Hallowell Davis (August 31, 1896 – August 22, 1992) 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 chemica ...

otolaryngologist Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspeciality within medicine that deals with the surgical a ...

and researcher who did pioneering work on the physiology of hearing and the

inner ear The inner ear (internal ear, auris interna) is the innermost part of the vertebrate ear. In vertebrates, the inner ear is mainly responsible for sound detection and balance. In mammals, it consists of the bony labyrinth, a hollow cavity in th ...

. He served as director of research at the

Central Institute for the Deaf Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) is a school for the deaf that teaches students using listening and spoken language, also known as the auditory-oral approach. The school is located in St. Louis, Missouri. CID is affiliated with Washington Univ ...

in St. Louis, Missouri.

Early life

Hallowell Davis was born on August 31, 1896, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the son of attorney Horace A. Davis, and Anna Norwood ( Hallowell) Davis. His great-grandfather was

Massachusetts Governor The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces. Massachusetts ...

John Davis, and his grandfather was Civil War Officer Norwood Penrose Hallowell. He graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

in 1918, where he was the class orator at graduation. He earned his medical degree from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is cons ...

in 1922 and then spent a year at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

where he was trained as an electrophysiologist in the laboratory of Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian. In 1925, Harvard named Davis to serve as an official tutor and instructor in

pre-medical Pre-medical (often referred to as pre-med) is an educational track that undergraduate students in the United States pursue prior to becoming medical students. It involves activities that prepare a student for medical school, such as pre-med course ...

sciences, as a means of helping prepare students intending to advance to Harvard and other medical schools to "get the soundest general foundation possible for their medical education". After the year in England, he returned to teach at Harvard and became an assistant professor at Harvard College in 1927 and the school's first tutor in biochemical sciences, later becoming the director of the school's Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory.Saxon, Wolfgang
"Hallowell Davis, 96, an Explorer Who Charted the Inner Ear, Dies"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', September 10, 1992. Accessed July 15, 2010. Note that this article indicates that he was 96 in the article title and in the text, when a calculation based on the dates of his birth and death supplied by the article indicates that he died at age 95, nine days before he would have celebrated his 96th birthday. The birth and death dates provided in the obituary in ''The New York Times'' match those in the NAS article. He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1929.

Audiology pioneer

During the 1930s, Davis participated in the development of

electroencephalography Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocorte ...

and was the first person in the United States to have his brain waves scanned by an EEG device. He focused on the physiology of the inner ear, investigating how neurological impulses are transmitted to the brain via the

cochlear nerve The cochlear nerve (also auditory nerve or acoustic nerve) is one of two parts of the vestibulocochlear nerve, a cranial nerve present in amniotes, the other part being the vestibular nerve. The cochlear nerve carries auditory sensory information ...

. His studies led to the development of electrical-response

audiometry Audiometry () is a branch of audiology and the science of measuring hearing acuity for variations in sound intensity and pitch and for tonal purity, involving thresholds and differing frequencies. Typically, audiometric tests determine a subje ...

, which allowed diagnosis of hearing difficulties in infants.

Robert Galambos Robert Carl Galambos (April 20, 1914 – June 18, 2010) was an American neuroscientist whose pioneering research demonstrated how bats use echolocation for navigation purposes, as well as studies on how sound is processed in the brain. Biogra ...

credited Davis with coining the word "

audiology Audiology (from Latin , "to hear"; and from Greek , ''-logia'') is a branch of science that studies hearing, balance, and related disorders. Audiologists treat those with hearing loss and proactively prevent related damage. By employing vario ...

" in the 1940s, with Davis saying the then-prevalent term "auricular training" sounded like a method of teaching people how to wiggle their ears. Galambos, Robert
Hallowell Davis: 1896—1992

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

. Accessed July 17, 2010. Davis moved to the Central Institute for the Deaf, where some of his early work was for the

Veterans Administration The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...

in the development of improved

hearing aid A hearing aid is a device designed to improve hearing by making sound audible to a person with hearing loss. Hearing aids are classified as medical devices in most countries, and regulated by the respective regulations. Small audio amplifiers s ...

s for soldiers who had experienced hearing loss. Combining aspects and research from the fields of

behaviorism Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual ...

, electroacoustic engineering and electrophysiology, Davis was able to advance the study of the field, which could be seen in his 1947 work ''Hearing and Deafness: A Guide for the Layman'', which he co-edited with S. Richard Silverman. In 1948, he was elected to the United States

. He was also a professor of physiology at the

Washington University School of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) is the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine has 1,260 students, 604 of which are pursuing a medical degree with ...

, where he lectured on hearing and speech. Research by Davis presented to the

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chi ...

in 1952 showed that

hair cell Hair cells are the sensory receptors of both the auditory system and the vestibular system in the ears of all vertebrates, and in the lateral line organ of fishes. Through mechanotransduction, hair cells detect movement in their environment. ...

s in the inner ear play a pivotal role in transforming the mechanical stimulus of sound into electrical impulses to be sent to and processed by the brain. During the 1960s, Davis served on the National Research Council's Committee on the

Sonic Boom A sonic boom is a sound associated with shock waves created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding similar to an explosion or a thunderclap to ...

and

Supersonic Transport A supersonic transport (SST) or a supersonic airliner is a civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. To date, the only SSTs to see regular service have been Concorde and the Tupol ...

, where he argued that the noise would result in hearing irritation to the public, in addition to being an economic risk. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1965. Davis was awarded the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...

in 1975.National Science Foundation - The President's National Medal of Science
/ref>

Personal life

He married the former Pauline Allen in 1923 at a refugee camp near

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

, where they were treating those with typhus, smallpox and other diseases. She served as his research partner until her death in 1942. He married Florence Eaton in 1944 and then Nancy Gilson in 1983, three years after the death of his second wife. Davis was a resident of

University City, Missouri University City (colloquially, U. City) is an inner-ring suburb of the city of St. Louis in St. Louis County, in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was measured at 35,065 by the 2020 census. The city is one of the older suburbs in the ...

. He died at age 95 on August 22, 1992, at the Bethesda Dalworth Home in St. Louis. He was survived by his third wife, Nancy, as well as a daughter, two sons, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He donated his inner ear for scientific research.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Hallowell 1896 births 1992 deaths Hallowell family Alumni of the University of Cambridge American physiologists Harvard Medical School alumni Harvard College faculty National Medal of Science laureates American otolaryngologists Scientists from New York City People from St. Louis County, Missouri ASA Gold Medal recipients Harvard College alumni 20th-century surgeons Members of the American Philosophical Society