[Ord. Prof. Dr. Akil Muhtar Ozden (1877-1949): his life and his scientific contributions]

Dr. Akil Muhtar Ozden was born in Istanbul in 1877. After primary and secondary education, he attended Askeri Tibbiye Idadisi (military pre-medical college). Upon graduation, he attended Mekteb-i Tibbiye-i Askeriye (military medical school) for one year and escaped to Geneva where he continued his education. He eventually prepared his doctoral dissertation under Prof. Bard. He visited Pasteur Institute in Paris. The scientific environment in this institute had a big influence on Akil Muhtar. Another major influence on his scientific and research formation was Prof. Mayor, expert in Pharmaco-dynamics which was then a new discipline. Akil Muhtar obtained his "doçent" title under Prof. Mayor and discovered "Muhtar Refleks" in the same period. He returned to Istanbul upon the invitation of government. A major contribution of Akil Muhtar to Turkish medicine is his initiation and establishing of pharmaco-dynamics as a new discipline. His other major contribution was the founding of a modern internal medicine department. As a scientist, Akil Muhtar never isolated himself from social life and assumed challenging administrative and social responsibilities in very difficult times. He continued in Istanbul the scientific research that he had initiated in Geneva. He proved that digital showed its effect only in a few hours. Not nearly as long as the scientific community had been assuming in his times. He invented the santonin test, used in testing the liver functions in different diseases. This test, was eventually included in medical books as the "liver function test". Akil Muhtar retired in 1943 and was elected as a representative of the Parliament in 1946. He died in March 12, 1949.