Otto Bayard

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Otto Bayard.

Otto Bayard (born November 25, 1881 in Leuk , † July 8, 1957 in St. Niklaus ) was a Swiss doctor in St. Niklaus , scientist and author . He is the father of iodine prophylaxis or the correctly dosed admixture of iodine potassium to table salt for the treatment of iodine deficiency symptoms.

Years of apprenticeship, doctor and family

After attending grammar schools in Sarnen , Saint-Maurice and Sitten , Otto Bayard studied medicine in Zurich and Freiburg im Breisgau . The theme of the dissertation from 1908 entitled "The ophthalmic reaction by Calmette in children with consideration of other specific responses to tuberculosis ." In 1908 he received his doctorate from the University of Zurich . Otto Bayard worked as a general practitioner , first in Zermatt , then in St. Niklaus and Grächen . For 35 years, the practice and apartment were located opposite the mountain guide museum on the top floor of the Hotel Lochmatter in St. Niklaus Dorf, which was opened in 1886 by mountain guide Alexander Lochmatter (1837–1917).

Otto Bayard was the father of four daughters. The pediatrician Elsa de Chastonay (1918–2007), daughter of Otto Bayard and wife of Doctor Jean-Louis de Chastonay, was the first woman to be employed in the hospital in Sierre in 1951 as a department head in pediatrics . With her scientific work on the subject of "Normal values ​​of reticulocytes in childhood", she obtained her doctorate from the University of Zurich in 1951. From 1955 to 1963 she taught pediatric nurses at the Clinique Sainte-Claire.

Scientist and author

In 1811 discovered Bernard Courtois in the investigation and incineration of brown algae of the genus Laminaria from the North Sea , the element iodine . In 1895, Eugen Baumann isolated iodine in the thyroid gland and characterized it as its active component. From 1918 Otto Bayard resulted in the communities of his practice area of Nikolaitals one by a properly metered addition of potassium iodide to table salt iodized salt and showed that therefore the goiters without undesirable effects can be treated successfully. In 1919 Benno Schwabe published the results of Otto Bayard's series of experiments under the title "Contributions to the Thyroid Question". For this purpose, all school children from Grächen were examined, from which the children from five families were selected and treated for five months.

In 1920 Bayard extended the treatment to Grächen and Törbel , which after six months confirmed the results of the test series from 1918. Explicitly on November 5, 1920, Bayard communicated the result to the Federal Office of Public Health in Bern in a related letter. In Grächen, Bayard continued the treatment for a further twelve months. In 1923 he published his research results in the Swiss Medical Weekly under the title "About the goiter problem".

Building on this, the Swiss Goiter Commission, founded in 1922 by the Federal Office of Public Health, recommended the use of iodine-containing table salt to the population and the twenty-five cantonal authorities, and on the basis of these empirical studies it determined the amount of calcium iodine added to table salt. The introduction of structured iodine prophylaxis according to Bayard throughout Switzerland in the following years had a worldwide pioneering character.

On the recommendation of Professor Ernst Wilczek (1867–1948) and Peter Dufour, Bayard was accepted into the Swiss Society for Natural Research in 1923 , which he left in 1929/1930. Bayard also published several publications in the field of health care from 1936 to 1950.

Works (selection)

  • On the nature of childbirth palsy , Orell Füssli, Zurich 1916.
  • Health Care , State Government Publication, Brig.
  • Contributions to the question of cancer , pages 193-208 in Oncologia (journal for research, control, treatment and sociology of cancer), Vol. 2, No. 4, 1949, published by HRSchinz Zurich
  • About cretinism , pages 51-74 in the Walliser Jahrbuch , 46, Visp 1977
  • Health care: for school and home , Editions VP, Sitten 1997.

Web links

  • Otto Bayard Matriculation Edition University of Zurich

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. med. Otto Bayard: Amounts on the thyroid question (43 pages with three tables), Benno Schwabe , Basel 1919
  2. ↑ Professor Dr. Leopold Arzt : Third Austrian Medical Conference, Salzburg September 5 to 7, 1949 , conference report, Springer-Verlag, Vienna 1950, page 44 f. and HJ Wespi-Eggenberger: The prophylaxis of endemic goiter , Springer-Verlag, Vienna 1950, page 4
  3. ^ Letter of November 5, 1920 from Dr. med. Otto Bayards von St. Niklaus to the Federal Department of the Interior in Bern
  4. ^ Magda Whitrow: Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857-1940) , translated from English by Mag. Iris Theyer, Facultas, Vienna 2001, page 215 and Otto Bayard: About the goiter problem , pages 703-707 and 732-737 in Swiss Medical Wochenschrift , 53, Muttenz 1923
  5. ^ "Health care: on behalf of the Education Department of the Canton of Valais" 1936 (St. Niklaus, self-published) and 1940 (Brig, Tscherrig, Tröndle & Co), "Health care: for school and home" 1938 (St. Niklaus, self-published), 1940 (St. Niklaus, self-published), 1945 (St. Niklaus, self-published, 71 pages with 21 illustrations) and 1950 (Bern)
personal data
SURNAME Bayard, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss doctor, scientist and author
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Leuk , Canton of Valais, Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1957
Place of death St. Niklaus VS , Canton of Valais, Switzerland