376 A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



PROGRESS IN PHYSIOLOGY. JOHANNES MULLER. CLAUDE 

 BERNARD. To the work upon physiology of Harvey in the 

 seventeenth century and of Haller and Bichat and others in the 

 eighteenth was now added that of Johannes Muller (1801-1858) 

 whose "Elements of Physiology," appearing between 1837 and 

 1840, put the whole subject on a fresh and thoroughly scientific 

 basis. Muller has been called the founder of modern physiology. 

 Fortunate in his pupils DuBois Reymond, Helmholtz, Ludwig, 

 Volkmann, and Vierordt these were no less fortunate in their 

 master, for Muller was a great teacher, and for the rest of the 

 century the teachings of Johannes Muller and his disciples fur- 

 nished a powerful stimulus and a safe guide to physiological 

 research, especially in Germany. 



In France, also, physiology won renown and recognition through 

 the researches of Claude Bernard (1813-1878), a pupil of 

 Magendie, whose assistant he became in 1841 and whom he suc- 

 ceeded as assistant professor in 1847 and as professor in 1855. 

 Bernard was the first occupant of the newly established chair 

 of physiology at the Sorbonne. The laboratory was attached to 

 his professorship until 1864. On his death in 1878 he was accorded 

 by the State the honor of a public funeral, the first ever be- 

 stowed by France upon a man of science and only 84 years after 

 the public guillotining of Lavoisier. By his discovery of the 

 significance of the pancreatic secretion and especially of the glyco- 

 genic function of the liver Bernard opened up the vast field of 

 "internal secretions," the study of which has yielded, and is still 

 yielding, some of the most fruitful results of physiological research 

 hitherto obtained. Before Bernard, each organ seemed to have 

 one function and only one, but since his tune this simple, mechan- 

 ical concept has given way to a realization of correlations and 

 complexities within the animal mechanism such as had not then 

 been dreamt of. 



A great step forward in this dark field was taken in 1843 by the 

 French physiologist, Claude Bernard, a man whose name should 

 be remembered for his striking discoveries, ingenious and skillful 

 experiments, his clear thoughts, lofty imagination and the beautiful, 



