Walter Holbrook Gaskell FRS (1 November 1847;

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

– 7 September 1914;

Great Shelford Great Shelford is a village located approximately to the south of Cambridge, in the county of Cambridgeshire, in eastern England. In 1850 Great Shelford parish contained bisected by the river Cam. The population in 1841 was 803 people. By 2001 ...

) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

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 chemical a ...

Early life

The son of barrister John Dakin Gaskell, he was educated at

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, receiving his BA as a wrangler in 1869 and becoming a Fellow of Trinity Hall.

Career

He worked in the Physiological Laboratory of 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 ...

, focusing on the physiology of the

heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide t ...

and the vascular and

nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its actions and sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. The nervous system detects environmental changes th ...

s. His research was central to the understanding of cardiac physiology. Key discoveries included the sequence of cardiac contraction, dual autonomic control of the heart, introduction of the concept of

heart block Heart block (HB) is a disorder in the heart's rhythm due to a fault in the natural pacemaker. This is caused by an obstruction – a block – in the electrical conduction system of the heart. Sometimes a disorder can be inherited. Despite the se ...

and the experimental demonstration of the myogenic origin of the heartbeat. His research also laid the foundations for investigation into

cardiac arrhythmia Arrhythmias, also known as cardiac arrhythmias, heart arrhythmias, or dysrhythmias, are irregularities in the heartbeat, including when it is too fast or too slow. A resting heart rate that is too fast – above 100 beats per minute in adults ...

s. He also made progress in mapping the

sympathetic nervous system The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is one of the three divisions of the autonomic nervous system, the others being the parasympathetic nervous system and the enteric nervous system. The enteric nervous system is sometimes considered part of th ...

. In 1881, he was the first to describe the effects of extracellular pH on cardiac and vascular tissues. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1882 and gave their

Croonian The Croonian Medal and Lecture is a prestigious award, a medal, and lecture given at the invitation of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians. Among the papers of William Croone at his death in 1684, was a plan to endow a single l ...

lecture of that year. In 1889 he won their

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important ...

for his contributions both to cardiac physiology and to the anatomy and physiology of the sympathetic nervous system. He wrote "The Origin of the Vertebrates", published by Longmans, Green, and Co., London, in 1908, proposing a since-rejected connection between the

vertebrates Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

and

eurypterid Eurypterids, often informally called sea scorpions, are a group of extinct arthropods that form the Order (biology), order Eurypterida. The earliest known eurypterids date to the Darriwilian stage of the Ordovician period 467.3 Myr, million yea ...

arthropods Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

Private life

In 1875 Walter Gaskell married Catherine Sharpe Parker, first cousin of the London architect

Horace Field Horace Field was a London-born architect. His work was often in a Wrenaissance style, as well as other post-gothic English historical revival styles, with influences from the Arts and Crafts movement and Richard Norman Shaw. His commissions incl ...

. They had four daughters and a son, John Foster Gaskell (1878-1960), named after a neighbour and friend, the physiologist Michael Foster. The family settled near Cambridge where he remained for the rest of his life, residing first at

Grantchester Grantchester is a village and civil parish on the River Cam or Granta in South Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about south of Cambridge. Name The village of Grantchester is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as ''Grantesete'' and ''Grauntset ...

and later at

, where he built a hilltop home, The Uplands, designed by

, opposite the hill on which stood Michael Foster's home, Nine Wells House. During his youth, he engaged in rowing, cricket, tennis and swimming. Later he enjoyed yachting, fishing, whist and bridge. Throughout life, he always took a somewhat leisurely course during both work and play activities. His main hobby was gardening, and he converted a large area of his 15 acres of the

Gog Magog Hills The Gog Magog Hills are a range of low chalk hills, extending for several miles to the southeast of Cambridge in England. The highest points are situated either side of the A1307 Babraham Road, and are marked on Ordnance Survey 1:25000 maps as ...

into a charming terraced garden. After Gaskell's death at The Uplands, his remaining family continue to live there until 1961, when the house and estate was auctioned on behalf of the executors of the late Dr John Foster Gaskell and Miss Gaskell MBE.1961 Estate Agent's sale particualars In 1990 a major fire destroyed the house and its ruins still stand today in dense woodland on land now owned by a Cambridge College.

References

Bibliography

*JNL (1914–1915) ''Proc Roy Soc Lond B Biol Sci'' 88:xxvii–xxxvi (Obituary) *

External links

The Royal Society: Walter Holbrook Gaskell (1847–1914)

Royal Medal winners prior to 1900

The Royal Society: photograph
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaskell, Walter Holbrook 1847 births 1914 deaths 19th-century British biologists 20th-century British biologists British physiologists People educated at Highgate School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Royal Medal winners 19th-century Neapolitan people People from Great Shelford