History of sports medicine - 1912

1912

At the 1912 Olympics, participants in the marathon and the riders of the road race had to undergo a cardiac examination. Doctors on the Swedish rowing team also carried out tests. As in London four years previously, runners had to send in medical certificate of fitness and nor could they take any so-called drugs. For the marathon course, including members of the Stockholm Volunteer Aid Corps and the Red Cross, there were 11 doctors, 7 medical assistants, 30 sick assistants and 2 sick-nurses on duty. Around the course medical stations were arranged, which included sick-rooms and ambulances, each manned by a physician.

1912

American physiologist Francis G. Benedict (1870-1957) and his Scottish colleague Edward Provan Cathcart (1877-1954) published 'Muscular Work, A Metabolic Study with Special Reference to the Efficiency of the Human Body as a Machine', in which they described how they subjected a professional cyclist to different cadances and simultaneously studied his metabolism.

The apparatus designed by Francis Gano Benedict (1870-1957), which was widely used in Washington in the 'Nutrition Laboratory' of the 'Carnegie Institute' for research during rest and practice, consisted of a tube circuit around which air was driven via a ventilator. The test person breathed in and out of the circuit while water vapor and CO₂ were absorbed and the O₂ deficiency was compensated according to the principle of the French chemist and physicist Henri Regnault (1810-1878) and the French chemist and agronomist Jules Reiset (1818-1896) .

Francis Gano Benedict (1870-1957) is considered one of the most prominent researchers in the field of respiratory metabolism. In 1894 he graduated from Harvard University and at the University of Heidelberg he completed his PhD 'magna cum laude' with the thesis 'Ueber die Jodoniumbasen aus p-Bromjodbenzol'.

Upon his return to the United States, Professor Wilbur Atwater (1844-1907) encouraged him to examine physiology and nutrition. He became staff member of Atwater and in a period of twelve years they did more than five hundred experiments on rest, exercise and diet using the Atwater-Rosa respiration calorimeter, which later became known as the Atwater-Rosa-Benedict calorimeter. A series of studies, which attracted both public and scientific attention, concerned the physiological activity of alcohol. They found that alcohol provided heat energy and that it could protect the body's tissues against catabolism. These study results garnered a storm of criticism among the organizations of teetotallers. In 1897 Benedict married Cornelia Golay (1870-?), Who graduated as a biologist. Together they published a lot of research from the 'Nutrition Laboratory'. Benedict built a range of calorimeters, including a 'closed circuit' respiration device and a calorimeter. The result of all this work was that he was appointed by the 'Carnegie Institute' of Washington in 1907 as the first director of the 'Boston Nutrition Laboratory', where he continued with the construction of calorimeters. Among other things, the Benedict device for measuring the basal metabolism.

Benedict was also involved in metabolic studies on age, sex, height and weight and in an intensive study on respiratory metabolism in diabetes he worked with the American diabetologist Elliott Proctor Joslin (1869-1962).

When he visited the laboratory of the Danish Professor of Physics Christian Bohr (1855-1911) in Copenhagen in 1907, he met Professor August Krogh (1874-1947), whom he accompanied in the summer of 1908 to Greenland where they studied the excretion of Eskimos.

1912

The 'Zuntz-Geppertscher Respirator' that the German Professor Nathan Zuntz (1847-1920) used in 1912 for his study 'Zur Physiologie und Hygiene der Luftfahrt'. Thanks to this publication, aviation medicine and physiology became an independent research area within Medicine and Zuntz was named the nestor of that specialization.

1912

British physiologist Sir Joseph Barcroft (1872-1947) is best known for his research into the oxygen supply of the blood. After he graduated, he started a research on hemoglobin, in which he did not shy away from playing a test subject himself. For example, he spent seven days in a glass room to measure the amount of oxygen that the human body needs to be able to survive. He also studied the oxygen physiology at extreme heights, for which he organized expeditions to the top of Tide in Tenerife (1910), to the Monte Rosa in the Alps (1911) and to the Andes in Peru (1922). From 1925 to 1937 he held the physiology chair in Cambridge. He started his latest research on fetal respiration in 1933.

1912

In the summer of 1912, the Olympics were disputed in Stockholm. Emil Ketterer (1883-1959) was not only the medical companion of the German team but he also participated in the 100m. Looking back at medical guidance, he later posited:

"At that moment medical preparation for the Olympics was still in its infancy, and there was no question of systematic medical care at the time, for example, I was initially only given the task of the head physician Carl Diem (1882-1962). also needed medical guidance, later the team was supplemented with Martin Brustmann (1885-1964) and Arthur Mallwitz (1880-1968), but practical consequences and medical knowledge were not available because in Stockholm, on the one hand, there were no specific treatment needs and on the other hand there were no facilities for sports medicine research available. "

1912

In September 1912 the First congress for scientific research of sports and physical exercises ("Erste Kongress zur wissenschaftlichen Erforschung des Sportes und der Leibesübungen") was organized at the Golfhotel of the German Oberdorf / Thuringia under the direction of German sports physician Arthur Mallwitz (1880-1968). During this congress, the German Reich Committee for the Scientific Study of Sport and Physical Exercise (Deutsches Reichskomitee für die Wissenschaftliche Erforschung des Sportes und der Leibesübungen) was founded. It was the start of organized sports medicine. The lectures cover a wide range of topics, with particular emphasis on the physiological and internist aspects of sports medicine research. However, the orthopedic and traumatological aspects were missing, which was mainly due to the fact that the organizers were mainly Internists and Physiologists. The Austrian internist Friedrich Kraus (1858-1936) chaired the Congress and discussed the theme 'Sportübertreibung', Alexander Strubell (1872-?), a cardiologist from Dresden The ECG of the swimmer ('Das Elektrokardiogramm der Schwimmer'), Arthur Mallwitz (1880-1968) referred to Sport and sexuality ('Sport und Sexualität'), German physiologist Nathan Zuntz (1847-1920) talked about The value of physiology for physical exercises ('Wert der Physiologie für die Leibesübungen'). There was also a remarkable contribution by Rahel Hirsch (1870-1953), a female doctor from Berlin, who explained the theme The physical exercise of the woman ('Die körperliche Ertüchtigung der Frau').

1912

Together with his brothers Iver (1879-1937) and Gus (1882-1913) the Swedish rider John Lawson (1871-1916) emigrated to the United States where they participated in many Six Days. John's nickname was 'The Terrible Swede' and he won a lot of competitions worldwide. In the picture he is taken care of by his personal masseur.

1912

The newly established Deutsches Reichskomitee für die Wissenschaftliche Erforschung des Sportes und der Leibesübungen set itself the task of setting up a sports science institute in Berlin-Charlottenburg. On the basis of studies on athletes, the effects of physical training on the human body would be identified during the practice of different sports, and therefore sport medical research would be promoted. The German gymnastics federation opposed the use of the term 'sports', because in their view it meant pure performance, sensationalism and propaganda, without being useful as a health-promoting component.

1912

A look at the gym of the Titanic, which would sink a few moments later.