Joseph Barcroft
Joseph Barcroft | |
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Scientific career | |
Doctoral students |
Sir Joseph Barcroft
Life
Born in
He received his degree in Medicine and Science in 1896 from
In both the
In 1936 he was nominated, unsuccessfully, by Professor Arthur Dighton Stammers, Professor of Physiology in the University of the Witwatersrand, for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for his work on the respiratory function of the blood and the functions of the spleen.[5]
In the course of his research, he did not hesitate to use himself as a test subject. For example, during the First World War, when he was called to Royal Engineers Experimental Station (near Salisbury) to carry out experiments on asphyxiating gas, he exposed himself to an atmosphere of poisonous hydrogen cyanide. On another occasion he remained for seven days in a glass chamber in order to calculate the minimum quantity of oxygen required for the survival of the human organism, and another time he exposed himself to such a low temperature that he collapsed into unconsciousness.
He also studied the physiology of oxygenation at extreme altitudes, and for this purpose he organized expeditions to the peak of Tenerife (1910), to Monte Rosa (1911), and to the Peruvian Andes (1922).
Between 1902 and 1905 he was a Governor of Leighton Park School, the Quaker School in Reading. From 1925 to 1937 he held the chair of physiology at Cambridge. His final research, begun in 1933, concerned fetal respiration.
He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1918 Birthday Honours,[6] and knighted in the 1935 Birthday Honours.[4] He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1938.[7]
During the first years of the Second World War he was again summoned to Porton Down to consult on chemical weapons. He died in Cambridge in 1947.
Publications
- The Respiratory Function of the Blood (1914)
- Features in the Architecture of the Physiological Function (1934)
References
- ^ S2CID 162231072.
- PMID 10634847.
- ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal society. Archived from the original on 24 March 2013. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
- ^ ISBN 090219884X. Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
- ^ "Nomination Database – Physiology or Medicine". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
- ^ "No. 30730". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1918.
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
Further reading
Most of this article was drawn from the corresponding article on the Italian Wikipedia retrieved (12 June 2006).