Jan Frans Heymans 1859-1932 - Ghent - Belgium

Jean-François Heymans, also Jan Frans Heymans (25 December 1859,

Gooik Gooik () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the towns of Gooik proper, Kester, Leerbeek, Strijland and Oetingen. It is also situated in the Pajottenland. On January 1, 2018 Gooik ha ...

– 10 April 1932,

Middelkerke Middelkerke () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders, on the North Sea, west of Ostend. The municipality comprises the villages of Leffinge, Lombardsijde, Mannekensvere, Middelkerke proper, Schore, Sint-Pieters-Ka ...

) was a Belgian

pharmacologist Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemic ...

and

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 ...

. He was the father of physiologist

Corneille Jean François Heymans Corneille Jean François Heymans (28 March 1892 – 18 July 1968) was a Belgian physiologist. He studied at the Jesuit College of Saint Barbara and then at Ghent University, where he obtained a doctor's degree in 1920. Heymans won the Nobel Pri ...

. He received his education at the University of Leuven, where he earned doctorates in

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeat ...

(1884) and medicine (1887). From 1884 to 1887 he worked as a préparateur in the laboratory of physiology under Ernest Masoin. Afterwards, he travelled to

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

, where he spent three years as an assistant to

Emil Heinrich Du Bois-Reymond Emil Heinrich du Bois-Reymond (7 November 181826 December 1896) was a German physician and physiologist, the co-discoverer of nerve action potential, and the developer of experimental electrophysiology. Life Du Bois-Reymond was born in Berlin a ...

. In 1891 he was named professor of

pharmacodynamics Pharmacodynamics (PD) is the study of the biochemical and physiologic effects of drugs (especially pharmaceutical drugs). The effects can include those manifested within animals (including humans), microorganisms, or combinations of organisms ( ...

and general therapeutics at the

University of Ghent Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when th ...

. Here, he founded a laboratory for experimental pharmacology and therapeutics.Zeno.org
Pagel: Biographical Dictionary outstanding physicians of the nineteenth century. Berlin, Vienna 1901, Sp. 736th. He was rector of the university in 1923-1924. His research included studies of

myelinated Myelin is a lipid-rich material that surrounds nerve cell axons (the nervous system's "wires") to insulate them and increase the rate at which electrical impulses (called action potentials) are passed along the axon. The myelinated axon can be l ...

and non-myelinated

nerve fiber An axon (from Greek ἄξων ''áxōn'', axis), or nerve fiber (or nerve fibre: see spelling differences), is a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, in vertebrates, that typically conducts electrical impulses known as action p ...

, the nervous system of the

amphioxus The lancelets ( or ), also known as amphioxi (singular: amphioxus ), consist of some 30 to 35 species of "fish-like" benthic filter feeding chordates in the order Amphioxiformes. They are the modern representatives of the subphylum Cephalochor ...

nerve ending A free nerve ending (FNE) or bare nerve ending, is an unspecialized, afferent nerve fiber sending its signal to a sensory neuron. ''Afferent'' in this case means bringing information from the body's periphery toward the brain. They function as cut ...

s of

leech Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented b ...

es, the influence of temperature on

muscle contraction Muscle contraction is the activation of tension-generating sites within muscle cells. In physiology, muscle contraction does not necessarily mean muscle shortening because muscle tension can be produced without changes in muscle length, such as ...

and on the detoxification of

cyanide Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms. In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of ...

derivatives, to name a few. With German neurophysiologist

Johannes Gad Johannes Wilhelm Gad (30 June 1842 – 1926) was a German neurophysiologist who was a native of Posen. He was father-in-law to psychiatrist Oskar Kohnstamm (1871-1917). Life He was an assistant to Emil du Bois-Reymond (1818–1896) at the ...

, he published a textbook on physiology titled ''Kurzes Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen''. Also, he translated into French, Ewald and

Munk Munk is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Munk (born 1965), alias of Estonian actor and singer Ivo Uukkivi * Anders Munk (1922–1989), Danish mycologist * Andrzej Munk (1920–1961), Polish film director * Eduard Munk (1803 ...

's manual of

dietetics A dietitian, medical dietitian, or dietician is an expert in identifying and treating disease-related malnutrition and in conducting medical nutrition therapy, for example designing an enteral tube feeding regimen or mitigating the effects of ...

as ''Alimentation de l'homme normal et de l'homme malade, traité de diététique a l'usage des médecins''. In 1895, with French physiologist

Eugène Gley Marcel Eugène Émile Gley (; 18 January 1857 – 24 October 1930) was a French physiologist and endocrinologist born in Épinal, Vosges. He studied physiology with Henri-Étienne Beaunis at the medical school in Nancy, and afterwards worked as ...

, he founded the journal ''Archives Internationales de Pharmacodynamie et de Thérapie''.Encyclopedia of Biology
by Don Rittner, Timothy Lee McCabe

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heymans, Jean-Francois 1859 births 1932 deaths People from Flemish Brabant Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni Academic staff of Ghent University Rectors of Ghent University Belgian physiologists Belgian pharmacologists