César Julien Jean Legallois

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César Julien Jean Legallois (also Le Gallois; born February 1, 1770 near Cherrueix , Bretagne ; † February 10, 1814 in Paris ) was a French doctor and physiologist .

Life

César Julien Jean Legallois was the son of the Breton farmer César Legallois (approx. 1743–1784) and his wife Julienne Anne Thérèse Bouassier (1739–1771). The young mother died early and his father gave him a good education. When his father also died, Legallois was thirteen years old and a student at the Collège de Dol . With a modest legacy, he was able to continue his education. His interests were quite varied, so he won first prize in rhetoric at the Collège von Dol .

After the popular uprising of June 2, 1793 and the Great Terror , he was a supporter of the Fédéralistes . These sympathies threatened his life at times.

Legallois began his medical studies in Caen and continued it in Paris . However, his career was interrupted more than once by illness. He graduated in medicine from the École de Médecine de Paris in 1801 .

While preparing for his dissertation, he realized the importance of experimental research. For this reason he later devoted himself to physiological research with great enthusiasm. The topic of his dissertation was Le sang est-il identique dans tous les vaisseaux qu'il parcourt? , presented to the École de Médecine de Paris . For about ten years he served as a doctor for the poor in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. In addition to medicine, he studied several languages: Greek, Italian and English. Even before his doctorate, Legallois gained experience in practical medicine, for example through his work in various hospitals. In 1813 Legallois was appointed director of the Bicêtre hospital , chef de l'hospice et de la prison de Bicêtre .

His only son, Eugène Legallois (approx. 1805-1831), was also a doctor. He died in 1831, returning from Poland, of the aftermath of a cholera epidemic.

Scientific achievements

He began a long series of physiological experiments in order to study the basic physical conditions necessary for the maintenance of vital functions in the entire organism.

Legallois carried out a series of animal experiments to clarify the mechanism of breathing. By decapitation (decapitation) of vertebrates or other types of targeted destruction of nerve connections in the brain and the spinal cord , he came to the realization that breathing is controlled by a respiratory center located in the medulla oblongata . His discovery was that a lesion on a small circumscribed area in the medulla inhibits breathing (1811). This was the first attempt to localize respiratory regulation and was later completed by the work of Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens (1794–1867).

One of his most important discoveries was the demonstration of the metameric organization of the spinal cord, each segment of which serves as the neural center of a certain region (e.g. dermatome , myotome ) in order to coordinate its sensory and motor activity.

The idea of ​​an extracorporeal circulation was taken up by him in 1812 in his monograph Expériences sur le principle de la vie, notamment sur celui des movements du coeur, et sur le siège de ce principe :

“(…) But if one could replace the heart with some form of injection and at the same time continuously provide natural or artificially produced arterial blood for this injection - provided that such an artificial production is possible - life in to maintain any part of the body with ease for an unlimited period of time: consequently, after beheading, one could maintain all brain functions even in the head. In this way, not only could life be maintained in the head or in any other part isolated from the animal's body, but it could also be called back to it after its complete extinction. One could also call it back into the whole body and thus bring about its real resurrection in the truest sense of the word. (...) "

- César Julien Jean Legallois

Works

  • Le sang est-il identique dans tous les vaisseaux qu'il parcourt? Chez l'auteur, de l'Imprimerie de Lesguilliez Freres, Paris at X (1801).
  • Recherches chronologiques sur l'Hippocrate . Paris 1804.
  • Experience sur le principe de la vie, notamment sur celui des mouvemens du cœur, et sur le siège de ce principe . Chez D'Hautel, Paris 1812 ( archive.org ); engl. Translation: Thomas, Philadelphia 1813 ( digitized ).
  • Oeuvres de César Legallois, médecin en chef de l'hospice et de la prison de Bicêtre . Le Rouge, 1830.
  • Fragments d'um memoire sur le temps durant lequel les jeunes animaux peuvent etre, sans danger, prives de la respiration . Paris 1834 (posthumous).

literature

  • W. Bruce Fye : Julien Jean César Legallois. Gryphon Editions, Birmingham, Alabama 1989.
  • W. Bruce Fye: Julien Jean César Legallois. In: Clinical Cardiology. Vol. 18 (1995), pp. 599 f. ( PDF ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Genealogy
  2. ↑ Quotation from W. Böttcher, VV Aleksi-Meskishvili, R. Hetzer: Historical development of extracorporeal circulation, isolated organ perfusion in the 19th century. In: Journal of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery. Vol. 14 (2000), pp. 93-99, DOI: 10.1007 / s003980070028 .
personal data
SURNAME Legallois, César Julien Jean
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Le Gallois, César Julien Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French doctor and physiologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Cherrueix (Îlle-et-Vilaine department), Brittany
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1814
Place of death Paris