Joseph Erlanger
Joseph Erlanger (* 5. January 1874 in San Francisco , California ; † 5. December 1965 in St. Louis , Missouri ) was an American physiologist who in 1944, together with Herbert Spencer Gasser the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the Discovery of different types of nerve fibers received.
family
His father Hermann Erlanger came from a small village in Württemberg and in 1842 at the age of 16, completely alone and penniless , emigrated to the United States of America, to New York City . Compatriots provided the young man there with the bare essentials and sent him to New Orleans , where he labored as a peddler in the Mississippi River valley . When the gold rush broke out, Herman Erlanger set out on foot, by mule and by ship (via Panama ) to California to try his luck as a gold digger . He had no particular success with it and eventually settled in San Francisco . There he met the sister of his business partner, Sarah Salinger, who also came from Württemberg, and married her. Joseph was the sixth child in the Jewish family.
In 1906 Joseph Erlanger married Aimée, née Hirstel, whose marriage resulted in three children, Margaret (born 1908), Ruth Josephine (born 1910) and Herman (1912–1959).
education and profession
Erlanger attended the South Cosmopolitan Public School and chose German as a foreign language . He then graduated from San Francisco Boys' High School and was admitted to study in Latin in 1891 at the University of California, Berkeley . After studying chemistry and botany (BS), Erlanger decided in 1895 to study medicine at the newly established medical faculty at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore . His interest in experimental research was already evident in his high school diploma thesis ( embryology ), and in Baltimore he deepened this further. At times he worked in the histological laboratory of Lewellys Barker on neurophysiological issues. In 1899 he successfully completed his medical degree (MD) and then worked for a year as a doctor at the Johns Hopkins Hospital with William Osler . He then worked for a short time in the pathology department and finally in 1900 accepted the offer of an assistant professorship in physiology.
In 1902 Erlanger went on a study trip to Germany to the laboratory of the biochemist Franz Hofmeister in Strasbourg , where he learned about the latest findings on the composition and metabolism of protein - sulfur components.
From 1906 Erlanger took over the professorship for the subjects physiology and physiological chemistry at the University of Wisconsin in Madison . Here he bought one of the first Einthoven string galvanometers in America for the laboratory .
In 1910 he accepted a call to the physiology chair at Washington University in St. Louis . He reorganized this department and over time made it a globally recognized scientific institution.
In 1946 Erlanger retired from professional life, but remained scientifically active. He continued teaching in his laboratory, studying the history of physiology, and maintaining the medical library .
power
In 1900 he succeeded in locating the motor anterior horn cells exactly in the spinal cord (for a given muscle). In the following year Erlanger (with AW Hewlett) published an experimental work on the possible expansion of bowel resections .
He dealt with the kapillarelektrometrischen representation of the cardiac action potential (the frog ), describing 1902 Sphygmo manometer , the determination of the maximum and minimum arterial pressure and the pulse pressure volume allowed.
In Baltimore, he studied with DR Hooker the cycle - pathophysiology of orthostatic albuminuria . In addition, in 1904, at the suggestion of Osler, Erlanger developed a clip with which all forms of atrioventricular cardiac arrhythmias could be produced experimentally in animals by pressing the bundle of His , a contribution to research into the pathogenesis of Morgagni-Adams-Stokes syndrome .
In 1906 he tried for the first time to use it to derive potentials from the skull (an early EEG experiment).
During the World War I , it dealt with the treatment of the traumatic volume deficiency shock with a solution of glucose and acacia - resin (high polymeric artificial serum ), development of a blindflug suitable instrument panel in aircraft . He then turned to the analysis of the mechanisms that cause the Korotkow sounds (1916).
From 1922 Erlanger worked together with the pharmacologist Herbert S. Gasser for more than ten years on the research and representation of the action potential of a nerve impulse , at that time a completely new area of research. After unsuccessful attempts with in-house designs, the imaging of this action potential with the help of a cathode ray tube was successful . In 1944, both researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for their achievements .
Erlanger has published more than 100 scientific articles and has been awarded numerous memberships (11), prizes and honorary doctorates (7). On January 22, 2009, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) named the Erlanger crater on the moon after him.
In 1932 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina , in 1922 in the National Academy of Sciences and in 1927 in the American Philosophical Society .
Works
- A study of the metabolism in dogs with shortened small intestines . In: American Journal of Physiology . Volume 6, 1902, p. 1
- A new instrument for determining systolic and diastolic blood-pressure in man . In: American Journal of Physiology (Proc.) Vol. 6, 1902, pp. Xxii
- A new instrument for determining the minimum and maximum blood pressures in man . In: Johns Hopkins Hosp Rep. Volume 12, 1904, p. 53
- Studies in Blood Pressure Estimations by Indirect Methods . In: American Journal of Physiology. Volume 39, 1916, p. 401, and Volume 40, 1916, p. 82
- with Herbert Spencer Gasser: Electrical signs of nervous activity. Philadelphia 1937.
literature
- American Biographical Archive. Fiche 510, pp. 157, 158
- Cornelius Borck: Erlanger, Joseph. 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. 368 f.
- H. Cohen, Itzhak J. Carmin: Jews in the World of Science. New York 1956, p. 57
- H. Davis: Joseph Erlanger, January 5, 1874 - December 5, 1965. In: Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences. Volume 41, 1970, p. 111
- Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Volume 4, p. 397
- Editorial. Joseph Erlanger 1874–1965. In: Physiologist. Volume 11, 1968, pp. 1, 146
- Joseph Erlanger: Prefatory Chapter. A Physiologist Reminisces. In: Annual Review of Physiology . Volume 26, 1964, p. 1
- W. Haymaker, W. Schiller: The Founders of Neurology. Springfield (Ill.) 1970, p. 190
- LH Marshall: The Fecundity of Aggregates: The Axonologists at Washington University, 1922-1942. In: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. Volume 26, 1983, p. 613
- The Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for 1944. In: Journal of Neurosurgery . Volume 7, 1944, p. 325
Web links
- Information from the Nobel Foundation on the 1944 award to Joseph Erlanger (English)
- Portrait, short biography engl.
- Joseph Erlanger in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved August 1, 2018.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Biography of Joseph Erlanger , (English). Nobelprize.org. Retrieved August 30, 2016.
- ^ Member History: Joseph Erlanger. American Philosophical Society, accessed August 1, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Erlanger, Joseph |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American physiologist and Nobel Prize winner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 5, 1874 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | San Francisco , California , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 5, 1965 |
| Place of death | St. Louis , Missouri , USA |