David Bruce Dill (1891–1986) was an American

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical a ...

specializing in exercise science and environmental physiology. He served as president of the American Physiological Society and was a founding director of Harvard's Fatigue Laboratory, where he remained as Director of Research until it closed in 1947.

Work

Dill's early work focused on the analysis of crocodile blood. He moved into human research in 1927, when he was made founding director of the newly created Fatigue Laboratory at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Harvard Fatigue Laboratory studies

In 1933, Dill contributed to an HFL study of the

oxygen debt Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC, informally called afterburn) is a measurably increased rate of oxygen intake following strenuous activity. In historical contexts the term "oxygen debt" was popularized to explain or perhaps attempt t ...

mechanism, along with Rodolfo Margaria and Harold T. Edwards. Under Dill, the Fatigue Laboratory conducted one of the most notable studies of the effects of aging on athletes. Among the test subjects was

Don Lash Donald Ray Lash (August 15, 1912 – September 19, 1994) was an American long-distance runner who won 12 national titles from 1934 to 1940, including seven consecutive men's national cross-country championships, and who set a world's recor ...

, who in 1936 was the world record holder for the two-mile dash, with a time of 8 minutes, 58 seconds. Many of the other test subjects had stopped training after leaving university, but Lash had continued, and at age 49 was still running an average of 45 minutes a day. Lash's VO₂ max declined 33% between ages 24 and 49, compared to an average of 43% for those runners who did not continue to train. The data suggested that early physical training does little to help with endurance capacity later unless the physical activity levels are maintained.

References

External links

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David Bruce Dill / Harvard Fatigue Laboratory Reprints
MSS 517.

UC San Diego Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dill, David Bruce 1891 births 1986 deaths American physiologists Harvard University faculty