Post on 11-May-2015
The Discovery of Hormone
Dr Pranab Kumar Sahana:MD,DM (Associate Profofessor), Department of Endocrinology, NRS Medical College, Kolkata
Starling and Bayliss
Earnest Henry Starling Died 2nd May
Sir William Maddock BaylissBorn 2nd May
Starling- Biography
• Starling (17 April 1866 – 2 May 1927)• English physiologist. • His father, Matthew Henry Starling, was a barrister and
served for many years as a clerk of the crown at Bombay• Starling studied medicine at Guy's Hospital, London, where
he obtained his MB in 1889 • In 1899 he moved to University College, London, to
become Professor of Physiology, a position he held until his death.His main collaborator in London was his brother-in-law, Sir William Maddock Bayliss.
Starling‘s discoveries
• Starling is most famous for developing the "Frank–Starling law of the heart", presented in 1915, stating that the energy of contraction of the heart is a function of the length of the muscle fiber. His other major contributions to physiology were:
• The discovery of peristalsis, with Bayliss (1899)• The Starling equation, describing fluid shifts in the body (1896) • The discovery that the distal convoluted tubule of the kidney
reabsorbs water and various electrolytes• The discovery of secretin, the first hormone, with Bayliss
(1902) and the introduction of the concept of hormones (1905).
The famous Experiment (1902)
• They showed that dilute hydrochloric acid, mixed with partially digested food, activates a chemical substance in the epithelial cells of the duodenum. They found that this activated substance, which they called secretin, released into the bloodstream, comes into contact with the pancreas, where it stimulates secretion of digestive juice into the intestine through the pancreatic duct.
Croonian lecture on “chemical correlation of the functions of the
body”at Royal College of Physicians in London on 20th June, 1905
“These chemical messengers … or hormones (from [the
greek word,ormao] = I excite or arouse), as we may call them,
have to be carried from the organ where they are produced
to the organs which they affect, by means of the blood
stream, and the continually recurring physiological needs of
the organism must determine their repeated production and
circulation through the body.”-
Figure 2 The beginning of Starling’s lecture, and the important sentence which appears a page later in the lecture.
Henderson J J Endocrinol 2005;184:5-10
© 2011 Society for Endocrinology
Henry Starling
• "Only . . . by way of experiment, can we hope to attain to a comprehension of the “wisdom of the body and the understanding of the heart,” and thereby to the mastery of disease and pain, which will enable us to relieve the burden of mankind." Lancet, 1923, 2: 865.
• “. . . in matters of urgent necessity [such as education], it is unprofitable to count the cost.” - Starling
Sir William Maddock Bayliss
• 2 May 1860 – 27 August 1924• was an English physiologist.• He gained a B.Sc from London University. He graduated MA
and DSc in physiology from Wadham College, Oxford.• Bayliss and Ernest Henry Starling discovered the peptide
hormone secretin and peristalsis of the intestines.• He jointly delivered their Croonian lecture in 1904 and was
awarded Royal Medal in 1911 and Copley Medal in 1919.• He was knighted for his contribution to medicine in 1922.• Bayliss died in London in 1924.
Thank you