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Biomedical subjects

E M Tansey

Publications and source records attributed to E M Tansey.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Henry Dale and the discovery of acetylcholine.

In 1936 Sir Henry Dale of London and Professor Otto Loewi from Graz shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on chemical neurotransmission. This paper uses much unpublished archival material to augment an examination of Dale's work, from his discovery of naturally occurring acetylcholine in 1913, through to evidence of its role as a neurotransmitter at autonomic ganglia, post-ganglionic parasympathetic nerve terminals and the neuromuscular junction.

Acetylcholine↗
PubMed2006

Pavlov at home and abroad: His role in international physiology.

Contemporary science is conducted internationally. This is a comparatively recent phenomenon that developed during the last century, most notably after the second world war. During the first half of the twentieth century, however, I P Pavlov became the first major international physiologist, travelling widely and contributing to major scientific meetings around the world. This paper records and assesses Pavlov's international role, with an especial focus on the International Congresses of Physiology, set in the dynamic context of his domestic position in Imperial Russia and later in the Soviet Union.

Gastrointestinal Tract↗
PubMed1998

"The Queen has been dreadfully shocked": aspects of teaching experimental physiology using animals in Britain, 1876-1986.

Animal experimentation has been subject to legislative control in the United Kingdom since 1876. This paper reviews the impact of that legislation, which was replaced in 1986, on the teaching of practical physiology to undergraduate students. Highlights and case studies are also presented, drawing on Government reports and statistics, published books and papers, and unpublished archival data.

Animal Welfare↗
PubMed1998

Chronic pulmonary disease in South Wales coal mines: an eye-witness account of the MRC surveys (1937-1942).

In the mid-1930s reports were accumulating from the British coalfields, particularly from the anthracite area of South Wales, that coal face workers suffered a disabling lung condition that was not recognized as the (compensatable) silicosis of rock workers. The Second World War was threatening and discontent was rife. Government, through the Medical Research Council, initiated a medical and environmental investigation of chronic pulmonary disease in South Wales coalminers to make a systematic survey. The medical surveys, 1936-1942, were undertaken by a member of MRC staff, Dr Philip D'Arcy Hart assisted by Dr Edward Aslett of the Welsh National Memorial Association. One colliery (Ammanford) was intensively investigated; fifteen others less so; coal trimmers at the docks were added. The main observations were to confirm and describe radiographically the frequency of serious lung lesions apparently due to coal dust, and distinguishable from classical silicosis. Among recommendations accepted by Government, the lung condition became recognized for compensations, and the generic term pneumoconiosis of Coal Workers' was substituted for silicosis.

Causality↗
PubMed1997

Not committing barbarisms: Sherrington and the synapse, 1897.

The word synapse first appeared in 1897, in the seventh edition of Michael Foster's Textbook of Physiology. Foster was assisted in writing the volume on the nervous system by Charles Sherrington, who can be credited with developing and advocating the physiological concept of a synapse. The word itself however, was derived by a Cambridge classicist, Arthur Verrall.

History, 19th Century↗
PubMed1996

The coming of the electronic age to the Cambridge Physiological Laboratory: E.D. Adrian's valve amplifier in 1921.

E.D. Adrian, F.R.S. (1889-1975) was one of Britain's most distinguished neurophysiologists, who, during a long and productive lifetime, achieved most honours and distinctions available to a scientific man. These included the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, shared with Sir Charles Sherrington, F.R.S., the Order of Merit (1942), and Presidency of the Royal Society (1950-55). His interest in the nervous system started at the beginning of his undergraduate career, much influenced by his Director of Studies, Keith Lucas, F.R.S. (1879-1916). Lucas, a skilled and imaginative neurophysiologist, was particularly renowned for his technical ability to design and build new equipment. In turn, his pupil's work on recording and analysing the electrical impulses in nervous tissue was also facilitated by the development of appropriate, sensitive instrumentation. This paper will describe Adrian's first use of valve amplifiers to enlarge the extremely small electrical signals then obtainable in the physiological laboratory, a development that epitomized the beginning of the electronic revolution in life sciences' laboratories.

Amplifiers, Electronic↗
PubMed1993

The British Medical Bulletin 1943-1993. A guide to medical science and thought in Britain.

Established 50 years ago by The British Council, to promote medical science abroad, the British Medical Bulletin (BMB) has evolved from a stencilled list of abstracts into a distinguished medical periodical. It has reflected the extraordinary diversity of advances that have been made in medicine in this country. During these 5 decades anti-microbial chemotherapy has become firmly established; organ and tissue transplantation have become a reality; the significance of Watson and Crick's discovery of the structure of DNA has been realised by the increasing applications of molecular biology to human disease; and modern investigative techniques, particularly magnetic resonance imaging, have made the human body virtually transparent. At the same time the BMB has mirrored fresh concerns, with, for example, industrial and environmental hazards, with newly recognised infectious agents, and increasingly with the medico-social problems of the modern era. This paper reviews the scientific contributions of the Bulletin and some of the administrative and financial structures that have supported it.

History, 20th Century↗