Alexandre Yersin

Infobox Scientist
name = Alexandre Yersin
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image_width =150px
caption = Alexandre Yersin
birth_date =September 22, 1863
birth_place = Aubonne, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland
death_date = March 1, 1943
death_place = Nha Trang, Vietnam
residence =
citizenship =
nationality = French-Swiss
ethnicity =
field = bacteriologist
work_institutions = École Normale Supérieure
alma_mater =
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doctoral_students =
known_for = Yersinia pestis
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author_abbrev_zoo =
influences = Shibasaburo Kitasato
influenced =
prizes =
religion =
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Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin (September 22, 1863–March 1, 1943) was a French-Swiss physician and bacteriologist. Along with Shibasaburo Kitasato he is remembered as the co-discoverer of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague or pest, which was re-named in his honour ("Yersinia pestis").

Yersin was born in 1863 in Aubonne, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, in a family originally from France. From 1883 to 1884, Yersin studied medicine at Lausanne, Switzerland; and then at Marburg, Germany and Paris (1884-1886). In 1886, he entered Louis Pasteur's research laboratory at the École Normale Supérieure, by invitation of Emile Roux, and participated in the development in the anti-rabies serum. In 1888 he received his doctoral dissertation with a thesis on "Étude sur le Développement du Tubercule Expérimental" and spent two months with Robert Koch in Germany. He joined the recently created Pasteur Institute in 1889 as Roux's collaborator, and discovered with him the diphtheric toxin (produced by the "Corynebacterium diphtheriae" bacillus).

In order to practice medicine in France, Yersin applied to and obtained French nationality in 1888. Soon afterwards (1890), he left for French Indochina in Southeast Asia as a physician to the "Messageries Maritimes" company, in the Saigon-Manila line and then in the Saigon-Haiphong line. In 1894 Yersin was sent by request of the French government and the Pasteur Institute to Hong-Kong, to investigate the ongoing Manchurian Pneumonic Plague epidemic, and there, in a small hut next to the institute ( from "Plague" by Wendy Orent) along with his co-discoverer Shibasaburo Kitasato, he made his greatest discovery, that of the pathogen which causes the disease. He was also able to demonstrate for the first time that the same bacillus was present in the rodent as well as in the human disease, thus underlining the possible mean of transmission. This important discovery was communicated to the French Academy of Sciences in the same year, by his colleague Emile Duclaux, in a classic paper titled "La Peste Bubonique A Hong-Kong" (Ann. Inst. Pasteur. 8: 662-667).

From 1895 to 1897, Yersin further pursued his studies on the bubonic plague. In 1895 he returned to the Institute Pasteur in Paris and with Émile Roux, Albert Calmette and Amédée Borrel, prepared the first anti-pest serum. In the same year, he returned to Indochina, where he installed a small laboratory at Nha Trang, in order to manufacture the serum (in 1905 this laboratory was to become a branch of the Pasteur Institute). Yersin tried the serum received from Paris in Canton and Amoy, in 1896, and in Bombay, India, in 1897, with disappointing results. Having decided to stay in his country of adoption, he participated actively in the creation of the Medical School of Hanoi in 1902, and was its first director, until 1904.

Yersin also had his hand in agriculture, and was a pioneer in the culture of rubber trees imported from Brazil ("Hevea brasiliensis") into Indochina. For this purpose, he obtained in 1897 a concession from the government to establish an agricultural station at Suoi Dau. He also opened a new station at Hon Ba in 1915, where he tried to acclimatize in that country the quinine tree ("Cinchona ledgeriana"), which was imported from the Andes in South America by the Spaniards and which produced the first known effective remedy for preventing and treating malaria (a disease which is very much prevalent in Southeast Asia to this day).

Alexandre Yersin is well remembered in Vietnam, where he was affectionely called Ông Năm (Mr. Nam/Fifth) by the people. Following the country's independence, streets named in his honor kept their designation, and his tomb in Suoi Dau was graced by a pagoda where rites are performed in his worship. Yersin's house in Nha Trang is now the Yersin Museum, and the epitaph on his tombstone describes him as a "Benefactor and humanist, venerated by the Vietnamese people". At Hanoi, a French Lycée has his name.

In 1934 he was nominated honorary director of Pasteur Institute and a member of its Board of Administration. He died during World War II at his home in Nha Trang, in 1943.

