Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Industrial Age

Identification of adrenaline — Napoleon Cybulski

1895 AD · Transmission: Silenced
MedicineDiscoverySlavic

Napoleon Cybulski, a physiologist at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, isolates in 1895, together with Władysław Szymonowicz, the active factor of the adrenal glands — which he calls nadnerczyna — demonstrating that it is secreted into the bloodstream and produces systemic effects of cardiac acceleration and vasoconstriction. He publishes the results in Gazeta Lekarska (1895) and in Zentralblatt für Physiologie (1895). Simultaneously, Oliver and Schäfer (UK) identify the effects of adrenal extract; British scientists themselves acknowledge that Cybulski had reached more advanced conclusions. Jōkichi Takamine (Japan, 1901) manages to isolate the substance in pure form and coins the name "adrenaline." Cybulski was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1911-1918) without receiving it.

InstitutionJagiellonian University, Kraków
Historical regionPoland (under the Austro-Hungarian Empire)
Primary sourceCybulski, N. — "O funkcji nadnercza" (On the Function of the Adrenal Gland), Gazeta Lekarska, vol.12 no.299-308 (1895); Cybulski, N.; Szymonowicz, W. — Zentralblatt für Physiologie, March 1895
Secondary sourceJournal of Neurology (Springer, 2013) — Napoleon Cybulski biography; PMC/NIH — "Works of Napoleon Cybulski on Adrenal Function" (2018)
Original languagePolish / German
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