MAliC,ff'2lj.-I'll 11936 JOHN SCOTT HALDANE, C.H., M.lT, F.R.S. I!KD1CAL JOIIRNAL 67- which inquired into these matters and into the ventilation Obituary of the Metropolitan Railway, factories, and workshops. Br Med J: first published as 10.1136/bmj.1.3924.617 on 21 March 1936. Downloaded from He served on the Royal Commissions of 1906 and 1911 on coal mines and metalliferous mines, and was made a J. S. HALDANE, C.H., M.D., F.R.S. member of the Safety in Mines Research Board. In 1921 Honorary Professor, University of Birmingham the Doncastar coal-owners' research laboratory was trans- By the death of Professor Haldane, which took place at his ferred to Birmingham University, and Haldane was soon home in Oxford at midnight, March 14th-15th, medicine, made an honorary professor in that university. There he no less than physiology, has lost a man of genius and directed a large number of researches into such problems as one of the most outstanding personalities of the time. the ventilation of mines, the causes of spontaneous heating John Scott Haldane, son of Robert Haldane of Cloan, of coal and underground fires, mine rescue apparatus, the Auchterarder, Perthshire, and Mary, daughter of Richard effects of high temperatures on miners and the physiology Burdon Sanderson, was born in Edinburgh on May 2nd, of sweat production, the effects of stone dust and silicosis, 1860. He was brother to the late Lord Haldane, Sir and the causes of miners' nystagmus. He was indefatig- W. S. Haldane, W.S., and Miss Elizabeth Haldane, C.H. able in his efforts to reduce the risks to health to which He was educated at Edinburgh Academy, Edinburgh miners are exposed, and he spared neither time nor University, and the Univer- trouble where the miner's sity of Jena. From the bcgin- welfare was concerned. ning of his scientific work In 1905 he began for the he was specially interested in Admiralty an investigation of the physiology of respiration, the causes of the difficulties and having graduated in medV- and dangers encountered by cine at Edinburgh in 1884 :7:--- 1 l _l divers. He first showed that he became demonstrator at the limitation of the diver's University College, Dundee, capacity to do muscular work under Professor Carnelley, under water was due to the with whom he carried out high pressure of CO, present a thorough investigation of in the helmet, owing to the impurities of the air. Shortly inadequacy of the air pumps after the publication of this then in use. He then turned work in 1887 he became ..... to the more serious problem demonstrator in physiological of caisson disease, or divers' chemistry at Oxford under his paralysis. He noticed that uncle, Sir John Burdon Sander- symptoms never occurred un- son, and remained at Oxford less the man who had been for the rest of his life. The subjected to compressed air very important scientific work was decompressed rapidly to he did at Oxford was concerned normal atmospheric pressure with problems of two different, from a pressure which was at http://www.bmj.com/ but closely related, types- least one atmosphere in excess industrial hygiene and pure of the normal. It had been physiology. He soon took up recognized by Paul Bert that the study of impurities in the the cause of caisson disease air of mines and their effects was simple-namely, liberation on men. .In this he made of bubbles of nitrogen in the clear for the first time- the - body during decompression. true physiological action- of Haldane set to work to devise on 29 September 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. carbon monoxide, devised 'aa a method of decompression most valuable test for small H which should be safe and also but dangerous amounts of it, economical of time. In an and laid the foundation of an / extensive experimental investi- association with the mining gation, which he carried out industry which lasted throughout his life. The importance with Dr. Boycott and Lieutenant Damant, R.N., he proved of this work received recognition when he was made that the method of very slow decompression previously director of the Doncaster coal-owners' research labora- enjoined was in some respects actually harmful, and that it tory in 1912 and was elected president of the Institute was far safer, as well as quicker, to start decompression of Mining Engineers in 1924. He was called upon by the by halving the absolute pressure. On this basis he worked Home Office in 1896 to investigate the cause of death out the system of " stage decompression " which is now in three colliery explosions. His report was translated universally used and which has made it possible to carry into several languages, and was the foundation of the out successfully salvage operations at great depths. He measures which are now generally