History Corner Poster Competition

ROMANIA
Alexandru M. Vitzu –
Founder of the Romanian school of experimental physiology
Beatrice Mihaela Radu, Maria-Luisa Flonta
Department of Anatomy, Animal Physiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, Splaiul Independentei 91-95, Bucharest, Romania

Abstract
ALEXANDRU M. VITZU [VITZOU] (21 November 1853, Săvineşti, Neamţ county – 25 December 1902, Bucharest) was a Romanian zoologist. He got his bachelor degree in Natural Sciences at the Faculty of Science in Iaşi, Romania. Vitzu followed his doctoral studies at the University of
Sorbonne, Paris, France between 1877 – 1882 under the supervision of Prof. Paul Bert and he defended his PhD thesis in 1882 on the topic “Researches on the structure and formation of teguments in Decapod Crustacea”. Once returned in Romania, Vitzu became a Professor at the Department
of Zoology and Animal Physiology of the Faculty of Science at the University of Bucharest. In the period 1885-1888, he was General Inspector of the Schools. He was the founder of the Romanian school of experimental physiology and he was a pioneer of endocrinology in Romania. He
performed various studies on the internal renal secretion, on the secretion of internal glands or on the cardiac action of digitalin. He was a pioneer in neurophysiology. Vitzu discovered that, after the resection of the occipital lobes, in which the visual hubs are located, animals could recover a
certain capacity of visual orientation after a while. He attributed this fact to nervous regeneration. Now we know that the phenomenon of blindsight is actually generated by the fact that some secondary connexions between the optic tract and the superior colliculi can be still maintained. These
allow for the continuation of some residual sight in persons suffering from lesions of the occipital striate cortex. Vitzu’s experiments were done on dogs or monkeys. He also has studied the excitability of the grey matter from the spinal cord in birds. He transformed his own house (Enei Street) in
an Institute of Physiology, and student classes / researches laboratories were organized up to 1926, when his successor Prof. I. Athanasiu could move the Institute of Physiology in the new building of the Faculty of Biology (Splaiul Independenţei 91-95), where it is presently located. He was a
member of the Society of Biology and Zoology from Paris, France. On 7 April 1897, he was elected Corresponding Member of the Romanian Academy

Biography Education and Scientific Appointments

He first attended the primary school in Piatra Neamţ and then the priest seminary in Socola, Iaşi.
After receiving his Baccalaureate, he also went to the University in Iaşi and obtained his Bachelor
diploma in “Physical-natural Sciences” (“Ştiinţele fizico-naturale”). He received a state scholarship
Alexandru Vitzu [Vitzou] was born on November 23, 1852, in that facilitated the continuation of his studies in Paris. France. He worked in the Faculty of Sciences
Săvineşti, Neamţ County, Romania. He was the son of the at the Sorbonne and at the School of Medicine, Paris. Under the supervision of the famous
economist Nicolae Măcărescu Vitzu, a former instructor in the physiologist Paul Bert, whose “honorary research assistant” he became, he defended his doctoral
town of Roman. He died on December 25, 1902, in Bucharest. thesis with a remarkable topic, Recherches sur la structure et la formation des téguments chez les
Crustacés décapodes, in 1882. He distinguished himself to such an extent during his Paris studies
that he was offered the opportunity to continue to work in the Laboratory of Physiology. At the same
time, the Faculty of Sciences at the Sorbonne recommended him as a possible organiser of the study
of Physiology in Rio de Janeiro. Emperor Don Pedro of Brasil offered extremely advantageous
material conditions to the person who would take this task upon him. Despite all these proposals,
Vitzu came back to Romania since the country had just obtained its independence and required so
much rebuilding effort. From 1885 to 1888, he was General Inspector of the Schools, Bucharest.
Alexandru Vitzu [Vitzou] From 1882 to 1902 he was Professor at the Department of Zoology and Animal Physiology of the
(1852-1902)
Faculty of Science at the University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

