John W. Holter (April 1, 1916 - December 22, 2003)

John W. Holter
(April 1, 1916 - December 22, 2003)

John W. Holter (April 1, 1916 - December 22, 2003) was a toolmaker working for the Yale and Town Lock Company Stamford Connecticut. His son Charles Case "Casey" Holter was born on November 7, 1955 with a severe form of spina bifida. Shortly after birth he contracted meningitis, which caused his head to expand rapidly. His parents were told that he had developed "water on the brain" or hydrocephalus.

As luck would have it Holter's son was being looked after in Philadelphia, where the surgeons Nulsen and Spitz had already demonstrated that a ventricle-to-atrium diversion system could work. What they needed was an inexpensive and practical valve that could control the direction of the flow and maintain normal cranial pressure.

A chance discovery showed Holter, after a failed attempt in which a young boy died[citation needed], that he could use a silicone one-way valve (pressure sealing). After a medically suitable grade of Silastic (silicone and rubber) was found, the device was patented[3], and John Holter set up a company, Holter-Hausner International, to manufacture the cerebral shunts.

Although he was unable to save his son Casey, his design, the Spitz-Holter valve (also called the Spitz-Holter shunt) continues to help millions around the world since the late 1950s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Holter

Arne Torkildsen (1899 - 1968)

Arne Torkildsen 

(1899 - 1968) 

Arne Torkildsen (1899 - 1968) was a Norwegian neurosurgeon. He described the surgical technique of ventriculocisternostomy (a predecessor of today's endoscopic third ventriculostomy), which is also called "Torkildsen's operation".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_Torkildsen

Kenneth Blackfan (September 9, 1883- November 1941)

Kenneth Blackfan

September 9, 1883- November 1941)

Kenneth Blackfan was an American pediatrician, born on September 9, 1883 in Cambridge, New York, and died November 1941.

Blackfan began his medical studies at the Albany Medical School of Union University, New York, graduating at the age of only 22. Initially, he returned home to join his father in general practice. He became bored with this, however, and four years later in 1909 he returned to Albany seeking fresh challenges. Encouraged by Richard Pearse, he decided to do some pediatric training in the Founding Hospital in Philadelphia.

He did a residency under John Howland starting in 1911 at Washington University in St. Louis, and in 1913 Blackfan followed Howland to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Here he worked with Walter Dandy (described of the Dandy-Walker syndrome) on internal hydrocephalus. Walker and Blackfan discovered where cerebrospinal fluid originated by tracking dye injected into the cerebral ventricle of a dog.

Blackfan eventually became an associate professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1918, then moved to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and finally to Harvard University where he became director of clinical services at Children's Hospital and professor of pediatrics. He occupied this position until his death in 1941.

At Harvard, his main interests were nutrition and hematology. He was Louis K Diamond’s mentor, and together they wrote the first collection of photographs of microscopic appearances of the Blood in Childhood disease. In 1938, they described Diamond-Blackfan syndrome. He also mentored Sidney Farber the father of modern cancer chemotherapy. The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, next door to Children's Hospital in Boston is partially named after Sydney Farber.

Blackfan died of lung cancer in 1941, age 58, at the height of his career.

Children's Hospital in Boston is on Blackfan Street which is named after Blackfan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Blackfan

Heinrich Irenaeus Quincke (26 August 1842 - 19 May 1922)

Heinrich Irenaeus Quincke 

(26 August 1842 - 19 May 1922) 

Heinrich Irenaeus Quincke (26 August 1842 - 19 May 1922) was a German internist and surgeon. His main contribution to internal medicine was the introduction of the lumbar puncture for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. After 1874, his main area of research was pulmonary medicine.

He was perhaps the first (1882) to recognize angioedema which is often referred to as "Quincke's edema."Quincke's pulse", with redness and pallor seen under the fingernails, is one of the signs of aortic insufficiency. "Quincke's puncture" is a somewhat outdated eponym for lumbar puncture, used for the examination of the cerebrospinal fluid in numerous diseases such as meningitis and multiple sclerosis. In 1893 he described what is now known as idiopathic intracranial hypertension, which he labeled "serous meningitis".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Quincke 

John Cheyne (February 3, 1777, - January 31, 1836)

John Cheyne 

(February 3, 1777, - January 31, 1836) 

John Cheyne (February 3, 1777, Leith, Scotland - January 31, 1836, Buckinghamshire, England) was a British physician, surgeon and author of monographs on a number of medical topics. He was one of the people to identify Cheyne-Stokes respiration.

The son of a surgeon, he had grown up around medical practice and was able to enter Edinburgh University at the age of 15, graduating as a doctor at 18 years of age. He joined the army and worked as a surgeon with an artillery corps. He was present at the Battle of Vinegar Hill. Cheyne rejoined his father's practice four years later in 1799.

Ten years later, Cheyne moved to Dublin and in 1811 began working at the Meath Hospital. He also taught war medicine and was appointed Physician General to British forces in Ireland in 1820.

Cheyne wrote a number of books, including Essays of Diseases of Children in 1801. He was also the author of an early treastise on the larynx in 1809, Pathology of the Membrane of the Larynx and Bronchia.

He retired to England in 1831 following a course of ill health and died at his country estate a few years later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cheyne_(physician)

Robert Whytt (1714 – 1766)

Robert Whytt 

(1714 – 1766) 

Robert Whytt (1714 in Edinburgh – 1766) MA St Andrews, 1730; MD Reims 1736; MD St Andrews, 1737; FRCPE Edinburgh, 1738 and President, 1763-6; Professor of Theory of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1747; FRS, 1752 Whytt studied medicine at Edinburgh, Paris and Leyden.

Topics he worked on include:

unconscious reflexes

tubercular meningitis

urinary bladder stones

hysteria

He was the physician to King George III in Scotland from 1761. In 1763, he became president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. His work focused mostly upon diseases of the nervous system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whytt 

John Freind (1675 – 26 July 1728)

John Freind 

(1675 – 26 July 1728) 

John Freind (1675 – 26 July 1728),FRS, English physician, younger brother of Robert Freind (1667–1751), headmaster of Westminster School, was born at Croton in Northamptonshire.

He made great progress in classical knowledge under Richard Busby at Westminster, and at Christ Church, Oxford, under Dean Aldrich, and while still very young, produced, along with Peter Foulkes, an excellent edition of the speeches of Aeschines and Demosthenes on the affair of Ctesiphon (orator).

After this he began the study of medicine, and having proved his scientific attainments by various treatises was appointed a lecturer on chemistry at Oxford in 1704. In the following year he accompanied the English army, under the earl of Peterborough, into Spain, and on returning home in 1707, wrote an account of the expedition, which attained great popularity.

Two years later he published his Prelectiones chimicae, which he dedicated to Sir Isaac Newton. Shortly after his return in 1713 from Flanders, whither he had accompanied the British troops, he took up his residence in London, where he soon obtained a great reputation as a physician.

In 1716 he became fellow of the college of physicians, of which he was chosen one of the censors in 1718, and Harveian orator in 1720. In 1722 he entered the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Launceston in Cornwall, but, being suspected of favoring the cause of the exiled Stuarts, he spent half of that year in the Tower.

During his imprisonment he conceived the plan of his most important work, The History of Physic, of which the first part appeared in 1725, and the second in the following year. Included in this volume was a paper by Dr. Henry Levett, also written in Latin, addressing the treatment of smallpox. In the latter year Freind was appointed physician to Queen Caroline, an office which he held till his death.

A complete edition of his Latin works, with a Latin translation of the History of Physic, edited by Dr John Wigan, was published in London in 1732.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Freind 

Hippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos (ca. 460 BC – ca. 370 BC)

Hippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos
(ca. 460 BC – ca. 370 BC)

Hippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos (ca. 460 BC – ca. 370 BC) - Greek: was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles (Classical Athens), and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is referred to as the father of Western medicine in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field as the founder of the Hippocratic School of medicine. This intellectual school revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other fields that it had traditionally been associated with (notably theurgy and philosophy), thus establishing medicine as a profession.

However, the achievements of the writers of the Corpus, the practitioners of Hippocratic medicine, and the actions of Hippocrates himself are often commingled; thus very little is known about what Hippocrates actually thought, wrote, and did. There are also claims that point to Imhotep of ancient Egypt as history's first physician. Nevertheless, Hippocrates is commonly portrayed as the paragon of the ancient physician. In particular, he is credited with greatly advancing the systematic study of clinical medicine, summing up the medical knowledge of previous schools, and prescribing practices for physicians through the Hippocratic Oath, Corpus and other works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates 

Jacques Forestier (27 July 1890 - 15 March 1978)

Jacques Forestier
(27 July 1890 - 15 March 1978)

Jacques Forestier (27 July 1890 - 15 March 1978) was a French internist who was a pioneer in the field of rheumatology. He studied and practiced medicine in Paris, and was founder of the National French Society of Rheumatology. His father, Henri Forestier was a director at the therapeutic spas in Aix-les-Bains.

