John Scott Haldane

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For another British physiologist, see
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane
.
John Scott Haldane
FRS
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
Known forBlack Veil Respirator
Haldane effect
Haldane's decompression model
SpouseLouisa Kathleen Coutts Trotter
ChildrenJ. B. S. Haldane, Naomi Mitchison
AwardsFellow of the Royal Society, member of the Royal College of Physicians and of the Royal Society of Medicine; many honorary degrees
Scientific career
FieldsPhysiology, medicine
InstitutionsUniversity of Glasgow
New College, Oxford
University of Birmingham
For other people named John Haldane, see John Haldane (disambiguation).

John Scott Haldane

physiologist and philosopher famous for intrepid self-experimentation which led to many important discoveries about the human body and the nature of gases.[2] He also experimented on his son, the celebrated and polymathic biologist J. B. S. Haldane, even when he was quite young.[3] Haldane locked himself in sealed chambers breathing potentially lethal cocktails of gases while recording their effect on his mind and body.[4]

Haldane visited the scenes of many mining disasters and investigated their causes.[2][5] When the Germans used poison gas in World War I, Haldane went to the front at the request of Lord Kitchener and attempted to identify the gases being used. One outcome of this was his invention of a respirator, known as the black veil.[2][6][4]

Haldane's investigations into

decompression tables, and his mathematical model is still used in highly modified forms for computing decompression schedules.[2][4]

Background and family

Haldane was born in

John Scott Burdon-Sanderson. He was the brother of Elizabeth Haldane, William Haldane and Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane
.

Education

Haldane attended

Edinburgh University Medical School in 1884, after which he was a Demonstrator at University College, Dundee. From 1907 to 1913 he was a Reader in Physiology at Oxford University where his uncle, John Burdon-Sanderson, was Waynflete Professor of Physiology.[4]

On 12 December 1891 he married Louisa Kathleen Coutts Trotter (1863–1961),[7] daughter of Coutts Trotter FRGS and Harriet Augusta Keatinge.[8] They had two children: the scientist J. B. S. Haldane and the author Naomi Mitchison. His nephew was the New Zealand doctor and public health administrator Robert Haldane Makgill.[9]

Haldane also published his philosophical ideas about the true significance of biology.[4]

Career

Haldane was Gifford Lecturer in the University of Glasgow, Fellow of New College, Oxford, from October 1901,[10] and Honorary Professor of the University of Birmingham. Haldane received numerous honorary degrees. He was also President of the English Institution of Mining Engineers, a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, a Fellow of the Royal Society,[11] a member of the Royal College of Physicians and of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Haldane became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1897, was a Royal Medallist of the Society in 1916, was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1928 for work on industrial disease, and was a Copley Medallist in 1934.[4]

Death

Haldane died in

Persia.[citation needed
]

Sir Henry Newbolt wrote a poem called "For J. S. Haldane", published in his anthology A Perpetual Memory and other Poems in 1939.

Accomplishments

Respiration and anaesthesia

Haldane was an international authority on ether and respiration and the inventor of the Black Veil Respirator, an early gas mask, during World War I.[2][12]

He was also an authority on the effects of

gas warfare and developed oxygen treatment including the oxygen tent.[citation needed
]

Haldane helped determine the regulation of breathing, and discovered the

haemoglobin: Deoxygenated haemoglobin has a greater affinity for carbon dioxide than oxygenated haemoglobin, so the release of oxygen from the capillaries to the tissues facilitates the removal of carbon dioxide in those capillaries, and in the lung capillaries the high oxygenation of the blood promotes the release of carbon dioxide to the plasma, which allows it to diffuse into the alveolar gas.[4]

Haldane was the founder of The Journal of Hygiene.[citation needed]

Diving physiology

See also: Haldane's decompression model

In 1907 Haldane had a

decompression tables using his concept of stage decompression after extensive experiments with animals, and with divers in Scottish deep-water lochs.[2][13][14][4] The decompression experiments examined the depth and pressure exposure, duration, and the pattern of decompression. Initial experiments used rabbits, guinea pigs, rats and mice, but the difficulty of detecting symptoms in the smaller animals led to the choice of goats, which were the largest animals easily available that were conveniently manageable in the available facilities.[4]

