was elected as a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1929, then appointed as a professor at the Collège de France in 1932. He died in Tunis on February 28, 1936. He was laid to rest in the Institut Pasteur de Tunis building. Two intertwined branches are engraved on his tomb: an apple tree for his native Normandy, and an olive tree for Tunisia, his country of adoption.
Two university hospitals bear his name; those of Rouen and Tunis, living witnesses to a heritage that has transcended borders.
Charles Nicolle's archives
Charles Nicolle's archives are kept in several places. Some remained at the Institut Pasteur de Tunis and include his laboratory notebooks (1904-1934). Other documents are kept in the Seine-Maritime departmental archives and Rouen municipal library.
The Institut Pasteur in Paris has its own collection, compiled thanks to successive donations from the Nicolle family between 1987 and the 1990s. The collection includes almost 2,000 pieces, notably biographical documents, family and scientific correspondence, including letters from Albert Calmette and Ilya Mechnikov, scientific and literary manuscripts, as well as documents relating to his Nobel Prize.
Link to the collection statement
Find books about Charles Nicolle in the CeRIS library
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