François Achille Longet

François Achille Longet (May 25, 1811 - 1871) was a French anatomist and physiologist who was a native of Saint Germain-en-Laye. He was a student of François Magendie (1783-1855), and a pioneer in the field of experimental physiology. In 1853 he attained the chair of physiology of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. One one his better known students was German physiologist Moritz Schiff (1823-1896).

Longet is remembered for extensive research of the autonomic nervous system, and physiological experiments of the anterior and posterior columns of the spinal cord involving sensory and motor functionality. He also provided a detailed comprehensive description of nerve innervation of the larynx. With Jean Pierre Flourens (1794-1867), he performed pioneer experiments concerning the effects of ether and chloroform on the central nervous system in laboratory animals.

In 1843 with Jacques-Joseph Moreau (1804-1884), Jules Baillarger (1809-1890) and Laurent Alexis Philibert Cerise (1807-1869) he founded the "Annales médico-psychologiques", which is a journal of psychiatry that is still in publication today. Some other important written works by Longet are:
* "Recherches expérimentales et pathologiques sur les propriétés et les fonctions des faisceaux de la moelle épinière et des racines des nerfs rachidiens" (1841)
* "Traité l'Anatomie et Physiologie du Système nerveux de l'Homme et des Animaux vertébrés" (1842)
* "Traite de physiologie" (1850-)

References

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=qCclAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA6-PA821&lpg=RA6-PA821&dq=achille+longet+1811&source=web&ots=FK5dCN6mac&sig=IkZDxlgwMiDF7xxNc-7UpnPBKGs The English Cyclopaedia By Charles Knight]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10122a.htm New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia]
* [http://pmgagey.club.fr/Longet1861-a.htm Text translated from F.A. Longet's Handbook of Physiologie]