Poul Edvard Poulsson (18 April 1858 – 19 March 1935) was a Norwegian physician and pharmacologist. He was a professor and founder of the department of pharmacology at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

Biography

Poulsson was born in Larvik in 1858 and married Anna Sophie Tutein in 1896. He was the father of lawyer Erik Tutein Poulsson and a father-in-law of Gabriel Langfeldt. He became a cand.med. in 1885 and studied medicine at Oslo's Rikshospitalet. He traveled to Germany in 1887 to study pharmacology and physiology, and in 1890 he worked alongside Oswald Schmiedeberg to describe the paralytic effects of

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

and

strychnine Strychnine (, , American English, US chiefly ) is a highly toxicity, toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, ...

in animals. His doctoral thesis, which he defended in 1892, focused on anthelmintic drugs. Poulsson returned to Oslo in 1891 and worked as a consultant at Sandefjord Spa until 1897. He was appointed extraordinary professor at the

from 1895 (and ordinary professor from 1913); he founded the university's department of pharmacology. After his retirement as professor in 1928, he was appointed manager of the recently established ''Statens Vitaminlaboratorium''. Among his works are ''Om strykninets lammende virkning'' from 1889, ''Lærebog i farmakologi for læger og studerende'' from 1905, and ''Om det fettopløselige vitamin og torskelevertran'' from 1923. His research in the 1920s focused on vitamins, particularly

vitamin D Vitamin D is a group of structurally related, fat-soluble compounds responsible for increasing intestinal absorption of calcium, magnesium, and phosphate, along with numerous other biological functions. In humans, the most important compo ...

; he showed that Norwegian cod liver oil contained more vitamin D than foreign forms of cod liver oil. He was a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1894. Poulsson died on 19 March 1935 in Aker (now Oslo).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poulsson, Edvard 1858 births 1935 deaths People from Larvik Norwegian pharmacologists Academic staff of the University of Oslo Norwegian medical writers Norwegian textbook writers Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters