A pioneer physiologist and vivisection activist.
Demonstrator to his mentor, Sir Michael Foster, Trinity Praelector in Physiology, 1870-6; Professor of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A., 1876-93; retired on account of ill-health, 1893.
He was the son of Henry Martin, a Congregational minister and schoolmaster, and educated at the University of London and Christ's College, Cambridge.
In 1876 he was appointed to the first professorship of physiology at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
He co-wrote with Thomas Huxley Practical instruction in elementary biology.
He developed the first isolated mammalian heart lung preparation (first described in 1881) which Starling later used to great effect.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1885, having delivered their Croonian Lecture in 1883 on "The Direct Influence of Gradual Variations of Temperature upon the Rate of Beat of the Dog's Heart".
In 1879, he married Hetty Cary, widow of Confederate General John Pegram.
They had no children and she died in 1892.
Martin's health deteriorated in his later years, and he struggled unsuccessfully against alcoholism. Campaigns by anti-vivisectionists against his experiments also took their toll, and the combined pressures of stress and drink, exacerbated by the death of his wife, saw his work rate decline.
Advised to resign by his colleagues from his chair "on account of ill-health", shortly before the opening of the Medical School in 1893, he returned to England in 1894.
His health continued to fail and he died on 27 October 1896 at Burley-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire.
Publications (books):
A Handbook of Vertebrate Dissection: How to Dissect a Chelonian 1883
Observations on the Direct Influence of Variations of Arterial Pressure Upon the Rate of Beat of the Mammalian Heart 1883
A course of practical instruction in elementary biology 1877
The Human Body: An Account of Its Structure and Activities and the Conditions of Its Healthy Working 1898
Demonstrator to his mentor, Sir Michael Foster, Trinity Praelector in Physiology, 1870-6; Professor of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A., 1876-93; retired on account of ill-health, 1893.
He was the son of Henry Martin, a Congregational minister and schoolmaster, and educated at the University of London and Christ's College, Cambridge.
In 1876 he was appointed to the first professorship of physiology at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
He co-wrote with Thomas Huxley Practical instruction in elementary biology.
He developed the first isolated mammalian heart lung preparation (first described in 1881) which Starling later used to great effect.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1885, having delivered their Croonian Lecture in 1883 on "The Direct Influence of Gradual Variations of Temperature upon the Rate of Beat of the Dog's Heart".
In 1879, he married Hetty Cary, widow of Confederate General John Pegram.
They had no children and she died in 1892.
Martin's health deteriorated in his later years, and he struggled unsuccessfully against alcoholism. Campaigns by anti-vivisectionists against his experiments also took their toll, and the combined pressures of stress and drink, exacerbated by the death of his wife, saw his work rate decline.
Advised to resign by his colleagues from his chair "on account of ill-health", shortly before the opening of the Medical School in 1893, he returned to England in 1894.
His health continued to fail and he died on 27 October 1896 at Burley-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire.
Publications (books):
A Handbook of Vertebrate Dissection: How to Dissect a Chelonian 1883
Observations on the Direct Influence of Variations of Arterial Pressure Upon the Rate of Beat of the Mammalian Heart 1883
A course of practical instruction in elementary biology 1877
The Human Body: An Account of Its Structure and Activities and the Conditions of Its Healthy Working 1898
A pioneer physiologist and vivisection activist.
Demonstrator to his mentor, Sir Michael Foster, Trinity Praelector in Physiology, 1870-6; Professor of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A., 1876-93; retired on account of ill-health, 1893.
He was the son of Henry Martin, a Congregational minister and schoolmaster, and educated at the University of London and Christ's College, Cambridge.
In 1876 he was appointed to the first professorship of physiology at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
He co-wrote with Thomas Huxley Practical instruction in elementary biology.
He developed the first isolated mammalian heart lung preparation (first described in 1881) which Starling later used to great effect.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1885, having delivered their Croonian Lecture in 1883 on "The Direct Influence of Gradual Variations of Temperature upon the Rate of Beat of the Dog's Heart".
In 1879, he married Hetty Cary, widow of Confederate General John Pegram.
They had no children and she died in 1892.
Martin's health deteriorated in his later years, and he struggled unsuccessfully against alcoholism. Campaigns by anti-vivisectionists against his experiments also took their toll, and the combined pressures of stress and drink, exacerbated by the death of his wife, saw his work rate decline.
Advised to resign by his colleagues from his chair "on account of ill-health", shortly before the opening of the Medical School in 1893, he returned to England in 1894.
His health continued to fail and he died on 27 October 1896 at Burley-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire.
Publications (books):
A Handbook of Vertebrate Dissection: How to Dissect a Chelonian 1883
Observations on the Direct Influence of Variations of Arterial Pressure Upon the Rate of Beat of the Mammalian Heart 1883
A course of practical instruction in elementary biology 1877
The Human Body: An Account of Its Structure and Activities and the Conditions of Its Healthy Working 1898
Demonstrator to his mentor, Sir Michael Foster, Trinity Praelector in Physiology, 1870-6; Professor of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A., 1876-93; retired on account of ill-health, 1893.
He was the son of Henry Martin, a Congregational minister and schoolmaster, and educated at the University of London and Christ's College, Cambridge.
In 1876 he was appointed to the first professorship of physiology at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
He co-wrote with Thomas Huxley Practical instruction in elementary biology.
He developed the first isolated mammalian heart lung preparation (first described in 1881) which Starling later used to great effect.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1885, having delivered their Croonian Lecture in 1883 on "The Direct Influence of Gradual Variations of Temperature upon the Rate of Beat of the Dog's Heart".
In 1879, he married Hetty Cary, widow of Confederate General John Pegram.
They had no children and she died in 1892.
Martin's health deteriorated in his later years, and he struggled unsuccessfully against alcoholism. Campaigns by anti-vivisectionists against his experiments also took their toll, and the combined pressures of stress and drink, exacerbated by the death of his wife, saw his work rate decline.
Advised to resign by his colleagues from his chair "on account of ill-health", shortly before the opening of the Medical School in 1893, he returned to England in 1894.
His health continued to fail and he died on 27 October 1896 at Burley-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire.
Publications (books):
A Handbook of Vertebrate Dissection: How to Dissect a Chelonian 1883
Observations on the Direct Influence of Variations of Arterial Pressure Upon the Rate of Beat of the Mammalian Heart 1883
A course of practical instruction in elementary biology 1877
The Human Body: An Account of Its Structure and Activities and the Conditions of Its Healthy Working 1898
Inscription
WILLIAM HENRY MARTIN,
M.D. D.Sc. F.R.S.
FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE
CAMBRIDGE,
SOMETIME PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY
BALTIMORE, U.S.A.
DIED OCT. 27. 1896, AGED 48.
***** AND BELOVED.
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