My Research in Neuroendocrinology: Study of the Photo-Sexual Reflex in the Domestic Duck

Abstract

Attracted at the age of 9 years by the marvels and variety of living organisms and their structure, I undertook, as a young self-made histologist, microscopic studies of vegetable and animal tissues, and obtained at the age of 16 years, a silver-gilt medal at a competition organized by the French Photographic Society where I had shown color photographs of histological sections. On this occasion in 1912. I was privileged to meet Prof. Pol Bouin, who held the chair of histology at the Nancy Medical Faculty. His exceptional personality and scientific and human value impressed me and I decided to join his team. The Great War of 1914, during which I served, delayed my project and it was only in 1919, after a long captivity, that I was able to join Professor Bouin at Strasbourg, where he had just been appointed. An eminent specialist of the genital glands and secondary sexual characteristics, he advised me to work on male birds. Several French and German biologists considered that the testes did not contain any trace of the interstitial cells which, according to Professor Bouin and his friend and colleague Prof. Paul Ancel, was the source of male hormone responsible for the development of the secondary sexual characteristics. For this reason, I became rapidly familiar with the histophysiological study of the gonads and of the sexual characteristics of the cock and, a little later, the domestic duck.