1936, March 16^th

Professor J. S. Haldane, C.H., F.R.S., who was a great figure in both pure and applied science, died at his home at Oxford at midnight on Saturday at the age of 75. Not long ago he returned from visiting Persia and Iraq to study sunstroke cases among oil workers, and seemed in excellent health. But he caught a chill which developed into bronchial pneumonia, and last Tuesday was reported to be sinking. It was then that his son, Professor J. B. S. Haldane, suggested blood transfusion, which he gave himself, and the patient responded remarkably, but the improvement did not last.

As a physiologist Haldane revolutionized our ideas on respiration, and thereby opened up a new aspect of physiology. Philosophy had a great influence with him from the earliest days, and dissatisfaction with the teaching of physiology which he experienced as a medical student led him to think the more deeply about the true significance of biology. The trend of his thought was shown as early as 1883 in an essay contributed jointly by himself and his brother, Lord Haldane, to "Essays in Philosophical Criticism," and the views that he then expressed formed the foundation of the philosophical arguments which later in life were subject of many of his addresses and published books — "Mechanism, Life and Personality," 1913, "The New Physiology," 1919, "The Sciences and Philosophy," 1928 (Gifford Lectures delivered at Glasgow), "The Philosophical Basis of Biology," 1931 (Donnellan Lectures delivered at Dublin), and "Materialism," 1932.

Haldane condemned the doctrine of "vital force" as vigorously as he did the mechanistic theory of life by which that doctrine was succeeded. To him Physiology implied the nature of the life of the organism, and to understand this the organism must be studied as a whole. All his work had shown the amazing delicacy with which the different functions of the body are correlated during normal life, and this led him to the conclusion that the principle of organic regulation dominates the various activities that constitute life. A year ago, in "The Philosophy of a Biologist," Haldane published a concise summary of his pyramidal view of the universe as a universe of personality and the manifestation of God.

Biology he regarded as an independent science with different axioms and different modes of interpretation from those of physics and chemistry, since it includes an aspect of our experience which cannot be interpreted simply in terms of the physical sciences any more than the aspects of our experience dealt with in psychology can be interpreted simply in terms of the science of biology. More than once in his writings he says that it was the views which he formed about the nature of life which suggested to him those scientific problems the solution of which we may regard as his most brilliant achievements.

Almost the whole of his researches were made with man as his subject ; he established the subject of human physiology on a true basis, showing how delicate methods of chemical and physical investigation can be used to elucidate normal function in an intact person. In applied science or industrial hygiene his work was not less valuable, for the solution of the problems which he took up has been of direct and lasting benefit to mankind. He was always opposed to the separation of theoretical from applied science ; many of his own researches in pure physiology owed their origin to facts which he noticed in his work on miming problems, and, in turn, these investigations directly helped him in the solution of other problems in applied physiology.

Though clear and concise as a writer, Haldane was an awkward and hesitating lecturer, unless he had fully prepared beforehand what he had to say, and yet what he said was always significant, for he had an extraordinary faculty for picking out what was important from the irrelevant. The research student could not have had a more inspiring guide or a kinder friend. So clear and logical are Haldane's scientific papers that he often made the questions which he took up appear simple, and perhaps it is only those who were privileged to work with him who could appreciate to the full his skill in evolving order from chaos and his brilliant capacity for clear reasoning. Few men have done more to advance natural science.

John Scott Haldane was born in Edinburgh on May 2, 1860, the son of Robert Haldane, of Cloan, Auchterarder, and Mary Burdon Sanderson, and brother of Lord Haldane, Sir W. S. Haldane, and Miss Elizabeth Haldane. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh University, and he also studied for a time at the University of Jena. After graduating in medicine at Edinburgh in 1884 he became demonstrator to Professor Carnelley at University College, Dundee, with whom he took part in an extensive investigation into the organic and inorganic impurities of the air of dwellings, schools, and sewers, of which accounts were published in 1887.

