(trumpet fanfare) - [Narrator]  Dr.   Arthur C. Guyton,   Searching for Truths.

Major funding for this program was made possible by the University of Mississippi Foundation, Medical Support and Development Organization, Incorporated, and by the Phil Hardin Foundation, dedicated to improving education for Mississippians.

Additional funding was provided by the Stuart C. Irby Company.

- It's when you begin to understand how any one part of the body works.

It's a real beauty, and it's even more beautiful when you put those parts together, and make it all work as a human being, as a real human being, a thinking person.

- [Narrator] Although softly spoken, the words of Dr. Arthur Guyton have attracted the attention of the world's scientific community for 40 years.

In his career as a physiologist, Guyton has focused his work on the cardiovascular system.

In the mid-1960s, he had the vision to recognize the unlimited possibilities of a new research tool: the analog computer.

Over the years, as the technology of the computer advanced, so did its value to science, and it was with the assistance of the computer that Guyton was able to define the connection between kidney function and high blood pressure.

- Nobody knew much about computers.

Nobody was using computers much, and for him to develop something that sophisticated, which he really did himself, was really amazing, but I don't think the medical community, as far as the practicing medical community, really realized what this might be.

Researchers did.

- [Guyton] We have programmed on the computer, a mathematical model of circulatory system.

We can use this model to simulate various things, like heart attacks, like high blood pressure, the effects of various foods, such as increase in salt intake and things like that.

The computer model has made it so that we can test ahead of time some theories that turn out to be ridiculous, and we can just pass that by almost entirely, so far as the laboratory is concerned.

On the other hand, it tells us those theories that are very plausible.

It may not tell us which one is right, but it'll tell us which ones could work.

So we will go to the laboratory, and we will run those experiments, and find out which one is correct.

- There was two schools.

Some people thought he was crazy, and some said, "Well, this is really something "we can use in research, "and something we can use in teaching, "and maybe use in other areas," so there was skepticism.

- For instance, the use of diuretic drugs, which have become the major drug in the treatment of hypertension.

We were using those drugs before Dr. Guyton's papers came out, but after the information that he showed us, we understood a lot better about why they worked, how they worked, and also, why certain other drugs didn't work as well, unless you used a diuretic with them.

- Now our work has not been so much in the drugs, but in understand what was the basic cause of high blood pressure.

- Many physicians thought that a cause of hypertension or high blood pressure was the central nervous system.

In other words, if people were tense or nervous or worried, their blood pressure would go up, and if they were continually tense, they would develop hypertension.

Now one of Guyton's great contributions was to show that simply an effect on the peripheral circulation could not permanently raise blood pressure, that the kidney itself acted as a tremendous regulatory mechanism.

- And this is a fundamental concept, which he has emphasized throughout and has emphasized that the kidney is dominant in the role of the control of blood pressure - That's the driving force that makes us do this type of work we do, because we have this big problem.

We have 20% of all people get high blood pressure some time or another.

- [Narrator] Arthur Guyton's interest in science was strongly influenced by his parents' backgrounds.

He was born in Oxford, Mississippi in 1919.

His mother, Mary Smallwood Guyton, had been a missionary in China prior to her marriage.

- Well, she was a missionary teacher, not a missionary in a sense of being an evangelist.

She was a teacher in a girl's school.

What she taught was the physical sciences, mathematics and physics, primarily.

And that was very important to me, because my own inclination was towards physics and mathematics.

- [Narrator] His father, Dr. Billy Guyton, had been dean of the two year School of Medicine at the University of Mississippi.

But he was better known as one of the state's leading ophthalmologists with his own eye clinic in Oxford.

- Dr. and Mrs. Guyton were both very soft-spoken, gentle people, and well educated, and I think it played a large part in influencing the children.

- Of course, Dr. Guyton's clinic, he and the clinic drew patients from four, five states.

It was a busy, busy, busy clinic.

So he was known all over that area of the country.

