10 Facts About Corneille Heymans

Corneille Jean Francois Heymans was a Belgian physiologist.

Corneille Heymans studied at the Jesuit College of Saint Barbara and then at Ghent University, where he obtained a doctor's degree in 1920.

In 1922 Heymans became lecturer in Pharmacodynamics at Ghent University, and in 1930 succeeded his father, Jean-Francois Heymans, as Professor of Pharmacology, as well as being appointed Head of the Department of Pharmacology, Pharmacodynamics, and Toxicology; and Director of the J F Heymans Institute.

Corneille Heymans was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1938 for showing how blood pressure and the oxygen content of the blood are measured in the body and transmitted to the brain via the nerves and not by the blood itself.

Corneille Heymans accomplished this by vivisection of two dogs, the head of one connected to its body only by nerves, and the second one's body was used to cross-perfuse to the first dog's head.

Corneille Heymans found that the first dog's upward and downward cardiovascular reflex arc traffic were carried by its own vagus nerves, but agents introduced to the second dog's blood, which served the first dog's brain, had no effect.

Corneille Heymans used a similar experiment to demonstrate the role of peripheral chemoreceptors in respiratory regulation, for which he received his Nobel Prize.

Corneille Heymans was the Editor-in-Chief of Archives Internationales de Pharmacodynamie et de Therapie for many years.

Corneille Heymans's memberships included the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Academie des Sciences, and the Royal Society of Arts.

Corneille Heymans married Berthe May, an ophthalmologist, in 1929 and had five children.