1542 FERNEL, Jean François (1497 – 1558)
De naturali parte medicinae libri septem.
The earliest work devoted exclusively to physiology and the first to call the subject by that name. It was re-issued in 1554 as part of Fernel’s Medicina (No. 2271). Femel suggested that physicians should study the hu…
GMN 572 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/333
1648 HELMONT, Jean Baptiste van (1577 – 1644)
Ortus medicinae.
Helmont was one of the founders of biochemistry. He was the first to realize the physiological importance of ferments and gases, and indeed invented the word “gas”. He introduced the gravimetric idea in the analysis o…
GMN 665 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/541
1661 BOYLE, Robert (1627 – 1691)
Certain physiological essays.
In this prelude to Boyle’s Sceptical chymist Boyle describes his corpuscular view of digestion, “giving recognition to the existence of the agents now designated the ‘enzymes’ ” (Fulton, Bibliography of Robert Boyle […
GMN 665.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/542
1683 BELLINI, Lorenzo (1643 – 1704)
De urinis et pulsibus de missione sanguinis de febribus de morbis capitis, et pectoris.
Bellini began to develop his hydraulic iatromechanics in this work, in which he considered the blood as a physical fluid with simple mechanical and mathematicizable properties. He realized the value of the urine as an…
GMN 4162 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1845
1684 BOYLE, Robert (1627 – 1691)
Memoirs for the natural history of humane blood, especially the spirit of that liquor.
The first analysis of blood, Boyle’s Memoirs may be considered the first scientific study in physiological chemistry, exhibiting methods which have become universally adopted. This is Boyle’s most important medical work.
GMN 861 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/766
1719 HENSING, Johann Thomas (1683 – 1726)
Cerebri examen chemicum, ex eodemqve phosphorum singularem omnia inflammabilia accendentem dissertatione academica.
First account of the chemical composition of the brain. Hensing discovered the presence of phosphorus. Annotated English translation with biography and historical analysis, by D.B. Tower. New York, Raven Press, [1983].
GMN 1380.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1793
1732 BOERHAAVE, Herman (1668 – 1738)
Elementa chemiae. 2 vols.
Boerhaave was the first to separate out urea from urine, and to do so without adding chemical substances such as alcohol or nitric acid. He first published his method for isolating it in the above work. English transl…
GMN 666.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/545
1773 ROUELLE, Hilaire Marin (1718 – 1779)
Observations sur l’urine humaine.
Discovery of urea, independently of Boerhaave. Rouelle isolated urea as the alcohol-soluble substance from urine. He was the first to present proof of the high nitrogen content of urea.
GMN 667 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/544
1776 SCHEELE, Carl Wilhelm (1742 – 1786)
Undersökning om blasestenen.
Discovery of uric acid. English translation in his Chemical Essays, London, 1786.
GMN 668 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/595
1779 CRAWFORD, Adair (1748 – 1795)
Experiments and observations on animal heat.
Earliest experiments upon animal calorimetry.
GMN 591 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/375
1784 LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent de (1743 – 1794); LAPLACE, Pierre-Simon marquis de (1749 – 1827)
Mémoire sur la chaleur.
These workers invented an ice calorimeter, with it measured the respiratory quotient of a pig, and demonstrated the analogy between respiration and combustion.
GMN 592 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/392
1784 LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent de (1743 – 1794)
Mémoire sur la formation de l’acide, nommé air fixe ou acide crayeux, et que je désignerai désormais sous le nom d’acid du charbon.
GMN 923 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1063
1791 HASSENFRATZ, Jean Henri (1755 – 1827)
Mémoire sur la combinaison de l’oxigéne avec le carbone et l’hydrogéne du sang, sur la dissolution de l’oxigéne dans le sang, et sur la maniére dont le calorique se dégage.
Hassenfratz, a pupil of Lagrange, maintained that the oxidation of carbon and hydrogen took place in the blood, and not in the lungs as taught by others.
GMN 926 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/135
1793 LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent de (1743 – 1794); SÉGUIN, Armand (1768 – 1835)
Premier mémoire sur la respiration des animaux.
Séguin and Lavoisier measured the metabolism of a man (Séguin himself). They made three observations of fundamental importance in this respect; that the intensity of oxidation in man is dependent upon (1) food, (2) en…
GMN 594 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/420
1793 FOURCROY, Antoine François, comte (1755 – 1809)
Examen chimique du cerveau de plusieurs animaux.
Fourcroy, French physician and chemist, made important researches on the chemistry of the brain. He noted albumen (protein) as a principal constituent.
GMN 1386.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1906
1804 SAUSSURE, Nicolas-Théodore de (1767 – 1845)
Recherches chimiques sur la végétation.
