Robert Gwyn Macfarlane (26 June 1907 – 26 March 1987) was an English

hematologist Hematology ( always spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood. It involves treating diseases that affect the produc ...

Life

Born in

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

, Gwyn Macfarlane left

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent School Day and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Hugget ...

in 1924 and a year later entered the

Medical School A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, ...

St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by Rahere (die ...

, London. In 1936 he married Hilary Carson MD and over the next 11 years had five children, a girl followed by four boys. Hilary practised as a GP, whilst always offering Gwyn great academic support. She died in 2010 aged 100 years.
During Macfarlane's clinical years he was exposed to the sufferings of

haemophiliacs Haemophilia, or hemophilia (), is a mostly inherited genetic disorder that impairs the body's ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding. This results in people bleeding for a longer time after an injury, easy bruising, ...

and this subject became the core for his lifelong study into the processes of

blood clotting 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 mechan ...

. He examined the

venom Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a st ...

of many different snakes and isolated the poison of the

Russell's viper Russell's viper (''Daboia russelii''), is a venomous snake in the family Viperidae native to the Indian subcontinent and one of the big four snakes in India. It was described in 1797 by George Shaw and Frederick Polydore Nodder, and named af ...

to have the strongest blood coagulant powers
see video
He found that when a compound that included venom at dilutions of 1 in 100,000 was applied to a wound,

bleeding Bleeding, hemorrhage, haemorrhage or blood loss, is blood escaping from the circulatory system from damaged blood vessels. Bleeding can occur internally, or externally either through a natural opening such as the mouth, nose, ear, urethra, vag ...

diminished. This medicine was later marketed as ''Stypven'' by Burroughs Welcome Ltd.. ''Stypven Time'' is now a standard measure for coagulation efficiency. This research was the basis for his London M.D. thesis for which he was awarded the University Gold Medal, in 1938. In 1940 Macfarlane took the position of Clinical Pathologist at the

Radcliffe Infirmary The Radcliffe Infirmary was a hospital in central north Oxford, England, located at the southern end of Woodstock Road on the western side, backing onto Walton Street. History The initial proposals to build a hospital in Oxford were put forw ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. With a year as a Major in the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps ...

in 1944, where he was involved trying to treat the complications of

gas gangrene Gas gangrene (also known as clostridial myonecrosis and myonecrosis) is a bacterial infection that produces tissue gas in gangrene. This deadly form of gangrene usually is caused by '' Clostridium perfringens'' bacteria. About 1,000 cases of gas ...

on the war front, he continued to work in Oxford for the rest of his professional life. He led a team that included

Rosemary Biggs Rosemary Peyton Biggs (21 April 1912 – 29 June 2001) was an English haematologist. She worked closely with Robert Gwyn Macfarlane at the Radcliffe Infirmary and Churchill Hospital in Oxford, where she studied coagulation disorders, particu ...

and

Ethel Bidwell Ethel Bidwell (1919–2003) was a British research scientist who investigated blood coagulation. In 1950, Bidwell, an enzyme chemist, joined the Oxford University team headed by Gwyn Macfarlane. Two years later, she began to study plasma con ...

, to investigate congenital coagulation defects, the treatment of bleeding disorders and to develop replacement therapies that enabled haemophiliacs to enjoy an almost normal life. Perhaps his greatest contribution to modern medicine was his deciphering of the

Enzyme cascade A biochemical cascade, also known as a signaling cascade or signaling pathway, is a series of chemical reactions that occur within a biological cell when initiated by a stimulus. This stimulus, known as a first messenger, acts on a receptor that ...

process of blood coagulation. Working in 1951 with Prof

Alexander Stuart Douglas Alexander Stuart Douglas FRSE FRCP (1921–1998) was a physician and haematologist. He was Regius Professor of Medicine at Aberdeen University from 1970 to 1985. He received international acclaim for his discoveries in relation to blood coag ...

at the Blood Coagulation Research Unit in Oxford they jointly discovered a second strain of haemophilia, now known as

Haemophilia B Haemophilia B, also spelled hemophilia B, is a blood clotting disorder causing easy bruising and bleeding due to an inherited mutation of the gene for factor IX, and resulting in a deficiency of factor IX. It is less common than factor VIII defi ...

, but then known as Christmas disease after its first known sufferer,

Stephen Christmas Haemophilia B, also spelled hemophilia B, is a blood clotting disorder causing easy bruising and bleeding due to an inherited mutation of the gene for factor IX, and resulting in a deficiency of factor IX. It is less common than factor VIII defi ...

. In 1956 he was elected to the fellowship of

The Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

, in 1963 he was elected a Fellow of

All Souls College All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of ...

and in 1965 was appointed Professor of Clinical Pathology at Oxford University. In 1966, he was awarded the

Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh The Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh is awarded by the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine to a person who has made any highly important and valuable addition to Practical Therapeutics in the previous five ye ...

. Gwyn Macfarlane was a close associate of

Howard Florey Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey (24 September 189821 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role ...

during the development of a process to extract

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from '' Penicillium'' moulds, principally '' P. chrysogenum'' and '' P. rubens''. Most penicillins in clinical use are synthesised by P. chrysogenum usin ...

from culture grown in the Dunn School of Medicine. Baron Florey went on to be President of the Royal Society and Macfarlane developed an enormous respect for the capabilities of a man, held by many to be one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century. Macfarlane considered that the role Florey had played in the development of Penicillin had been overshadowed, so when he retired to Scotland in 1967 he commenced his first authoritative biography ''Howard Florey, The Making of a Great Scientist'' which was published in 1979. Later Macfarlane's second book ''

Alexander Fleming Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of what ...

, The Man and the Myth'' examined the life of the other great contributor to the age of anti-bacterial engineering. In later life Macfarlane felt that his close personal exposure to these developments left him as a conduit to modern science education, and his contributions both written and in BBC TV programs etc. will always be valuable. In 1988, following Macfarlane's death in the previous year, The Macfarlane Trust (named after him) was established to help British haemophiliacs affected by the Tainted Blood Scandal.

Selected works

1934 (with B. Barnett) The haemostatic possibilities of snake venom. ''Lancet, ii,985'' 1938 ''The normal haemostatic mechanism and its failure in the haemorrhagic states''. Thesis for Doctor of Medicine, University of London. 1953 (with R. Biggs) ''Human Blood Coagulation and its Disorders''. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. 1961 (with A.H.T.Robb-Smith) (ed) ''Functions of the Blood''. Academic Press, New York. 1964 An enzyme cascade in the blood clotting mechanism, and its function as a biochemical amplifier. ''Nature, Lond''. 202,221 1979 ''Howard Florey, The Making of a Great Scientist'', Oxford University Press 1984 ''Alexander Fleming, The Man and the Myth'', Chatto and Windus,

References

* ''Robert Gwyn Macfarlane, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society'', G.V.R.Born and D.J.Weatheral, Volume 35, 1990. * ''The Life and Achievements of Professor Robert Gwyn Macfarlane FRCS: Pioneer in the Care of Haemophiliacs'', Alistair Robb-Smith. Royal Society of Medicine Services Ltd. 1993. * ''A Review of the Scientific and Literary accomplishments of Professor R.G.Macfarlane CBE FRS''. British Journal of Haematology 133(6);581-590 June 2006 Hougie, Cecil.

Interest factor

Video
Russell's Viper Venom, Blood clotting
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macfarlane, Robert Gwyn 1907 births 1987 deaths People from Worthing Fellows of the Royal Society Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Cheltenham College Royal Army Medical Corps officers Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Alumni of the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital 20th-century British medical doctors British haematologists