- [Guyton] I saw what he was doing, saw what he could do, the value of it.

Before I was out of high school, I could fit glasses to patients.

- [Narrator] In 1939, Arthur Guyton graduated first in his class from the University of Mississippi, with a B.A.

degree in Chemistry.

He went on to receive his M.D.

from Harvard Medical School, and in 1943, began his surgical internship at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Then came the first of two interruptions of his medical career.

Two years of service in the Navy during World War II.

He returned to Massachusetts General as a surgical resident, but after only one year, he faced his second interruption, one that threatened to destroy his entire career.

- I could feel a very bad headache, and bad backache.

My back was just hurting terribly, and aching of the muscles.

But the way the hospital was organized, and the surgical service was, that everybody else was working just as hard, so you couldn't leave your work and get somebody else to do it.

If you did, they were just dead, because they had so much work, so therefore, I just kept right on working, right on up until I finally took my temperature, and it was 104.

So when I took my temperature, and find it 104 with terrific backache, and almost falling down, and almost fainting on the job, then I finally said, "Well, it just can't go on anymore."

So then I turned into the emergency ward.

- [Narrator] Two days later, Arthur Guyton diagnosed his own illness, poliomyelitis, paralytic polio.

- Polio was a very frightening thing, then.

No one knew how you got it, and when I would... he was in the hospital in isolation, and when I would go out on the street of our little neighborhood in Wellesley, with young David, who was then what, two, two and a half?

And people saw us, they would go inside their houses and shut the doors, because they were so afraid that they might catch something from us.

- In a regular hospital, they are geared for acute situations, not long-term reconditioning, so consequently, I was in a regular hospital bed, with virtually no exercise and as I was beginning to recover, about three months after the acute attack, I needed the exercises that they could give me at Warm Spring.

I didn't need any more acute medical care.

I just needed the exercises.

- [Narrator] During his six months of treatment, Guyton watched the patients at Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation struggle to perform the simplest of tasks.

He returned home to Mississippi, with several ideas that could improve the mobility of the handicapped.

Arthur Guyton conceived and built the first electric wheelchair, whose basic design is still in use today.

This invention, along with other aids he developed, earned Guyton a presidential citation.

Although he was no longer able to perform surgery, Guyton continued in research, and joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi Medical School.

He never allowed polio to slow him down, and his life became filled with rich accomplishments.

Today, he is internationally recognized as a leader in cardiovascular research, a renowned author, teacher, and the father of 10 children.

And from the beginning, his wife, Ruth Weigle Guyton, has given him support.

In fact, it's Ruth who takes credit for instigating their marriage.

- Well, there's a tradition at Wellesley, that you take the man you're interested in out to the end of Tupelo Point, and if he doesn't propose, you throw him in the lake.

So I took Arthur out there, and he didn't get wet.

(mellow flute music) - Well, I started out by saying I wanted six children, and that's more than most women want.

Most women, well, back when I got married, most women wanted three or four.

Nowadays, they all say two, but my wife was a member of a family of four children, and she sort of was thinking in terms of four, but very fortunately, all of our first four children were boys.

So she wanted a girl, so the next one turned out to be a girl, and she says, so, she says, "We'll see if we can get another girl", and we did get another girl.

By then, we had the six that I wanted.

But then, there's another thing that happened.

She'd gotten where she loved the babies, and I loved the children.

And she'd love to have a baby around all the time.

- My mother is more of a reader in terms of fiction, and reading for enjoyment.

She probably is a lot more interested in plays and music, but he always went with her to these concerts, and they took us.

He probably is a little bit more interested in sports, and he's the one that taught us to play tennis, and taught us to swim, and taught us to sail and water ski.

(birds cawing) So they were... the roles were fairly complementary, I think.

- If you went to the house when the boys were little, the house where Arthur lives now.

I've been there when they were working on it, and there'd be seven, eight year old boys, and then Arthur directing them what to do to build bookcases or to build kitchen cabinets, and they'd have a hammer and nail and were pretty good carpenters by the time they were six, seven years old.

