Sir henry dale biography

A liquid extract of the fungus ergot had been used for centuries in obstetrics to stimulate the contractions of the pregnant uterus. Several alkaloids had already been isolated from this extract, and one of these was claimed to be the active principle. But this alkaloid, ergotine, was not nearly so powerful as the sir henry dale biography extract, and, on Dale's appointment to the Wellcome Laboratories, Wellcome asked him to try to clear up the problem.

Just before that the chemist George Barger, who was also working in the laboratories, had prepared other substances from ergot, and in Dale carried out a detailed pharmacological investigation of their activity. In succeeding years Barger and others isolated several more supposed "active principles," but Dale could not satisfy himself that any of these was the substance that made the watery extract so potent.

It was not until that the real active principle, ergometrine, was isolated by Dale's former coworker Harold Ward Dudley. But the work that Dale carried out for some years on ergot was to give him pointers to nearly all his future work. In Dale showed that an extract of the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland produced powerful contractions of the uterus of a pregnant cat.

As a result, pituitary extract pituitrin was soon extensively used in obstetrics. He also showed that this effect was caused by an active principle of the extract different from that which produced a rise of blood pressure. Inwith Dudley, he isolated and studied the active principle, oxytocin, that produced the powerful contractions. In Barger and Dale, working on an ergot extract, discovered that a substance in it, later called histamine, had a direct stimulant effect on plain smooth muscle, especially that of the uterus and bronchioles.

Histamine had previously been synthesized, but it was not known to occur naturally, in the animal body or elsewhere. They also showed that it caused a general fall in blood pressure and that its injection produced most of the features of anaphylactic shock. In they were the first to show that it could be present in animal tissues, as they had isolated it from the wall of the intestine.

No further work was done on histamine until the later years of World War Iwhen the problem of "secondary" surgical and traumatic shock had become of great practical importance. In Dale, working with Alfred Newton Richards, showed that small doses of histamine caused constriction of the arteries along with a sir henry dale biography dilatation of the capillaries.

In Dale, working with Sir Patrick Playfair Laidlaw, showed that massive doses of histamine produced a general dilatation of the blood vessels and capillaries, together with an exudation of plasma from the capillaries, a fall in body temperatureand respiratory depression. These features were almost identical with those found in surgical shock, and in a subsequent study Dale found that the dose of histamine necessary to produce the condition was much smaller if there had been previous hemorrhage.

These discoveries were of great practical importance in surgery. Theoretically, they indicated that, in the case of injury to the tissues, histamine was produced by the body cells. But in there was no evidence that histamine was produced by the body cells, and it was not until that Dale and his coworkers showed that histamine is normally present in significant amounts in the lung and in the liver.

Meanwhile Dale had carried out various researches that were to lead to another aspect of the histamine problem. In he noticed the extreme sensitivity of the isolated uterus of a particular guinea pig when treated with a normally quite innocuous dose of horse serum. He later discovered that this particular guinea pig had already been used for the assay of diphtheria antitoxin and was therefore already sensitized to horse serum.

By following up this chance observation Dale was able to produce in guinea pig plain muscle all the essential features of anaphylaxis, thus greatly advancing knowledge of the cause of this condition. In Dale and Charles Halliley Kellaway showed that anaphylactic phenomena are probably due to the location of the antibody in the cell substance.

Ten years later other workers showed that in anaphylaxis histamine is actually released by the injured cells. The modern use of antihistaminic drugs stems essentially from Dale's work on histamine. Even as late as the first 2 decades of the 19th century the manner in which an impulse, passing down a nerve to a muscle, causes the latter to contract was quite unknown.

In Dale's friend Thomas Renton Elliott, then working in the same laboratory as Dale at Cambridge, suggested as a result of his research on adrenaline that sympathetic nerve fibers might act on plain muscle and glands by liberating this substance at their endings. But this suggestion was never actively followed up by anyone, though it profoundly influenced Dale's later research.

In Dale found unusual activities in a certain ergot extract, and the active principle responsible for these unusual effects was isolated by Dale's chemical coworker, Arthur James Ewins. It proved to be acetylcholine, the acetyl ester of choline. This work led to an important paper by Dalein which he showed that the action of acetylcholine on plain muscle and glands was very similar to the action of parasympathetic fibers, and that acetylcholine reproduces those effects of autonomic nerves that are absent from the action of adrenaline.

Society membership. My BPS. Get involved. Documents and forms. Home About About pharmacology. Sir Henry Hallett Dale. Elected in Born on 9 June in London, UK Died on 23 July in Cambridge, UK Achievements Dale made significant breakthroughs in the study of naturally occurring substances called alkaloids that are found in ergot, a fungal growth that can ruin rye crops.

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Sir henry dale biography

Skip to main content Advertisement. Elliott and Otto Loewiwhich are also of interest. Secondary Literuature. See British Medical Journal1. Also see James F. The most perceptive obituaries are those of W. Feldberg, in British Journal of Pharmacology and Chemotherapy, 35 There is also sound historical treatment in L. Goodman and A. Gilman, eds.

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Dale, Henry Hallett gale. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. Dale, Henry Hallett b. London, England, 9 June ; d. Cambridge, England, 24 July medicine, physiology. For a detailed study of his life and work, see supplement. More From encyclopedia. About this article Henry H.

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