After spending a few months in Berlin studying physiological chemistry, Haldane was in 1887 invited by his uncle, Sir John Burdon Sanderson, Waynflete Professor of Physiology in the University of Oxford, to become one of his demonstrators. Soon after this he showed that the symptoms actually produced by exposure to black-damp and after-damp in mines were different from those given in the textbooks. This association with the mining profession was maintained throughout his career, and encouraged him to investigate in detail the composition of the atmosphere with in different circumstances in mines and its effect on man. In a series of experiments on animals and on himself he succeeded in elucidating the true physiological action of carbon monoxide, the poisonous constituent of after-damp. He also introduced several simple tests by which small though dangerous quantities of this gas could be detected in the air, laying the emphasis in particular on the fact that small animals such as birds or mice were affected far more quickly than man by carbon monoxide and could therefore be used to give warning of danger. In 1896 he investigated for the Home Office the cause of death in three colliery explosions, and his report, which was subsequently translated into several languages, was of fundamental importance in the development of means for combating the dangers arising from explosion in mines or from underground fires.

Between 1892 and 1900 Haldane introduced a number of new methods for investigating various aspects of the respiratory functions, publishing papers on methods for determining the respiratory exchange, the amount of haemoglobin in the blood, the quantity and tension of the gases of the blood, the volume of the blood, and the analysis of air. The apparatus which he designed for air analysis, described fully in his "Methods of Air Analysis," published in 1912, and for blood gas analysis, is widely used at the present day.

The year 1905 saw the publication of what is undoubtedly the most important and fundamental of his physiological researches. In this paper, in which he was associated with Dr. Priestley, he showed that the regulation of the breathing is normally determined by the tension of carbon dioxide in the respiratory centre in the brain, and that this nervous centre is exquisitely sensitive to variations in the tension of carbon dioxide in the arterial blood which reaches it. Since carbon dioxide is one of the principal products of the metabolism of the tissues, an explanation was afforded of the automatic changes in the breathing which occur with alteration in bodily activity. Indeed, this paper afforded the first real insight into the astonishing delicacy with which the quantitative coordination of the natural activities of different parts of the body may be brought about by chemical means.

A few years later investigations in this and other countries established the fact, which had been suspected from the start, that carbon dioxide owed its action to the effects which it had on the alkalinity of the blood. In 1905, too, he demonstrated the importance of wet-bulb temperature in limiting the power of man to withstand a high environmental temperature. Further investigations of the regulation of the respiration in different circumstances and of the influence of deficiency of oxygen followed, and in 1911 he led a scientific expedition to Pike's Peak, Colorado, to study the effects of low barometric pressure and the process of acclimatization to high altitudes.

It was no doubt his work on gaseous exchange in the body and the function of the kidneys that prompted him to turn his attention to the physical chemistry of gases and liquids, and although his books "Gases and Liquids" (1928) and "The Theory of Heat Engines" (1930) met with much adverse criticism, they indicate how unsatisfactory he had found certain current hypotheses when applied to the results of his own investigations.

From 1896 onwards Haldane served on a number of Departmental Committees, which included inquiries into the ventilation of tunnels on the Metropolitan Railway, the health of Cornish miners, and the incidence of ankylostomiasis and miners' phthisis, the ventilation of factories and workshops, and the manufacture and use of water gas, and appendix to the latter report giving an interesting account of his experimental researches on the natural air interchange in rooms.

It was due to his work as a member of a committee appointed by the Admiralty to investigate the problem of deep diving that the risks of caisson disease have now been practically abolished. He worked out what is now known as stage decompression by an elaborate experimental investigation in which he had the cooperation of Dr. Boycott and Lieutenant Damant, R.N., an investigation conducted in part in a steel pressure chamber at the Lister Institute and finally with actual divers in deep water lochs on the west coast of Scotland.

This method, by which the diver may be brought safely to the surface, has now been adopted practically universally, and has made it possible to conduct salvage operations successfully at great depths : it was used, for instance, in the salvage operations on the Laurentic, which was sunk in the War, gold ingots to the value of some £5,000,000 being recovered between the years 1917 and 1924 from a depth of about 130ft. without any untoward incident. In addition to this he gave the Admiralty assistance in such matters as the ventilation of battleships and the purification of the air in submarines. He also served on the Royal Commissions on Coal Mines and Metalliferous Mines of 1906 and 1911, which were concerned with the question of the health and safety of miners, and he was appointed a member of the Safety in Mines Research Board soon after its establishment.

