Corneille Jean François Heymans

Biography 

After completing his secondary education at Sint-Lievenscollege (Ghent), Sint-Jozefscollege (Turnhout) and Sint-Barbaracollege (Ghent), the young Heymans began studying medicine at Ghent University. He graduated with a doctorate in medicine in 1920, following an interruption in 1914 when he was called up for military service. He subsequently specialised in experimental pharmacology and physiology through study visits to the Institute of Pharmacology and Therapeutics headed by his father, Jan Frans Heymans¹, and later to the Collège de France in Paris, where he studied under Gley; the University of Lausanne, under Professor Arthus; the University of Vienna, under Professor H. H. Meyer; University College London, under Professor E. H. Starling; and Western Reserve Medical School, where Professor C. F. Wiggers welcomed him as an Advanced Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation. In 1922, Ghent University appointed Heymans as a lecturer in general pharmacology. In 1930, he succeeded his father as professor of pharmacodynamics and director of the institute.

Corneille Heymans initially worked closely with his father, continuing the latter’s experimental research into the role of certain pressure receptors and chemoreceptors in respiration and blood pressure, using head transplants in dogs. This research led to the discovery of the role played by the carotid bodies, small sensory organs located in the carotid arteries, in the regulation of respiration. In 1938, Heymans received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery. He thus became the second Belgian to receive this distinction, following Jules Bordet in 1919. In his Nobel acceptance speech, Heymans stated that he had established the foundations of his discovery in collaboration with his father. Other research topics pursued by Heymans and his colleagues included the physiology of blood circulation in the brain, as well as the pathophysiology of high blood pressure and blood circulation during physical exercise. They also investigated animal physiology and pharmacology, as well as the pharmacology of stimulants. In 1963, Heymans was granted emeritus status. He was succeeded by André De Schaepdryver.

In addition to his teaching duties in Belgium, Heymans regularly delivered lectures and demonstrations at foreign universities, including in New York, as a Herter Lecturer; at Harvard, as a Lecturer of the Dunham Memorial Foundation; and in Dublin, as a Lecturer of the Purser Memorial Foundation. Heymans was also entrusted with special missions in various countries by the Belgian government, the International Union of Physiological Sciences and the World Health Organization. In addition, he served as editor of the scientific journal Archives internationales de Pharmacodynamie et de Thérapie, founded by his father. His membership in numerous Belgian and international scientific societies, including the Belgian Society of Physiology and Pharmacology, the Belgian Society of Cardiology, the Belgian Association for Pharmacotherapy and the Belgian Society of Biology, as well as the Committee of Experts of the International Pharmacopoeia, reflected his scientific standing. His presidencies of the International Union of Physiological Sciences and the International Council of Pharmacologists, together with his position as vice-president of Belgium’s National Council for Science Policy, further consolidated his prominent position in the international field of pharmacological research. Heymans was also a member and former president of the Royal Flemish Academy of Medicine of Belgium. In addition to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, he received, among other honours, the Théophile Gluge Prize from the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, and the Alvarenga Prize from the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium.²

Publications 

Heymans published more than eight hundred scientific studies. His principal publications include:

• Le Sinus Carotidien et les autres Zones vasosensibles réflexogènes,1920.
• Le Sinus Carotidien et la Zone Homologue Cardio-aortique (met J. J. Bouckaert en P. Regniers), 1933.
• Sensibilité réflexogène des vaisseaux aux excitants chimiques (met J. J. Bouckaert), 1934.
• Le centre respiratoire, in: Annales de physiologie et de physicochimie, 2 (1935), 335 (met D. Cordier).
• Survival and revival of nerve centers after arrest of circulation, (1950), in: Physiological Reviews, 30 (1950), 375.
• New aspects of blood pressure regulation (met G. van den Heuvel), in: Circulation, 4 (1951), 581.
• Pharmakologische Wirkungen auf die Selbststeuerung des Blutdruckes, in: Archiv fûr experimentelle Pathologie und Pharmacologie, 216 (1952), 114.
• Action of drugs on carotid sinus and body, in: Pharmacological Reviews, 7 (1955), 119.
• Reflexogenic Areas of the Cardiovascular System (met E. Neil), 1958.

• Vasomotor control and the regulation of blood pressure (met B. Folkow), in: P. Fishman en D. Richards (red.), Circulation of the Blood: Men and Ideas, 1964.

  A comprehensive list of Heymans’ publications up to 1960 can be found in Corneel Heymans, in: Liber Memorialis 1913–1960, vol. 2, Ghent, 1960, pp. 144–158. A complete list can be found in Archives internationales de pharmacodynamique, 174 (1968), no. 2, pp. 258–176.
   

Bibliography 

• Corneel Heymans, in: Liber Memorialis 1913-1960, deel 2, Gent, 1960, 144-158.
• Van Bosstraeten, Truus, "Dogs and Coca-Cola: Commemorative Practices as part of Laboratory Culture at the Heymans Institute Ghent, 1902–1970", in: Centaurus, 53, nr. 1, 1-30.
• Corneel HEYMANS, A. F. DE SCHAEPDRIJVER e. a., Corneel Heymans. A collective Biography, 1972.
• Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941, Amsterdam, 1965. 
  See online via "Corneille Heymans - Facts", Nobelprize.org, consulted on 22/10/2013.
• DE SCHAEPDRIJVER, André, "Corneel Heymans", in: Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek, 4 (1970).
• FLORQUIN, Joos, "Corneel Heymans", in: Ten huize van, deel 3, Leuven-Brugge, 1974.
• DE SCHAEPDRIJVER, André, The Heymans Institute of Pharmacology : 1890-1990: 100 years of teaching, research and service, Gent, 1990.
• DE SCHAEPDRIJVER, André, "Corneel Heymans (1892-1968)", in: Van Mercator tot Frimout. Vier eeuwen Vlaams vernuft, Antwerpen, 1994, 159-168.
• DE SCHAEPDRIJVER, André en DE VLEESCHHOUWER, Georges, "Heymans, Corneille", in: Biographie Nationale, 40 (1977), 423-434.
• Corneel Heymans on UgentMemorie.