VALENTIN, GABRIEL GUSTAV

VALENTIN, GABRIEL GUSTAV (1810–1883), German physiologist, anatomist, and embryologist. Born and educated in Breslau, Valentin practiced medicine there and later moved to Berne, Switzerland, where he became professor of physiology and zootomy. Valentin, a pioneer in the study of physiology and embryology, investigated the blood circulation in the lungs, the electrical conduction in muscles and nerves, and the physiology of the senses. Together with Czech physiologist J.E. Purkinje and F.G.J. henle , he laid the foundation for the cell theory of M.J. Schleiden and Theodore Schwann. He discovered the diastatic role of the pancreatic juice in the digestion of carbohydrates, and also found a method of improving microscope observations by applying polarized light. He was the author of Handbuch der Entwicklungsgeschichte des Menschen (1835); Histiogenia Comparata (1835), for which he received the Grand Prix des Sciences Physiques; and Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen (1844; Textbook of Physiology, 1853). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S.R. Kagan, Jewish Medicine (1952), 160; B. Kisch, Forgotten Leaders in Modern Medicine (1954). (Suessmann Muntner)