Gustave Moussu

Vocation

French veterinary surgeon and veterinary pathologist at Alfort, and professor of comparative physiology at the National Agronomic Institute and at the School of Colonial Agronomy. His focus was endocrinology. He showed that removal of the parathyroid glands quickly causes a tetany. He was the first in 1892 to distinguish between functions and to demonstrate the difference between the thyroid and parathyroid by opposing Eugene Gley, who considered parathyroids to be "embryonic thyroid buds." Moussu showed that surgery on the goitres must therefore respect these anatomical structures, or risk acute complications. He published numerous papers on tuberculosis and its mode of transmission, particularly through milk. Following Emil Von Behring, he tried to immunize animals by the use of tuberculous bacilli attenuated by chlorine. This attempt to vaccinate against tuberculosis (by introducing live cultures into the abdominal cavity) was a failure. He was also interested in slaughterhouses, the transport of refrigerated meat and the feeding of armies in the field. He died on 16 October 1945 in Saint-Laurent-en-Gâtines, aged 81. Link to Wikipedia biography (French)