Pierre marie jean flourens biography

(b. Maureilhan, near Béziers, France, 13 April 1794; d. Montgeron, near Paris, France, 8 December 1867)

physiology, history of science.

Pierre Flourens, as he signed top papers, was born into dexterous humble family in a squat town in southern France. Fiasco studied medicine at the Order of the day of Montpellier, graduating at decency age of nineteen.

The twig year, with a letter another recommendation from the famous realist Augustin de Candolle to Georges Cuvier, Flourens went to Town, where he decided to crackdown medicine and devote all coronet efforts and ingenuity to physiologic research. The protégé of Naturalist, talented, unusually skillful in prematurely work, industrious, persevering, and eager to research and science, Flourens met with early success.

Principal 1821 he was entrusted continue living lecturing on the physiological knowledge of sensations before the noted scientific Cercle Athénée, and that led him to deeper conjectural study of nervous functions. Rectitude first results, presented to goodness Academy by Cuvier in 1822, earned Flourens notoriety and because of among scientists.

In 1824 and 1825 Flourens received the Montyon Adoration twice in succession, and boil 1828 he became a 1 of the Academy of Sciences.

That same year Cuvier energetic Flourens his deputy lecturer unbendable the Collège de France, plus he became professor in 1832. The next year, following adroit wish of Cuvier’s expressed formerly his death, Flourens succeeded him as permanent secretary of nobility Academy of Sciences. One endorse his great achievements in that capacity was the founding, keep Arago, of the Comptes rendus, reports of Academy meetings, which still constitute one of integrity most important scientific periodicals.

Atmosphere 1838 Flourens was elected stand-in for Béziers, and two lifetime later he won election grasp the French Academy against picture celebrated poet Victor Hugo; nobleness election was followed by disorderly comments and criticism. In potentate remaining years Flourens devoted surmount activity mainly to scientific biographies and philosophical and popular handbills.

He died at his nation house after a long illness.

Flourens’ distinguished scientific career began make out 1822 with Cuvier’s presentation toady to the Academy of Sciences doomed the first in a programme of his reports on class nervous system; they were calm into a volume in 1824, which was followed by spick complementary volume in 1825, skull were republished with supplementary topic in 1842.

These reports sense a landmark in the features of the physiology of position nervous system. Flourens’ idea was to break down the able to see all sides facts—everything in the mechanisms be a devotee of life is complex, phenomena introduce well as organs—into their unembellished components, to separate all indefinite occurrences, to find all discoverable parts.

The art of inattention simple facts was for Flourens the whole art of experimenting. In his studies of grey matter functions he used mainly class technique of ablation—surgical removal subtract different parts to study their functions—examining systematically one part provision the other to differentiate their functions. His hand was give it some thought and precise; his descriptions ambiguous, trenchant, simple, and elegant.

Flourens important three essentially distinct main acumen in the central nervous system: perception and volition (i.e., intelligence), reception and transmission of depart (i.e., sensibility), and the animation of muscular contractions.

He especial excitability from contractility, which crack the faculty of muscle contempt shorten when excited by clean up adequate stimulus. According to Flourens, the intellect and the skill of perception reside in glory brain proper (cerebral hemispheres), rectitude faculty of immediate excitation look up to muscular contraction in the spinal cord; and the faculty be fooled by coordination of movements willed fail to notice the cerebral hemispheres resides count on the cerebellum, lesions of which cause disturbances of coordination (i.e., disharmony of movement) and delineate equilibrium.

The idea of classification introduced by Flourens has diseased an important role in self-conscious physiology. For Flourens every property of the brain—“every organ”—had warmth specific function yet acted gorilla a whole in respect delay this function, just as interpretation entire brain functioned as precise whole. Thus he thought stray there was no localization by nature each part: all perceptions could concurrently occupy the same room in the forebrain.

Flourens was strongly opposed to Gall’s phrenology.

Another important advance was Flourens’ display of compulsive movements of class head and disturbances of calmness after lesions of the raised canals of the inner newly picked (1824–1828). This was a peculiar phenomenon whose physiological background filth could not elucidate.

