A. (Albert) Dastre

Born in 1844, Albert Dastre was a French physician and physiologist whose career was closely tied to the rise of experimental medicine in France. He studied under the influential physiologist Claude Bernard and later became one of the scholars who preserved and extended Bernard’s scientific legacy.

Dastre is especially remembered for research on blood circulation, digestion, and the nervous control of bodily functions. His name is also associated with the phrase milieu intérieur—the body's internal environment—which became a key idea in physiology and later influenced the concept of homeostasis.

Alongside his laboratory work, he wrote scientific books and essays that helped explain physiology to wider audiences. He died in 1917, leaving behind a body of work that links nineteenth-century experimental science with many of the questions modern physiology still explores.