A Swiss neurophysiologist, Walter Rudolf Hess (1881-1973) won the 1949 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (with Antonio Egas Moniz) for discovering the role played by certain parts of the brain in coordinating the functions of internal organs.

The son of Professor Clemenz Hess, Walter Rudolf Hess was born at Frauenfeld, Switzerland, on March 17, 1881. In 1900 he became a medical student at the University of Lausanne, and after more study in Switzerland and Germany, he graduated from the University of Zurich in 1906. He became a practicing ophthalmologist, but in 1912 he turned to physiology. In 1917 Hess was appointed professor of physiology and director of the Institute of Physiology at the University of Zurich.

The Experiments

Hess soon became interested in the study of the autonomic nervous system, the nerves that originate at the base of the brain and extend throughout the spinal cord. These nerves control such functions as digestion and...