Henry Drysdale Dakin
FRS (12 March 188010 February 1952) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...
.
He was born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
as the youngest of 8 children to a family of steel merchants from
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...
. As a school boy, he conducted water analysis with the Leeds City Analyst. He studied chemistry at the
University of Leeds
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
with
Julius B. Cohen, and then he worked with
Albrecht Kossel
Ludwig Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel (; 16 September 1853 – 5 July 1927) was a German biochemist and pioneer in the study of genetics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1910 for his work in determining the ch ...
on
arginase
Arginase (, ''arginine amidinase'', ''canavanase'', ''L-arginase'', ''arginine transamidinase'') is a manganese-containing enzyme. The reaction catalyzed by this enzyme is:
: arginine + H2O → ornithine + urea
It is the final enzyme of the ure ...
at the
University of Heidelberg
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
. He joined
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in 1905, working in the lab of
Christian Herter
Christian Archibald Herter (March 28, 1895December 30, 1966) was an American diplomat and Republican politician who was the 59th Governor of Massachusetts from 1953 to 1957 and United States Secretary of State from 1959 to 1961. His moderate ...
. During his work on amino acids he obtained his PhD from Leeds.
In 1905, he was one of the first scientists to successfully synthesise adrenaline in the laboratory (see:
History of catecholamine research).
In 1914 he went back to England to offer his service with the war effort. Due to a request for a chemist by
Alexis Carrel to the Rockefeller Institute, Dakin joined Carrel in 1916 at a temporary hospital in
Compiègne
Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''.
Administration
Compiègne is the seat of two cantons:
* Compiègne-1 (with ...
. There they developed the
Carrel–Dakin method of wound treatments. This consisted of intermittently irrigating the wound with
Dakin's solution, a dilute solution of
sodium hypochlorite
Sodium hypochlorite (commonly known in a dilute solution as bleach) is an inorganic chemical compound with the formula NaOCl (or NaClO), comprising a sodium cation () and a hypochlorite anion (or ). It may also be viewed as the sodium s ...
(the active ingredient in common
liquid bleach products) and
boric acid
Boric acid, more specifically orthoboric acid, is a compound of boron, oxygen, and hydrogen with formula . It may also be called hydrogen borate or boracic acid. It is usually encountered as colorless crystals or a white powder, that dissolve ...
. In the process, he analyzed more than 200 candidate substances, and developed quantitative methods to evaluate their effectiveness for disinfection and wound healing. The solution is still widely used for that purpose, as of 2013.
The World War I era
Rockefeller War Demonstration Hospital (United States Army Auxiliary Hospital No. 1) was created, in part, to promote the Carrel–Dakin method:
"The war demonstration hospital of the Rockefeller Institute was planned as a school in which to teach military surgeons the principles of and art of applying the Carrel-Dakin treatment."
After he married the widow of
Christian Herter
Christian Archibald Herter (March 28, 1895December 30, 1966) was an American diplomat and Republican politician who was the 59th Governor of Massachusetts from 1953 to 1957 and United States Secretary of State from 1959 to 1961. His moderate ...
in 1916, he worked in his private laboratory in
Scarsdale, New York
Scarsdale is a town and village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The Town of Scarsdale is coextensive with the Village of Scarsdale, but the community has opted to operate solely with a village government, one of several village ...
and had several close collaborations with other scientists. His main working fields were amino acids and enzymes. The extraction of amino acids from hydrolyzed peptides by butanol was invented by him. He also was interested in organic chemistry and synthesis, and devised the
Dakin reaction and the
Dakin–West reaction.
He died shortly after the death of his wife in early 1952.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dakin, Henry
1880 births
1952 deaths
Fellows of the Royal Society
English chemists
Organic chemists
Rockefeller University faculty