Paul Bert | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 17 October 1833 (1833-10-17) |
| Died | 11 November 1886 (1886-11-12) (aged 53) |
| Alma mater | École polytechnique |
| Known for | oxygen toxicity |
| Awards | Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh(1879) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | physiology |
| Institutions | Sorbonne |
Paul Bert (17 October 1833 – 11 November 1886) was a Frenchzoologist,physiologist andpolitician. He is sometimes given the nickname "Father of Aviation Medicine".
Bert was born atAuxerre (Yonne). He studied law, earning a doctorate in Paris; then, under the influence of the zoologistLouis Pierre Gratiolet (1815–1865), he took up physiology, becoming one ofClaude Bernard's most brilliant students. After graduating at Paris as doctor of medicine in 1863, and doctor of science in 1866, he was appointed professor of physiology successively atBordeaux (1866) and theSorbonne (1869).[1]
After the "Commune de Paris" (1870) he began to take part in politics as a supporter ofGambetta. In 1874 he was elected to the Assembly, where he sat on theextreme left, and in 1876 to the chamber of deputies. He was one of the most determined enemies of clericalism, and an ardent advocate of "liberating national education from religious sects, while rendering it accessible to every citizen."[1]
From 14 November 1881 to 30 January 1882 he wasminister of education and worship in Gambetta's short-lived cabinet, and in 1881 he created a great sensation by a lecture on modernCatholicism, delivered in a Paris theatre, in which he poured ridicule on the fables and follies of the chief religious tracts and handbooks that circulated especially in the south of France.[1]
Bert was unexpectedly named resident general of the French Republic in Annam and Tonkin on 31 January 1886.[2]He left France in February 1886 accompanied by a dozen people including Antony Klobukowski, former chief of staff of Charles Thomson, andCharles François Laurent, inspector of finances.[3]Bert died ofdysentery atHanoi on 11 November 1886.[1]After Bert's death Klobukowski and Laurent were listed among the subscribers in Tonkin to a fund to erect a statue in Bert's honour.[4]
There are streets named after Bert inParis,Bagnolet,Saint-Mandé,Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, andMontrouge.
He was more distinguished as a man of science than as a politician or administrator. His classical work,La Pression barometrique (1878), embodies researches that gained him the biennial prize of 20,000 francs from the Academy of Sciences in 1875, and is a comprehensive investigation on the physiological effects of air-pressure, both above and below the normal.[5] Central nervous systemoxygen toxicity was first described in this publication and is sometimes referred to as the "Paul Bert effect".[5][6] He showed that oxygen was toxic to insects,arachnids,myriapods, molluscs, earthworms, fungi, germinating seeds, birds, and other animals. He also received theCameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh in 1879 for this work.[7]
His earliest researches, which provided him with material for his two doctoral theses, were devoted to animal grafting and the vitality of animal tissues, and they were followed by studies on the physiological action of variouspoisons, onanaesthetics, onrespiration andasphyxia, on the causes of the change of color in the chameleon, etc.[1]
He was also interested in vegetable physiology, and in particular investigated the movements of the sensitive plant, and the influence of light of different colours on the life of vegetation (photobiology).[8]
He wrote a very successful textbook withRaphael Blanchard,Éléments de zoologie G. Masson (Paris), 1885.
InThe Phrenological journal and science of health (1883) it was claimed that he held an atheistic belief[9]
After about 1880, he produced several elementary textbooks of scientific instruction and also various publications on educational and allied subjects. Widely used in French schools for decades as the basis for scientific education, his bookLa Deuxième année d'enseignement scientifique (34th edition: Armand Colin, 1896) claimed that "European whites" are far superior and more intelligent than blacks, people from Asia, and Native Americans, among others.[10]
He also actively opposed the granting of any political rights for the indigenous people inFrench Algeria.[citation needed]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bert, Paul".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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