Hamilton Hartridge (7 May 1886 – 13 January 1976) was a British eye physiologist and medical writer.'Obituary: H. Hartridge', ''

British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origin ...

'', 20 March 1976, p.716 Known for his ingenious experimentation and instrument construction abilities, he designed what is called the Hartridge Reversion Spectrometer. This was used for pioneering studies on haemoglobin oxygen-binding studies. Hamilton Hartridge FRS was educated at

Harrow Harrow may refer to: Places * Harrow, Victoria, Australia * Harrow, Ontario, Canada * The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland * London Borough of Harrow, England ** Harrow, London, a town in London ** Harrow (UK Parliament constituency) ...

and

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, where he became a fellow from 1912 to 1926. He graduated in medicine from

St George's Hospital St George's Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Tooting, London. Founded in 1733, it is one of the UK's largest teaching hospitals and one of the largest hospitals in Europe. It is run by the St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundatio ...

in 1914, serving during the war as an experimental officer at

RNAS Kingsnorth RNAS Kingsnorth was a First World War Royal Navy air station for airships, initially operating as an experimental and training station, it later moved on to large scale production of airships. It also provided anti-submarine patrols. A number ...

. In 1916 he married Kathleen Wilson. After the war he stayed in Cambridge University as lecturer in special senses and senior demonstrator 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 chemic ...

. He gained a reputation as an ingenious experimenter, constructing, for example, the continuous-flow apparatus for measuring the rates of very fast reactions, as well as working to revise established medical textbooks. From 1927 to 1947 he was professor of physiology at

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, and from 1947 to 1951 director of the vision research unit of the Medical Research Council. He was president of the Quekett Microscopical Club from 1951 to 1954 and he was elected an Honorary Member in 1952. He was

Gresham Professor of Physic The Professor of Physic (the term for medicine at the time the post was created in 1597) at Gresham College in London, England, gives free educational lectures to the general public on medicine, health and related sciences. The college was founded ...

. In 1946 he delivered the

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entitled Colours and how we see them.

Works

* Chapter on the sense organs, in Ernest Henry Starling, ''Principles of human physiology'', 3rd ed, London: J. & A. Churchill, 1920. * Supplementary essay in William Pole, ''The philosophy of music'', 6th ed., London, K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.; New York, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1924. The International Library of Psychology, Philosophy and Scientific Method. * ''Bainbridge & Menzies' Essentials of physiology'', 7th ed., 1929. * ''Colours and how we see them'', 1949. * ''Recent advances in the physiology of vision'', 1950.

Works

References

Further reading