Jacques Forestier is remembered for his introduction of gold salts as a remedy for rheumatoid arthritis. Today, injectable gold salts such as gold sodium thiomalate and aurothioglucose are considered by many to be the most effective treatment for arthritic ailments. Forestier is also credited for his descriptions of the diseases polymyalgia rheumatica and diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis.

With his instructor Jean-Athanase Sicard (1872-1929), Forestier demonstrated the use of Lipiodol for spinal X-ray examinations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Forestier

Jean-Athanase Sicard (23 June 1872 - 28 January 1929)

Jean-Athanase Sicard 

(23 June 1872 - 28 January 1929)  

Jean-Athanase Sicard (23 June 1872 - 28 January 1929) was a French neurologist and radiologist who was born in Marseille.

He studied medicine in Marseille and Paris, where he studied with Charles Emile Troisier (1844-1919), Édouard Brissaud (1852-1909), Henri-Alexandre Danlos (1844-1912), Fulgence Raymond (1844-1910) and Georges-Fernand-Isidore Widal (1862-1929). With Widal he performed serodiagnostic studies in immunology. In 1899 he obtained his medical doctorate, and in 1910 was appointed chef de service at the Hôpital Necker. In 1923 he became a professor of internal pathology.

With Jacques Forestier (1890-1978), he introduced lipiodol (radio-opaque iodized poppyseed oil) for use in radiological investigations. Lipiodol was injected into a patients' cerebrospinal fluid for myelographic diagnosis and localization of intraspinal cysts and tumors. Sicard is also credited for introducing injections of sodium salicylate for treatment of varicose veins. Additionally, he was one of the first physicians to become interested in the possibilities of a procedure known as pneumoencephalography.

Along with Frédéric Justin Collet, Sicard is credited with identifying Collet-Sicard syndrome, in which neck trauma such as a Jefferson fracture causes damage to the cranial nerves.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Athanase_Sicard

Detlev Wulf Bronk (August 13, 1897 – November, 1975)

Detlev Wulf Bronk

(August 13, 1897 – November, 1975)

Detlev Wulf Bronk (August 13, 1897 – November, 1975) was President of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland from 1949 to 1953 and President of the National Academy of Sciences from 1950 to 1962. (prior to that, he was Chairman of the National Research Council) Bronk is credited with reshaping the postwar university environment at Hopkins. While at Hopkins, he unsuccessfully attempted to revive the "Goodnow Plan" but succeeded in acquiring the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detlev_Bronk

Adolf Eugen Fick (3 September 1829 – 21 August 1901)

Adolf Eugen Fick 

(3 September 1829 – 21 August 1901) 

Adolf Eugen Fick (3 September 1829, in Kassel, Germany – 21 August 1901, in Blankenberge, Flanders) was a German physiologist. He earned his doctorate in medicine at Marburg in 1851.

In 1855 he introduced Fick's law of diffusion, which governs the diffusion of a gas across a fluid membrane. In 1870 he was the first to devise a technique for measuring cardiac output, called the Fick principle.

Fick managed to double-publish his law of diffusion, as it applied equally to physiology and physics. His work led to the development of the direct Fick method for measuring cardiac output.

Fick also invented the tonometer, work that influenced his nephew (of the same name) who invented the contact lens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eugen_Fick 

Julius Bernstein (December 18, 1839 – February 6, 1917)

Julius Bernstein 

(December 18, 1839 – February 6, 1917)  

German physiologist who was born in Berlin. He studied medicine at the University of Breslau under Rudolf Heidenhain, and at the University of Berlin under Emil Du Bois-Reymond. He received his medical degree at Berlin in 1862, and began his career at the Physiological Institute of the University of Heidelberg as an assistant to Hermann von Helmholtz. In 1872 he succeeded Friedrich Goltz as professor of physiology at the University of Halle. Bernstein remained in Halle for the remainder of his career.

Bernstein's work was concentrated in the fields of neurobiology and biophysics. He is remembered for his explanation regarding the origin of the "resting potential" and "action potential" of nerves and muscles. In 1902 he developed the "membrane theory" of electrical potential in biological cells and tissues, which provided the first practical physico-chemical explanation of bioelectric events. This hypothesis is considered the first actual quantitative theory in electrophysiology.

