Henry Gray Barbour (28 March 1886 – 23 September 1943) was an American physiologist and

pharmacologist Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemic ...

who served as a professor of pharmacology and

toxicology Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating e ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. He studied water exchange and metabolism associated with thermal control. He devised a standard technique for measuring the specific gravity of blood plasma. He found that heavy water decelerated metabolic activities in animals. Barbour was born in Hartford, Connecticut, to Reverend John Barbour, professor of theology and his wife Annie Gray. He went to Hartford Public High School before receiving an A.B. from

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

(1906) and a medical degree from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

(1910). He married Lilla, daughter of nutrition specialist Professor Russell H. Chittenden in 1906. Barbour worked as a pathology fellow before studying in Freiburg in 1911 and then at Vienna with

Hans Horst Meyer Hans Horst Meyer (17 March 1853 – 6 October 1939) was a German pharmacologist. He studied medicine and did research in pharmacology. The Meyer-Overton hypothesis on the mode of action on general anaesthetics is partially named after him. H ...

. He returned to the US and joined Yale University in 1912. He moved to McGill University in 1921 and then moved to the University of Louisville in 1923. He helped the US war effort with studies on poison gases in association with the US Bureau of Mines. He authored a book, "''Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology''" (1932). Barbour studied temperature maintenance and water balance. Another of his experimental findings was on the effect of heavy water on animal metabolism, which he found that replacing more than a fifth of the body water resulted in a reduction in metabolic activity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbour, Henry Gray American physiologists 1886 births 1943 deaths Johns Hopkins University alumni