ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION In their 1906 paper to the Acade´mie des Sciences in Paris, Bordas and d’Arsonval demonstrated for the first time that it was possible to dry a delicate product from the frozen state under moderate vacuum. In that state it would be stable at room temperature for a long time and the authors described, in a set of successive notes, that this technique could be applied to the preservation of sera and vaccines. Freeze-drying was then officially borne, despite its having been in use centuries ago by the Inca who dried their frozen meat in the radiant heat of the sun in the rarified atmosphere of the Altiplano.
