Acta Physiol 2011, 202, 601–603
Editorial
A short history of physiology
Individuals
In the 15th century, anatomy in Europe began to
blossom (e.g. Vesalius), but the distinction between
(human) anatomy and function was not very clear yet.
We can consider William Harvey’s book on the circu-
lation of the blood (1628) as the starting point of
physiology (Fig. 1). Although some people initially
rejected the concept, by and large it was quite rapidly
accepted all over Europe, and several researchers
became interested in human function in general.
Examples are Leonardo da Vinci, and later Marcello
Malpighi in Italy; Niels Stensen, in Denmark, the
Netherlands and Germany; Jeroen Gaub (Gaubius) in
Germany and the Netherlands; and Antoni van Leeu-
wenhoek; and somewhat later Stephen Hales and
Thomas Young in England. Although not organized
in societies, these physiologists knew each other in
person and through correspondence. Antoni van
Leeuwenhoek became a member of the Royal Society
and could apparently communicate in the Dutch
Language.
Period of consolidation
After about 1750, a standstill followed (Fig. 1). This
so-called ‘Consolidation’ period lasted for about
100 years and was seen all over Europe in the (medical)
sciences (Lindeboom 1981). The following examples
show this. In the middle of the 19th century, the
microscope was not introduced to medical students in
Leiden, and auscultation (invented by Auenbrugger and
introduced in the clinic by Laënnec in 1819) was not or
hardly used in 1850. Teaching in medicine consisted of
reading Latin texts. Medicine was considered an art
rather than a science.
Anatomy/physiology Physiology ‘Consolidation’
1st Golden age
1628 1750
Figure 1 Physiology: Main events.
Ó 2011 The Author
Acta Physiologica Ó 2011 Scandinavian Physiological Society, doi: 10.1111/j.1748-1716.2011.02286.x
This standstill of European medical sciences seems to
be the result of the rise in philosophical idealism in
Germany, mainly under the influence of I. Kant’s and
F.J.W. von Schelling’s ‘Natur Philosophie’: the intelli-
gent human is able to understand the natural pheno-
mena; the experiment-based approach was not
necessary (Lindeboom 1981).
Rebirth of physiology (see supporting
information)
About 1840, a number of young medical doctors in
Germany became proponents of the concept ‘medi-
cine = science’ and proposed that science should be
introduced in the medical curriculum. This ended the
romantic philosophical period, in part also thanks to
Rudolf Virchow, founder of cellular pathology. Teach-
ers and students in medicine demanded better under-
standing of (human) functional processes to be able to
provide good patient care. Quite suddenly, great phys-
iologists arose: Carl F.W. Ludwig in Germany and
Claude Bernard in France.
This rebirth of physiology was a part of a general
revival of the sciences (e.g. Charles Darwin, 1859, the
Origin of Species; Dmitri Mendelejev, 1869, the peri-
odic table) and the strong growth of technology (steam
locomotives and railroads, first steel steamship crossing
the Atlantic, 1852). Several specialized branches of the
medical sciences appeared: gastrointestinal physiology
(William Beaumont); pathology and cell physiology
(Rudolf Virchow); bacteriology (Louis Pasteur, Ignaz
Semmelweis and Robert Koch). In integrative physiol-
ogy, it is Claude Bernard who can be considered the first
true general physiologist (Fig. 1), but others were
prominent too: Carl Ludwig and Eduard Pflüger in
Germany, and Franciscus Donders in the Netherlands.
Cel
2nd Golden age of physiology Molecule
Gen
1889 1953 1977 2000
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Editorial Æ N Westerhof
Also in the second half of the 19th century, scientific
exchange was transformed from personal contacts and
letters to the use of journals. New journals were often
founded by the great researchers: The Archiv für
pathogische Anatomie und Physiologie und für klinische
Medicin, was founded by R. Virchow and B. Reinhardt
in 1858 (now called Virchows Archiv). Pflügers Archiv
(now Pflügers Archiv European Journal of Physiology)
was started in 1868, and the Journal of Physiology
(Michael Foster) was established in 1878; and some-
what later, in 1898 the American Journal of Physiology
was begun. The Journal de Physiology (Paris) began in
1906 and the predecessor of Acta Physiologica, Skan-
dinavisches Archiv für Physiologie, started in 1889. In
the early 20th century, many national journals of
physiology were appearing, but by the 1960s most
national journals were absorbed by the larger ones and
these journals almost all changed to English language
journals.