In this foundation work on phytochemistry, Saussure analysed the chief active components of plants, their synthesis and decomposition. He specified the relationships between vegetation and the environment. He showed t…
GMN 145.54 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2445
1806 VAUQUELIN, Louis Nicolas (1763 – 1829); ROBIQUET, Pierre Jean (1780 – 1840)
La découverte d'un nouveau principe végétal dans le suc des asperges.
Isolation of Asparagine, the first amino acid to be isolated.
GMN 11410 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13609
1810 WOLLASTON, William Hyde (1766 – 1828)
On cystic oxide, a new species of urinary calculus.
Cystine, the first amino-acid to be isolated, was prepared by Wollaston from a urinary calculus. This was also the first report of cystinuria.
GMN 668.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/622
1811 VAUQUELIN, Louis Nicolas (1763 – 1829)
Analyse de la matière cérèbrale de l’homme et de quelques animaux.
First complete chemical analysis of the nervous system.
GMN 1389.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1925
1815 CHEVREUL, Michel Eugène (1786 – 1889)
Recherches chimiques sur plusieurs corps gras, et particulièrement sur leurs combinations avec les calculs. Cinquième mémoire. Des corps qu’on a appelés adipocire, c’est-à-dire, de la substance cristallisée des calculs biliaires humains, du spermacéti et de la substance grasse des cadavres.
Chevreul characterized cholesterol.
GMN 668.2 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/678
1820 BRACONNOT, Henri (1780 – 1855)
Mémoire sur la conversion de matiéres animales en nouvelles substances par le moyen de l’acide sulfurique.
Isolation of glycine and leucine.
GMN 668.3 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/640
1823 CHEVREUL, Michel Eugène (1786 – 1889)
Recherches chimiques sur les corps gras d’origine animale.
A classic study of animal fats. Chevreul discovered that fats are composed of fatty acids and glycerol.
GMN 669 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/643
1824 PROUT, William (1785 – 1850)
On the nature of the acid and saline matters usually existing in the stomachs of animals.
Proof that the gastric juice contains free hydrochloric acid.
GMN 987 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/660
1825 ENGELHART, Johann Friedrich Philipp (1797 – 1837)
Commentatio de vera materiae sanguini purpureum colorem impertientis natura.
Engelhart’s dissertation, presented before the medical faculty at the University of Göttingen, contains the first determination of the molecular mass of a protein (hemoglobin). Engelhart proved that the ratio of iron …
GMN 14177 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16492
1827 DUTROCHET, René Joachim Henri (1776 – 1847)
Nouvelles observations sur l’endosmose et l’exosmose.
The process by which water passes through a membrane from a solution on the one side to another solution on the other side has been known, since the classic work of Dutrochet, as “endosmosis” or “exosmosis”; the press…
GMN 670 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/668
1828 WÖHLER, Friedrich (1800 – 1882)
Ueber künstliche Bildung des Harnstoffs.
The synthetic preparation of urea was the first occasion that an organic compound was built up from inorganic materials. Wöhler’s discovery led eventually to the brilliant results that have been achieved in attempts t…
GMN 671 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/684
1832 CHEVREUL, Michel Eugène (1786 – 1889)
Neues eigenthümliches stickstoffhaltiges Princip, in Muskelfleisch gefunden.
Isolation of creatine from muscle.
GMN 672 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/707
1837 MÜLLER, Johannes Peter (1801 – 1858)
Ueber Knorpel und Knochen.
Isolation of chondrin and glutin.
GMN 673 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/714
1837 SCHWANN, Theodor (1810 – 1882)
Vorlaüfige Mittheilung betreffend Versuche über die Weingährung und Fäulniss.
Proof that putrefaction is produced by living bodies. Independently of Cagniard-Latour, Schwann discovered the yeast cell. He is regarded as the founder of the germ theory of putrefaction and fermentation.
GMN 674 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/719
1838 CAGNIARD-LATOUR, Charles [Cagniard de la Tour] (1777 – 1859)
Mémoire sur la fermentation vineuse.
The earliest demonstration of the true nature of yeast was made by Cagniard-Latour in 1836. All his work on the subject is summed up in this paper. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 675 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/731
1838 MULDER, Gerardus Johannes (1802 – 1880)
Action de l’acide hydrochlorique sur la protéine.
Mulder gave the name protéine (protein) to a substance which he believed to be the essential constituent of all organized bodies. Later, with Liebig, he found there was no such definite compound, but the work remained…
GMN 676 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/742
1839 BOUSSINGAULT, Jean-Baptiste Joseph Dieudonné (1801 – 1887)
Analyses comparées des alimens consommés et des produits rendus par une vache laitière.
The first analysis of foodstuffs and fertilizers. Boussingault made a balance of intake and outgo of nutrients in food and excreta.
GMN 992 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/698
1840 HÜNEFELD, Friedrich Ludwig (1799 – 1882)
Der Chemismus in der thierischen Organisation.
