Two-hundred years ago, after accusing him of being the “enemy of the Republic,” Anton Lavoisier was guillotined, ending the life of a great scientist who had discovered and named oxygen. Now, when we are at the`head-start' juncture into the new century of electronic era, we must look back at those moments in history that built our subject, lest we forget the lessons of the past and the sacrifices of our ancestors. Here I will present stories of wisdom and hard work, tenacity and heroism, happy accidents and welcome mistakes that shaped respiratory physiology from Aristotle to Avery. After exploring the origins of common medical terms, I will present the tales in four sections: Section I: Erasistratus's “pneumatic theory” of respiration, in which he believed that breathing was needed to cool the heart and the arteries carried air: Galen's concept of four“spirits,” and mixture of air with blood in the left ventricle; and Ibn-an-Nafis who described pulmonary circulation; Section II: The tragic tale of Michael Servetus, the first Westerner to describe pulmonary circulation, but accused of heresy, was to die at the stakes along with all of his books; and the works of Andreas Vesalius. William Harvey, Reverend Stephan Hales, and John Mayow. Section III: The discovery of O2. and the impact of the 17th and 18th century physics and chemistry revolutions on respiratory sciences. Section IV: The stories of modern masters: Bohr, LeGallois, Hutchinson, Haldane, Henderson, Krogh, Neergaard, Rahn, Pattle, Clements, Avery, and others, with an overview of research impacting pediatric pulmonology. These are tales of intellectual perseverance of those who contributed, despite a million mutinies, crusades, inquisitions, civil wars, earthquakes, and famines; they should be inspirational and instructive. Describing this huge subject in a single presentation has great limitations, but I will try to capture its essence with illustrations and narration.
