Major Contributors to the Lungs
| Title with Link | Comments |
| Galen of Pergamon | (130–210 AD) Believed the lungs’ primary function was to cool the heart and that air (pneuma) was drawn from the lungs into the heart. His theories, though often incorrect, were the medical standard for over 1,000 years.
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| Michael Servetus | (1511–1553) A Renaissance theologian and physician who, in 1553, was the first European to correctly describe pulmonary circulation—the process of blood flowing from the right ventricle to the lungs, where it is “purified,” and then back to the left atrium.
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| Marcello Malpighi | (1628–1694) An Italian physician who, using the newly invented microscope, provided the missing link in circulation. In 1661, he discovered the alveoli (air sacs) and the pulmonary capillaries (the tiny vessels connecting arteries and veins), showing how air and blood actually interact.
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| Antoine Lavoisier | (1743–1794) “The father of modern chemistry.” In the 1770s, he conducted experiments that identified “highly respirable air” (which Priestley had isolated), named it oxygen, and proved that respiration is a slow combustion process that consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide and water.
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| René Laennec | (1781–1826) A French physician who, in 1816, invented the stethoscope. This simple device revolutionized medicine by allowing doctors to listen to sounds within the lungs (and heart) for the first time, leading to the diagnosis of pneumonia, tuberculosis, and bronchitis.
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| John Hutchinson | (1811–1861) A British surgeon who, in 1846, invented the spirometer to measure the “vital capacity” of the lungs. This was the birth of pulmonary function testing (PFTs), which remains a cornerstone of lung disease diagnosis today. |
| Robert Koch | (1843–1910) A German physician who, in 1882, identified Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the pathogen that causes tuberculosis. At the time, TB (or “consumption”) was the world’s most devastating lung disease. Awarded the Nobel Prize (1905).
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| Cournand,
& Richards |
(1891-1988) et al. This team pioneered cardiac catheterization (first performed by Forssmann on himself in 1929). Cournand and Richards used it in the 1940s to measure pressures inside the pulmonary artery, opening a new window into cardiorespiratory physiology. Awarded the Nobel Prize (1956).
Cournand
Forssman
Richards
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| Ashbaugh & Petty | (1936-2009) & (1932-2017) In 1967, these American physicians (David Ashbaugh and Thomas Petty) published the first description of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), a state of catastrophic lung failure. Their paper also outlined the successful use of PEEP (positive end-expiratory pressure), which is a foundational concept of modern mechanical ventilation. |