Bernstein (1902, 1912) correctly proposed that excitable cells are surrounded by a membrane selectively permeable to K+ ions at rest and that during excitation the membrane permeability to other ions increases. His "membrane hypothesis" explained the resting potential of nerve and muscle as a diffusion potential set up by the tendency of positively charged ions to diffuse from their high concentration in cytoplasm to their low concentration in the extracellular solution while other ions are held back. During excitation, the internal negativity would be lost transiently as other ions are allowed to diffuse across the membrane, effectively short-circuiting the K+ diffusion potential. In the English-language literature, the words "membrane breakdown" were used to describe Bernstein's view of excitation. (From Ion Channels of Excitable Membranes, Third Edition, by Bertil Hille).

His pioneering research laid the groundwork for experimentation on the conduction of the nerve impulse, and the transmission of information in the nervous system. Bernstein also invented a "differential rheotome", a device used to measure the velocity of bio-electric impulses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Bernstein 

Étienne-Jules Marey (5 March 1830, Beaune, Côte-d'Or – 21 May 1904)

Étienne-Jules Marey 

(5 March 1830– 21 May 1904) 

Étienne-Jules Marey (5 March 1830, Beaune, Côte-d'Or – 21 May 1904) was a French scientist and chronophotographer.

His work was significant in the development of cardiology, physical instrumentation, aviation, cinematography and the science of labor photography. He is widely considered to be a pioneer of photography and an influential pioneer of the history of cinema.

He started by studying blood circulation in the human body. Then he shifted to analyzing heart beats, respiration, muscles (myography), and movement of the body. To aid his studies he developed many instruments for precise measurements. For example, he was successful in selling an instrument called Sphygmographe to measure the pulse. In 1869 Marey constructed a very delicate artificial insect to show how an insect flies and to demonstrate the figure-8 shape it produced during movement of its wings. Then he became fascinated by movements of air and started to study bigger flying animals, like birds. He adopted and further developed animated photography into a separate field of chronophotography in the 1880s. His revolutionary idea was to record several phases of movement on one photographic surface. In 1890 he published a substantial volume entitled Le Vol des Oiseaux (The Flight of Birds), richly illustrated with photographs, drawings, and diagrams. He also created stunningly precise sculptures of various flying birds.

Marey studied other animals too. He published La Machine Animale in 1873 (translated as "Animal Mechanism"). The English photographer Eadweard Muybridge carried out his "Photographic Investigation" in Palo Alto, California, to prove that Marey was right when he wrote that a galloping horse for a brief moment had all four hooves off the ground. Muybridge published his photos in 1879 and received some public attention.

Marey hoped to merge anatomy and physiology. To better understand his chronophotographic images, he compared them with images of the anatomy, skeleton, joints, and muscles of the same species. Marey produced a series of drawings showing a horse trotting and galloping, first in the flesh and then as a skeleton.

Marey's chronophotographic gun was made in 1882, this instrument was capable of taking 12 consecutive frames a second, and the most interesting fact is that all the frames were recorded on the same picture, using these pictures he studied horses, birds, dogs, sheep, donkeys, elephants, fish, microscopic creatures, molluscs, insects, reptiles, etc. Some call it Marey’s "animated zoo". Marey also conducted the famous study about cats landing always on their feet. He conducted very similar studies with a chicken and a dog and found that they could do almost the same. Marey also studied human locomotion. He published another book Le Mouvement in 1894.

Marey also made movies. They were at a high speed (60 images per second) and of excellent image quality: in slow-motion cinematography, he had come close to perfection. His research on how to capture and display moving images helped the emerging field of cinematography.

Towards the end of his life he returned to studying the movement of quite abstract forms, like a falling ball. His last great work was the observation and photography of smoke trails. This research was partially funded by Samuel Pierpont Langley under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, after the two met in Paris at the Exposition Universelle (1900). In 1901 he was able to build a smoke machine with 58 smoke trails. It became one of the first aerodynamic wind tunnels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Étienne-Jules_Marey

Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (August 31, 1821 – September 8, 1894)

Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz
(August 31, 1821 – September 8, 1894)

Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (August 31, 1821 – September 8, 1894) was a German physician and physicist who made significant contributions to several widely varied areas of modern science. In physiology and psychology, he is known for his mathematics of the eye, theories of vision, ideas on the visual perception of space, color vision research, and on the sensation of tone, perception of sound, and empiricism. In physics, he is known for his theories on the conservation of energy, work in electrodynamics, chemical thermodynamics, and on a mechanical foundation of thermodynamics. As a philosopher, he is known for his philosophy of science, ideas on the relation between the laws of perception and the laws of nature, the science of aesthetics, and ideas on the civilizing power of science. A large German association of research institutions, the Helmholtz Association, is named after him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_von_Helmholtz 

Emil du Bois-Reymond (November 7, 1818 – December 26, 1896)

Emil du Bois-Reymond
(November 7, 1818 – December 26, 1896)

Emil du Bois-Reymond (November 7, 1818 – December 26, 1896) was a German physician and physiologist, the discoverer of nerve action potential, and the father of experimental electrophysiology.

