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Definition: Erlanger, Joseph from The Columbia Encyclopedia

(ûr'lăng-Әr), 1874–1965, American scientist, b. San Francisco, grad. Univ. of California (B.S., 1895), M.D. Johns Hopkins, 1899. For his contributions to physiology, especially his work on nerve action, he shared with Herbert Spencer Gasser the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He was professor (1910–46) and (from 1946) professor emeritus of physiology at the medical school of Washington Univ., St. Louis. With H. S. Gasser he wrote Electrical Signs of Nervous Activity (1937).


Erlanger, Joseph

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
US physiologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944 with Herbert Gasser for their work on the transmission of impulses by nerve fibres. They found that the smaller nerve fibres were responsible for the conduction of pain, and that the thickness of a nerve fibre dictates the speed at which a nerve can transmit electrical information. Neurons, cells that are specialized for transmitting electrical signals from one location in the body to another, are the functional units of the nervous system. Neurons share common features. A neuron has a relatively large cell body containing the nucleus and most of the cytoplasm and organelles of the cell. They also have very long fibrelike processes, that can extend over large distances in the body and conduct messages. Erlanger was one of the first to characterize the different types of neurons, and together with Gasser, demonstrated that the sensory fibres (dendrons) in mixed nerve trunks (nerves with both sensory neurons…
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Full text Article Erlanger

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary Full text Article Biographical Names
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Full text Article Erlanger, Joseph

From Science Encyclopedia: Encyclopedia of Chemistry
(b. 1874–d. 1965) Joseph Erlanger was born on January 5, 1874, in San Francisco, California, to Herman and Sarah Erlanger. He received a B.S. in chemistry at the University of California and later attended Johns Hopkins University to study medicine, receiving an M.D. in 1899. He was appointed…
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Full text Article Erlanger, Joseph

From American Biographies: American Scientists
(b. 1874–d. 1965) physiologist )Joseph Erlanger won a share of the 1944 Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology for his groundbreaking research concerning nerve fibers. His work also contributed to a better understanding of the cardiovascular system, particularly how it sends and receives nervous…
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ERLANGER, JOSEPH; GASSER, HERBERT SPENCER
Nationality: American b. 5 January 1874, San Francisco, CA, USA; d. 5 December 1965, St. Louis, MO, USA Nationality: American b. 5 July 1888, Platteville, WI, USA; d. 11 May 1963, NY, USA For their discoveries relating to the highly differentiated functions of single nerve fibers Erlanger graduated…
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Full text Article Erlanger, Joseph

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
1874-1965 US physiologist and Nobel Prize winner Born in San Francisco, and educated at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, where he accepted an assistant professorship, he was subsequently appointed professor of physiology at Wisconsin University (1906-10) and then at Washington University, St Louis…
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Full text Article Erlanger

From Collins English Dictionary
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Full text Article Erlanger, Joseph

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
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… so many distinguished investigators have labored in this field in vain, that little hope is left for spectacular break-throughs. — ERWIN STRESEMANN (1959) , ON THE DIFFICULTIES INVOLVED IN FIGURING OUT THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE VARIOUS ORDERS OF BIRDS LORD ROTHSCHILD'S FOLLY Walter Rothschild…
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Full text Article Gasser, Herbert Spencer

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
US physiologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944 with Joseph Erlanger for their work on the transmission of impulses by nerve fibres. Gasser was one of the first to demonstrate the chemical transmission of nerve impulses. Gasser and Erlanger found that the smaller…
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