François Magendie (6 October 1783 – 7 October 1855) was a French France is a founding member state of the European Union and is the largest one by area. France has been a major power for several centuries with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and in the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America; during the 19th and early 20th physiologist, considered a pioneer of experimental physiology. He is known for describing the foramen of Magendie. There is also a Magendie sign, a downward and inward rotation of the eye Eyes are organs that detect light, and convert it to electro-chemical impulses in neurons. The simplest photoreceptors in conscious vision connect light to movement. In higher organisms complex neural pathways exist that connect the eye, via the optic nerve to the visual cortex and other areas of the brain. Complex optical systems with resolving due to a lesion in the cerebellum The cerebellum is a region of the brain that plays an important role in motor control. It is also involved in some cognitive functions such as attention and language, and probably in some emotional functions such as regulating fear and pleasure responses, but it is its function in movement that is most clearly understood. The cerebellum does not. Magendie was a faculty at the College of France, holding the Chair of Medicine from 1830 to 1855 (he was succeeded by Claude Bernard Claude Bernard was a French physiologist. Historian of science I. Bernard Cohen of Harvard University called Bernard "one of the greatest of all men of science". Among many other accomplishments, he was one of the first to suggest the use of blind experiments to ensure the objectivity of scientific observations, who worked previously as his assistant).

His most important contribution to science was also his most disputed. Contemporaneous to Sir Charles Bell Sir Charles Bell was a Scottish anatomist, neurologist, surgeon and natural theologian. His father was a clergyman in the Scottish Episcopal Church who died when Bell was a small child. One of his three older brothers was John Bell (1763-1820), also a noted surgeon and writer, Magendie conducted a number of experiments on the nervous system, in particular verifying the differentiation between sensory and motor nerves in the spinal cord, the so-called Bell-Magendie law. This led to an intense rivalry, with the British claiming that Bell published his discoveries first and that Magendie stole his experiments. The intensity of this scientific rivalry perhaps can only be compared to that between Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton FRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian who is considered by many scholars and members of the general public to be one of the most influential people in human history. His 1687 publication of the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (usually called the and Robert Hooke Robert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath who played an important role in the scientific revolution, through both experimental and theoretical work.

Magendie was also a notorious vivisector Vivisection (from Latin vivus + sectio ("cutting")) is defined as surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The term is sometimes more broadly defined as any experimentation on live animals; see animal testing. The term is often, shocking even many of his contemporaries with the live dissections that he performed at public lectures in physiology. Richard Martin, an Irish MP A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of parliament tend to form parliamentary parties with members, in introducing his famous bill banning animal cruelty in the United Kingdom, described Magendie's public dissection of a greyhound The Greyhound is a breed of hunting dog that has been primarily bred for coursing game and racing, but with recent resurgence of popularity as a pedigree show dog and family pet. It is a gentle and intelligent breed. A combination of long, powerful legs, deep chest, flexible spine and slim build allow it to reach average race speeds of in excess, in which the beast was nailed down ear and paw, half the nerves of its face dissected then left overnight for further dissection, calling Magendie a "disgrace to Society." There was a belief among British physicians, even those who defended animal experimentation, that Magendie purposely subjected his experimental animals to needless torture. A Quaker The Religious Society of Friends is a name used by a range of independent religious organizations which all trace their origins to a Christian movement in mid-17th century England and Wales. A central belief was that ordinary people could have a direct experience of the eternal Christ. Today, the theological beliefs among the different once visited him, questioning him about vivisection; according to Anne Fagot-Largeau's inaugural lesson at the College of France, he responded with much patience, argumenting the reasons of animal experimentation[1]. Besides drawing sharp criticism from contemporaries in both Britain and France, later scientists critical of Magendie's methods included Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist[I] who established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 18 and Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley PC FRS was an English biologist, known as Darwin's Bulldog for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He was also a major impetus to the antivivisection and vivisection reform movements, with Albert Leffingwell dedicating a chapter of his book An Ethical Problem to him.

In 1831, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademin is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Anne Fagot-Largeau's inaugural lesson at the College of France (French)

References

Categories: 1783 births | 1855 deaths | Collège de France faculty | French physiologists | Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Categories: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences | Members of learned societies

 

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