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