Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

A short history of physiology

2011; Wiley; Volume: 202; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1748-1716.2011.02286.x

1748-1716

Nicolaas Westerhof,

Philosophy and History of Science

In the 15th century, anatomy in Europe began to blossom (e.g. Vesalius), but the distinction between (human) anatomy and function was not very clear yet. We can consider William Harvey's book on the circulation of the blood (1628) as the starting point of physiology (Fig. 1). Although some people initially rejected the concept, by and large it was quite rapidly accepted all over Europe, and several researchers became interested in human function in general. Examples are Leonardo da Vinci, and later Marcello Malpighi in Italy; Niels Stensen, in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany; Jeroen Gaub (Gaubius) in Germany and the Netherlands; and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek; and somewhat later Stephen Hales and Thomas Young in England. Although not organized in societies, these physiologists knew each other in person and through correspondence. Antoni van Leeuwenhoek became a member of the Royal Society and could apparently communicate in the Dutch Language. Physiology: Main events. After about 1750, a standstill followed (Fig. 1). This so-called 'Consolidation' period lasted for about 100 years and was seen all over Europe in the (medical) sciences (Lindeboom 1981). The following examples show this. In the middle of the 19th century, the microscope was not introduced to medical students in Leiden, and auscultation (invented by Auenbrugger and introduced in the clinic by Laënnec in 1819) was not or hardly used in 1850. Teaching in medicine consisted of reading Latin texts. Medicine was considered an art rather than a science. This standstill of European medical sciences seems to be the result of the rise in philosophical idealism in Germany, mainly under the influence of I. Kant's and F.J.W. von Schelling's 'Natur Philosophie': the intelligent human is able to understand the natural phenomena; the experiment-based approach was not necessary (Lindeboom 1981). About 1840, a number of young medical doctors in Germany became proponents of the concept 'medicine = science' and proposed that science should be introduced in the medical curriculum. This ended the romantic philosophical period, in part also thanks to Rudolf Virchow, founder of cellular pathology. Teachers and students in medicine demanded better understanding of (human) functional processes to be able to provide good patient care. Quite suddenly, great physiologists arose: Carl F.W. Ludwig in Germany and Claude Bernard in France. This rebirth of physiology was a part of a general revival of the sciences (e.g. Charles Darwin, 1859, the Origin of Species; Dmitri Mendelejev, 1869, the periodic table) and the strong growth of technology (steam locomotives and railroads, first steel steamship crossing the Atlantic, 1852). Several specialized branches of the medical sciences appeared: gastrointestinal physiology (William Beaumont); pathology and cell physiology (Rudolf Virchow); bacteriology (Louis Pasteur, Ignaz Semmelweis and Robert Koch). In integrative physiology, it is Claude Bernard who can be considered the first true general physiologist (Fig. 1), but others were prominent too: Carl Ludwig and Eduard Pflüger in Germany, and Franciscus Donders in the Netherlands. Also in the second half of the 19th century, scientific exchange was transformed from personal contacts and letters to the use of journals. New journals were often founded by the great researchers: The Archiv für pathogische Anatomie und Physiologie und für klinische Medicin, was founded by R. Virchow and B. Reinhardt in 1858 (now called Virchows Archiv). Pflügers Archiv (now Pflügers Archiv European Journal of Physiology) was started in 1868, and the Journal of Physiology (Michael Foster) was established in 1878; and somewhat later, in 1898 the American Journal of Physiology was begun. The Journal de Physiology (Paris) began in 1906 and the predecessor of Acta Physiologica, Skandinavisches Archiv für Physiologie, started in 1889. In the early 20th century, many national journals of physiology were appearing, but by the 1960s most national journals were absorbed by the larger ones and these journals almost all changed to English language journals. Also in the mid-1800s, laboratories of physiology were started. In the Netherlands no laboratory of physiology existed in 1848, but all Dutch Universities had a department and laboratory building in 1866. Later in the 19th and early 20th century many physiologists became known. Examples are Ivan Pavlov (psychophysiology), Charles Sherington (neurophysiology), Otto Frank and Ernest Starling (cardiovascular physiology and hormones), Angelo Mosso (ergograph, sphygmomanometer), Camillo Golgi (nervous system, malaria), Sidney Ringer (Ringer's solution), Francois Magendie (Magendie sign) and Willem Einthoven (electrophysiology). Recognition of the importance of physiology became apparent with the establishment of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (first awarded in 1901). By the end of the 19th century two changes took place. Physiologists became organized in (national) physiological societies usually with the pharmacologists, but separate from anatomists. In the middle of the 20th century, pharmacology and physiology separated. Also, the first meetings for physiologists were organized. Following the decision of a group of physiologists in 1885, regular, international meetings of physiology started with the 1st International Congress of Physiology at Basle, Switzerland, in 1889. These meetings were held every third year (except 1916, 1941 and 1944), and physiologists from Europe and the Americas participated. The last, 18th meeting, was held in 1950 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since then, the meetings were organized by the International Union of Physiological Scientists (IUPS). These IUPS meetings, being a continuation of the international congresses, started in 1953, with the first IUPS meeting counted as the 19th congress. After 1989, the IUPS meetings were held every fourth instead of every third year. With the forming of the Federation of European Physiological Societies (FEPS) in 1991, there are also meetings for mainly European physiologists. Presently, the physiological societies of 31 countries (counting England and Ireland as one) contribute to the FEPS (http://www.feps.org/). The FEPS organizes its meetings as so-called joint meetings, where the physiological society of the host country, together with the FEPS, prepares the meeting (Acta Physiologica is official journal of FEPS). In the 1970s, research in the medical sciences became divided into a number of specialized areas. This was, in part, the result of the great successes in cell biology, molecular biology and, somewhat later, genomics and protein biology. In 1977, the American Physiological Society decided to split the American Journal of Physiology into a number of sections. This decision was unavoidable as specialization of researchers made it impossible for them to read all the news in the physiological research. Nevertheless, these developments resulted in the decrease in recognition of physiology as the science of 'functions and vital processes of living organisms, their parts and their organs'. At present, the translation of the enormous amount of knowledge gathered in sub-branches of biology such as the cell, molecule and gene is insufficiently studied in the context of the function of the organ or organism as a whole. Therefore, at the cellular level 'systems biology' was started in about 1990, where an interaction of many complex, intracellular mechanisms is combined to understand overall cellular function. This approach requires the construction and use of computer models, the so-called 'in silico' approach. At the organ and organism level, this integration is now taking place as well through the so-called physio(no)me (Hunter & Nielsen 2005; IUPS Physiome Project site http://www.physiome.org.nz/). Although departments of physiology disappear or integrate, it does not mean that physiology is disappearing in teaching and research, but that it is less visible as a separate discipline. Data S1. A short history of physiology in the Netherlands. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.