Albert von Bezold

Albert von Bezold (1836 to 1868) was a German physiologist whose short career was devoted to the physical processes of the animal body, especially the nerves, muscles and circulation. Born in Ansbach as the son of a medical councillor, he studied medicine at Würzburg, publishing his first papers in 1856 while still a student, and in 1857 went to Berlin to work in the laboratory of Emil du Bois-Reymond. In 1859, at the age of twenty three and before he had taken his doctorate, he was called to Jena as an extraordinary professor of physiology. There he completed two major studies, one on the electrical excitation of nerves and muscles in 1861, and one on the innervation of the heart in 1863, in which he showed that the brain and spinal cord contain a centre that excites the heartbeat without passing through the sympathetic nerve. Called to Würzburg in 1865, he taught and researched there with great energy and demonstrated the strong influence of the splanchnic nerve on the circulation. His biographer judged that he opened no new path in physiology but followed those of others with care and made lasting contributions. A heart ailment ended his life in 1868.