Historical Perspectives

Abstract

In 1932 when he turned 60, Sir Joseph Barcroft began a new line of research: the study of the physiology of the mammalian fetus. His work over the subsequent decade (1) was instrumental in establishing the evolving field of perinatal-neonatal medicine on a firm physiologic foundation. (2) Sir JB, as he was affectionately called, was born into a Quaker family on July 26, 1872 at the Glen, Newry, County Down, in today's Northern Ireland. Schooling was at Bootham, York, and later at the Leys School in Cambridge. After earning a degree in Science from London in 1891, JB opted for a career in physiology, rather than medicine, and took up a job as a lecturer at Cambridge's King's College in 1900. He became a Fellow of the Royal College in 1911. During much of his professional life, Sir JB worked on high-altitude cardiopulmonary physiology. He was a quintessential “guinea pig scientist.” To study the effects of hypoxia, he made himself an experimental subject. In 1920, he built a glass chamber and lived in it for 6 days, Inside the chamber, the Po2 had been dropped to 84 mm Hg, …