Also in the mid-1800s, laboratories of physiology
were started. In the Netherlands no laboratory of
physiology existed in 1848, but all Dutch Universities
had a department and laboratory building in 1866.
Later in the 19th and early 20th century many
physiologists became known. Examples are Ivan Pavlov
(psychophysiology), Charles Sherington (neurophysio-
logy), Otto Frank and Ernest Starling (cardiovascular
physiology and hormones), Angelo Mosso (ergograph,
sphygmomanometer), Camillo Golgi (nervous system,
malaria), Sidney Ringer (Ringer’s solution), Francois
Magendie (Magendie sign) and Willem Einthoven
(electrophysiology). Recognition of the importance of
physiology became apparent with the establishment of
the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (first
awarded in 1901).
By the end of the 19th century two changes took
place. Physiologists became organized in (national)
physiological societies usually with the pharmacolo-
gists, but separate from anatomists. In the middle of the
20th century, pharmacology and physiology separated.
Also, the first meetings for physiologists were organized.
Following the decision of a group of physiologists in
1885, regular, international meetings of physiology
started with the 1st International Congress of Physio-
logy at Basle, Switzerland, in 1889. These meetings
were held every third year (except 1916, 1941 and
1944), and physiologists from Europe and the Americas
participated. The last, 18th meeting, was held in 1950
in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since then, the meetings
were organized by the International Union of Physio-
logical Scientists (IUPS). These IUPS meetings, being a
continuation of the international congresses, started in
1953, with the first IUPS meeting counted as the 19th
congress. After 1989, the IUPS meetings were held every
fourth instead of every third year. With the forming of
602 Acta Physiologica Ó 2011 Scandinavian Physiological Society, doi: 10.1111/j.1748-1716.2011.02286.x
Acta Physiol 2011, 202, 601–603
the Federation of European Physiological Societies
(FEPS) in 1991, there are also meetings for mainly
European physiologists. Presently, the physiological
societies of 31 countries (counting England and Ireland
as one) contribute to the FEPS (http://www.feps.org/).
The FEPS organizes its meetings as so-called joint
meetings, where the physiological society of the host
country, together with the FEPS, prepares the meeting
(Acta Physiologica is official journal of FEPS).
Developments
In the 1970s, research in the medical sciences became
divided into a number of specialized areas. This was, in
part, the result of the great successes in cell biology,
molecular biology and, somewhat later, genomics and
protein biology. In 1977, the American Physiological
Society decided to split the American Journal of
Physiology into a number of sections. This decision
was unavoidable as specialization of researchers made it
impossible for them to read all the news in the
physiological research. Nevertheless, these develop-
ments resulted in the decrease in recognition of phys-
iology as the science of ‘functions and vital processes of
living organisms, their parts and their organs’.
At present, the translation of the enormous amount of
knowledge gathered in sub-branches of biology such as
the cell, molecule and gene is insufficiently studied in
the context of the function of the organ or organism as a
whole. Therefore, at the cellular level ‘systems biology’
was started in about 1990, where an interaction of
many complex, intracellular mechanisms is combined to
understand overall cellular function. This approach
requires the construction and use of computer models,
the so-called ‘in silico’ approach. At the organ and
organism level, this integration is now taking place as
well through the so-called physio(no)me (Hunter &
Nielsen 2005; IUPS Physiome Project site http://
www.physiome.org.nz/). Although departments of physio-
logy disappear or integrate, it does not mean that
physiology is disappearing in teaching and research, but
that it is less visible as a separate discipline.
References
Hunter, P. & Nielsen, P. 2005. A strategy for integrative
computational physiology. Physiology (Bethesda) 20: 316–
325 (Review).
van Leeuwenhoek, A. Den Waaragtigen Omloop des Bloeds by
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. http://www.gutenberg.org/
ebooks/18929.
Lindeboom, G.A. 1981. De geschiedenis van de medische
wetenschap in Nederland, 2nd edn. Fibula-Van Dishoeck,
Haarlem.
Ó 2011 The Author
Acta Physiol 2011, 202, 601–603
N. Westerhof
Laboratory for Physiology
VU University Medical Center
Van der Boechorst straat 7
1081 BT Amsterdam
the Netherlands
n.westerhof@vumc.nl
Supporting Information
Additional Supporting Information may be found in the
accompanying online article ‘‘A short history of
Physiology in the Netherlands’’.
Ó 2011 The Author
Acta Physiologica Ó 2011 Scandinavian Physiological Society, doi: 10.1111/j.1748-1716.2011.02286.x
N Westerhof Æ Editorial
Data S1. A short history of physiology in the
Netherlands.
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