Heymans, Corneille J(ean) F(rançois) (1892–1968)

Belgian physiologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1938 for his discovery that the sensory organs associated with the carotid artery in the neck and the aortic arch leading from the heart have a regulatory effect on respiration.

Heymans studied the mechanisms involved in the respiratory reflexes in vertebrates. Before his work, it was accepted knowledge that respiration was regulated by the direct effect of the blood on a small area of the respiratory centre in the brain, known as the medulla. Heymans demonstrated that a set of pressure sensitive organs, known as pressoreceptors, located in the wall of the carotid sinus could be used to control respiration. He discovered that these receptors responded to variations in blood pressure to regulate heart rate and respiration. Heymans also found a set of chemoreceptors at the base of the aorta, which responded to the chemical composition of blood to regulate respiration in conjunction with the medulla. Heymans' work greatly enlarged knowledge of the important subject of respiratory control, which led to advances in the treatment of respiratory diseases.

Heymans was born in Ghent, Belgium. He received his MD degree from the University of Ghent in 1920 and became a lecturer in pharmacodynamics there in 1922. He succeeded his father, Jean François Heymans, to become professor of pharmacology at the University of Ghent in 1930 and was professor emeritus there from 1963 until his death in 1968.