The son of a winegrower, Claude Bernard was born in Saint-Julien-en-Beaujolais (Rhône) in 1813. Starting out as a pharmacy assistant in Lyon and author of an unsuccessful play, he moved to Paris in 1832, where he attended lectures at theÉcolede Médecine and, from 1841 to 1844, worked as an assistant to Dr. François Magendie at the Collège de France.

Doctor of Medicine in 1843, he never practiced in a medical practice or hospital, but was passionate about teaching and research. Substituting for Magendie at the Collège de France from 1847 to 1852, in 1854 he was awarded a chair in general physiology, created for him at the Sorbonne. In 1855, he also became Professor of General Physiology at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle and, at the end of the same year, was elected to the Chair of Medicine at the Collège de France, then the Collège Impérial, where he taught until his death in 1878. Arsène d'Arsonval was his preparator from 1873, before becoming that of his successor, Charles-ÉdouardBrown-Séquart, and then occupying the Chair of Medicine in his turn.

A pioneer in his field, Claude Bernard developed an intense research activity at the Collège de France, as the laboratory was for him the privileged place for the production of knowledge. He also published a large number of fundamental works, the first in 1865, entitled Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale, the last of which was published posthumously in 1947, based on his lecture notes.

Bibliography

Claude Bernard's articles and numerous publications, from his article on curare in the Revue des Deux Mondes in 1864 onwards, are held by the Bibliothèque patrimoniale.

Archives

The Claude Bernard collection at the Collège de France comprises a large number of handwritten notebooks and notepads, mainly in Claude Bernard's own hand. Around 1850, at the age of 37 and still Magendie's assistant, Claude Bernard began to record his experimental projects and results, physiological observations and early philosophical reflections. He continued writing these notes until his death in 1878, building up an exceptional collection. Although his laboratory notebooks and notes were not intended for third parties, Claude Bernard had wished them to be preserved, and gave instructions to this effect in his will.

The Collège de France preserves and promotes this collection, which was inventoried in 1962 at the request of the professors by Mirko Dražen Grmek (1924-2000), a renowned medical historian and specialist in Claude Bernard, then digitized in 2014 thanks to sponsorship and made available for consultation on Salamandre, the institution's digital heritage portal.