Henry Edmund Gaskin Boyle OBE (2 April 1875 – 15 October 1941) was a pioneering

anaesthetist Anesthesiology, anaesthesiology, or anaesthesia is the medical specialty concerned with the total perioperative care of patients before, during and after surgery. It encompasses anesthesia, intensive care medicine, critical emergency medicine ...

best remembered for the development of early anaesthetic machines.

Early life

Born in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

, he was the only child of Henry Eudolphus Boyle, estate manager and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Law Gaskin, a member of the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible gove ...

. He moved to England in 1894 after schooling at Harrison College,

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael. Bridgetown is sometimes locally referred to as "The Ci ...

Professional life

Boyle qualified MRCS LRCP in 1901 from

St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by Rahere (die ...

, London. He worked as a junior anaesthetist at Barts and was appointed visiting consultant in 1903. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he worked with the Royal Army Medical Corps in London, publishing over 3600 cases anaesthetised with nitrous oxide-oxygen-ether. His work was recognised with an OBE. Boyle promoted intratracheal insufflation techniques using

nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide (dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide), commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, or nos, is a chemical compound, an oxide of nitrogen with the formula . At room temperature, it is a colourless non-flammable gas, and has ...

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as ...

and

ether In organic chemistry, ethers are a class of compounds that contain an ether group—an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups. They have the general formula , where R and R′ represent the alkyl or aryl groups. Ethers can again be ...

, replacing open-drop anaesthesia. Initially he used imported Gwathmey machines from the USA, but finding them unreliable, he developed his own continuous-flow machines. His design included cylinders for the gases and a "Boyle's Bottle" to vaporize

diethyl ether Diethyl ether, or simply ether, is an organic compound in the ether class with the formula , sometimes abbreviated as (see Pseudoelement symbols). It is a colourless, highly volatile, sweet-smelling ("ethereal odour"), extremely flammable li ...

. Until recently, an anaesthetic machine was often referred to as a " Boyle's Machine" in honour of his contribution. His other contributions to

anaesthesia Anesthesia is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prevention of pain), paralysis (muscle relaxation), a ...

include the Boyle-Davis gag (still used today during

tonsillectomy Tonsillectomy is a list of surgical procedures, surgical procedure in which both palatine tonsils are fully removed from the back of the throat. The procedure is mainly performed for recurrent tonsillitis, throat infections and obstructive sleep ...

operations) and a popular textbook, ''Practical Anaesthetics'' (1907 and two subsequent editions).

Personal life

Boyle married Mildred Ethel Wildy Green (1879 - 1960), widow of architect Leslie William Green (1875 - 1908).https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/mildred-ethel-wildy-24-6q33ky

Honours and Fellowships

He was president of the Section of Anaesthetics of the

Royal Society of Medicine The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society in the United Kingdom, headquartered in London. History The Society was established in 1805 as Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, meeting in two rooms in barristers’ chamber ...

in 1923, a founding member of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland and an early examiner for the Diploma in Anaesthesia. Since 2000 the department at

has been named the Boyle Department of Anaesthesia. Boyle was also a committed Freemason and a member of the Caribbean Lodge under the

United Grand Lodge of England The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) is the governing Masonic lodge for the majority of freemasons in England, Wales and the Commonwealth of Nations. Claiming descent from the Masonic grand lodge formed 24 June 1717 at the Goose & Gridiron ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyle, Henry Edmund Gaskin 1875 births 1941 deaths British anaesthetists Alumni of the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Harrison College (Barbados) Migrants from British Barbados to the United Kingdom