BERNARD, bil•nile, CLAUDE (1813-78). A French physiologist. He was born at Saint Julien, near Villefranehe. in the Department of Rhone, July 12, 1813. He studied medicine in Paris; was admitted in 1839 as a surgical interne in one of the hospitals, and in 1841 be came one of Magendie's assistants at the College de France. He was graduated in 1843 a doctor in medicine. and ten years later a doctor in science; and was appointed in February. 1854, to the chair of general physiology in connection with the Faculty of Sciences in Paris. The same year he was chosen member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1855 he succeeded :Nlagendie as professor of experimental physiology in the Col lege de France. Bernard's first researches were devoted to the physiological study of the various secretions of the alimentary canal. His memoir, published in 1S44 in the Casette medieale, treats of the mechanism by which the gastric juice is secreted, and also of the modifications which ali mentary substances undergo from that liquid. To the Comptes rendus of the biological society he also contributed papers on the saliva, on the intestinal juice, on the influence of the different pairs of nerves on the digestive apparatus, and on the respiratory and circulatory systems. His first really original paper, however, treated of his Researches on the Function of the Pancreas. in which he demonstrated that that viscus is the true agent of the digestion and of fatty bodies. This essay obtained, in 1819, the grand prize of the French Academy in experimental physiology, and was printed in the Comptes rendus of the Academy of Sciences in 1856. In 1849 appeared his first researches on the glycogenic function of the liver, establishing the doctrine that the blood which enters the liver does not contain sugar, while blood which leaves that organ and goes to the heart by the hepatic veins is charged with it.
He also showed the influence of the nervous sys tem on this function, demonstrating that the formation of sugar in the liver could be inter rupted by division of the pneumogastric nerve, and also that a puncture of the floor of the fourth ventricle of the brain produced diabetes. For these discoveries, which were keenly criti cised, but are now regarded as veritable, he ob tained, in 1851, the grand prize of the French Academy in experimental physiology. In 1852 he published his experimental researches on the great sympathetic system, and on the influence exerted by division of the sympathetic nerve on animal heat. This paper procured him for the third time the prize of experimental physiology, in 1853. From 1854, when he succeeded Roux as member of the Institute, he continued his re searches on the glycogenic function of the liver. and also published his courses of lectures at the College de France on Experimental Physiology in Its Application to Medicine (1855-56) on The Effects of Toxic and Medicated Substances (1857) ; on The Physiology and Pathology of the Nervous System (1858); on The Physiological Properties and the Pathological Alteration of the Various Liquids of the Organism (1859); on Nutrition and Development (1860) ; and his In troduction to the Study of Experimental Medi cine (1865). In 1862 he became officer of the Legion of honor; in 1867, commander; and in 1869 he was made a member of the Academy. Be was a founder of the Societ6 de Biologie, and its president from 1867 to the time of his death. He died in Paris. His obsequies were conducted at the public expense, which was an honor never before conferred on a scientific man.