It is a record of the exact determination and approximative analysis of the electric phenomena presented by living beings. Du Bois-Reymond, beginning with the imperfect observations of Matteucci, built up this branch of science. He did so by inventing or improving methods, by devising new instruments of observation or by adapting old ones.

On the other hand, the volumes in question contain an exposition of a theory. In them Du Bois-Reymond put forward a general conception by the help of which he strove to explain the phenomena which he had observed. He developed the view that a living tissue, such as muscle, might be regarded as composed of a number of "electric molecules", of molecules having certain electric properties, and that the electric behaviour of the muscle as a whole in varying circumstances was the outcome of the behaviour of these native electric molecules. We now know that these are the sodium, potassium and other ions which are responsible for electric membrane phenomena in excitable celles.

His theory was soon attacked by several contemporary physiologists, such as Ludimar Hermann, who maintained that a living untouched tissue, such as a muscle, is not the subject of electric currents so long as it is at rest, it is isoelectric in substance, and therefore need not be supposed to be made up of electric molecules, all the electric phenomena which it manifests being due to internal molecular changes associated with activity or injury. Du Bois-Reymond's theory was of great value if only as a working hypothesis, and that as such it greatly helped in the advance of science. Thus, Du Bois-Reymond's work lay chiefly in the direction of animal electricity, yet he carried his inquiries—such as could be studied by physical methods—into other parts of physiology, more especially into the phenomena of diffusion, though he published little or nothing concerning the results at which he arrived.

For many years, too, Du Bois-Reymond exerted a great influence as a teacher. In 1858, upon the death of Johannes Müller, the chair of anatomy and physiology, which that man had held, was divided into a chair of human and comparative anatomy, which was given to Karl Bogislaus Reichert (1811–1883), and a chair of physiology, which naturally fell to Du Bois-Reymond. This he held to his death, carrying out his researches for many years under unfavourable conditions of inadequate accommodation. In 1877, through his influence, the government provided the university with a proper physiological laboratory. In 1851 he was admitted into the Academy of Sciences of Berlin, and in 1876 became its perpetual secretary.

For many years Du Bois-Reymond and his friend Hermann von Helmholtz, who like him had been a pupil of Johannes Peter Müller, were prominent scientists and professors in the Prussian capital. Acceptable at court, they both used their position and their influence for the advancement of science. Du Bois-Reymond, as has been said, had in his earlier years wandered into fields other than those of physiology and medicine, and in his later years he went back to some of these. His gave occasional discourses, dealing with general topics and various problems of philosophy.

Du Bois-Reymond is now remembered also in terms of the ignorabimus, to which he gave common currency. The mathematician Paul David Gustav du Bois-Reymond (1831–1889) was his brother.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_du_Bois-Reymond

Carlo Matteucci (June 21, 1811 - June 25, 1868)

Carlo Matteucci 

(June 21, 1811 - June 25, 1868)

Carlo Matteucci (June 21, 1811 - June 25, 1868) was an Italian physicist and neurophysiologist who was a pioneer in the study of bioelectricity.

Carlo Matteucci was born at Forlì, in the province of Romagna, to Vincenzo Matteucci, a physician, and Chiara Folfi. He studied mathematics at the University of Bologna from 1825 to 1828, receiving his doctorate in 1829. From 1829 to 1831 he studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris, France. Upon returning to Italy, Matteucci studied at Bologna (1832), Florence, Ravenna (1837) and Pisa. He established himself as the head of the laboratory of the Hospital of Ravenna and became a professor of physics at the local college. In 1840, by recommendation of François Arago (1786–1853), his teacher at the École Polytechnique, to the Grand-Duke of Tuscany, Matteucci accepted a post of professor of physics at the University of Pisa.

Instigated by the work of Luigi Galvani (1737–1798) on bioelectricity, Matteucci began in 1830 a series of experiments which he pursued until his death in 1865. Using a sensitive galvanometer of Nobeli, he was able to prove that injured excitable biological tissues generated direct electrical currents, and that they could be summed up by adding elements in series, like in Alessandro Volta’s (1745-1827) electric pile. Thus, Mateucci was able to develop what he called a "rheoscopic frog", by using the cut nerve of a frog’s leg and its attached muscle as a kind of sensitive electricity detector. His work in bioelectricity influenced directly the research developed by Emil du Bois-Reymond (1818–1896), a student of the great German biologist Johannes Peter Müller (1801–1858) in Berlin, who tried the duplicate Matteucci’s experiments and ended up discovering the nerve's action potential. In 1844, for these studies, Matteucci was awarded with the Copley medal by the Royal Society.

