11 Facts About Paul Bert

Paul Bert was a French zoologist, physiologist and politician.

Paul Bert is sometimes given the sobriquet "Father of Aviation Medicine".

Paul Bert studied law, earning a doctorate in Paris; then, under the influence of the zoologist Louis Pierre Gratiolet, he took up physiology, becoming one of Claude Bernard's most brilliant students.

Paul Bert left France in February 1886 accompanied by a dozen people including Antony Klobukowski, former chief of staff of Charles Thomson, and Charles Francois Laurent, inspector of finances.

Paul Bert died of dysentery at Hanoi on 11 November 1886.

Paul Bert was more distinguished as a man of science than as a politician or administrator.

Paul Bert's classical work, La Pression barometrique, embodies researches that gained him the biennial prize of 20,000 francs from the Academy of Sciences in 1875, and is a comprehensive investigation on the physiological effects of air-pressure, both above and below the normal.

Paul Bert showed that oxygen was toxic to insects, arachnids, myriapods, molluscs, earthworms, fungi, germinating seeds, birds, and other animals.

Paul Bert was interested in vegetable physiology, and in particular investigated the movements of the sensitive plant, and the influence of light of different colours on the life of vegetation.

Paul Bert wrote a very successful textbook with Raphael Blanchard Elements de zoologie G Masson, 1885.

Paul Bert actively opposed the granting of any political rights for the indigenous people in French Algeria.