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René Quinton
Who was René Quinton?
- René Quinton, also known as the father or precursor of Marine Therapy and the benefits of seawater, was born in Chaumes-en-Brie, France, on December 15th, 1866, son of Paul Quinton and Marie Amyot.
- He is considered a humanist of his time as he studied multiple fields, such as geology, palaeontology, philosophy and aviation, although his main areas of research were biology and physiology.
- In 1897, his ideas on the marine origin of life led Etienne Jules Marey, professor of Natural History at the “Collège de France”, to make him his personal advisor. Etienne later developed a laboratory for him where he could carry out his experiments.
- After a life dedicated to research and the application of his Law of Marine Constancy, René Quinton passed away in Paris at the age of 58.
René Quinton’s main contributions
Quinton demonstrated the importance of a perfect balance between intra- and extra-cellular fluids, as well as the fact that the osmotic changes indispensable for life are carried out thanks to blood plasma and the maintenance of its characteristics. He also showed that isotonic seawater could be used instead of blood plasma. Thanks to this discovery, the name of this marine plasma was popularized as "Quinton's Plasma".
His theory, put into practice in the multiple Marine Dispensaries opened throughout France, contributed to saving thousands of children's lives with the use of marine plasma. Quinton never thought of this plasma as a medicine, but as extracellular fluid, exactly adapted to the needs of living cells.
From René Quinton’s theory to the scientific evidence
In 1897, René Quinton formulated a new principle that revolutionized the scientific paradigms of the time.
He discovered that animal life, which originally emerged from the oceans, tends to maintain the conditions of its origins despite the variations that have happened throughout time. Instead of passively obeying the influence of its current environment, life resists these changes. Living beings remain true marine beings, whose cells continue to live in the same aquatic conditions in which primitive cells lived. Illnesses appear due to the alteration of this essential environment.
“The marine environment, from where life originated, is the largest ecosystem on the planet.”
This formulation led René Quinton to base his scientific theory on a universal premise: Seawater, reduced to isotonicity, has a chemical composition similar to that of blood plasma. Through this idea, Quinton formed his basic therapy: to reconstruct the damaged cell using seawater. In 1904, Quinton published "L'Eau de Mer, milieu organique", where he laid out the foundations for his theories and gathered different scientific evidence of the therapeutic benefits of seawater.
This formulation led René Quinton to base his scientific theory on a universal premise: Seawater, reduced to isotonicity, has a chemical composition similar to that of blood plasma. Through this idea, Quinton formed his basic therapy: to reconstruct the damaged cell using seawater. In 1904, Quinton published "L'Eau de Mer, milieu organique", where he laid out the foundations for his theories and gathered different scientific evidence of the therapeutic benefits of seawater.