Ernest Basil Verney

Ernest Basil Verney (born  August 22, 1894 in Cardiff , †  August 19, 1967 in Cambridge ) was a British pharmacologist and physiologist . He worked between 1926 and 1964 as a professor at University College London , the University of Cambridge and the University of Melbourne , and was particularly concerned with the function of the kidney . In recognition of his research achievements, he was accepted into the Royal Society in 1936 and honored with the Schmiedeberg plaque in 1967 .

Life

Ernest Basil Verney was born in Cardiff in 1894 and studied science at the University of Cambridge before he was admitted to practice as a doctor in 1918 after completing clinical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London . After subsequent military service in the British Army until October 1919, he initially worked at St Bartholomew's Hospital and the East London Hospital for Children. In the summer of 1921 he then moved to the Institute of Physiology at the University of London , where he worked as an assistant to Ernest Starling .

From 1924 he was an assistant at London University College Hospital. Two years later he took over a professorship in pharmacology at University College London . Ten years later he went to the University of Cambridge, where he initially got a job as a reader and from 1946 was the first holder of the Sheild professorship in pharmacology. He retired from Cambridge in 1961 and was then professor of physiology at the University of Melbourne from 1961 to 1964 , where he had previously been a visiting professor in 1957.

Ernest Basil Verney was married from 1923 and was the father of two sons and a daughter. He died in Cambridge in 1967 .

Scientific work

Ernest Basil Verney devoted himself throughout his career to research into kidney function , in particular the control of the body's water balance and the mechanisms of kidney-related high blood pressure . Together with Ernest Starling, he was able to demonstrate , among other things, the antidiuretic effects of the hormone vasopressin on the kidneys. In addition, at the beginning of his career he also dealt with the reflexes of the cardiovascular system . The pharmacologists who worked for him for a time included Franz Theodor von Brücke , Heribert Konzett and Marthe Louise Vogt .

Awards

Ernest Basil Verney was inducted into the Royal Society in 1936 and held its Croonian Lecture in 1947 . In 1957 he was awarded the Baly Medal from the Royal College of Physicians . In addition, he was made an honorary member of the British Physiological Society in 1967 and was awarded the Schmiedeberg plaque of the German Pharmacological Society .

literature

• Clark T. Sawin: Vasopressin Is a Hormone: The Work of Ernest Basil Verney (1894-1967). In: The Endocrinologist. 10 (2) / 2000. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, pp. 79-82, ISSN  1051-2144
• Ivan de Burgh Daly, L. Mary Pickford: Ernest Basil Verney. 1894-1967. In: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 16/1970. The Royal Society, pp. 523-542, ISSN  0080-4606