Henryk Nusbaum (1849–1937)

Excerpt

2019 marks the 170th anniversary of the birth of Henryk Nusbaum, a Jewish–Polish neurologist, physiologist, and philosopher of medicine. Experimenting on cats, Nusbaum showed the course of sympathetic nerve fibers in mammals connecting the stellate ganglion with cardiac muscle as well as the role of these fibers in increasing heart rate. He also demonstrated that these sympathetic nerve fibers are located in the vagus nerve above the middle cervical ganglion, and additionally the paralyzing action of curare on the parasympathetic fibers of this nerve [1, 2]. His scientific investigations also included the physiology of digestive and urinary systems. For instance, Nusbaum proved that detrusor muscle contractions can be stimulated by an impulse travelling from the brain via spinal and sympathetic nerves, and he described the latter’s course [3]. …