Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1792

CLAUDE BERNARD (1813-1878) Leçons de physiologie expérimentale appliquée à la médecine. J.-B. Baillière 1855-1856 Vol. I: 520 pp., illus.; Vol. II: viii, 510 pp., illus. 21.1 cm.

Bernard, the renowned French physiologist, is regarded as the founder of experimental medicine. He had unusual literary talent but decided to devote himself to the study of medicine. Bernard became an intern under François Magendie (see No. 1379 ff.) at the Hôtel Dieu in Paris in 1839 and began a fruitful association with him. Bernard assisted Magendie in his experiments, collaborated with him in his scientific papers, and later worked on his own problems and wrote his own papers. Magendie, while making great discoveries, usually went about his work in a haphazard fashion; Bernard, on the other hand, was a careful worker and observer. All of his great discoveries were based on isolated facts which he had the ability to correlate and build into larger physiological generalizations which he later verified by experiments. The Académie des Sciences awarded Bernard the grand prix in physiology in 1849, 1851, and 1853, for his discoveries concerning the pancreas, the liver, and the vasomotor function and other activities of the sympathetic nervous system. This basic work on the application of experimental physiology to medicine contains, among others, his memorable work on glycogenesis and experimental diabetes.

See Related Record(s): 1379

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 615; Osler 1507; Waller 954