Joseph Erlanger

Erlanger, Joseph 

Born Jan. 5, 1874, in San Francisco; died Dec. 5, 1965, in St. Louis. American physiologist. One of the founders of electrophysiology. Member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Erlanger graduated from the University of California in 1895. He taught at the Johns Hopkins University from 1900 to 1906 and was a professor and chairman of the department of physiology at the University of Wisconsin from 1906 to 1910. He served as professor of physiology at Washington University in St. Louis from 1910 to 1946.

Erlanger’s main works dealt with bioelectrical phenomena in nerve cells and fibers. He was the first to use a cathode ray oscillograph and devise techniques for recording the phenomena. He made a major contribution to cardiovascular physiology by using noninvasive methods of recording blood pressure and circulation in the heart. He also investigated heart blocks.

Erlanger shared a Nobel Prize in 1944 with H. Gasser.

WORKS

Symposium on the Synapse. Baltimore, 1939. (Coauthor.)
Electrical Signs of Nervous Activity. Philadelphia-London-Oxford, 1937. (With H. S. Gasser.)