History, 20th Century ; Physiology ; history

History, 20th Century ; Physiology ; history

Dendrites ; physiology ; History, 20th Century ; Neurophysiology ; history

Claude Bernard, a French physiologist in the nineteenth century, strove to establish experimental physiology as a medical branch and scientific field. In 1854, he started his lecture series on general physiology at the Paris Faculty of Sciences, which was continued at the National Museum of Natural History since 1869 when Bernard's chair was transferred from the Faculty to the Museum. At the Museum, Bernard titled his lecture series the "Phenomena of Life Common to Animals and Plants," which revealed the main characteristic of his general physiology. At that time, physiology was generally considered a medical science which dealt only with the human body. Bernard, on the other hand, came to have the idea that physiology could study the functions of plant, animal, and human bodies in the same manner. Bernard's lectures on general physiology had two distinct phases. At Sorbonne, general physiology was a rather speculative theoretical system. It was mainly because of the fact that he did not have a laboratory at the Faculty of Sciences. There, the lecture dealt only with animal functions, and he had no concern for plant physiology at all. After he moved to the Museum, significant changes occurred. In the new laboratory, general physiology was transformed into a truly experimental science, which dealt with both animals and plants. Protoplasm, a physiological basic unit, replaced tissue, which was basically an anatomical unit that fell short of explaining physiological phenomena. The Museum of Natural History played an important role in this transformation. At the museum, zoologists, botanists, and physiologists worked together, and the peculiar natural history tradition of the institution enabled scientists to study animals and plants at the same time. Although there existed some conflicts between experimentalists and naturalists, Bernard could wisely figure out the problem by asserting that the role of a physiologist was to disclose, by experimentation, the fundamental principles that lay behind the superficial facts of life that were already discovered by natural historians. At the Museum, Bernard could break down the distinction between the animal and plant kingdoms in the domain of experimental physiology, and it can perhaps be considered a step toward the formation of the general science of biology.
Biomedical Research/history ; France ; History, 19th Century ; Humans ; Physiology/*history

Endocrinology ; history ; History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; Humans ; Nobel Prize ; Philately ; history ; Physiology ; history

Academies and Institutes/history* ; Animals ; Biostatistics/history* ; China ; Ecology/history* ; History, 20th Century ; Humans ; Insecta/physiology* ; Vertebrates/physiology* ; Zoology/history*

Anniversaries and Special Events ; China ; History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; Physiology ; history ; Societies ; history

The 19th century has been thought to be the turning point that the experimental method bean to take strong root as the core to solve many physiological subjects, and discipline of physiology got firmly fixed as the specialized one in the western Europe. Authors found of physiology got firmly fixed as the specialized one in the western Europe. Authors found the following characteristics in the process of the division and specialization of the 19th century western physiology. 1) It was the process of its separation from the discipline of anatomy that was necessary in the development of physiology as the independent, specialized division. Newly grown ideas, that there were working functions specialized study, were the important background and basis of the development of physiology as the specialized discipline. 2) It was not until the force and influence of the metaphysical concept on the living things(vitalism) grew weak that physiology could become the specialized discipline. The new materialistic concept about living things made it possible for the researchers of that time to apply the physico-chemical method in the study of physiological problems. 3) Institutionalization of the physiological research and education accelerated its development and specialization. The followings appeared in the mid-19th century: specialized professorship, division as the separated subject in the undergraduated medical school curriculum, laboratory settings for the purpose of physiological study, establishment of independent academic societies and publication of their own journals. Two main factors, namely, both the settlement of the new physiological thought and method of the very scientific nature and the institutionalization within the academic and medical societies exerted influences on each other in the ground of the 19th century western Europe. Through that process, the discipline of physiology took root deep as the independent specialized division in the societies of science and medicine.
English Abstract ; Europe ; History of Medicine, 19th Cent. ; Physiology/*history ; Science/history ; Specialties, Medical/*history

This paper aims at clarifying the relationship of physiological heat and pathological heat(fever) using the theoretical scheme of Georges Canguilhem as is argued in his famous book The Normal and the Pathologic. Ancient authors had presented various views on the innate heat and pathological heat. Some argued that there is only pathological heat while others, like Galen, distinguished two different kinds of heat. Galen was the first medial author who had the clear notion of the relationship between the normal heat and the pathological heat. He conceptualized their difference as the heat conforming to nature (kata phusin) and the heat against nature (para phusin). However, the Peripatetic authors, such as ps-Alexander Aphrodisias, who laid more emphasis on physiology tended to regard pathology in continuation with physiology as Claude Bernard attempted to do it. Therefore, Canguilhem's theoretical scheme turns out to be very useful in analysing the relationship of normal heat and pathological heat as is manifested in ancient Greek physiology.
Fever/*history ; Greek World/history ; History, Ancient ; *Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Physiology/*history

Biochemistry/history* ; China ; Exercise/physiology* ; History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; Humans ; Sports Medicine/history*