adopted in dealing with worked out tables giving the times during which a diver the dangers consequent on explosions and fires in mines. might stay at different depths and the times for each stage From that time on Haldane continued to do most of the ascent. Returning to this problem in 1935 he valuable work in connexion with the hygiene of mining| extended the decompression tables for still greater depths. and industry in general. He investigated the anaemia of Hc also gave the Admiralty valuable help with regard to Cornish miners and the incidence of ankylostomiasis, and the ventilation of battleships and the purification of the also became keenly interested in miners' phthisis. In 1905 air in submarines. he carried out an important investigation on regulation of Haldane did important work for the Army, and served body temperature in hot surroundings, and demonstratedl as a member of a committee appointed to inquire into the importance of the wet-bulb temperature as a limiting the physiological needs of the soldier as regards food, factor to man's power of adjustment to such conditions. clothing, and training. The upshot was a radical change He served on a number of Departmental Committees- in the scale of rations for active service, which un- - , .,.Miita 2s,toss yokx HALDANF,,'C.HMI.D, P-- 618 Mac 2 '3O{ CT ADN- J. .. -j,F.RA-. 618~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ doubtedly had an important effect in reducing sickness kidneys and the regulation of the water content of the a on colour and contrast. among the troops during the war. When the Germans body, and published paper visicn Br Med J: first published as 10.1136/bmj.1.3924.617 on 21 March 1936. Downloaded from began to use chlorine as a poison gas Haldane was called In 1912 he published Methods of Air Analysis, in which upon to advise, and at once went out to the front. There he described fully the apparatus which he designed and he quickly verified the gas used and the nature of its which has greatly simplified the accurate analysis of gases. effects. He returned to England and, recognizing the In conjunction with Dr. Ivon Graham, deputy director need for the immediate provision of protection for the of the Coal Owners' Research Laboratory, he published troops, did all he could to speed up the production of an the fourth edition in 1935. The Silliman Lectures, which effective emergency respirator. He realized clearly that Haldane had been invited to deliver at Yale University only respirators of the box type could afford satisfactory in 1915, had to be postponed till 1916, owing to the war. protection, and that it must necessarily take some time He published a short summary in 1917 under the title of to design and supply them. Such respirators were, of Organism and Environment as Illustrated by the Physio- course, adopted later; but Haldane, though his wide logy of the Breathing," but the lectures could not be knowledge of respiration and of the effects of toxic gases published in full till 1922. They then appeared in a would have been invaluable, was not invited to join the volume entitled Respiration. In this Haldane gave a full committee which was appointed to deal with the whole account of his work on the pure physiology of respiration, question of poison gas warfare. Nevertheless he did and discussed many of his investigations in appli2d valuable work on the pathology and treatment of gas physiology. A new edition of this book, in rewriting poisoning, and drew attention to the importance in many which one of his old pupils (Dr. J. G. Priestley) had cases of oxygen administration, for which he designed an the privilege of helping him, was published in 1935. efficient and portable apparatus which has also proved From his earliest days Haldane was deeply interested its worth in civil medical practice. He was one of the in philosophy, and many of his writings were devoted to gas referees under the Board of Trade for many years, and the enunciation of philosophical arguments, on which he took a keen interest in their work. based the whole of his scientific work. Even as a medical Haldane did not, however, confine himself to problems student he found that the teaching of physiology was in applied physiology, but did an immense amount of work unsatisfactory, in that it was not founded on wide philo- on general problems of phvsiology, especially respiration. sophical conceptions, and his dissatisfaction caused him In his earlier work in this field he devised and introduced to think deeply about the fundamental principles under- many new methods for investigating the respiratory func- lying physiological phenomena, only insight into which, tions, including respiratory exchange, the determination he believed, would make these phenomena intelligible.