Hess, Walter Rudolf

Hess, Walter Rudolf, 1881–1973, Swiss physiologist. For his work on the control of organs by certain areas of the brain he shared with Egas Moniz the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He was (1917–51) professor and director of the physiology institute at the Univ. of Zürich.

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Hess, Walter Rudolf

(born March 17, 1881, Frauenfeld, Switz.—died Aug. 12, 1973, Locarno) Swiss physiologist. He worked at the University of Zürich (1917–51). His interests centred on the nerves that control automatic functions such as digestion and excretion and that also trigger the activities of a group of organs that respond to complex stimuli, such as stress. Using fine electrodes to stimulate or destroy specific areas of the brain in cats and dogs, Hess mapped the control centres for each function to such a degree that he could bring about the physical behaviour pattern of a cat confronted by a dog simply by stimulating the proper points on the cat's hypothalamus. He shared a 1949 Nobel Prize with Antonio Egas Moniz.