John Berry Haycraft

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(bapt. 15 March 1857 – 30 December 1922) was a British physician and professor in

physiology 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 ...

who carried out important medical research. Mason Science College

Biography

Haycraft was born in

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, in 1857, the son of actuary John Berry Haycraft. His younger brother was Sir

Thomas Haycraft Sir Thomas Wagstaffe Haycraft (5 October 1858 – 16 July 1936) was an English barrister of the British Colonial Service. Haycraft served as Chief Justice of Grenada from 1916 to 1921 and Chief Justice of Palestine from 1921 to 1927. In the l ...

, a judge in the British Colonial Service. He received his medical education at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, where he gained an MD on the history, development, and function of the carapace of the chelonia and also a DSc in public health in 1888. He worked for a time in Ludwig's laboratory in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. In 1880, he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were Peter Guthrie Tait, William Rutherford,

Sir William Turner Sir William Turner (7 January 1832, in Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster – 15 February 1916, in Edinburgh) was an English anatomist and was the Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1903 to 1916. Life Turner was born in Lancaster ...

, and Sir Thomas Richard Fraser. In 1881, he was appointed chair of physiology at

Mason College Mason Science College was a university college in Birmingham, England, and a predecessor college of Birmingham University. Founded in 1875 by industrialist and philanthropist Sir Josiah Mason, the college was incorporated into the University o ...

(which later became the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

). He taught in Birmingham and attracted many students to the city. During his years in Birmingham and Edinburgh, Haycraft had been actively engaged in research and published papers on the

coagulation Coagulation, also known as clotting, is the process by which blood changes from a liquid to a gel, forming a blood clot. It potentially results in hemostasis, the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel, followed by repair. The mechanism o ...

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the c ...

and in 1884, he discovered that the

leech Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodie ...

secreted a powerful

anticoagulant Anticoagulants, commonly known as blood thinners, are chemical substances that prevent or reduce coagulation of blood, prolonging the clotting time. Some of them occur naturally in blood-eating animals such as leeches and mosquitoes, where the ...

, which he named

hirudin Hirudin is a naturally occurring peptide in the salivary glands of blood-sucking leeches (such as ''Hirudo medicinalis'') that has a blood anticoagulant property. This is fundamental for the leeches’ habit of feeding on blood, since it keeps a h ...

, although it was not isolated until the 1950s, nor its structure fully determined until 1976. Haycraft returned to

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1892 and was appointed a research

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

of the

British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headquar ...

. In 1893, he was appointed chair of physiology at University College, Cardiff, where he worked until retirement in 1920. Haycraft died three years later. He died in

Royston, Hertfordshire Royston is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Hertfordshire, District of North Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It is situated on the Prime meridian (Greenwich), Greenwich Meridian, which brush ...

on 30 December 1922. He married Lily Charlotte Isabel Lillie Stacpoole, sister of

Henry De Vere Stacpoole Henry de Vere Stacpoole (9 April 1863 – 12 April 1951) was an Irish author. His best-known work is the 1908 romance novel '' The Blue Lagoon'', which has been adapted into multiple films. He published using his own name and sometimes the pseud ...

. John Stacpoole Haycraft was his grandson.

Books and articles published

* "Upon the Cause of the Striation of Voluntary Muscular Tissue", ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (1854-1905)''. 1 January 1880, 31:360–379 * "A New Hypothesis concerning Vision", ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (1854-1905)''. 1 January 1893, 54:272–274 * "On the Action of a Secretion Obtained from the Medicinal Leech on the Coagulation of the Blood", ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (1854-1905)'', 1 January 1883, 36:478–487 * ''Darwinism and Race Progress'', London: Scribner, 1895. (Previously published in ''The Lancet''.) * ''The Human Body. A Physiology Reader for Schools'', London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1902.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haycraft, John Berry 1857 births 1923 deaths People from Lewes Alumni of the University of Edinburgh British physiologists Academics of the University of Birmingham