Nicolae Paulescu | |
|---|---|
 Nicolae Paulescu in Paris in 1897 | |
| Born | (1869-10-30)30 October 1869 |
| Died | 17 July 1931(1931-07-17) (aged 61) |
| Resting place | Bellu Cemetery, Bucharest |
| Alma mater | University of Paris |
| Known for | Discovery of an antidiabetic hormone released by the pancreas, later calledinsulin |
| Member of theLegionary Senate[1] | |
| In office 1929–1931 | |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Iron Guard |
| Other political affiliations | National-Christian Defense League |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Medicine |
| Institutions | Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy |
Nicolae Constantin Paulescu (Romanian pronunciation:[nikoˈla.epa.uˈlesku]; 30 October 1869 (O.S.) – 17 July 1931) was aRomanianphysiologist, professor of medicine, andpolitician, most famous for his work on diabetes, including patentingpancreine (a pancreatic extract containinginsulin). The "pancreine" was an extract of bovinepancreas in salted water, after which some impurites were removed withhydrochloric acid andsodium hydroxide.Paulescu was also, withA. C. Cuza, co-founder of the National Christian Union and later, of theNational-Christian Defense League, an early ultranationalist and anti-Semitic Romanian party. He was also a leading member of the militant religious fascistIron Guard.
Born inBucharest, he was the first of four children of Costache and Maria Paulescu. He displayed remarkable abilities as early as his first school years. He learnedFrench,Latin andAncient Greek at an early age, so that a few years later he became fluent in all these languages and was able to readclassical works of Latin and Greek literature in the original. He also had a particular gift for drawing and music and special inclinations towards natural sciences, such asphysics andchemistry. He graduated from theMihai Viteazul High School in Bucharest in 1888.
In the autumn of 1888, Paulescu left forParis, where he enrolled in medical school, where he studied with, among others,Étienne Lancereaux. In 1897 he graduated with aDoctor of Medicine degree, with a research thesis on the structure of thespleen. At the same time he studied chemistry and physiology at the Faculty of Science of theUniversity of Paris, and also obtained a doctorate in science.[2]
Upon receiving his M.D., Paulescu was immediately appointed as assistant surgeon at theNotre-Dame du Perpétuel-Secours Hospital in Paris. In 1900, Paulescu returned to Romania, where he remained until his death (1931) as Head of the Physiology Department of theUniversity of Bucharest Medical School, as well as a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the St. Vincent de Paul Hospital in Bucharest.
In 1916, he succeeded in developing anaqueouspancreatic extract which, when injected into adiabetic dog, proved to have a normalizing effect onblood sugar levels. Shortly after completing the experiments, he was called toservice in the Romanian army.[3] AfterWorld War I, he resumed his research.[4]
From 24 April to 23 June 1921, Paulescu published four papers at the Romanian Section of the Society of Biology in Paris:
An extensive paper on this subject – "Research on the Role of the Pancreas in Food Assimilation" – was submitted by Paulescu on 22 June to theArchives Internationales de Physiologie inLiège,Belgium, and was published in the August 1921 issue of this journal.[5]
The method used by Paulescu to prepare his pancreatic extract was similar to a procedure described by the American researcherIsrael Kleiner in an article published two years earlier, in 1919, in theJournal of Biological Chemistry. Using his procedure, Kleiner had been able to demonstrate significant reductions in the concentration of blood and urinary glucose after intravenous injections of his extract.
Paulescu secured the patent rights for his method of manufacturingpancreine on 10 April 1922 (patent no. 6254) from the Romanian Ministry of Industry and Trade.
In February 1922, doctorFrederick Banting and biochemistJohn Macleod from theUniversity of Toronto, Canada, published their paper on the successful use of a different, alcohol-based pancreatic extract for normalizing blood sugar (glucose) levels (glycemia) ina human patient. An unsuccessful attempt had been made on 11 January 1922, and a successful administration followed on 25 January 1922. The Toronto team felt confident in the purity of their insulin and injected it intravenously into the patient, clearing up hisglycosuria andketonuria and restoring normal blood sugar.[6]
Paulescu's 1921 papers mentioned that the extract caused toxic side effects on dogs, which made it unusable in humans ("qui la rendent inapplicable dans la pratique médicale", 'which make it inapplicable in medical practice'). Therefore, when he tested his pancreatic extract on humans on 25 February 1922, he administered the extract rectally. The patients seemed to show some reduction inglycosuria. This apparent success emboldened him to inject his extract intravenously into a diabetic patient on 24 March, after which the patient's blood sugar apparently fell to zero (".000", "véritable AGLYCÉMIE"). A blood sugar level of zero should have placed the patient into ahypoglycemiccoma, but he made no mention of this effect in any of his papers. In contrast, the Toronto team had known for several months that dogs could be placed into a diabetic coma by an overdose of insulin, so they prepared orange juice and candy for the clinical trials.[6]
After Banting and Macleod were awarded the 1923Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nicolae Paulescu wrote to the Nobel Prize committee claiming that he had discovered insulin first. However, his claims to priority cannot be sustained. Paulescu prepared pancreatic extract in 1916 and tested it in dogs, butIsrael Kleiner tested pancreatic extract in dogs in 1915, as didGeorge Ludwig Zuelzer in 1906. Zuelzer also wrote to the Nobel Prize committee asserting priority. All of these earlier attempts had produced pancreatic extracts that caused side effects in dogs or humans. The Toronto team had noticed the same side effects with their earlier extracts, but they continued working on the problem until they had purified insulin.[6]
