Sir Leonard Erskine Hill FRS (2 June 1866, in

Bruce Castle Bruce Castle (formerly the Lordship House) is a Grade I listed 16th-century manor house in Lordship Lane, Tottenham, London. It is named after the House of Bruce who formerly owned the land on which it is built. Believed to stand on the si ...

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...

– 30 March 1952, in

Corton, Suffolk Corton is a village and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is north of the centre of Lowestoft in the East Suffolk district. The village is on the North Sea coast with the county border with Norfolk to the north. It ...

) 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 chemica ...

. 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 knowledge, including mathemati ...

in 1900 and was knighted in 1930. One of his sons was the epidemiologist and statistician

Austin Bradford Hill Sir Austin Bradford Hill (8 July 1897 – 18 April 1991) was an English epidemiologist and statistician, pioneered the randomised clinical trial and, together with Richard Doll, demonstrated the connection between cigarette smoking and lung ...

. His father was George Birkbeck Hill, the famous scholar and commentator on the works of

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

, who at the time of his birth was headmaster of

Bruce Castle School Bruce Castle School, at Bruce Castle, Tottenham, was a progressive school for boys established in 1827 as an extension of Rowland Hill's Hazelwood School at Edgbaston. It closed in 1891. Origins In 1819, Rowland Hill moved his father's Hill ...

Education

Sir Leonard Erskine Hill attended

Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to: Australia * Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia **Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia China * Haileybury International School, an international ...

. He later received his MB from

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

in 1890. In 1931, he received an honorary

LLD Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...

from the

University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

Medicine

Hill's work on blood pressure led him to believe "the arterial pressure can be taken in man as rapidly, simply, and accurately as the temperature can be taken with the clinical thermometer". This work developed into the Hill's sign. Hill was the second recipient of the

T. K. Sidey Medal Sir Thomas Kay Sidey (27 May 1863 – 20 May 1933) was a New Zealand politician from the Otago region, remembered for his successful advocacy of daylight saving time. Early life Sidey was born on 27 May 1863, to John and Johan Murray Sidey, i ...

, set up by the

Royal Society of New Zealand Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a c ...

as an award for outstanding scientific research. Hill was an advocate of

light therapy Light therapy, also called phototherapy or bright light therapy is intentional daily exposure to direct sunlight or similar-intensity artificial light in order to treat medical disorders, especially seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and circad ...

and in 1924 authored ''Sunshine and Open Air: Their Influence on Health''.

Diving medicine

Hill performed research into

decompression sickness Decompression sickness (abbreviated DCS; also called divers' disease, the bends, aerobullosis, and caisson disease) is a medical condition caused by dissolved gases emerging from solution as bubbles inside the body tissues during decompressio ...

oxygen toxicity Oxygen toxicity is a condition resulting from the harmful effects of breathing molecular oxygen () at increased partial pressures. Severe cases can result in cell damage and death, with effects most often seen in the central nervous system, l ...

, and effects of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is t ...

in diving. Hill advocated linear or uniform decompression profiles. This type of decompression is used today by saturation divers. His work was financed by

Augustus Siebe Christian Augustus Siebe (known by his middle name; 1788 – 15 April 1872) was a German-born British engineer chiefly known for his contributions to diving equipment. Contribution to diving In the 1830s the Deane brothers asked Siebe ...

and the Siebe Gorman Company.

Other interests

Hill was a distinguished watercolourist and also wrote children's stories. He was fond of the outdoor life, and went every day to bathe in a pond in

Epping Forest Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the London ...

Loughton Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...

where he lived. He later moved to

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough o ...

Selected publications

*''A Textbook of Physiology'' (with Martin William Flack, 1919) *''The Science of Ventilation and Open Air Treatment'' (1919) *''Sunshine and Open Air: Their Influence on Health'' (1924) *''Health and Environment'' (with Argyll Campbell, 1925) *''Philosophy of a Biologist'' (1930) *''Manual of Human Physiology'' (1935)

References

External links

* * Chris Pond, ''The Buildings of Loughton and Notable people of the town'' ev ed.2010br>Royal Society election certificate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Leonard Erskine 1858 births 1952 deaths Decompression researchers English medical writers English physiologists Fellows of the Royal Society Light therapy advocates