Physiologist Joseph Erlanger's research on the nervous tissue of frogs led to an increased knowledge of the nature of nerve impulses. This and other experiments would lead to his winning a Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1944. While working at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, he invented the sphygmomanometer to measure blood pressure and conducted studies of how the sounds involved in the measurement of blood pressure are produced. Together with Herbert S. Gasser (who shared the Nobel Prize with him) Erlanger experimented on the nerve tissues of frogs. They determined the configuration of the impulse, measured its strength and duration, and learned that different kinds of nerve fibers exhibit various transmission characteristics. Erlanger was born on this date in 1874 and died in 1965.

Copyright Aetna InteliHealth, Inc., 2012. All rights reserved.