Nobel Prize Award for Physiology and Medicine 1911 to 1925

About the Nobel Prize Award for Physiology and Medicine from 1911 to 1925 including the scientists Carrel and Hill, their works, and history.

PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

1911 Allvar Gullstrand (1862-1930), Swedish

Work: Explained in mathematical terms the nature of the refraction of light through the eye

1912 Alexis Carrel (1873-1944), American (b. France)

Work: Devised a method of stitching blood vessels together and of transplanting vessels and organs

Nobel Laureate: Born near Lyons, France, Carrel in 1906 joined the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research in New York City. There he developed a technique for sewing blood vessels together in a way which greatly reduced the incidence of thrombosis, or fatal clotting of the blood, at the point of incision. The procedure made possible transplants of organs and the restoration of freshly severed limbs. In 1911 Carrel began research into tissues kept alive outside the body. Sections from a chicken heart lived in Carrel's dishes for 32 years. During W. W. I, he tended French casualties, saving many lives with his newly devised technique of bathing open wounds in a solution of sodium hypochlorite. Assisted by Charles Lindbergh, he devised a mechanical heart in 1936.

1913 Charles R. Richet (1850-1935), French

Work: Discovered the nature of allergies

1914 Robert Barany (1876-1936), Austrian

Work: Investigated the workings of the inner ear and the human sense of balance

Nobel Laureate: Born in Vienna, Dr. Barany in 1909 began lecturing on ear diseases at his alma mater, Vienna University. While serving in the Austro-Hungarian medical corps during W. W. I, he was captured by Russian troops at Przemysl. A bad knee gained his release the following year, and he emigrated to Sweden to run an ear, nose, and throat clinic at Uppsala University. From experiments on the ear canal, he discovered that the inner ear controls equilibrium. He also traced the sense of balance from the ear to the brain and spinal cord. To combat the common malady of otosclerosis, he developed the surgical techniques of circumventing the cartilage-like growth in the ears that often leads to progressive deafness. As he grew older, research dominated his life more and more to the exclusion of nearly all social activity.

1915 No award

1916 No award

1917 No award

1918 No award

1919 Jules J. P. Bordet (1870-1961), Belgian

Work: Discoveries in immunology

1920 Schack August S. Krogh (1874-1949), Danish

Work: Discovered the "capillaro-motor mechanism" which regulates the opening and closing of the blood capillaries

1921 No award

1922 Archibald V. Hill (1886- ), British

Work: Discovered the thermodynamics of muscular activity

Otto F. Meyerhof (1894-1951), American (b. Germany)

Work: Discovered the relationship between oxygen consumption and the conversion of glycogen into lactic acid during muscular activity, and the effect of this process on human energy

1923 Frederick G. Banting (1891-1941), Canadian

John J. R. Macleod (1876-1935), Canadian

Work: Discovery of insulin

1924 Willem Einthoven (1860-1927), Dutch

Work: Invention of the electrocardiograph

1925 No award