Erinnerung an Paul Bert (1833—1886) und die Entwicklung der Höhenphysiologie in der Schweiz

Abstract

It is the merit of Paul Bert to have assigned as an important task to experimental physiology the investigation of mountain sickness, of immediate accommodation of the organism to high altitude, and of its long-term acclimatation. In his “Pression Barométrique” of1878, he established the foundations of high-altitude physiology. In particular, he formulated the «law of partial pressure», the partial pressure of the atmospheric gases alone being responsible for their action on the organism, Paul Bert’s historic role, for a long time nearly forgotten, has been recalled to memory by the Swiss medical historians E. H. Ackerknecht and N.Mani. Bert’s line of investigation has been followed especially by Angelo Mosso of Turin and, more recently, by F. Verzár, A. von Muralt, A. Fleisch and other Swiss physiologists.