Professor Ian Murray was particularly active in working to correct "the historical wrong" against Paulescu.[dubious –discuss] Murray was a professor of physiology at theAnderson College of Medicine inGlasgow, Scotland, the head of the department of Metabolic Diseases at a leading Glasgow hospital, vice-president of theBritish Association of Diabetes, and a founding member of theInternational Diabetes Federation. In an article for a 1971 issue of theJournal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Murray wrote:
"Insufficient recognition has been given to Paulesco, the distinguished Roumanian scientist, who at the time when the Toronto team were commencing their research had already succeeded in extracting the antidiabetichormone of the pancreas and proving its efficacy in reducing the hyperglycaemia in diabetic dogs."[7]
"In a recent private communication ProfessorTiselius, head of the Nobel Institute, has expressed his personal opinion that Paulesco was equally worthy of the award in 1923."[8]
Paulescu has been criticized for his political activity centered onantisemitic views andeugenism,[9] which found their expression also in articles such asTheJudeo-Masonic plot against the Romanian nation (expressed in his book,Philosophic Physiology: The Hospital, theKoran, theTalmud, theKahal andFreemasonry[10]):
We Romanians are faced with a capital question: What shall we do with these uninvited guests who suddenly installed themselves in this country, or rather, with these evil parasites who are both thieves and assassins? Can we exterminate them just as, for instance,bedbugs are killed? This would be the simplest and handliest way of getting rid of them; if we were to act according to the laws of the Talmud, it would even be legitimate.
He then continued:
But no! - we must not even think of such a thing,... because we are Christians, - Christians, so hated by the Jews!We must even forget revenge -sine qua non passion of a goodshochet - for the plunders and the killings done or caused by the Jews.
More than that! we must love the Jews and do them good - because we have Christ as our teacher - the spring of eternal love - who in His divine wisdom said: Love your enemies,... do good to them that hate you.
Nichifor Crainic, the principal ideologist of Orthodoxism, paid homage to Paulescu, by calling him "the founder ofChristian nationalism" and "the most complete and most normative eminent doctrinaire of our nationalism."[11]: 146–58
He was an associate of ultranationalist ProfessorA. C. Cuza, and wrote extensively for the latter's newspaper,Apărarea Națională ('The National Defense'). Paulescu influenced Cuza to incorporate religion into his doctrine. He also heavily influenced the leader of theIron Guard organisation,Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Codreanu extensively quoted Paulescu, and acknowledged the powerful impact that Paulescu's ideas had on his own development.[12] Paulescu was the first to link together Romanian antisemitism, Christianity andultranationalism.[13] In 1922, Paulescu co-founded the "National Christian Union", which evolved into theNational-Christian Defense League (LANC) in 1923, together with A. C. Cuza. That same year, the NCU adopted theswastika as its official symbol.[14]
In "Degenerarea rasei jidănești" (1928) (transl. 'Degeneration of the Jewish Race', using aracist slur), Paulescu states that Jews are degenerate because their brains weigh much less than "Aryan" brains. He singles out for their low brain weight the Nobel Prize laureatesAnatole France (non-Jewish),Albert Einstein andHenri Bergson.[citation needed]
His starting point was a theory of passions and of social conflicts examined from the angle of a discipline he called "philosophical physiology". It was illustrated, in the main, by the behavior of Jews, who represented the extreme case of a race ruled by two essential passions: the instincts of domination and ownership.[15]: 28
Following protests from severalJewish organizations, the inauguration of Professor Paulescu's bust at theHôtel-Dieu State Hospital in Paris, scheduled for 27 August 2003, had to be cancelled.
"If theNobel Committee in 1923 judged the entire persona of its laureate, thenHôtel Dieu in 2003 must do no less and conclude that Paulescu's brutal inhumanity nullifies any scientific merit" (Simon Wiesenthal Center letter to theFrench Minister of Health,Jean-François Mattéi, and the Romanian Ambassador in Paris).
Nicolae Cajal, aRomanian Jewish member of the Romanian Academy of Sciences and the President of the Jewish Communities' Federation of Romania from 1994 to 2004, defended recognition of Paulescu's scientific work, saying there is a need to distinguish between individuals' private views and their scientific merit and that his father, Dr. Marcu Cajal, a student of Paulescu, had admired Paulescu for his scientific skills though he disagreed (as a Jew) with Paulescu's anti-Semitic views.[16]
Paulescu died in Bucharest in 1931. He is buried inBellu Cemetery.
In 1990, he was elected posthumously as member of theRomanian Academy.
In 1993, the Institute of Diabetes, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases inBucharest was named in his honour (Institutul de Diabet, Nutriţie şi Boli Metabolice "N. C. Paulescu"). The institute was renamed on 3 March 1993, by the Ministry of Health Decree no. 273, at the initiative of Prof. Dr. Iulian Mincu.[17]
On 27 June 1993, inCluj-Napoca, a postmark was dedicated in Paulescu's honour as part of celebrating the World Day Against Diabetes. Paulescu was also honoured on a postage stamp issued by Romania in 1994. The stamp is one in a set of seven stamps honouring famous Romanians.
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