Chauncey Depew Leake (September 5, 1896 – January 11, 1978) was an American pharmacologist, medical historian and ethicist. Leake received a bachelor's degree with majors in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

, and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. He received his M.S. (1920) and Ph.D. (1923) from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

in pharmacology and physiology. Leake was born in

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a city and the county seat of Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New J ...

. At age 10, he was treated by the ophthalmologist Karl Koller. Leake married the microbiologist Elisabeth Wilson in 1921, and they collaborated for many years. They had two sons and remained married until her death in 1977. Leake discovered the anesthetic

divinyl ether Divinyl ether is the organic compound with the formula O(CH=CH2)2. It is a colorless, volatile liquid that has mainly been of interest as an inhalation anesthetic. It is prepared by treating bis(chloroethyl) ether with base. History The ana ...

. One of his publications was a translation of the 1628 physiological work ''

De motu cordis ''Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus'' (Latin, 'An Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Living Beings'), commonly called ''De Motu Cordis'', is the best-known work of the physician William Harv ...

'' (''On the Motion of the Heart'') from Latin to English. Leake became a fulltime university administrator from 1942, first at the

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a public academic health science center in Galveston, Texas. It is part of the University of Texas System. UTMB includes the oldest medical school in Texas, and has about 11,000 employees. In Febru ...

and from 1962 at Ohio State University. In 1973, Leake was one of the signers of the

Humanist Manifesto II ''Humanist Manifesto II'', written in 1973 by humanists Paul Kurtz and Edwin H. Wilson, was an update to the previous ''Humanist Manifesto'' published in 1933, and the second entry in the ''Humanist Manifesto'' series. It begins with a statemen ...

. He was awarded the

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It condu ...

medal in 1975. A collection of his papers is held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.

References

Literature

* Robinson, Victor: ''Victory Over Pain: A History of Anaesthesia.''

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20081010212901/http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/manuscripts/ead/leake.html
The old Egyptian medical papyri
Logan Clendening lecture on the history and philosophy of medicine, University of Kansas, 1952. Full-text PDF. 1896 births 1978 deaths Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Writers from Elizabeth, New Jersey University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty {{US-scientist-stub