Albert von Bezold

Who was Albert von Bezold?

Albert von Bezold was a German physiologist born in Ansbach.

He studied at Munich, Würzburg and Berlin, where he was an assistant to Emil Du Bois-Reymond. Later he was a professor of physiology at Jena and Würzburg.

Bezold performed important research involving the physiology of the muscles, nerves and cardiovascular system. He is also remembered for studying the physiological effects of pharmacological substances such as curare, atropine and veratrum on the body's muscles, heart, nerves and circulatory system.

The eponymous "Bezold-Jarisch reflex" is a triad of responses resulting from an intravenous injection of veratrum alkaloids. This medical sign is named along with pharmacologist Adolf Jarisch Jr., who in 1937 re-confirmed Bezold's earlier experiments.

Bezold died at the age of 32 due to a mitral stenosis caused by rheumatic endocarditis.

Associated eponym:

"Bezold's ganglion": an aggregation of ganglion cells in the interatrial septum. Described in Untersuchungen über die Innervation des Herzens, pp. 191-232.