Weightlessness: Its Physical, Biological, and Medical Aspects. Reprinted from Medical and Biological Problems of Space Flight.

GENERALES, Constantine.

About this Item

New York, Academic Press, 1963. 8vo. Pp. 123-87. Illustrated. Stapled. Dedication to Carl-Johan Clemedson and stamp, ?Compliments of the Author COPY #?, with copy number 24 added in ink. With some pencilled marginal markings. The Greek-American physician Constantine Generales Jr (d. 1988) was assistant professor of medicine, coordinator of the space medicine program at New York Medical College and one of the true pioneers within the field of space medicine. His own introduction to the field was instigated by no other than Wernher von Braun, a meeting described by Dennis Piszkiewicz in ?The Nazi Rocketeers. Dreams of Space and Crimes of War (1995): ?Wernher von Braun had experimented with a centrifuge as a means of generating g-forces. In the summer of 1931 he had taken a leave of absence from the Raketenflugplatz to continue his engineering studies at the Institute of Technology at Zurich. While there, he interested an American medical student named Constantine Generales in the physiological consequences of space flight. The two young students decided to conduct the first experiments in space medicine. They built a rudimentary centrifuge to give laboratory mice the experience of rapid acceleration and the high g-forces that accompany it. Not surprisingly, many of the mice expired during their trips. Generales autopsied their remains and discovered that high g-forces caused cerebral hemorrhage, which was the probable cause of death. The observation was confirmed by von Braun?s landlady who discovered a ring of mouse blood that circled the room at the height of the centrifuge?s rotor. The two young scientists reluctanty ended their experiments at the insistence of von Braun?s landlady, who valued neatness more than scientific inquiry.? Carl-Johan Clemedson (1918-1990) was a Swedish military physician working for Försvarets forskningsanstalt (The Swedish Defence Research Agency). Clemedson was one of the first scientists in Sweden to take an interest in space medicine and he was a member of The International Academy of Astronautics.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Weightlessness: Its Physical, Biological, and Medical Aspects. Reprinted from Medical and Biological Problems of Space Flight.
• Condition: Very Good
• Book Type: Softcover / Paperback