1-158-513 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Claude Bernard, 19th century French physiologist, 1913. Obverse of a silver plaquette commemorating the centenary of his birth. Bernard (1813-1878) investigated the liver, discovering glycogen, and determined that most of the process of digestion occurs in the small intestine, rather that the stomach. He showed that haemoglobin carries oxygen in red blood cells, and demonstated how carbon monoxide poisoning disrupted this process. When Bernard died in 1878, the French government organised his funeral, making him the first French scientist to be honoured in this way.