Hünefeld accidentally observed the first protein crystals— those of hemoglobin—in partically dried samples of mammalian blood blood pressed between glass plates. On page 160 Hünefeld noted that he had seen, in some sa…
GMN 6921 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9086
1842 MAYER, Julius Robert von (1814 – 1878)
Bemerkungen über die Kräfte der unbelebten Natur.
Mayer demonstrated the principle of the conservation of energy as far as physiological processes are concerned.
GMN 606 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/464
1842 LIEBIG, Justus von (1803 – 1873)
Die organische Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Physiologie und Pathologie.
First classification of the organic foodstuffs and the processes of nutrition. With this book Liebig introduced the concept of metabolism into physiology. English translation, London, 1842.
GMN 677 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/754
1842 WÖHLER, Friedrich (1800 – 1882)
Umwandlung der Benzoësäure in Hippursäure im lebenden Organismus.
Discovery that benzoic acid taken in with food is excreted in the urine as hippuric acid. (But see the footnote to p. 474 of Garrison’s History of medicine, 1929.)
GMN 678 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/762
1843 BERNARD, Claude (1813 – 1878)
Du suc gastrique et de son rôle dans la nutrition.
Bernard showed that if sucrose is injected directly into the blood it is eliminated by the kidneys while glucose is retained, and that gastric juice transforms sucrose into assimilable sugar. See F. J. Holmes, Claude …
GMN 992.3 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/718
1844 PETTENKOFER, Max Josef von (1818 – 1901)
Notiz über eine neue Reaction auf Galle und Zucker.
Pettenkofer’s test for bile. Previously there had been no means of recognizing the presence of the bile salts.
GMN 679 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/769
1847 PASTEUR, Louis (1822 – 1895)
Thèses de physique et de chimie, Presentées à la Faculté des Sciences de Paris.
Pasteur reported a series of “investigations into the relation between optical activity, crystalline structure, and chemical composition in organic compounds, particularly tartaric and paratartaric acids. This work fo…
GMN 6922 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9087
1848 FEHLING, Hermann Christian von (1812 – 1885)
Quantitative Bestimmung des Zuckers im Harn.
Fehling’s test for sugar in the urine.
GMN 680 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/776
1848 STRECKER, Adolph (1822 – 1871)
Untersuchung der Ochsengalle.
GMN 681 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/788
1849 LUDWIG, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm (1816 – 1895)
Ueber die endosmotischen Aequivalent und die endosmotische Theorie.
In this development of his theory of urinary secretion (see No. 1232) Ludwig made important observations on endosmosis.
GMN 682 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/793
1849 MILLON, August Nicolas Eugène (1812 – 1867)
Sur un réactif propre aux composés protéiques.
Millon discovered a special reagent for proteids.
GMN 683 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/798
1852 BIDDER, Friedrich Karl Heinrich von (1810 – 1894); SCHMIDT, Carl Ernst Heinrich (1822 – 1894)
Die Verdauungssäfte und der Stoffwechsel.
Even after the work of Prout and Beaumont, some physiologists thought that the free acid of the gastric juice was lactic acid; Bidder and Schmidt finally proved that normally the gastric juice always contains HCl in e…
GMN 999 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/752
1852 MOLESCHOTT, Jacob (1822 – 1893)
Der Kreislauf des Lebens.
This work attacked Liebig’s theories, although courteously. Moleschott, a Dutch physiologist, evolved a purely materialistic conception of the world. He considered life a magnificent metabolic process, and thought a p…
GMN 115 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2037
1853 FUNKE, Otto (1828 – 1879)
Atlas der physiologischen Chemie.
GMN 684 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/803
1853 LIEBIG, Justus von (1803 – 1873)
Ueber einige Harnstoffverbindungen und eine neue Methode zur Bestimmung von Kochsalz und Harnstoff im Ham.
Liebig’s method of estimating urea.
GMN 685 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/810
1854 FRERICHS, Friedrich Theodor von (1819 – 1885); STAEDELER, Georg Andreas Karl (1821 – 1871)
Ueber das Vorkommen von Leucin und Tyrosin in der menschlichen Leber.
Discovery of leucine and tyrosine in the urine.
GMN 685.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/818
1854 GRAHAM, Thomas (1805 – 1869)
On osmotic force.
Investigation of osmotic force; provided important information for the physiologists.
GMN 686 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/825
1856 PANUM, Peter Ludvig (1820 – 1885)
Bidrag til Laeren om den saakaldte putride eller septiske Infection.
Panum was the first to investigate the chemical products of putrefaction. His work had great significance for the doctrine of putrid intoxication. An abstract of the above paper is in jb. in-u. ausländ. ges. Med., 185…
GMN 2534 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3520