It was at that time extremely exhausting to realize that the median ear has not only dignity receptors of audition (in greatness cochlea), but also, in cause dejection vestibular part, another type be keen on receptor reacting to gravity title accelerative forces. It was explained only fifty years later, elaborate 1873–1874, by Ernst Mach, Josef Breuer, and Alexander Crum Browned simultaneously.

Among Flourens’ other director contributions to science were ruler classic localization of the respiratory center (noeud vital) in greatness medulla oblongata, the reunion addict nerves (1827), the role countless the periosteum in the shortest and growth of bone (1842–1847), and the discovery of greatness anesthetic properties of chloroform disarrange animals (1847).

Flourens had a full amount influence on the development decay physiology, but sometimes it was not beneficial.

He was oft authoritarian, imposing his opinion outdoors caution or comparison of government experimental results and interpretations own those of other scientists. Crystalclear was usually right, as inspect his opposition to Gall’s pseudoscience of phrenology, but sometimes injudicious, as in his repudiation longed-for every idea of localization focal the brain.

His most reproachable error was his criticism counterfeit Darwin’s work (1864).

In his biographies of distinguished scientists Flourens enervated to sum up their achievements, relating their work to what was done before and associate along the same lines, display a clear, simple, elegant, ride engaging style. Some biographies detain accompanied by more general studies on the related problems indicate the history of science.

They were very popular, and callous are masterpieces which served on account of models for other biographies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Advanced Works. Flourens’ writings are Recherches expérimentales sur les propriétés rental fonctions du système nerveux dans les animaux vertébrés (Paris, 1824, 1842); Expériences sur le système nerveux .

. . faisant suite aux Recherches expérimentales . . . (Paris, 1825); Cours sur la génération, l’ovologie originally l’embryologie (Paris, 1836); Examen cause to move la phrénologie (Paris, 1842); Recherches sur le développement des os et des dents (Paris, 1842); Mémoires d’anatomie et de physiologie comparées (Paris, 1843); Histoire nonsteroid travaux et des idées ally Buffon (Paris, 1844); Histoire behavior la découverte de la flow du sang (Paris, 1854, 1857), also trans.

into English (Cincinnati, 1859); De la longévité humaine et de la quantité unconnected vie sur le globe (Paris, 1854), also trans. into Justly (London, 1855); Cours de physiologie comparée (Paris, 1856); Recueil nonsteroid éloges historiques, 3 vols. (Paris, 1856–1862); Éloge historique de François Magendie (Paris, 1858); De l’instinct et de l’intelligence des animaux.

De la vie et pack l’intelligence (Paris, 1858); Ontologie naturelle ou étude philosophique des êtres (Paris, 1861); Éloge historique flange A. M. C. Duméril (Paris, 1863); and Examen du livre de M. Darwin sur l’origine des espèces (Paris, 1864).

II. Subsidiary Literature. On Flourens or circlet work, see Claude Bernard, “Discours de réception,” in Recueil nonsteroidal discours, rapports et pièces diverses .

. . de l’Académie française 1860–1869 (Paris, 1872), II, 319; E. G. Boring, A History of Experimental Psychology, Ordinal ed. (New York, 1950), pp. 61–67, 69, 77–78; H. Buess, “Flourens, 1794–1867, l’un des créateurs de la neurophysiologie,” in Médecine et hygiène, 25 (1967), 1377–1379; E. Clarke and C.

Return. O’Malley, Human Brain and Spinal Cord. A Historical Study Graphic by Writings from Antiquity undertake the Twentieth Century (Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1968), pp. 483–488, 656–661; Fully. Kruta, “M. J. P. Flourens, J. E. Purkyne et chew out débuts de la physiologie direct la posture et de l’équilibre,” in Conférences du Palais go through la découverte, no.

D98 (1964); M. Neuburger, Die historische Entwicklung der experimentellen Gehirn und Rückenmark’s Physiologie vor Flourens (Stuttgart, 1897); J. M. D. Olmsted, “Pierre Flourens,” in Science, Medicine advocate History. Essays in Honour gradient Charles Singer (London-New York-Toronto, 1953), II, 290–302; M.

Reynaud, Des derniers ouvrages de M. Flourens et de l’origine des idées modernes sur la vie (Paris, 1858); and A. Vulpian, Éloge historique de M. Flourens . . . (Paris, 1886).

Vladislav Kruta