Читать книгу Unveiling Diabetes - Historical Milestones in Diabetology - Группа авторов - Страница 23

In autumn 1834, when he was 21 years old, Claude Bernard entered the Medical School in Paris. He was not a particularly outstanding student. Only the anatomy course unveiled his excellent manual talent. At this time there was no specific course on physiology. The leading researcher in this field in France was Prof. Magendie (1783–1855), who published a renowned textbook on physiology (Fig. 2). Magendie had the Chair of Physiology and a small laboratory at the Collège de France. At the same time Magendie headed a clinical department at Hôtel Dieu Hospital. When he was an intern at Hôtel Dieu, Claude noticed that Magendie was the only physician who was fighting against “bleeding” as the standard treatment of pneumonia. Magendie’s opinion was in contradiction with all textbooks, therefore the physicians in his department used to bleed the patients suffering from pneumonia once Magendie had left the ward.

Magendie was quite a boorish character. It took him some time to appoint Claude Bernard to his laboratory but, one day, while looking at Claude Bernard at the other end of a dissection table he shouted: “Hey, look here, I’ll take you as my préparateur at the Collège de France.”

Nevertheless, his salary as an assistant of Magendie was not sufficient for living and hence Bernard, together with a friend, opened a private laboratory where paying students could observe physiological experiments. This business model failed desperately. Everything seemed to be wrong. In 1844 he defended a thesis to become an agrégé – comparable to an assistant professor or the German Privatdozent – but he was unsuccessful. Another disappointment quickly followed in 1844 when his first application for membership in the Academy of Medicine was declined. At this point Claude Bernard felt like giving up his research career and returning home to practice medicine in his beloved Beaujolais region.

Fig. 2. “It is impossible to say what the role is of the liquid of the pancreas.” From the textbook on physiology by Magendie, 1817.