A Brief History of The Journal of General Physiology

摘要

On the occasion of the appearance of the complete online archive of articles published in The Journal of General Physiology, it seems timely to summarize briefly the developments that led to The Journal being founded and its subsequent history. In doing so I rely on the writings of Jacques Loeb, conversations with my predecessor, Paul F. Cranefield, and the following sources: Corner (1965); Pauly (1987); and Stapleton (2004). The Journal of General Physiology was founded in 1918 by Jacques Loeb (1859 to 1924), who at the time was a Member of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. Loeb had been recruited to The Institute in 1910 by Simon Flexner, The Institute's first Director, to establish a Laboratory of Experimental Biology. This decision by Flexner, a former student of Loeb, marked an important turning point because it signified a prescient broadening of The Institute's mission, from more clinically inspired medical research to biomedical research, denned broadly, with the ensuing emphasis on mechanisms. Indeed, Loeb's appointment was met with some initial resistance from The Institute's Board of Directors, and Loeb himself was concerned that The Institute's mission might constrain his freedom to pursue the wide range of problems that he was working on. Loeb wrote, in a letter to Flexner, that"... A research position is of course my ideal; the question is whether or not the [Rockefeller Institute] desires to add a new department namely that of Experimental Biology—the latter on a physico-chemical instead of a purely zoological basis. In my opinion experimental biology—the experimental biology of the cell—will have to form the basis not only of Physiology but also of General Pathology and Therapeutics . . ." (Osterhout, 1928). In the end, Flexner's leadership and vision overcame the reservations expressed by The Board of Directors and satisfied Loeb's concerns.