The Nobel Prize for Medicine has been awarded to pharmacologist Professor Daniele Bovet, Chairman of the Chemical Laboratory of Italy's Superior Institute of Medicine. Professor Bovet, who is investigating in Rome the effects of tranquilliser drugs on people, contributed to the harnessing of curare, the South American poison used by surgeons to relax patients muscles. 25th October 1957 Bovet, Daniel (also Daniele Bovet) Italian (Swiss-born) pharmacologist and physiologist; discovered pyrilamine (also mepyramine; 1st antihistamine to be discovered) 1944; discovered gallamine as synthetic muscle relaxant 1947; Nobel Prize in Medicine 1957 _1907-1992