- We wouldn't have had a house like this if it hadn't been for their labor, because we couldn't afford it.

It was necessary.

- When we were building the house, we had to get up very early, and we mixed concrete from 8:00 til 1:00 or so, and a real hard physical labor during the summer.

I always remembered those days.

- It's been a tremendous advantage to them, to have the feeling that's there nothing they can't undertake and accomplish.

And they get that from him, not from their mother.

- We were all fiercely competitive with each other.

I think, each person as they got older tended to find a place where they could be on their own, without being a part of a big family.

For me, that was going to Duke Medical School instead of trying to go to Harvard Medical school like everybody ahead of me had done, and it was wonderful.

I got to Durham, and there were no Guytons to be seen.

It was the best thing I've ever done.

- [Narrator] Although individuality was encouraged, the children were raised on conversations centering around science and physics.

As a result, all 10 have chosen medicine for a career, but their specialties are as diverse as their personalities.

The eldest is an ophthalmologist.

There are two cardiothoracic surgeons, two internists, a rheumatologist, two anesthesiologists, and an orthopedist.

- [Ruth] I think the major decision was made by the first one, and he agonized as to the future, but after he had made the decision, the others sort of followed the pattern.

And they inspired each other, I think.

- [Narrator] While helping to raise 10 children, Arthur Guyton spent his nights and weekends writing.

His Textbook of Medical Physiology is the most widely used medical textbook in the world.

- Dr. Guyton would bring me the tapes on Monday morning, and dump 'em on my desk, and here it is, everyone else had been playing over the weekend, and he had been working, and here were these tapes to prove it, and there would be all of these background noises of the family going about their business, and evidently, he was doing all of his dictating in the middle of the family.

- I hadn't intended to publish a book, actually.

I just wrote it for my students, but some of the publishers got a hold of it, and three different ones of them offered me a contract to publish a textbook of physiology.

- When I was a fellow, a research fellow, at Harvard Medical School in 1962, I was studying and reviewing material in preparation of taking my board examination in surgery.

I completed my surgical residency, and I wanted to review the area of physiology of the cardiovascular system, and a friend of mine said, "Why don't you get a hold of Guyton's "Textbook of Physiology?

"It's so easy to read."

Well, my previous experience with textbooks of physiology were, was, that they were, in fact, put together, it seemed, to confound a student, as opposed to be of any material assistance, and this book was so remarkable in that it was readable and understandable, and comprehensive.

- And I thought it would be just as easy as writing this for my students, but when you start publishing a book for everybody, you have to really study every one of those fields, so I studied like mad for two years straight while updating what I'd already done for our students, and that was the textbook.

- Nowadays, because the subject has become so diverse, and there are so many special fields, it is less common for the whole textbook to be written by one man, and having said that, it is remarkable that Dr. Guyton still manages to write in so many diverse fields, and so competently.

It is an impressive effort.

There are not many people, who would be, I think, able to cover their subjects so widely.

- [Narrator] Since 1956, Arthur Guyton's Textbook of Medical Physiology has helped teach students around the world.

It has been translated into nine languages, and the 8th edition has recently been published.

Although writing remains an important part of Guyton's career, his real love for teaching shows in the classroom and the lab.

He holds the distinction of having taught every medical student at the University of Mississippi Medical Center since 1955.

- So if I move my hand over to here, and set it there, and leave it there, and don't move it, and don't touch a thing, after about 10 minutes, I've lost my hand.

I don't know where it is.

I have to move it a little, to stimulate some of these receptors.

And then I'll know where it is.

Well, the same thing is true of blood pressure.

You raise the blood pressure very high, stretch the blood vessels.

- He was one of those teachers that you enjoyed going to class, and that's not the case in all medical student classes, but he had the ability to make students relax.

One thing that I remember that really influenced me more than anything else on how to study is when I went to his class, he told us never to bring the book back to class.

