Paul Bert

Infobox Scientist
name = Paul Bert
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image_size =150px
caption = Paul Bert
birth_date = October 17, 1833
birth_place = Auxerre (Yonne)
death_date = November 11, 1886
death_place = Hanoi
residence =
citizenship =
nationality = French
ethnicity =
field = physiology
work_institutions = Sorbonne
alma_mater = École polytechnique
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for = oxygen toxicity
author_abbrev_bot =
author_abbrev_zoo =
influences = Louis Pierre Gratiolet Claude Bernard
influenced =
prizes =
religion =
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Paul Bert (October 17, 1833 - November 11, 1886) was a French physiologist and politician.

Life

He was born at Auxerre (Yonne). He entered the École polytechnique at Paris with the intention of becoming an engineer; then changing his mind, he studied law; and finally, under the influence of the zoologist, Louis Pierre Gratiolet (1815-1865), he took up physiology, becoming one of Claude Bernard's most brilliant pupils. After graduating at Paris as doctor of medicine in 1863, and doctor of science in 1866, he was appointed professor of physiology successively at Bordeaux (1866) and the Sorbonne (1869).

After the revolution of 1870 he began to take part in politics as a supporter of Gambetta. In 1874 he was elected to the Assembly, where he sat on the extreme 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."

From November 14, 1881 to January 30, 1882, he was minister of education and worship in Gambetta's short-lived cabinet, and in 1881 he created a great sensation by a lecture on modern Catholicism, 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. Early in 1886 he was appointed resident-general in Annam and Tonkin, and died of dysentery at Hanoi on the 11th of November of that year.

Works

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. The eponymous "Paul Bert effect" describes oxygen toxicity at hyperbaric pressuresDejours P, Dejours S (1992) "The effects of barometric pressure according to Paul Bert: the question today" "International Journal of Sports Medicine" 13 Suppl 1:S1-5] .

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 various poisons, on anaesthetics, on respiration and asphyxia, on the causes of the change of color in the chameleon, etc.

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. After about 1880 he produced several elementary text-books of scientific instruction, and also various publications on educational and allied subjects.

References

*1911
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Marotte
first=Henri
authorlink=
year=2006|month=.
title= [The exposure of man to altitude when flying: from Paul Bert to today]
journal=J. Soc. Biol.
volume=200
issue=3
pages=251–5
publisher = | location =
pmid = 17417140
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doi = 10.1051/jbio:2006029
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Rostène
first=William
authorlink=
year=2006|month=.
title= [Paul Bert, scientist and politician]
journal=J. Soc. Biol.
volume=200
issue=3
pages=245–50
publisher = | location =
pmid = 17417139
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
doi=10.1051/jbio:2006028
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Rudolph
first=G
authorlink=
year=1993|month=.
title= [In memory of Paul Bert (1833-1886) and the development of high altitude physiology in Switzerland]
journal=Gesnerus
volume=50 ( Pt 1-2)
issue=
pages=79–95
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 8365675
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*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Dejours
first=P
authorlink=
coauthors=Dejours S
year=1992|month=Oct.
title=The effects of barometric pressure according to Paul Bert: the question today
journal=International journal of sports medicine
volume=13 Suppl 1
issue=
pages=S1–5
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 1483742
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Monod
first=H
authorlink=
year=1988|month=Aug.
title= [Paul Bert at Bordeaux apropos of a letter]
journal=Arch. Int. Physiol. Biochim.
volume=96
issue=3
pages=A43–6
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 2463800
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Jacquemin
first=C
authorlink=
year=1988|month=Aug.
title= [Paul Bert or positive science in the service of national policy]
journal=Arch. Int. Physiol. Biochim.
volume=96
issue=3
pages=A34–42
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 2463799
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Leonhardt
first=M
authorlink=
year=1987|month=Jan.
title= [Paul Bert (1833-1886)]
journal=Pathologe
volume=8
issue=1
pages=61
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 3550778
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*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Trago
first=V
authorlink=
year=1986|month=Oct.
title=Paul Bert and the flight of the Zenith
journal=Medicine's geographic heritage
volume=2
issue=
pages=66–72
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 11613723
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Cui
first=H
authorlink=
year=1986|month=.
title= [In commemoration of the centenary anniversary of the passing away of Paul Bert, one of the founders of aero-medicine and diving medicine]
journal=
volume=16
issue=2
pages=116–8
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 11612004
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Fontaine
first=M
authorlink=
year=1986|month=.
title= [Homage to Paul Bert (1833-1886)]
journal=C. R. Seances Soc. Biol. Fil.
volume=180
issue=1
pages=7–9
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 2943374
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*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Keys
first=T E
authorlink=
year=|month=.
title=Dr. Paul Bert (1833-1886)
journal=Anesth. Analg.
volume=52
issue=3
pages=437–8
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 4574964
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
year=|month=.
title=The perfect anaesthetic. Anaesthesia by the method of Paul Bert: Surgo, vol. VII, No. 2, 1941
journal=Anesth. Analg.
volume=52
issue=3
pages=361–8
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 4574962
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Hitchcock
first=F A
authorlink=
year=1971|month=Oct.
title=Paul Bert and the beginnings of aviation medicine
journal=Aerospace medicine
volume=42
issue=10
pages=1101–7
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 4937813
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*cite journal
quotes = yes
year=1970|month=Mar.
title=Paul Bert (1833-1886), aviation physiologist
journal=JAMA
volume=211
issue=11
pages=1849–50
publisher = | location =
pmid = 4905892
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
doi=10.1001/jama.211.11.1849
author=,
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Jacquemin
first=C
authorlink=
coauthors=Varène P
year=1968|month=Dec.
title= [Paul Bert and body plethysmography (1868-1968)]
journal=La Presse médicale
volume=76
issue=50
pages=2403–4
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 4895138
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Mani
first=N
authorlink=
year=1966|month=.
title= [Paul Bert as politician, educator and founder of the physiology of altitude]
journal=Gesnerus
volume=23
issue=1
pages=109–16
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 5330817
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=SEGHERS
first=M J
authorlink=
coauthors=LONGACRE J J
year=1964|month=Feb.
title=Paul Bert And His Animal Grafts
journal=Plast. Reconstr. Surg.
volume=33
issue=
pages=178–86
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 14120252
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =

Further reading

DSB
first=Mani
last=Nikolaus
title=Bert, Paul
volume=2
pages=59-63