Pentru că sunt singurul care merge la cursul de Istoria Medicinei , iată un ”copy &paste” despre Jan Evangelista Purkinje (1787–1869), omul care a descâlcit discuțiile vremii sale despre anatomie și fiziologie cardiacă , prin descrierea rețelei de fibre cardiace care îi poarta numele . Interesante sunt ipotezele dinaintea acestei descoperiri : ”pulsul își are originea în sânge” (W. Harvey, De Generatione Animalium, 1651), ”bătaile inimii se află sub control nervos” (1812, Cesar Legallois) , etc.

” Purkinje was born in Libochovice, was educated in a Piarist monastery, and studied philosophy in Prague. He entered medicine at the University of Prague at 26 years of age. After graduation in 1819, he assisted in anatomy and physiology and conducted research in pharmacology, including self-experimentation with digitalis and belladonna. In 1823, at 36 years of age, he became professor of physiology and pathology in Breslau in East Prussia, where he created the world’s first Department of Physiology in 1839. Purkinje remained in Breslau for 27 years before returning to Prague, where he was the chair of physiology.
An erudite man who wrote poetry and spoke 13 languages,Purkinje also was active in the Czech nationalist movement and translated the poetry of his close friends Goethe and Schiller. Purkinje was a pioneer in many fields, describing the Purkinje effect on vision (decreasing light intensity affects red and blue objects differently) and other visual effects; the Purkinje nerve cells in the cerebral cortex; the sweat glands in the skin; the effect of pancreatic extracts on protein digestion; the visual and cardiac effects of digitalis toxicity; the use of a microtome to make thin slices; ciliary motion in higher organisms; the nervous influences on the secretion of gastric acid; in vivo capillary microscopy; and new aspects of the psychology of dreams. He also was the first to study the science of fingerprints and to use the terms plasma and protoplasm. After a remarkably productive career, Purkinje died in 1869 at 82 years of age.”
Sursa : ”Why Does the Heart Beat? The Discovery of the Electrical System of the Heart”


