Contribution of physiologists to the identification of the humoral component of immunity in the 19th century

Abstract

The history of antimicrobial humoral immunity usually focuses on the works of the German school at the end of the 19th century, born in the tradition of chemistry and disinfection. Starting from an old quarrel of priority about serotherapy between Emil von Behring (1854-1917) and the French physiologists Charles Richet (1850-1935) and Jules Héricourt (1850-1938), we first confirm that the latter stated the principle of serotherapy in 1888 and put it into practice before the seminal Behring's article in 1890, observing several adverse effects of this new immunotherapy. We also find that researchers who can be considered heirs of the French school of Physiology founded by Claude Bernard (1813-1878) also investigated the field of humoral immunity in the 1870-1880s. Maurice Raynaud (1834-1881), Auguste Chauveau (1827-1917), and eventually Charles Richet applied the experimental method of Claude Bernard to the young field of microbiology, illustrating a movement called by Jacques Léonard "physiologization of the pasteurism." However, the contribution of physiologists in this field started before Louis Pasteur, leading to the conclusion that physiologists and chemists synergistically contributed to the birth of bacteriology and immunology.

Keywords: 19th century; Charles Richet (1850–1935); Emil von Behring (1854–1917); French school of physiology; Jules Héricourt (1850–1938); immunology history; serotherapy history.

Figure 1.

Charles Richet (1850–1935) (left) and Jules Héricourt (1850–1938) (right). (Fonds Watier, Rabelais Fundation; University Library of Medicine, Université François-Rabelais de Tours).

Figure 2.

Dedication of Louis Pasteur to Jules Héricourt, at the front of his emblematic book Etudes sur la maladie des vers à soie (Fonds Watier, Rabelais Fundation; University Library of Medicine, Université François-Rabelais de Tours).

Figure 3.

Transfusion of blood from a goat to a consumptive (tuberculous) woman by Samuel Bernheim (1855–1915) (L'Illustration. 1891 Mar 7;2506:213. Fonds Watier, Rabelais Fundation; University Library of Medicine, Université François-Rabelais de Tours). Samuel Bernheim, transfusing goat's blood directly to humans, tried a variant of the method of 2 researchers from Nantes (France), Georges Bertin (1833–1916) and Jules Picq. Bertin and Picq worked on blood transfusion against tuberculosis from 1890. Like Richet and Héricourt, they focused on this dreadful illness, but contrarily to them, they only tried a transfer of innate (natural) immunity, considering goats as naturally resistant against tuberculosis. Bertin and Picq are the inventors of the word “hématothérapie,” which was widely used in France at that time. They were also the first to perform a blood injection (subcutaneously) to a human being with tuberculosis, on the 3rd of December 1890. This operation caused a sensation worldwide, as witnessed by a New York Times article in January 1891.

Figure 4.

Caricature of Jules Héricourt published in the issue #75 of Chanteclair in 1911 (Fonds Watier, Rabelais Fundation; University Library of Medicine, Université François-Rabelais de Tours). Just after their works on serotherapy, Richet and Héricourt set up a raw meat juice-based therapy against tuberculosis, which they called “zomothérapie.” This picture shows Héricourt squeezing out raw meat juice with a printing press. In the background, some various sera phials remind his contributions to serotherapy (tuberculosis, cancer, syphilis). A cartridge pouch on the wall (pink-colored because of the “Revue rose,” nickname of the “Revue scientifique” for which Héricourt was successively secretary, chief editor and manager, from 1887 to 1903) evokes the military past of Héricourt.