Bernard, << behr NAHR, >> Claude (1813-1878), the leading French physiologist of his day, founded modern experimental physiology. He studied many aspects of digestion and nerve function. Bernard discovered that the liver converts sugar to glycogen (animal starch), a substance used to maintain blood sugar levels. He also found that juices of the pancreas help digest and absorb fats. In addition, Bernard discovered how the nervous system controls blood circulation. His other important work included research on how drugs and poisons affect the body.
Later in his career, Bernard focused on methods of research and on the nature of living things. In his most famous book, Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), Bernard proposed a new form of experimental reasoning. He called for medical research to proceed in three stages–from observation to hypothesis to experimentation. In Phenomena of Life Common to Animals and Plants (1878-1879), Bernard said that both living and nonliving things are subject to physical and chemical laws. But he also believed that life itself is organized by creative forces that cannot be understood in terms of physical laws.
Bernard was born on July 12, 1813, in St.-Julien, France. He died on Feb. 10, 1878.