Some years before the War Haldane had served as a member of a committee appointed to inquire into the physiological effects of food, training, and clothing on the soldier, which resulted in a radical alteration in the scale of rations for active service.

When the use of poisonous gas was introduced by the Germans during the War Haldane was called in by the Secretary of State for War in an advisory capacity, and at once went out to the Front, where he was able to verify the type of gas used and the nature of the effects produced by it. On returning to England he made every effort to speed up the production of an emergency respirator capable of stopping chlorine, the gas in question, and to prevent the issue of inadequate respirators, some of which he did, in fact, in the confusion of the moment, find their way overseas. At the same time he recognized that the emergency respirator was but an improvisation, and he pointed out that satisfactory protection could only be ensured by some form of box respirator.

As is well known, a box respirator was eventually designed and became the standard anti-gas equipment of our troops. He was not, however, invited to join the committee which was appointed to deal with the whole question of poison gas warfare, a regrettable omission since his knowledge of respiratory apparatus and of the effects caused by toxic gases should have been invaluable. Notwithstanding this, he was able to do much work on the pathology and treatment of cases of gas poisoning in both the acute and the convalescent stages, and in the course of this he designed a portable form of oxygen administration apparatus which not only proved of value during the War but is well adapted for use in civil medical practice.

In 1901 Haldane was elected a Fellow of New College, and in 1907 he was appointed Reader in Physiology at Oxford. He resigned his Readership in 1913 on the death of Gotch, who had succeeded Burdon Sanderson in the chair of Physiology. A year later the War broke out. He had been invited to deliver the Silliman lectures at Yale University in 1915, but owing to the War they had to be postponed till 1916. The publication of the full series of lectures was delayed till 1922. Under the title of "Respiration," this volume gives an account of his researches in pure physiology and of many of his investigations in applied physiology, and it will remain as a lasting record of his genius.

In 1912 he was invited to become director of a research laboratory founded by the Doncaster coalowners. In 1921 this laboratory was transferred to Birmingham University, and he was shortly afterwards made an honorary Professor in that university. Under his direction this laboratory made a great number of investigations on matters connected with the safety and hygiene of coalmines, the bulk of this work being published in the "Transactions" of the Institution of Mining Engineers. Many risks have to be run by the miner, and the reduction of these risks and the preservation of a high standard of health in collieries were causes which Haldane always had at heart, and he spared himself neither time nor trouble when the welfare of the miner was at stake. The high value that the mining profession set on his work was shown by his election in 1924 to the presidency of the Institution of Mining Engineers, a signal honour for a physiologist, and this post he held for several years.

For many years Haldane served as one of the gas referees under the Board of Trade. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1897, and was awarded a Royal Medal for his researches in respiration in 1916. He was also awarded gold medals by the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, the Institution of Mining Engineers, and the Royal Society of Medicine, the Baly medal of the Royal College of Physicians, and the medal of the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers. He received honorary degrees from many universities — LL.D., Edinburgh and Birmingham, D.Sc. Oxford and Leeds, Sc.D. Cambridge and Dublin, and D.Sc. Engineering, Witwatersrand. He was created a Companion of Honour in 1928 in recognition of his scientific work on industrial disease, a distinction which had been already conferred on his sister, Miss Elizabeth Haldane.

Haldane married in 1891 Louisa Kathleen, daughter of Mr. Coutts Trotter, and he leaves a son, John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, F.R.S., who is Professor of Genetics in the University of London, and a daughter, Mrs. Naomi Margaret Mitchison, who is known as a novelist and writer of originality and distinction.

The funeral will be at Golders Green at 2 p.m. to-morrow, and at Gleneagles Chapel, Auchterarder, on Wednesday at 3.30. A memorial service will be held at New College, Oxford, the date to be announced later.

Source:The Times