Ludwig C
NAME:
Ludwig, Carl (Friedrich Wilhelm)
ACHIEVEMENTS:
A founder of physiology
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
29 December 1816, Witzehausen, Germany
DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH:
27 April 1895, Leipzig, Germany. Aged 79
DISCIPLINE:
Physiologist
FIELD:
Physiology
PARENTS:
Father: Friedrich Ludwig
Mother: ?
SIBLINGS:
??
SPOUSE:
Christiane Endemann
CHILDREN:
1 son
1 daughter
EDUCATION:
Local schools, Witzenhausen and Hannau
University of Marburg
Surgical school, Bamberg
MAJOR WORK:
"Textbook of Physiology" (1852-56)
LIFE AND TIMES:
Ludwig’s doctoral thesis, which paved the way for modern theories on the secretion of urine and lymph, concerned kidney function. He suggested that the surface layer of the small tubes in the kidney serves as a filter in urine production, and that urine production is controlled by blood pressure. He also started the measurement of nitrogen in urine as a way of estimating the rate of protein metabolism in the body.
He was appointed associate professor at Marburg in 1846. From the beginning of his career he was a modernist, keen to expand the boundaries of research and to use the
newest methods of experimentation.
He was close friends with <a pal of> Bunsen* who was instrumental in bringing Ludwig's attention to the application of chemistry to physiology; and on a visit to Berlin he met <shared views of> Helmholtz*, <shared views of> Brucke* and <shared views of> du Bois-Reymond*, who all shared Ludwig's rejection of the vitalist belief in an unmeasurable “force” in all life forms.
In 1847 he gave details of the kymograph, a device for recording changes in arterial blood pressure which was later developed by others and became standard apparatus. In 1849 he was appointed professor of anatomy and physiology at Zurich University. He continued his research on the physiology of secretion and was the first to demonstrate that the secretion of the salivary glands is stimulated by the nerves and does not depend on their blood supply.
The first volume of his "Textbook of Physiology" was published in 1852. The book was the first modern text on physiology and explanations were presented in physical and chemical terms with no reference to metaphysics.
Ludwig moved to Vienna in 1855 to take up a post as professor of anatomy and physiology at the newly established Austrian military-medical academy, and published the second volume of his book in 1856. In the same year he became the first experimenter to keep animal organs alive outside an animal's body by putting a frog’s heart in a solution which mimicked the composition of blood plasma.
Together with others such as <a colleague was> Vierordt*, Ludwig developed tools for making physiochemical measurements. In 1859 he invented the mercurial blood-gas pump for the separation of gases from the blood, which led to discoveries in the way oxygen and other gases purify the blood.
In 1865 he was offered a new chair of physiology at Leipzig where he set up a physiology institute. In this Ludwig was no doubt influenced by Bunsen's physical laboratory at Marburg and <influenced by> Liebig's* chemical laboratory at Giessen. Like Helmholtz, von Brucke and du Bois-Reymond, Ludwig believed in a mechanical approach to investigation, in which demonstrable laws of physics and chemistry were applied to phenomena. He believed in studying both the anatomy of an organ and the physiochemical changes that occurred in the organ.
He arranged special facilities for physical, chemical and anatomical/histological work, each discipline occupying one of the wings in his E-shaped laboratory. Recognized as a great physiology teacher, he attracted many eminent scientists to the Institute, among them the Russian physiologist <worked with> Pavlov*.
Ludwig's study of the cardiovascular system extended to the physiology of respiration, covering gas exchange in the lungs, the movements of respiration, and tissue respiration. In 1867 he invented a flow meter to measure the rate of blood flow through arteries and veins ; he discovered the depressor and accelerator nerves of the heart; and in 1871, together with the American physiologist Henry Bowditch, he formulated the law of
cardiac muscle action which states that, regardless of the amount of stimulation, the heart muscle will always contract to its fullest extent or not at all.
ASSESSMENT: One of the group of German physiologists who created modern
physiology.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: <his techniques improved by> Marey* developed his instruments further.
He worked with <worked with> Kuhne*, <worked with> Stefan*
His career was helped by <supported by> EH Weber*
ONELINER: Carl Ludwig, a founder of physiology
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
DSB
EB