, 1927) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 pharmacologist and physiologist. He studied medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, specialising in pharmacology, in Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

, where he became associate professor of pharmacology in 1904. In 1908 he became the first professor of pharmacology in Utrecht, where he spent the rest of his working life. He was nominated for a Nobel prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

, but died before it could be awarded.

Magnus had one daughter, Gretl Magnus, who became a translator in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and who died in 1968. She was married to Walter Zander

Walter Zander

Walter Zander was a German-British lawyer, scholar and writer. He was Secretary of the British Friends of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem 1944-71, Governor of the University 1972-93, Senior Associate Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford 1971-88 and author of several books and articles, many of...

 and together they had a son, the composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 Benjamin Zander

Benjamin Zander

Benjamin Zander is an American conductor from the United Kingdom.-External links:* *-Interviews:* * * *...

. Rudolf Magnus' son, Otto Magnus wrote his biography

Biography

A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

 in 2002, entitled Rudolf Magnus, Physiologist and Pharmacologist: A Biography.

Magnus is most widely known for his work as a physiologist. His book Körperstellung ("Posture")., a study of functional neurology

Neurology

Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

, is his best known work.

Academic work

In 1901, while in Germany, Magnus discovered the diuretic

Diuretic

A diuretic provides a means of forced diuresis which elevates the rate of urination. There are several categories of diuretics. All diuretics increase the excretion of water from bodies, although each class does so in a distinct way.- Medical uses :...

 effect of the excretions of the pituitary gland

Pituitary gland

In vertebrate anatomy the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland about the size of a pea and weighing 0.5 g , in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain, and rests in a small, bony cavity covered by a dural fold...

. From 1908, Rudolf Magnus worked in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 on the physiology of posture and muscle tension. Although he was a pharmacologist, this research made him world famous. For his work, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1927. His sudden death in 1927 made it impossible to award the prize to him. His most famous book, Körperstellung, was published in Berlin in 1924, and translated into English in 1987. In this book Magnus describes the reflexes involved in mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

 posture. The Magnus & De Kleijn reflexes are named after Magnus and his colleague de Kleijn. The head and neck reflexes of mammals cause the body to follow automatically when the head moves. He also researched the reflexes of the intestines and phenomena such as motion sickness

Motion sickness

Motion sickness or kinetosis, also known as travel sickness, is a condition in which a disagreement exists between visually perceived movement and the vestibular system's sense of movement...

.

The pharmacological research of Rudolf Magnus was focussed on the effect of medication on the heart

Heart

The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...

, blood vessels, lungs and the gastrointestinal tract

Gastrointestinal tract

The human gastrointestinal tract refers to the stomach and intestine, and sometimes to all the structures from the mouth to the anus. ....

. Thus he studied the effects of narcotics, as well as poison gasses on the lungs. He conducted the poison gas study during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 (1914—1918) when he served as an army doctor in Germany.

It is said that Magnus was very fond of ice skating and would give his whole laboratory staff time off when the temperature was below freezing.

Rudolf Magnus Institute

Originally the pharmacology department in Utrecht was housed in an old hospital for victims of the plague (built in 1567), named Leeuwenbergh. Magnus convinced the Rockefeller Foundation

Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...

 to give him the money to build a new laboratory. In 1926, Magnus laid the first stone for this new instistute in Utrecht on the Vondellaan, named Nieuw Leeuwenbergh. In 1968, David de Wied

David de Wied

David de Wied was a Dutch professor of pharmacology at the University of Utrecht.Due to the necessity of hiding as a jew during the Second World War, De Wied only started in 1947 studying medicine at the University of Groningen...

 renamed the building to the Rudolf Magnus Institute. Due to his passing in 1927 Rudolf Magnus would never work there himself. Today the building is no longer in use as a laboratory.

The Rudolf Magnus Institute for Neuroscience still exists and is one of the research institutes of the University Medical Center Utrecht

University Medical Center Utrecht

The University Medical Center Utrecht or UMCU is the main hospital of the city of Utrecht. It is affiliated with the Utrecht University. Since the foundation of the university in 1636 an academic hospital has existed in various forms...

, where neuroscientific research is performed. The Anatomical Museum in Utrecht houses Rudolf Magnus' archive.

External links

• A biographical page at the Rudolf Magnus Institute