The mathematical model on which these tables were based, though considerably revised and modified, remains a widely accepted method of decompressing divers from non-saturation exposures. In 1908, Haldane published the findings with A. E. Boycott and G. C. C. Damant in the paper "Prevention of Compressed-Air Illness" in the

Journal of Hygiene.[4] He also found by experiment that part of the cause for divers losing consciousness while working at around 120 feet in standard helmets was a buildup of carbon dioxide in the helmet caused by insufficient ventilation, and established a minimum flow rate of 1.5 cubic feet (42 L) per minute at ambient pressure.[15]

Coal and other mining incidents

Modern flame safety lamp used in mines, manufactured by Koehler

He investigated the principle of action of many different gases. He investigated numerous

carboxyhaemoglobin, the stable compound formed in the blood by reaction with the gas. It effectively displaces oxygen, and so the victim dies of asphyxia. As a result of his research, he was able to design respirators for rescue workers. He tested the effect of carbon monoxide on his own body in a closed chamber, describing the results of his slow poisoning.[4]

In the late 1890s, Haldane introduced the use of small animals for miners to detect dangerous levels of carbon monoxide underground, either white mice or canaries. With a faster metabolism, they showed the effects of poisoning before gas levels became critical for the workers, and so gave an early warning of the problem.

canary in British pits was replaced in 1986 by the electronic gas detector. Electronic gas detectors rely on a catalytic chip which can be poisoned by atmospheric impurities.[citation needed
]

Pike's Peak expedition

Pike's Peak as seen from within Manitou Springs, Colorado.

Haldane pioneered the study of the reaction of the body to low air pressures, such as that experienced at high altitudes. He led an expedition to

Pike's Peak in 1911, which examined the effect of low atmospheric pressure on respiration. Since then, Pike's Peak has continued to be a site of research into respiration.[16]

Sewer gas

In addition to his work on mine atmospheres, he investigated the air in enclosed spaces such as wells and sewers. One surprising result of his analysis of the air in the sewers beneath the

House of Commons was to show that the level of bacterial contamination was relatively low.[4] During this research, he investigated fatalities of workmen in a sewer, and showed that hydrogen sulfide gas poisoning was the cause of death.[4]

Bibliography

Writings

See also

References

  1. JSTOR 769132
    .
  2. ^
    OCLC 16986801. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2008.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link
    )
  3. ^ BBC radio interview, Third Programme, 1960.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-9800423-3-7
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-7432-8597-1
    .
  6. ^ Obituary. Professor J. S. Haldane. dmm.org.uk. 16 March 1936
  7. ^ Addison, Henry Robert; Oakes, Charles Henry; Lawson, William John; Sladen, Douglas Brooke Wheelton (1907). "HALDANE, John Scott". Who's Who. 59: 757.
  8. Richard Keatinge
    PC KC (1793-1876), a judge of the Irish High Court
  9. ^ "Makgill, Robert Haldane". teara.govt.nz. January 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  10. ^ "University intelligence". The Times. No. 36588. London. 17 October 1901. p. 4.
  11. ^ "Lists of Royal Society Fellows 1660–2007" (PDF). London: The Royal Society. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
  12. ^ The Sciences and Philosophy: Gifford Lectures, University of Glasgow, 1927–28 by J.S. Haldane, Doubleday, Doran and Co., Inc., Garden City, NY, 1929.
  13. PMID 20474365
    .
  14. ISBN 0671621300
    .
  15. ^ US Navy (1 December 2016). U.S. Navy Diving Manual Revision 7 SS521-AG-PRO-010 0910-LP-115-1921 (PDF). Washington, DC.: US Naval Sea Systems Command.
  16. ^ "Construction of new USARIEM Pikes Peak laboratory begins this summer. 2018". US Army. 22 June 2018. Retrieved 13 March 2019.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Scott Haldane.
Wikisource has original works by or about:
John Scott Haldane
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Scott_Haldane&oldid=1199626731"