He said, "I don't want you looking at the book."

He said, "I'm going to, and I don't want you "to take notes in my class.

"And I want you to listen to what I've got to say, "and you go home and you read today's lesson "and yesterday's lesson, "and you do that every day."

And that was something he'd learned, somehow or another, and was very important to me in studying.

Of course, reading his book was very easy because it was written much like he lectured.

- I think his greatest contribution to science is in his teaching.

And the reason for that statement is that, as I said, he has trained over 150, 100 to 150 research scientists, 25 of whom have become departmental chairs.

Many of his students have gone on to achieve national and international recognition, so he's taught over 4000 medical students here at the University Medical Center.

- [Narrator] During his 40 years of working with colleagues and students, Guyton has authored or co-authored over 500 articles that have been published in leading medical journals.

These articles attracted the attention of not just physiologists, but members of other medical disciplines, as well.

- Do another section, parallel, you know.

- Professor Guyton has kept pace with the changes in physiology, the new fields that has opened up, and we've always been aware of this, from the South African point of view, but also in terms of the international context, one can always refer to his work and still keep up with the new developments, so he's really kept pace with the new developments in the search world.

- [Narrator] With success came accolades and awards, and perhaps the most outstanding honor came in 1978, when Arthur Guyton was invited to deliver the Harvey Lecture for the Royal College of Physicians in London.

- They hold a very distinguished lecture once a year only, which is published in a book, and only really the most distinguished scientists have been invited to give this lecture.

It's considered a very major honor, and I'm extremely pleased that my friend and colleague Arthur Guyton was one of that very select group of scientists.

- [Narrator] In 1989, Mississippi honored its own.

August 25th was proclaimed Arthur C. Guyton Day, in recognition of his retirement as Chairman of the Physiology and Biophysics Department at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Hundreds of friends, family, colleagues and former students came together to honor this very special man, for his outstanding contribution to the field of medicine, and his dedication to his home state of Mississippi.

(indistinct conversations) Arthur Guyton's influence has reached from the classroom to the international scientific community and the magnitude of his career becomes apparent when trying to pinpoint his most significant contribution.

- Well, there's one answer I always have to give first.

Otherwise, my wife won't let me live with her, and that is the family.

But that's the real truth.

- But I just don't know of anyone who's ever sat in his class who was not excited by how he taught and what he taught, and this was his great influence on me, was to give me motivation, taught me a lot about how to study and how to learn, and how to think about medicine, so unquestionably, his greatest achievement to me was to produce physicians.

- It is hard to place any sort of a gauge, if you would, except to say that this remarkable person has not only set standards within the institution, but around the world, in terms of physiologic research related to cardiovascular dynamics.

- I think he's been a very important force in the whole field of medical research, because of, he's telling us that we've got to try to look for connections between different facts, and try to put them together.

I consider him as a major force for putting things together, synthesizing our ideas, and making them fit, and making sense of out of them.

- And then I'd like to be known for the teaching, and for the  Textbook   of Medical Physiology, which has been something that has been valuable to me.

- If you would classify a genius as an extraordinary innovator who moved a whole major field of science, then certainly, Arthur is a genius.

- He is a remarkable man who has overcome disabilities which would have relegated many a lesser man to the background, and the non-achieving life, whereas Dr. Guyton's life of achievement has been an exceedingly rich one.

It has stimulated him rather than held him back in the achievement of a wide number of researches and contributions throughout his life.

- I think that biggest thing he has shown is that a physical handicap doesn't have to limit you in following what you want to do.

Look at Itzhak Perlman.

And I think that he has inspired all of us in terms of letting us know that we can do anything we want, (voice breaking) because he has.

(mellow instrumental music) - [Narrator] Major funding for this program was made possible by the University of Mississippi Foundation, Medical Support and Development Organization Incorporated, and by the Phil Hardin Foundation, dedicated to improving education for Mississippians.

Additional funding was provided by the Stuart C. Irby Company.