Nicolae Paulescu

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Nicolae Paulescu
Nicolae Paulescu, 1897

Nicolae Paulescu (born October 30, 1869 in Bucharest , † July 17, 1931 ibid) was a Romanian physiologist , professor and the discoverer of insulin .

resume

Even in his early school years he showed great interest in the natural sciences, especially physics and chemistry , but also in the classical languages ​​( Latin and ancient Greek ), which he was fluent in, and also in French . In the fall of 1888 he began studying medicine in Paris. In 1897 he earned a doctorate in medicine and at the same time the rank of general surgeon at the Notre Dame du Perpetuel Secours hospital. In 1900 Paulescu returned to Romania , where he worked as a physiology professor and director of the St. Vincent de Paul hospital in Bucharest until his death .

Discovery of insulin

It has been known for some time that diabetes mellitus can be caused by a disease of the pancreas . In 1916, Paulescu prepared an aqueous pancreas extract that he had obtained by processing slaughterhouse waste, and administered this extract to a diabetic dog whose diabetes was thereby effectively treated. He called the extract pancrein . After a break caused by Romania's entry into the First World War in 1916, he continued his research on this newly discovered antidiabetic pancreatic hormone after the end of the war from 1921 .

Between April 24 and June 23, 1921, Paulescu published his research results in several papers in the meeting reports of the Society for Biology in Bucharest. It described the effects of Pancrein injections on diabetic and healthy test animals. In August 1921 he published his results in Liège under the title “Research on the role of the pancreas in food assimilation” in the Archives Internationales de Physiologie . He had the process for the production of pancrein patented on April 10, 1922 by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Romania under patent number 6254.

In February 1922, eight months after Paulescu had published the results of his work, the Canadians Frederick Grant Banting and John James Richard Macleod , both employees of the University of Toronto , published their results on the successful treatment of a small person suffering from diabetes mellitus at the University of Toronto Boys with an alcoholic pancreatic extract. This was the first human application of such an extract, something Paulescu had never tried. After a surprisingly short time, i. H. The following year after their discovery, both were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine . It was not until many decades later that Paulescu's achievement in the discovery of insulin was publicly recognized.

anti-Semitism

Politically, Paulescu was close to the extreme right and represented a vehement anti-Semitism which , in its nebulous irrationality, stood in strange contrast to his achievements as a scientist. In his book " Physiological Philosophy: Hospital, Koran , Talmud , Kahal and Freemasonry ", published in Bucharest in 1913 , he painted the picture of a Jewish-inspired conspiracy against the Romanian nation (" The Judaeo-Masonic Conspiracy against the Romanian Nation "). In this pamphlet he also asked what the Romanians could do against the Jews and answered it with "extermination". Paulescu was a close confidante of the political anti-Semite Alexandru C. Cuza and published several anti-Semitic writings in the 1920s, including " Degenerarea rasei jidănești " (1928) ( The Degeneration of the Jewish Race ) and " The Jews and Alcoholism ". After translating the “ Protocols of the Elders of Zion ”, a fictional anti-Semitic pamphlet, into Romanian, he affirmed his conspiracy theory in “ Complot jidano-francmasonic împotriva neamului Românesc ” (1924).

On August 27, 2003, a memorial to Paulescu was to be unveiled at the Hôtel Dieu Hospital in Paris. After the protest of several Jewish organizations, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center , the ceremony was canceled. The Presidium of the International Diabetes Federation (Internationale Diabetes-Gesellschaft) decided in 2005 that "The International Diabetes Federation would not be associated with Nicolae Paulescu and there would be no Paulescu Lecture at World Diabetes Congresses should such a request be received" ( Die International Diabetes Society will not invoke Nicolae Paulescu and there will be no Paulescu memorial lecture at the World Diabetes Congresses, although there are inquiries about it. )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NC Paulescu: 1.Action de l'extrait pancréatique injecté dans le sang chez un animal diabétique. 2. Action de l'extrait pancréatique dans le sans d'un animal normal. 3. Influence de la quantité de pancréas employée pour preparer l'extrait injecté dans le sang diabétique. 4. Influence du laps de temps écoulé depuis l'injection intraveineuse de l'extrait pancréatique chez un animal diabétique. Communications faites à la branche de Bucarest de la Société de Biologie (séance du 23 juillet 1921) Comptes-rendus de la Société de Biologie 1921; 85 (27), pp. 555-558
  2. ^ NC Paulescu: Research on the rôle du pancréas dans l'assimilation nutritive. Archives Internationales de Physiologie 1921; 17, pp. 85-103
  3. ↑ Nicolae Paulescu. Fiziologia Filozofică: Spitalul, Coranul, Talmudul, Cahalul, Franc-Masoneria , vol. II., Bucharest, 1913.
  4. ↑ Claus Oberhauser: "Nicolae Constantin Paulescu (1869-1931)." In: Helmut Reinalter (Ed.): Handbook of Conspiracy Theories. Salier, Leipzig 2018, p. 207.
  5. ↑ Oberhauser, p. 207
  6. ^ Nicolas Weill: Paris manque d'honorer l'inventeur antisémite de l'insuline. Le Monde, August 26, 2003, accessed April 10, 2012 (French).

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Paulescu, Nicolae
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian physiologist, university professor and researcher
DATE OF BIRTH October 30, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Bucharest
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 1931
Place of death Bucharest