From 1847 he took an active part in politics, and in 1860 was chosen an Italian senator, at the same time becoming inspector-general of the Italian telegraph lines. Two years later he was appointed Minister of Education.

Matteucci died in Ardenza, near Livorno, in 1868.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Matteucci 

Theodor Schwann (7 December 1810, Neuss – 11 January 1882)

Theodor Schwann 

(7 December 1810, Neuss – 11 January 1882)

Theodor Schwann (7 December 1810, Neuss – 11 January 1882) was a German physiologist. His many contributions to biology include the development of cell theory, the discovery of Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system, the discovery and study of pepsin, the discovery of the organic nature of yeast, and the invention of the term metabolism.

Vitalism and germ theory

He was the first of Müller's pupils to break with vitalism and work towards a physico-chemical explanation of life. Schwann's rediscovery of the cell came when he was paying particular attention to the cytoplasm of a plant cell, and noticed its jelly-like consistency. He went on to view animal cells, and noted that they had different properties. Müller also directed Schwann's attention to the process of digestion, which Schwann showed in 1837 to depend essentially on the presence of a ferment he called pepsin. Schwann also examined the question of spontaneous generation, which led to its eventual disproof. In the course of his experiments, he discovered the organic nature of yeast. In fact, the whole germ theory of Pasteur, as well as its antiseptic applications by Lister, can be traced to Schwann's influence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Schwann 

Sir William Osler, M.D., C.M., 1st Baronet (July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919)

Sir William Osler, M.D., C.M., 1st Baronet
(July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919)

Sir William Osler, M.D., C.M., 1st Baronet (July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919) was a Canadian physician. (The "o" in "Osler" is pronounced like the "o" in "go".)

He has been called one of the greatest icons of modern medicine. Osler was a pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, and renowned practical joker.

He reduced the role of didactic lectures and once said he hoped his tombstone would say only, "He brought medical students into the wards for bedside teaching." He also said, "I desire no other epitaph … than the statement that I taught medical students in the wards, as I regard this as by far the most useful and important work I have been called upon to do." Osler fundamentally changed medical teaching in the North America, and this influence, helped by a few such as the Dutch internist Dr. P.K. Pel, spread to medical schools across the globe.

Osler was a prolific author and a great collector of books and other material relevant to the history of medicine. He willed his library to the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University where it now forms the nucleus of McGill University's Osler Library of the History of Medicine, which opened in 1929. The printed and extensively annotated catalogue of this donation is entitled "Bibliotheca Osleriana: a catalogue of books illustrating the history of medicine and science, collected, arranged and annotated by Sir William Osler, Bt. and bequeathed to McGill University". Osler was a strong supporter of libraries and served on the library committees at most of the universities at which he taught and was a member of the Board of Curators of the Bodleian Library in Oxford. He was instrumental in founding the Medical Library Association in North America and served as its second President from 1901-1904. In Britain he was the first (and only) President of the Medical Library Association of Great Britain and Ireland and also a President of the Bibliographical Society of London (1913).

Osler was a prolific author and public speaker and his public speaking and writing were both done in a clear, lucid style. His most famous work, 'The Principles and Practice of Medicine' quickly became a key text to students and clinicians alike. It continued to be published in many editions until 2001 and was translated into many languages. (See Osler Library Studies in the History of Medicine vol. 8.A History of William Osler’s The Principles and Practice of Medicine by Richard Golden. ISBN 07717-0615-4. Available from the Osler Library.) It is notable in part for supporting the use of Bloodletting as recently as 1923 .[citation needed] Though his own textbook was a major influence in medicine for many years, Osler described Avicenna as the 'author of the most famous medical textbook ever written.' He noted that Avicenna's Canon of Medicine remained 'a medical bible for a longer time than any other work. [3] Osler's essays were important guides to physicians. The title of his most famous essay, Aequanimitas, espousing the importance of imperturbability, is the motto on the Osler family crest and is used on the Osler housestaff tie and scarf at Hopkins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Osler

Georges Charles Guillain (March 3, 1876 - June 29, 1961)

Georges Charles Guillain 

(March 3, 1876 - June 29, 1961) 

Georges Charles Guillain (French pronunciation: (March 3, 1876 - June 29, 1961) was a French neurologist.

