Moody Medical Library

Crawford Long (1815-1878) was born in Danielsville, Georgia. He was educated at Franklin College, now the University of Georgia, and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1839. He practiced in New York City until 1841 and then began his medical practice in Jefferson, Georgia.

One evening in December 1841, a group of young men assembled in Dr. Long’s office and requested him to prepare laughing gas for them. Not having the apparatus, Dr. Long substituted sulphuric ether and administered it to the young men through inhalation. He repeated this many times and noted that while under the influence of ether the young men did not feel pain. This led him to try ether as a surgical anesthetic.

Joseph Lister (1827-1912), British surgeon, was educated at University College in London. He was Professor of Clinical Surgery at Edinburgh University (1869-76) and at King’s College, London (1877-93). Lister served as President of the Royal Society from 1895-1900.

It was Lister who brought to surgery the principle of antisepsis, an outgrowth of Pasteur’s theory that bacteria cause infection. He used carbolic acid as the antiseptic agent, devised techniques of applying it which, in conjunction with heat sterilization of instruments, brought about remarkable reductions in post-operative fatality.

Willem Einthoven (1860-1927), a Dutchman, was born in Samarang, Java and received his medical degree from the University of Utrecht in 1885. He joined the teaching staff of Leyden University, where his primary interest was physiology. In 1902 he developed a very sensitive string galvanometer with which he measured the electrical currents produced by the heart. This was the first accurate and practical electrocardiograph – the greatest single aid in the study and treatment of cardiac disease. He received a Nobel Prize for his work in 1924.

Frank N. Wilson (1890-1952) was born in Livonia, Michigan. He received his medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1913 and, in 1924, joined the faculty of the medical school as a professor of medicine, with a special interest in cardiology. Wilson improved Einthoven’s electrocardiograph and introduced the unipolar precordial chest lead. He was a prolific writer and lecturer and received many honors for his outstanding work in cardiology.

Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) was born in Shrewsbury, England. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University but did not complete his training. He next went to Cambridge where his biological studies began in earnest. Darwin will be remembered mainly as the outstanding leader in evolutionary biology. His major works which raised evolution from hypothesis to verifiable theory were On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871).

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) was an Austrian abbot whose work on heredity was groundbreaking. Through careful inbreeding experiments with the common pea, he described the prevailing character, which appeared in the experiment of hybridization, as dominant character, and that which was suppressed as the recessive. Mendel's law has had wide application in the study of heredity, including the heredity characteristics of certain diseases. 

Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) was a pioneer in the study of mental diseases. In 1793, he was appointed physician to the Bicêtre in Paris, the mental institution for men. Here he introduced a regime of treatment based on kindness, sympathy and a minimum of mechanical restraint. Three years later he introduced the same methods at Salpêtrière where incurable women were treated. His results were very encouraging and he demonstrated conclusively the value of humane treatment for the mentally ill. He published his results in 1801 and his work exerted a tremendous influence through Europe and America. This reform in the treatment of the insane led to the establishment of asylums for the mentally ill through the world. The asylums were first established in England.

Baron Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) studied chemistry at Bonn, Erlangen and Paris. He was Professor of Chemistry at Giessen, Germany. Under Liebig’s guidance, Giessen became the most famous chemical school in the world. He made many important discoveries in inorganic chemistry and devised new methods of organic analysis. He discovered hippuric acid, chloral and chloroform, studied uric acid, devised a method of estimating urea and studied various chemical factors in blood, fat, bile and meat juice.

In collaboration with Friedrich Wohler, he wrote one of the most famous papers in the history of chemistry on benzaldehydes. His book Organic Chemistry in this Application to Physiology and Pathology, published in 1842, was the first work on the subject and introduced the concept of metabolism. Liebig was the first to teach that animal heat was the result of combustion and oxidation in the body. He may be called the Father of Physiological Chemistry.

Victor Babes (1854-1927) was a brilliant Romanian scientist who was born and educated in Vienna, and received his medical degree there as well. He worked with Virchow and Koch in Berlin and then joined Pasteur in Paris. While working with Pasteur he observed “antibiotic” actions of bacteria and reported his observations, thus being the first to make such observations.

In 1888 he discovered a small protozoon in the blood of sheep suffering from an epizootic disease called carciag and the genus was called Babesia in his honor. He discovered a similar parasite as the cause of animal fever; these blood sucking parasites which cause fevers are called Babesioses or Piroplasmoses.

Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) was born in Pomerania and received his medical degree in Berlin in 1843. He is considered an outstanding physician of his generation. He was the creator of the science of pathology. In 1847, he founded the journal since known as Virchow’s Archives. In this he published many articles on medical, anthropological and historical topics.

In 1858 he published his Cellularpathologie in which he pointed out the cellular nature of all life processes, both physiological and pathological. He further stated that every form of new growth assumes pre-existing cellular elements as its origin. This work completely changed medical thinking.

Alexis Carrel (1873-1944) was born in Sainte-Foy, France and received his M.D. from Lyon in 1900. In 1904 he went to the University of Chicago where he worked in the department of physiology. In 1906 he joined the Rockefeller Institute as an associate member, becoming a full member in 1912.

Carrel was a brilliant fundamental researcher. He perfected the technique of end-to-end anastomosis of blood vessels; studied extra vital cultivation and rejuvenation of tissues; successfully transplanted organs in 1908; showed that blood vessels could be preserved in cold storage for long periods before employing them for transplantation; and, with Burrows, he grew cultures of sarcoma in culture media. For these achievements he was honored with the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1912

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) was the son of a poor village priest. He received his medical degree from the University of St. Petersburg and also studied at Breslau and Leipzig.

The physiology of digestion was his chief interest. He carefully worked out the role of reflexes in the digestive processes and the role of direct or chemical stimulation of foods in gastric digestion. He devised the “Pavlov Pouch” whereby he could insert foods directly into the stomach of experimental animals to study gastric digestion by direct observation.

He is best remembered for his work on the relationship of psychic stimuli to digestion and his discovery of conditioned reflexes. He won the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine in 1904.

Maria Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934) was truly a remarkable woman. She is the only person ever to receive the Nobel award twice – once in physics and once in chemistry.

Marie Sklodowska began the study of pitchblende and carried this work to completion with her husband, Pierre Curie. They isolated the new element and on July 18, 1898 their paper, “Sur une substance nouvelle radioactive, contenue dans la pechblende” was presented by Becquerel before the Académie des Sciences. This spectacular discovery won for Marie and Pierre Curie the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903.

Pierre Curie was accidentally killed in 1906 and Marie Curie carried on their studies.

René Théophile Hyacinthe Laennec (1781-1826) made an enormous contribution to clinical medicine with his invention of the stethoscope. His work on tuberculosis, peritonitis and chest diseases was also of enduring value. Laennec’s keen observations and his knowledge of pathology were carefully compiled in his classic work, Traité de l’Auscultation Médiate, published in 1819.

Laennec was a very modest man of slight build and nervous temperament. He was tolerant, generous, and his fame never influenced him. He died of tuberculosis. A statue was erected in his memory in his home town of Quimper in Brittany.