Tag: Claude Bernard
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Silas Weir Mitchell and causalgia
JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom Silas Weir Mitchell (1829 – 1914) (Fig 1) was born in Philadelphia, the seventh physician in three generations. Webb Haymaker gives an early clue to his unconventional personality when he recounts his smuggling of Frederick Marryat’s Midshipman Easy into a dark corner of a church pew to relieve the boredom…
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Head and hand: Claude Bernard’s experimental medicine
James A. MarcumWaco, Texas, United States Claude Bernard’s Introduction à l’étude de la médecine expérimentale, originally published in 1865, occupies a critical position in the development of experimental medicine and science.1 In the introduction to the book, Bernard claims that “each kind of science presents different phenomena and complexities and difficulties of investigations peculiarly its…
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A look back at insulin
Shrestha SarafSutton Coldfield, United KingdomSanjay SarafSudarshan RamachandranBirmingham, United Kingdom As we approach the centenary of the isolation, purification, and clinical use of insulin, it is an appropriate moment to reflect on the impact of this hormone on the management of diabetes. Diabetes can be defined as a heterogeneous group of conditions resulting in high blood…
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Claude Bernard, one of the greatest scientists
Claude Bernard (1813 –1878), “one of the greatest of all men of science,” originated the term milieu intérieur, and furthered the concept of homeostasis. After an early high school and college education, he become an assistant in a druggist’s shop and contemplated becoming a writer, but was persuaded to study medicine and became an intern at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital…
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A changing paradigm for medical research: the evolution of the clinical trial
Kayvon ModjarradBethesda, Maryland, United States This history of science follows a convoluted path of imperceptible intellectual drifts and sudden philosophical shifts. Scientific milestones are, therefore, the result of gradually building thought processes. This is as true for advances in the methods of scientific inquiry as it is for the content of scientific discovery. Tracing the…
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Cournand and Richards: Pioneers in cardiopulmonary physiology
Philip R. LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States During World War I among the allied forces were an artillery lieutenant just out of college and a medical student who acted as an auxiliary battle surgeon because of the high mortality among battalion surgeons. They were, respectively, Dickinson W. Richards, Jr. (1895—1973) and Andre Cournand (1895—1988). Eventually they…