Alphonse Laveran

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alphonse Laveran

Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran (born June 18, 1845 in Paris ; † May 18, 1922 there ) was a French medic and bacteriologist , especially in the field of tropical diseases . In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine .

Research interest

Laveran mainly dealt with the tropical disease malaria and its triggers after his time as a military doctor . In Algeria he succeeded in isolating the first pathogens and describing them as unicellular organisms ( protozoa ). This discovery brought him his first international fame. The pathogen was initially named after him " Laverania malariae " or " Laveran's body ". He later worked with many other colleagues on research into other pathogens, especially trypanosomes . He first dealt with the trypanosomes in various animals such as birds, fish, turtles, grazing cattle and later also with those that cause diseases in humans, such as Nagana and Surra and above all the notorious sleeping sickness . Especially his work on Trypanosoma gambiense led to important results.

resume

Laveran was born on June 18, 1845 as the son of the military doctor and professor at the École de Val-de-Grâce , Louis Théodore Laveran, and his wife Marie-Louise Anselme Guénard de la Tour on today's Boulevard Saint-Michel in Paris. In 1863 he was enrolled at the School of General Medicine in Strasbourg and in 1866 moved to the general hospitals in the same city. In 1867 he received his doctorate about the regeneration of nerves . In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, Laveran went to Metz as a medical officer . He took part in the Battle of Gravelotte and the victory in Metz.

In 1874 he got the chair for military diseases and epidemics at the École de Val-de-Grâce, which his father held before. From 1878 to 1883 Laveran was sent to Bône , Algeria, where he began his studies on malaria. In the city of Constantine in 1880 he discovered the pathogen causing malaria in the blood of his malaria-infected patients, especially soldiers who were infected with it, and presented them to the scientific public in Rome . In 1884 Laveran became professor of military hygiene at the École de Val-de-Grâce. In 1889 he was awarded the Bréant Prize of the Academy of Sciences for discovering the pathogen causing malaria. In 1894 he became the chief medical officer at the military hospital in Lille , later director of health services of the 11th Army Corps in Nantes . From 1896 to 1907 Laveran worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. There he researched various pathogens, especially haematozoa , trypanosomes and other unicellular organisms . In 1908 he founded the Société de Pathologie Exotique and remained president of the association for twelve years.

Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran married Sophie Marie Pidancet in 1885. They didn't have any children.

Honors

  • In 1895 he received the Cothenius Medal of the Leopoldina .
  • In 1895 Laveran became a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences , and in 1895 also an honorary member.
  • In 1907 Alphonse Laveran received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine “in recognition of his work on the role that single-celled organisms ( protozoa ) play as pathogens.” He donated half of the prize money to the Pasteur Institute to expand the laboratory for tropical medicine.
  • 1916 election as a foreign member of the Royal Society .
  • In 1921 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

Works (selection)

  • Titres et travaux scientifiques du Docteur A. Laveran. A. Lahure, Paris 1892 (digitized version )
  • Research expérimentales on the regeneration of nerfs. Thèse, Strasbourg 1867 (digitized version)
  • Traité des maladies et épidémies des armées. Masson, Paris 1875 (digitized version)
  • Nature parasitaire des accidents de l'impaludisme. Description d'un nouveau parasite trouvé dans le sang des malades atteints de fièvre palustre. JB Baillière, Paris 1881 (digitized version)
  • Traité des fièvres palustres, avec la description des microbes du paludisme. O. Doin, Paris 1884 (digitized version)
  • Du paludisme et son hématozoaire, Masson, Paris 1891 (digitized)
  • You paludism . Gauthier-Villars, Paris 1892 (digitized version)
  • Les Hématozoires de l'homme et des animaux . Rueff, Paris 1895 (digitized)
  • Traité du paludisme. Masson, Paris 1898 (digitized version)
  • Together with F. Mesnil. Trypanosomes et Trypanosomiases. Masson, Paris 1904 (digitized version)
    • Trypanosomes et Trypanosomiases. WT Keener, Chicago 1907 (digitized)

literature

  • Isaac Asimov (Ed.): Biographical Encyclopedia of Natural Sciences and Technology. Freiburg u. a. 1973, p. 357.
  • Werner E. Gerabek : Laveran, Charles Louis Alphonse. In: Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 830.

Web links

Commons : Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Wolfgang U. Eckart : Alphonse Charles Louis Laveran , in: Wolfgang U. Eckart and Christoph Gradmann (eds.): Ärztelexikon. From antiquity to the 20th century , 1st edition 1995 CH Beck Munich, medical dictionary. From antiquity to the present , 2nd edition 2001, 3rd edition 2006 Springer Verlag Heidelberg, Berlin, New York. Medical glossary 2006 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-540-29585-3 .
  2. ^ Cothenius Medal Alphonse Laveran of the Leopoldina, accessed on March 2, 2017.
  3. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 30, 2019 .