Anton Julius Carlson (January 29, 1875 – September 2, 1956) was a Swedish American

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical a ...

. Carlson was chairman of the Physiology Department at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

from 1916 until 1940.

Biography

Carlson was born the son of Carl Jacobson and Hedvig Andersdotter in Svarteborg, in

Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County ( sv, Västra Götalands län) is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1 ...

, Sweden. He came to the United States in 1891. He graduated from

Augustana College Augustana College may refer to: *Augustana College (Illinois) *Augustana University Sioux Falls, South Dakota *Augustana University College, Alberta See also *Augustana Divinity School (Neuendettelsau) The Augustana-Hochschule Neuendettelsau is ...

Rock Island, Illinois Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is now called Rock Island Arsenal, Arsenal Island. The popul ...

, (BA, 1898)(MS, 1899). He received a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in physiology at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

in 1902 and began working at the

in 1904. While Carlson was at

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, he conducted experiments on Fred Vlcek, similar to those conducted on

Alexis St. Martin Alexis Bidagan '' dit'' St-Martin (April 8, 1802 – June 24, 1880) was a Canadian voyageur who is known for his part in experiments on digestion in humans, conducted on him by the American Army physician William Beaumont between 1822 and 1833. ...

by William Beaumont, regarding his gastric fistula. These included illuminating his stomach with electric lights in order to observe digestion. Carlson became chairman of the physiology department at the University of Chicago in 1916 and remained chairman until 1940. Carlson was president of the American Physiological Society from 1923 to 1925, and president of the AAAS in 1944. Carlson was elected a foreign member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

in 1929. The cover story of the February 10, 1941, issue of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine was devoted to Carlson's success as a teacher and his comparative studies of the muscular action of the heart in humans and the horseshoe crab. Carlson was one of 34 original signers of the Humanist Manifesto and in 1953 he was the first person to receive the

American Humanist Association The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism. The American Humanist Association was founded in 1941 and currently provides legal assistance to defend the constitutiona ...

's Humanist of the Year award.''Humanists of the Year''
, web page at the American Humanist Association, accessed January 11, 2007.

Selected works

''The Control of Hunger In Health And Disease''
(University of Chicago Press. 1916) *''Organotherapeutics'' (D. Appleton and Company. 1924) *''The Machinery of the Body'' (University of Chicago Press, 1930). With Victor E. Johnson (1901-1986)

References

;Specific citations ;General references *Dragstedt, Lester R ''Anton Julius Carlson, January 29, 1875 - September 2, 1956'' (Biographical memoirs. National Academy of Sciences. 1961)

External links

* ttp://archives.aaas.org/people.php?p_id=148 Carlson page at the AAAS web site
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carlson, Anton Julius 1875 births 1956 deaths Augustana College (Illinois) alumni People from Munkedal Municipality Stanford University alumni Swedish physiologists American physiologists Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Swedish emigrants to the United States University of Chicago staff