Ernest Starling facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ernest Starling
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Ernest Starling
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| Born | 17 April 1866 |
| Died | 2 May 1927 (aged 61) Kingston Harbour, Jamaica
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| Nationality | English |
| Known for | Frank–Starling law of the heart |
| Awards | Royal Medal (1913) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physiology |
| Institutions | University College London |
Ernest Henry Starling (1866–1927) was a famous British physiologist. A physiologist is a scientist who studies how living things work. Starling made many important discoveries about the human body. His work helped make Britain a world leader in this field.
He is known for several key ideas. He explained how fluid moves in and out of tiny blood vessels called capillaries. This is known as Starling's Principle. He also discovered a special body chemical called secretin with his brother-in-law, William Bayliss. Starling was the first to use the word hormone for these types of chemicals. He also figured out how the heart pumps blood more strongly when it receives more blood. This is called the Frank–Starling law. He also made important observations about how the kidneys work.
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Becoming a Scientist
Ernest Starling started studying medicine in London in 1882 when he was 16. He was very good at his studies. He became more interested in the science behind medicine, which is called physiology. He spent time in a lab in Germany, studying how lymph (a body fluid) is made. This experience convinced him he wanted to be a physiologist.
At first, his hospital didn't have good labs for physiology. But Starling's passion changed things. Between 1893 and 1897, he published many papers on lymph and capillary function. He showed that there are two main forces moving water across capillary walls. One force pushes water out, and another pulls it in. These are now called "Starling forces." Understanding these forces helps doctors understand problems like edema (swelling). His work made him a respected scientist.
He was chosen as a member of the Royal Society in 1899. This is a very old and respected group of scientists.
Discovering Hormones
Starling often worked with William Bayliss, who taught at University College London (UCL). They studied how the heart works and how food moves through the body. In 1891, Starling married Florence Amelia Wooldridge. She was a great help to him, supporting his work and managing their home and four children. In 1893, Bayliss married Starling's sister, Gertrude. This made the two scientists brothers-in-law. When Starling became a professor at UCL in 1899, they worked even more closely.
Bayliss and Starling studied how the pancreas (an organ that helps with digestion) releases its juices. People at the time thought this was only controlled by nerves. But the two scientists showed that when food or acid entered the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine), a chemical was released into the blood. This chemical made the pancreas secrete its juices. They named this substance secretin. In 1905, Starling suggested that the body makes many such chemicals. He proposed calling these substances hormones. This idea started a whole new field of study called endocrinology, which is about hormones and glands.
Improving Medical Training
Starling cared deeply about how doctors were trained. He felt that medical practice needed more science behind it. In 1910, a special group was formed to improve medical education. