Louis Couty

Louis Couty (13 January 1854 in Nantiat, France[1] – 22 November 1884 in Rio de Janeiro, Empire of Brazil) was a French physician and physiologist.

He worked at the Laboratory of Experimental Physiology at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, the first of its kind in Brazil.

Couty began to study curare, a plant poison, and his first published paper was on its physiological properties, in 1876.

Hearing about his work, the Brazilian emperor Dom Pedro II visited the Laboratory and invited him to be its first director, providing also the necessary resources to support the research lines.

Couty also did experiments on other toxic plants and animals, the physiological effects of climate, on the pharmacology of mate, coffee, sugar cane alcohol, etc.