References

*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Haubrich
first=William S
authorlink=
year=2005
month=Jan
title=Yersin of Yersinia infection
journal=Gastroenterology
volume=128
issue=1
pages=23
publisher = | location =
pmid = 15633119
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doi=10.1053/j.gastro.2004.11.040
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Holubar
first=K
authorlink=
year=1999
month=
title=Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943) and the centenary of the plague in Nha Trang: A threat transformed
journal=Dermatology (Basel)
volume=198
issue=1
pages=108–9
publisher = | location =
pmid = 10026422
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doi=10.1159/000018052
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Solomon
first=T
authorlink=
year=1995
month=Jun
title=Alexandre Yersin and the plague bacillus
journal=The Journal of tropical medicine and hygiene
volume=98
issue=3
pages=209–12
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 7783282
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Delaveau
first=P
authorlink=
coauthors=Clair G
year=1995
month=
title= [Production of cinchona in the French empire: A. Yersin and E. Perrot]
journal=Revue d'histoire de la pharmacie
volume=42
issue=304
pages=75–84
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 11640400
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*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Raggenbass
first=R
authorlink=
year=1995
month=
title= [Blackwater fever: a French episode drawn from the research of Alexandre Yersin]
journal=Gesnerus
volume=52
issue=3-4
pages=264–89
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pmid = 8851059
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*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Brossollet
first=J
authorlink=
year=1994
month=May
title= [Correspondence of Alexander Yersin to his family]
journal=Revue médicale de la Suisse romande
volume=114
issue=5
pages=445–50
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 8016524
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Bernard
first=L
authorlink=
year=1994
month=May
title= [Memories of Monsieur Yersin]
journal=Revue médicale de la Suisse romande
volume=114
issue=5
pages=439–44
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pmid = 8016523
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*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Fantini
first=B
authorlink=
year=1994
month=May
title= [A young Pasteur scientist with Koch: Yersin, 1888]
journal=Revue médicale de la Suisse romande
volume=114
issue=5
pages=429–37
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 8016522
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Dreifuss
first=J J
authorlink=
year=1994
month=May
title= [Discoveries and deceptions: Yersin from Hong Kong to Stockholm]
journal=Revue médicale de la Suisse romande
volume=114
issue=5
pages=425–8
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 8016521
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Kupferschmidt
first=H
authorlink=
year=1994
month=May
title= [Development of research on plague following the discovery of the bacillus by Alexander Yersin]
journal=Revue médicale de la Suisse romande
volume=114
issue=5
pages=415–23
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pmid = 8016520
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Pilet
first=P E
authorlink=
year=1994
month=May
title= [Yersin Senior and son. From biology to medicine]
journal=Revue médicale de la Suisse romande
volume=114
issue=5
pages=405–14
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 8016519
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Bonard
first=E C
authorlink=
year=1994
month=May
title= [The plague and Alexander Yersin (1863-1943)]
journal=Revue médicale de la Suisse romande
volume=114
issue=5
pages=389–91
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 8016516
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Bockemühl
first=J
authorlink=
year=1994
month=Apr
title= [100 years after the discovery of the plague-causing agent--importance and veneration of Alexandre Yersin in Vietnam today]
journal=Immun. Infekt.
volume=22
issue=2
pages=72–5
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 7959865
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Barrett
first=O
authorlink=
year=1989
month=May
title=Alexandre Yersin and recollections of Vietnam
journal=Hosp. Pract. (Off. Ed.)
volume=24
issue=5A
pages=13
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 2498345
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Bendiner
first=E
authorlink=
year=1989
month=Mar
title=Alexandre Yersin: pursuer of plague
journal=Hosp. Pract. (Off. Ed.)
volume=24
issue=3A
pages=121–8, 131–2, 135–8 passim
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 2494200
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Bonifas
first=V
authorlink=
year=1984
month=May
title= [Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943)]
journal=Revue médicale de la Suisse romande
volume=104
issue=5
pages=349–51
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 6379813
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Moseley
first=J E
authorlink=
year=1981
month=
title=Travels of Alexandre Yersin: letters of a pastorian in Indochina, 1890-1894
journal=Perspect. Biol. Med.
volume=24
issue=4
pages=607–18
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 7027173
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Howard-Jones
first=N
authorlink=
year=1975
month=Apr
title=Kitasato, Yersin, and the plague bacillus
journal=Clio medica (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
volume=10
issue=1
pages=23–7
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 54239
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Bonard
first=E C
authorlink=
year=1972
month=Dec
title= [Two letters from Alexandre Yersin]
journal=Revue médicale de la Suisse romande
volume=92
issue=12
pages=995–1000
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 4578823
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Rosenberg
first=J C
authorlink=
year=1968
month=Feb
title=Doctors afield: Alexandre Yersin
journal=N. Engl. J. Med.
volume=278
issue=5
pages=261–3
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 4865333
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Mafart
first=Y
authorlink=
year=
month=
title= [Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943)]
journal=Médecine tropicale : revue du Corps de santé colonial
volume=25
issue=4
pages=427–38
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 5320482
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =

External links

* [http://www.nimr.mrc.ac.uk/millhillessays/2003/yersin/ Alexandre Yersin and his adventures in Vietnam]
* [http://www.pasteur.fr/infosci/archives/yer0.html Alexandre Yersin] . Repères chronologiques. Institut Pasteur, Paris (In French).