Nicolas Maurice Arthus

Nicolas Maurice Arthus was a French immunologist and physiologist. The Arthus reaction, a localized inflammatory response, is named after him.

Arthus was born January 9, 1862 in Angers, France. He studied medicine in Paris and received his doctorate in 1886. In 1896 he became Professor of Physiology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He returned to France to work at the Pasteur Institute in 1900, and later taught at the Ecole de Médecine, Marseilles. In 1907, he was appointed to the Chair of Physiology at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, where he remained for twenty-five years. He died in Fribourg on February 24, 1945.

Apart from the reaction named after him, Arthus is best known for his work on anaphylaxis. He also studied snake venom and the role of calcium in the coagulation of blood.

Selected bibliography

 * (with Calixte Pagès) Nouvelle théorie chimique de la coagulation du sang, Archives de physiologie normale et pathologique, Paris, 5th ser., 2 (1890), 739–746.


 * Éléments de chimie physiologique, Paris: G. Masson, 1895.


 * Eléments de physiologie, Paris: Masson, 1902.


 * Injections répétées de serum du cheval chez le lapin, Comptes rendus des séances de la Société de biologie et ses filiales, Paris, 55 (1903), 817–820.


 * Précis de physiologie microbienne, Paris: Masson, 1921.


 * De l'anaphylaxie à l'immunité; anaphylaxie, protéotoxies, envenimations, anaphylaxie-immunité, serums antivenimeux. Paris: Masson et cie, 1921.