Background
Arthus was born on 9 January 1862 in Angers, France.
Arthus was born on 9 January 1862 in Angers, France.
He studied medicine in Paris and received his doctorate in 1886. He also studied snake venom and the role of calcium in the coagulation of blood.
The Arthus reaction, a localized inflammatory response, is named after him. 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 Society Française Médecine Légale de Marseilles (currently integrated in the University of the Mediterranean).
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 24 February 1945. Apart from the reaction named after him, Arthus is best known for his work on anaphylaxis.