Bernard

BERNARD, Leon (Leon Bernard), a famous French physiologist and hygienist, one of the founders of social medicine in France. Born in 1872 in Paris. Upon completing the medical faculty in Paris, he devoted himself entirely to the study of tuberculosis. During the imperialist war, he played a leading role in the creation of various organizations for the fight against TB in France. At present, all these organizations are united by the National Committee for the Fight against Tuberculosis; Bernard is the vice-president of the committee. He organized a hospital center for the fight against TB at the Laennec Hospital in Paris and founded an organization for the prevention of TB in infants. In collaboration with Professor Robert Debre, he created an organization for placing infants in families. Bernard was one of the first to raise the question of TB as a social disease and transferred it from a purely medical plane to a social plane. His numerous works concern, mainly, the clinical and social aspects of TB. At the same time, Bernard takes an active part in sanitary legislation in France, as he is a sanitary-technical advisor to the Ministry of Labor and Hygiene. His main works, besides numerous articles and scientific papers: "La Tuberculose pulmonaire", "Etudes de phthisiologie clinique et sociale", "Cours d'Hygiene", published under his editorship jointly with R. Debre. In recent years, Bernard lectured on hygiene at the medical faculty. Since 1928, when the chair of tuberculosis was first created in Paris, he was appointed to this chair.

BERNARD, Claude (Claude Bernard, 1813-1878), a famous French physiologist and thinker. Upon completing the medical faculty in Paris, Bernard was for several years (from 1841) an assistant and pupil of Magendie, professor of the College de France. Bernard received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1843, the degree of "Docteur ès Sciences" in 1853; in 1854 he was elected to the Academy of Sciences in the section of medicine and surgery; he also worked in the Medical Academy in the section of medical pathology. In 1855, Bernard was elected professor of the College de France, taking the place of his teacher Magendie, an extreme skeptic who cultivated the experimental method in physiology and feared all theories, about which he never tired of repeating: "theories are no more than words". Bernard, who raised the importance of experiment in biology to a great height, understood it much more deeply than his teacher. 27 Bernard considered criticism and doubt necessary qualities of a researcher, but naked skepticism, to which Magendie was inclined, he considered harmful to the cause of research. In terms of accumulating experimental material, Bernard did a great deal in 20 years of activity. He owns classic works in the field of pancreatic secretion and glycogen formation function of the liver. Here, following the forerunner of endocrinology Legallois, he distinguishes between external and internal secretion of glands. Bernard studies and builds the theory of animal heat formation, discovers vasomotor nerves, establishes the connection of the central nervous system with glycosuria (see Bernard's sugar drop), studies the function of the sympathetic nervous system, the influence of poisons on the animal organism and, in turn, uses them as a method of studying the functions of the organism. ' "Physiology forms the basis of all scientific disciplines wishing to control the phenomena of life, in particular the basis of practical medicine." "Clinical medicine sets tasks, and physiology explains the phenomena arising in the sick organism. Experimental medicine does not separate from the sick. It constantly returns to him, each time better armed." "The physician-experimenter is the physician of the future," asserts Bernard; this was justified in reality. Clinical semiotics in combination with experiment, carried out by clinicians everywhere, created pathological physiology. Without the latter there is no understanding of disease, more precisely, understanding of the sick person. Therapy, according to Bernard, should be based on knowledge of the mechanism of pathological phenomena and the properties of drugs. The basis of Bernard's worldview is determinism, anticipated by Aristotle and Bacon and introduced into science by Leibniz and O. Comte. "The apparent arbitrariness of living organisms is no more than a consequence of completely definite relations, the basis of which consists of purely physical-chemical phenomena. The task of the physiologist and physician-experimenter consists not in knowing the primary cause of life, but in studying physical-chemical phenomena that determine vital activity." Bernard does not oppose, as vitalists do, the processes of organic and inorganic nature, but sees in them a complete parallelism. Biological determinism is the denial of caprice, arbitrariness in living nature. "Determinism of vital phenomena is connected with physical-chemical conditions of the internal environment." Convinced that the basis of vital phenomena lies in physical-chemical processes, he ends one of his brilliant works ("Definition of Life") with the words: "We repeat with Descartes: we think metaphysically, but live and act physically." His philosophical credo Bernard wants to separate both from materialists and from vitalists. "We dissociate ourselves from materialists, although all vital phenomena are conditioned by physical-chemical processes. In themselves these processes are unable to arrange themselves into groups and proceed in that strict sequence in which this is observed in living beings." "We dissociate ourselves also from vitalists, since vital force cannot manifest itself as something independent, outside the general properties of nature." "It is erroneous to admit the real existence and attribute material activity to something immaterial, which is no more than an invention of the mind." Paraphrasing the words of Leibniz, Bernard says: "Every phenomenon proceeds in a living organism as if there were no vital force in it." "Between the two extreme schools (materialism and vitalism) there is a place for a third doctrine, for physical vitalism. The latter takes into account both that which is especially in vital phenomena, and that which is common to all that is studied. In the phenomena lies physics, the regulation of phenomena, however, is vital." "Life is creativity. Its main property is the guiding idea in the evolutionary life movement. In any living embryo there is a creative idea which develops and manifests itself in organization. Remaining alive, the living organism is under the influence of this creative force. Death occurs when the latter can no longer be revealed." Thus, in terms of his philosophical views, Bernard can be considered the founder of neo-vitalism, which received its further development at Bohr, Heidenhain, Bunge and others. The tasks presented to scientists, Bernard formulated on August 14, 1869, in the joint session of the five Parisian academies united in the Institute of France, in the following expressions: "In our epoch, a man who wishes to leave a trace of his existence cannot be satisfied with knowing what was done before him. He must increase the treasury of the human spirit, taking part in the development of knowledge." The style in which Bernard wrote and spoke was elegant and profound. "The style of his speech and writing was in full correspondence with his ideas" (P. Ver). Death cut short Bernard's life when he was still full of creative ideas. He was 65 years old. During his illness (severe inflammation of the kidneys), he spoke of unfinished work on the theory of enzyme action. "It is a pity, this work should have been finished," were his words four days before death, as he walked calmly towards it. Bernard, the first of the scientists of France, was buried at state expense.