Leonard Hill

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Leonard Erskine Hill (born June 2, 1866 in Bruce Castle ( Tottenham ), England , † March 30, 1952 in Corton , Suffolk, England) was an English physiologist .

family

Hills' ancestors can be traced back to the early 18th century and were mostly remarkably headstrong personalities with different professions.

The great-grandfather Thomas Wright Hill (1763-1851) was the director of a school in Birmingham that he had bought. He introduced, continued by the great uncles Matthew (1792–1872) and Rowland, and Hill's grandfather Arthur (1798–1885), one of the most revolutionary educational concepts in England at the time: anti-authoritarian education without a system of physical punishment . Matthew later became a Member of Parliament and reformed the criminal law. In 1833 Hill School moved to Bruce Castle, a Jacobean mansion in north London.

Hill's father, George Birkbeck Hill (1835–1903) directed the now famous school project for 17 years, then sold it in 1877 and devoted himself only to literary studies. His eldest son (Sir) Maurice (1862-1934) was a Supreme Court judge, the second eldest (Sir) Arthur Norman (1863-1944) earned merit as a shipowner , especially during the First World War .

Hill married Janet (Alexander) in 1890.

education and profession

Hill originally wanted to be a farmer, but his parents decided that medicine was an appropriate occupation and sent him to Haileybury College, where he received basic training, particularly promoting his talent for rugby . Since he did not pass the entrance examination into Corpus Christi College ( Oxford ) due to a lack of literary knowledge, he enrolled at University College London in 1885 . Hill was accepted into the biology class of the zoologist Ray Lankester . Despite a lack of basic scientific knowledge, he was able to excel in surgery , anatomy and physiology. He gained practical medical experience at the University College Hospital and acquired the basic medical qualification (MB) in 1890. He did not receive a doctorate until 1931 (honorary LL.D. Aberdeen ).

In the meantime, Hill had decided to pursue scientific research and began teaching physiology with Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer , the successor to John Scott Burdon-Sanderson . In 1890 he took an assistant position at Burdon-Sanderson in Oxford. In 1891 he returned to the University of London as an assistant. His colleagues here were the physiologists William Bayliss and John Rose Bradford (1863-1935). From 1895 he held the main physiological lecture at the London Hospital. In 1912 a chair of physiology was established here, which Hill presided over. At the London Hospital he met the bacteriologist William Bulloch (1868-1941), the anatomist Arthur Keith and the doctor Lord Dawson of Penn (1864-1945).

In 1914 Hill left London Hospital and was appointed director of the applied physiology department of the national institute for medical research. During the war, however, he committed himself to participating in government committees that dealt with questions of the health hazards of workers in ammunition factories , reduced nutrition for the population, the ventilation of trenches and medical problems of the gas war .

In 1930 Hill retired from work at the National Research Institute and was awarded the knighthood .

power

Leonard Hill was a scientist and artist gifted with imagination, unconventional thinking, and sardonic humor.

Hill as a physiologist

He was initially concerned with researching the circulatory system and, together with Harold L. Barnard (1868–1908), developed a blood pressure monitor (1897): a hose system with an attached upper arm cuff (4.5 cm wide), an air pump and an elastic metal manometer that the Estimation of the arterial pressure according to the criterion of maximum oscillation allows. In 1898, Hill and Barnard described an extremely light and small pocket phygmometer intended for general practitioners.

From 1903, studied Hill along with Macleod the Caisson Disease (diver's disease), proposed the continuous slow decompression to avoid excessive formation of nitrogen before ( John Scott Haldane ) later led the safer stage decompression on). The respiratory function and physiology ( hyperventilation , use of pure oxygen , effects of ozone, etc.) remained a main area of ​​research Hills, which he worked on together with Martin Flack (1882–1931).

In 1911 Hill and A. Rowlands (* 1885) reported a strong increase in blood pressure (approx. 60-100 mmHg ) in the femoral artery compared to the blood pressure in the brachial artery . This hemodynamic phenomenon can be seen in the presence of aortic regurgitation or open ductus arteriosus Botalli (Hill sign).

Studying and researching the human environment and living conditions on Hill's favorite subjects. He developed a simple measuring instrument with which the cooling effects of the environment ( solar radiation , evaporation, etc.) could be assessed (“catathermometer”). He touched on all questions of atmospheric influences of a physical-chemical nature on the human respiratory system and concluded the associated respiratory diseases .

In 1930 he became head of the research department of St John Clinic and the Institute of Physical Medicine, where he therapeutic effects of UV - and IR - radiation investigated.

Hill as an artist

He was also so talented as a painter ( portraits and still lifes in oil , water and pastel colors ) that the thought of adding three of his pictures to the collection of the Tate Gallery . In addition, he owned and collected pictures of the Pre-Raphaelites (e.g. Arthur Hughes ) since his youth . Because of his friendship with Japanese painters in London, he was better known through successful exhibitions in Japan than in his home country. He also wrote stories and fairy tales for his children, which were later published ( The Scarecrow , The Monkey Moo Book ).

Works

  • The Physiology and Pathology of the Cerebral Circulation . London 1896
  • A simple and accurate form of sphygmometer or arterial pressure gauge contrived for clinical use (with HL Barnard). Br Med J 2 (1897) 904
  • A simple pocket sphygmometer for estimating arterial pressure in man (with HL Barnard). J Physiol 23 (1898) iv
  • On the method of measuring the systolic pressure in man, and the accuracy of this method (with M. Flack). Br Med J 1 (1909) 272
  • Further advances in physiology . London 1909
  • Systolic blood pressure: 1 .: In change of posture, 2. In cases of aortic regurgitation (with RA Rowlands). Heart 3 (1911/12) 219
  • Caisson Sickness and the Physiology of Work in Compressed Air . London 1912
  • The Science of Ventilation and Open Air Treatment . 1919-1923
  • The capillary blood pressure . J Physiol (Proc) 54 (1920-1921) xxiv, xcii
  • Health and Environment (with A. Campbell). 1925

literature

personal data
SURNAME Hill, Leonard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hill, Leonard Erskine (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English physiologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Bruce Castle (Tottenham)
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 1952
Place of death Corton (Suffolk)