Essential Pharmacology

Abstract

The beginning.-When I went to Cambridge in 1909, I became a member of Emmanuel College, of which John Harvard had been a member some 300 years earlier. I had the good fortune to have as a tutor, whose duty it was to supervise my progress in a general way, a man called F. G. Hopkins! He was the pioneer biochemist who isolated tryptophan, who worked on what he called "accessory food factors," and discovered glutathione. He was one of the most modest, gracious and graceful men I have ever known.At Cambridge I expected to make Chemistry my principal subject, but I found that for the first two years, I had to read Physics and two other sub jects as well. With Hopkins' approval Physiology and Botany were chosen.I discovered that, compared with those who taught Physiology and Physics, the chemists were an unattractive lot, particularly those who demonstrated in the practical class. These seemed very undistinguished, had cheerless faces and wore rather shabby clothes. The physiologists and the physicists had far more personality. In Physics I heard lectures given by J. J. Thom son, who seemed to be not of this world, and one of the demonstrators was Aston who built the first mass spectrograph. In Physiology the Professor was Langley, always well-dressed, who rode to hounds (that is he hunted the fox) and spoke to no one so far as I could see. There was W. B. Hardy who, when not studying the behaviour of colloids, sailed a yacht in the rough seas of the English Channel. In the summer he pinned a notice on his door which said "Back tomorrow." Joseph Barcroft, an Ulsterman, also sailed boats, and Keith Lucas, who was in part an engineer, had a large motor vessd on the Cam. Hidden in his room was a young man called Adri an, who spent his spare time at one period painting pictures in the style of Marinetti for an exhibition. It is said that all the works were sold, mostly to eager, but unwary Faculty members.Then there was the striking athletic figure of A. V. Hill, the very distin guished-looking W. M. Fletcher, and finally, helping Barcroft and Hopkins to fill the place with humanity, was H. K. Anderson.To enter the Cambridge world after leaving the school world was like meeting sea breezes on the shore after being confined in a stuffy room, and for two years I was mainly interested in debates and discussions of politics, religion and literature, which at least taught me to form my own opinions. After my third year I began research with Barcroft on two small prob lems concerned with the oxygen capacity of haemoglobin. I learnt (to my surpr ise) that I could work accurately, but I was still only half-interested and was occupied with other things. I was secretary of a University Social Discussion Society, and of its Inner Ci rc le which invited di stingui shed public figures to address them. One of these figures I remember was Bea� trice Webb who had encyclopaedic knowledge .on the reform of the Poor Law. I may say that she stayed, unforgett ably, at the ho use of Mr. W. C. Dampier Whetham, and that he lived at Upwater Lodge...

Burn Oxford for a start1

“…In physiology the Professor was Langley, always well dressed, who rode to hounds and spoke to no one as far as I could see'. (see Burn, 1969).…”

J. H. Burn's Eightieth Birthday

“…How irritating it was, after an hour's hopeless struggle with an experiment, to watch his pharmacological 'green fingers' subdue in a moment a hitherto intractable isolated preparation into instant and ordered subservience! A glimpse of those happy, exciting, and sometimes even turbulent days can be gained from the account he himself wrote of them (Burn, 1969).…”

J.H. Burn: an appreciation

“…In 1969, Harold Burn wrote an article entitled 'Essential pharmacology' (Burn, 1969). That title in itself is a fitting epitaph for the man.…”