The first Romanian Institute of Physiology Contributions to neuroscience

When Vitzu returned home (1882), higher education there was still in its incipient phases. He describes this
situation in a report presented to the Ministry of Education and the Romanian Academy and published in 1888.
“Until a few years ago, the science faculties were totally deprived of laboratories and collections; besides an
incomplete Physics laboratory and a Chemistry laboratory that seldom had the necessary material, there is nothing
else in these faculties.” The situation of the Physiology laboratory is presented in another report of Prof. Vitzu’s,
from 1892: “… in 1882, there were no instruments, no location – in short, there was nothing that could constitute
some teaching material, except the blackboard and the piece of white chalk, the only assets at that time. Like all
my predecessors, I also had to teach experimental sciences with the only means I had: blackboard and chalk, for
an entire academic year, 1882-83. … It was only for the academic year 1883-84 that we received the first
endowment for Physiology….”. The endowment was of 7000 Lei, but Prof. Vitzu himself further invested 12000
Lei. He was thus further reporting: “During the autumn of the academic year 1883-84, we had received almost all
the instruments from Paris, but we had no location … After a long-time insistence, we convinced them to separate
one of the ground-floor university rooms from the Faculty of Letters into two parts through a panel. Thus,
alongside the professors of Greek language and literature, I had to do experiments on cats and on other animals.
… I could use the ground-floor corridors to keep the cages with animals I had operated on, but they were
disturbing the silence during the lectures delivered by my colleagues from Law and Letters and were also
bothering the members of the Academy, in whose neighbourhood we were. … This situation lasted for two years,
until the apartment in which the university administrator lived was vacated and was placed at my disposal. We had
the laboratory of the faculty installed at this new location; at the same time, we had two rooms built in the
courtyard of the University in which we could keep the animals we experimented on”. After further insistence,
Prof. Vitzu managed to obtain a yearly subvention of 5000-7000 Lei, as well as a special fund of 44.000 Lei, with
which he managed to organise a good material basis for his research. But, as he further says: “the university
location had become too small – we could hardly keep the teaching materials packed there in all corners; we had
no space for work because, besides the small vivisection room, all the other rooms were full of collections,
instruments and teaching stuff.”
Here is how Prof. Nicolae Florescu, at that time a pupil of Prof. Vitzu, describes the laboratory of his master: “two
small rooms, one being the professor’s office and the other, with a vivisection table in the middle, an artificial
respiration device, a closet for reagents and two windows through which the wind was terribly whistling, was the
demonstration room. There was also a large room – a museum with closets for the Physiology instruments”. But
even in such conditions, in 1890-92, as Vitzu explains, they were doing practical exercises for the students at the
Institute of Physiology, “three times a week, five hours per day, which consisted in animal dissections, learning
the techniques for the study of the anatomic elements and of the organic tissues, vivisections pursued by the
advanced students and regular weekly student lectures. These lectures that I convened were sometimes related to
topics discussed during the course, but most of the time they were on topics suggested by the professor that were
not taught during the course”.
Prof. Vitzu was planning to build a real Institute of Physiology, as he had seen in Paris and Liège, with the
physiologist he much admired, Léon Fredericq. For this reason, he conceived a project and obtained votes for the
sum of 500.000 Lei to build the institute.
Unfortunately, that institute was never built although Prof. Vitzu
displayed “an enormous effort to convince of that all the
ministers of education between 1887 and 1892. However, due to
Take Ionescu’s support, he could obtain the necessary sum of
money to fit up a private house – the Ghermani House – for the
Laboratory of Physiology. But he did not spend much time there
either and temporarily moved to the Alexandru Catargi house in
Calea Victoriei. We do not know the exact dates of these moves,
but we do know that on October 14, 1892, there was a
celebration to inaugurate the Institute of Physiology in Prof.
Vitzu’s house, in Enei Street. After ten years of efforts, Prof.
Vitzu finally managed to organise a laboratory of physiology that
was in tune to the latest requirements of the higher education.
Vizu’s house (Enei Street), The Institute of Physiology
The research in the Institute of Physiology was pursued towards two
main directions: the physiology of the cortical visual centers, on the
one hand, and the inner secretions of the kidneys, spleen, pancreas
and testicles, on the other hand. Vitzu discovered that, after the
resection of the occipital lobes, in which the visual hubs are
located, animals could recover a certain capacity of visual
orientation after a while. He attributed this fact to nervous
regeneration (Vitzu, 1893, Vitzu, 1895, Vitzu, 1897, Vitzu, 1898-
99). Vitzu’s experiments were done on dogs or monkeys. He also
studied the excitability of grey matter from the spinal cord in birds.
Nowadays we know that the phenomenon of Blindsight is actually generated
by the fact that certain secondary connections between the optic tract and the
superior colliculi are still maintained. These allow for the continuation of some
residual sight in persons suffering from lesions of the occipital striate cortex.
The original contributions were communicated to the international academic community during the physiology congresses in
Paris (1889), Liège (1892), Berne (1895), Cambridge (1898), Turin (1901) and published in prestigious scientific journals of the
time: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Paris, Comptes rendus de la Société de biologie, Paris, Archives de
Physiologie. Due to the scientific prestige Al. Vitzu and, through him, the new Romanian physiology had acquired, Vitzu was
elected president of a session at the Torino congress. A list compiled by Ioan Athanasiu, Vitzu’s successor to the Physiology
Chair and the institute, consists of 44 original scientific works out of which half (22) belonged to Prof. Vitzu and the rest to his
pupils and collaborators: dr. G.D. Spineanu (3), dr. N. Florescu (7), Z. Petrescu, A. Obregia, P. Paulescu, C. Chiriţescu, St. Zotu,
I. Jianu, Radian, Turbure, Moisescu, Lacriţeanu, Elian. Five of these works constituted topics for doctoral theses in Medicine.
One can thus assert that a real School of Physiology was formed around Prof. Vitzu’s Chair and consisted of both famous
naturalists (N. Florescu, C. Kiriţescu) and young medical doctors, who later became renowned specialists (Prof. dr. A. Obregia,
Prof. dr. I. Jianu, Prof. dr. Radian).
In 1895, Vitzu’s monograph The Doctrine of Inner Secretions (Doctrina secreţiunilor interne) appeared. In the preface of the
book, Vitzu writes that it is based “partly on the numerous works of eminent experimenters, out of which some were made also
by us, and partly on our own research, with the hope that they will be useful for the new generation … Keeping young students
informed about the new ideas, the result of so many experienced researchers’ work, and inciting them to do
experimental research in this field that yields so many results made me publish this work, which is only the beginning of
a complete study”. Unfortunately, his intention to complete this study did not materialize due to his premature death, at the age
of 50 (1902).
Awards
7 April 1897 - Corresponding member of the Romanian Academy
Member of the Society of Biology, from Paris, France
Member of the Society of Zoology, from Paris, France
References
• Vitzu A., Effets de l’ablation totale des lobes occipitaux sur la vision, chez le chien. Arch.de Physiol., 5, 688-689, 1893.
• Vitzu A., Blindness related to lesion of occipital cortex cerebri. Nature, 52, 555, 1895.
• Vitzu A., La néoformation des cellules nerveuses dans le cerveau du singe, consécutive a l’ablation complète des lobes occipitaux. Arch. de Physiol., 9, 29-43, 1897.
• Vitzu A., Récuperation de la vue perdue à la suite d’une première ablation totale des lobes occipitaux chez les singes. J. Physiol., 23, 57-59, 1898-99.