He was born in Rouen. After customary schooling, Georges Guillain commenced the study of medicine in his native town, but after two years moved to Paris, where he received his clinical education at several hospitals. He soon became interested in neurology, and his first scientific work, of 1898, concerns lesions of the plexus brachialis. He received his medical doctorate at Paris in 1902.

He became chef de clinique for nervous disease and was agrégé in 1910. After the war he served at the Charité Hospital until his career was crowned with the professorship of neurology at the famous Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris in 1923. He held this position until his retirement in 1947.

Guillain was a busy writer. In 1920, with his friend Jean Barré, he published a large work on clinical experiences during the war.

Guillain received many honours. He was a member of French, American, and Japanese academies of science. In 1949 he was appointed commander of the Légion d'honneur.

He died in Paris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Guillain 

Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne (de Boulogne) (September 17, 1806 - September 15, 1875 )

Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne (de Boulogne) 

(September 17, 1806 - September 15, 1875 )  

Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne (de Boulogne) (born September 17, 1806 in Boulogne-sur-Mer; died September 15, 1875 in Paris) was a French neurologist who revived Galvani's research and greatly advanced the science of muscular electrophysiology(electromyography). The era of modern neurology progressed from Duchenne's understanding of the conductivity of neural pathways, his revelations of the effect of lesions on these structures and his introduction of muscle biopsy. Duchenne's electrical experiments on the facial musculature exerted an enormous influence through Charles Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

The biographer Joseph Collins wrote of Duchenne that he found neurology, "a sprawling infant of unknown parentage which he succored to a lusty youth" and although it is Jean-Martin Charcot who is now called the father of modern neurology, Charcot owed much to Duchennne, acknowledging him as, "mon maître." He was the first to practise muscle biopsy, the harvesting of living tissue samples with an invention he called, "l'emporte-pièce" (Duchenne's trocar). His book, Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine was the first neurophysiology text on emotion and established a landmark in the history of clinical medical photography. However, Duchenne's greatest contributions were made in the myopathies that now bear his name, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne-Aran spinal muscular atrophy and Duchenne-Erb paralysis.

Duchenne's contemporaries appended "de Boulogne" to his name to avoid confusion with the like-sounding name of Edouard Adolphe Duchesne (1804–1869), a popular society physician.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Benjamin_Amand_Duchenne 

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (29 December 1816, Witzenhausen – 23 April 1895)

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig
(29 December 1816, Witzenhausen – 23 April 1895)

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (29 December 1816, Witzenhausen – 23 April 1895, Leipzig) was a German physician and physiologist.

In 1842 Ludwig became a professor of physiology and in 1846 of comparative anatomy. From professorships in Zurich and Vienna he went in 1865 to the University of Leipzig and developed there the Physiological Institute, designated today after him: Carl Ludwig Institute of Physiology. Ludwig researched several topics such as the physiology of blood pressure, urinary excretion and anesthesia. He received the Copley Medal in 1884 for his research. In 1869, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He is credited for inventing the stromuhr.

Since 1932 the Carl Ludwig Honorary Medal is awarded by the German Society for Cardiology to outstanding investigators in the area of cardiovascular research.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Ludwig 

Luigi Galvani (September 9, 1737 – December 4, 1798)

Luigi Galvani 
(September 9, 1737 – December 4, 1798)

Luigi Galvani (September 9, 1737 – December 4, 1798) was an Italian physician and physicist who lived and died in Bologna. In 1771, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs legs twitched when struck by a spark. This was one of the first forays into the study of bioelectricity, a field that still today studies the electrical patterns and signals of the nervous system. He was cutting the frogs legs as an experiment trying to prove that a frog´s testicles were actually in their legs. He was quickly proved wrong by other biologists at the University of Pavia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_galvani

Joseph Priestley (13 March 1733 – 6 February 1804)

 Joseph Priestley 

(13 March 1733 – 6 February 1804)

Joseph Priestley (13 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works. He is usually credited with the discovery of oxygen, having isolated it in its gaseous state, although Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Antoine Lavoisier also have a claim to the discovery.

During his lifetime, Priestley's considerable scientific reputation rested on his invention of soda water, his writings on electricity, and his discovery of several "airs" (gases), the most famous being what Priestley dubbed "dephlogisticated air" (oxygen). However, Priestley's determination to defend phlogiston theory and to reject what would become the Chemical Revolution eventually left him isolated within the scientific community.

