Abstract
IT has seldom been our lot to have to record the premature close of a career so full of promise as that which ended with the death of Alfred Henry Garrod, at his father's house in Harley Street, on Friday last, October 17. The son of an eminent physician, Dr. Alfred Baring Garrod, F.R.S., he was born in London on May 18,1846, received a medical education at King's College, London, and in 1868 entered St. John's College, Cambridge. He graduated (B.A.) in 1871, taking the highest place in the natural science tripos. In due course he took his M.A. degree, and was elected a Fellow of his college in 1873. His earliest scientific predilections were chiefly for mathematics and physics, and the knowledge of these subjects which he acquired when a student was of great value to him in his biological researches. The mechanics of physiology was the subject to which he first turned his attention as a scientific investigator, and, while still an undergraduate, he communicated a paper on the cause of the diastole of the ventricles of the heart to the Journal of Anatomy (vol. iii., 1869). About the same time he sent to the Royal Society the results of an interesting series of experiments made upon himself with a view of ascertaining the causes of the minor fluctuations in the temperature of the human body while at rest, from which he concluded that these fluctuations mainly result from alterations in the amount of blood exposed at the surface to the influence of absorbing and conducting media. These were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. xvii., 1869. A series of papers in the Proceedings of the Royal Society and in the Journal of Anatomy followed, giving the result of observations upon the circulation of the blood, conducted with great ingenuity by means of the sphygmograph, aided by various modifications and improvements upon the original instrument due to his inventive and mechanical skill. It is, indeed, probable that physiology is the subject to which he would most willingly have devoted his attention had not his energies been turned to the pursuit of morphology by his receiving the appointment, in January, 1872, of Prosector to the Zoological Society. This appointment is one which, perhaps more than any now existing, comes near to an ideal endowment of research. An unlimited amount of new material is placed in the hands of its occupant there are no duties beyond those of making and recording original observations, and ample facilities are given for the publication and illustration of all the observations made. To the efficient performance of the duties of this office Mr. Garrod applied himself with great energy and zeal, as testified by his numerous contributions upon the comparative anatomy of the vertebrate animals, which have enriched the publications of the Society, from the date of his appointment to the present time. He devoted great attention to the anatomy of birds, hitherto too much neglected, and his observations upon their myology and visceral anatomy were beginning to throw some light upon the very difficult and obscure subject of the mutual affinities of the members of this class. The curious and most unexpected variations in structure often revealed in the dissection of species thought to be closely allied, soon convinced him of the necessity of far more extended and minute observations than had previously been made, and those who closely watched his work and knew that besides the observations he had had time to complete and publish, he had already accumulated a vast mass of facts, partly in notes and drawings and partly in the stores of his memory, feel most keenly how much has been lost by his early death.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
F., W. Alfred Henry Garrod . Nature 20, 613–614 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/020613a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/020613a0