Priestley's science was integral to his theology, and he consistently tried to fuse Enlightenment rationalism with Christian theism. In his metaphysical texts, Priestley attempted to combine theism, materialism, and determinism, a project that has been called "audacious and original". He believed that a proper understanding of the natural world would promote human progress and eventually bring about the Christian Millennium. Priestley, who strongly believed in the free and open exchange of ideas, advocated toleration and equal rights for religious Dissenters, which also led him to help found Unitarianism in England. The controversial nature of Priestley's publications combined with his outspoken support of the French Revolution aroused public and governmental suspicion; he was eventually forced to flee, in 1791, first to London, and then to the United States, after a mob burned down his home and church. He spent the last ten years of his life living in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.

A scholar and teacher throughout his life, Priestley also made significant contributions to pedagogy, including the publication of a seminal work on English grammar, books on history, and he prepared some of the most influential early timelines. These educational writings were some of Priestley's most popular works. It was his metaphysical works, however, that had the most lasting influence: leading philosophers including Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer credit them among the primary sources for utilitarianism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Priestley 

Stephen Hales, FRS (17 September 1677 – 4 January 1761)

Stephen Hales, FRS 
(17 September 1677 – 4 January 1761)

Stephen Hales, FRS (17 September 1677 – 4 January 1761) was an English physiologist, chemist and inventor. Hales studied the role of air and water in the maintenance of both plant and animal life. He gave accurate accounts of the movements of water in plants, and demonstrated that plants absorb air. Hales discovered the dangers of breathing stale air, and invented a ventilator which improved survival rates when employed on ships, in hospitals and in prisons. Hales is also credited with important work in pneumatic chemistry, especially the development of the pneumatic trough, used for collecting gases generated in laboratory experiments.

Stephen Hales was born at Bekesbourne in Kent. In June 1696 he was entered as a pensioner of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, with the view of taking holy orders, and in February 1703 was admitted to a fellowship. In 1708 Hales was presented to the perpetual curacy of Teddington in Middlesex, where he remained all his life, notwithstanding that he was subsequently appointed rector of Porlock in Somerset, and later of Faringdon in Hampshire.

In 1717 Hales was elected fellow of the Royal Society, which awarded him the Copley Medal in 1739. In 1732 he was named one of a committee for establishing a colony in Georgia, and the next year he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Oxford. He was appointed almoner to the princess dowager of Wales in 1750. On the death of Sir Hans Sloane in 1753, Hales was chosen foreign associate of the French Academy of Sciences.

Known as a pioneer of experimental physiology, Hales showed that some reflexes are mediated by the spinal cord. Hales studied stones taken from the bladder and kidneys and suggested solvents which might reduce them without surgery. He also invented the surgical forceps.

Hales is best known for his Statical Essays. The first volume, Vegetable Staticks (1727), contains an account of numerous experiments in plant physiology — the loss of water in plants by evaporation, the rate of growth of shoots and leaves, and variations in root force at different times of the day. The second volume (1733) on Haemastaticks, containing experiments on the "force of the blood" in various animals, its rate of flow, and the capacity of the different vessels.

Stephen Hales died on 4 January 1761 in Teddington at the age of 84. He was buried under the tower of the church where he had worked many years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hales

 

Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek (October 24, 1632 – August 26, 1723)

Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek 
(October 24, 1632 – August 26, 1723)

Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek October 24, 1632 – August 26, 1723) was a Dutch tradesman and scientist from Delft, Netherlands. He is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology", and considered to be the first microbiologist. He is best known for his work on the improvement of the microscope and for his contributions towards the establishment of microbiology. Using his handcrafted microscopes he was the first to observe and describe single celled organisms, which he originally referred to as animalcules, and which we now refer to as microorganisms. He was also the first to record microscopic observations of muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa and blood flow in capillaries (small blood vessels). Van Leeuwenhoek did not author any books, although he did write many letters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonie_van_Leeuwenhoek

Harold Horace Hopkins FRS (1918–1994)

Harold Horace Hopkins FRS 

(1918–1994) 

Harold Horace Hopkins FRS (1918–1994) was a renowned British physicist. His Wave Theory of Aberrations, (published by Oxford University Press 1950), is central to all modern optical design and provides the mathematical analysis which enables the use of computers to create the wealth of high quality lenses available today. In addition to his theoretical work, his many inventions are in daily use throughout the world. These include zoom lenses, coherent fibre-optics and more recently the rod-lens endoscopes which 'opened the door' to modern key-hole surgery. He was the recipient of many of the world's most prestigious awards and was twice nominated for a Nobel Prize. His citation on receiving the Rumford Medal from the Royal Society in 1984 stated: "In recognition of his many contributions to the theory and design of optical instruments, especially of a wide variety of important new medical instruments which have made a major contribution to clinical diagnosis and surgery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Hopkins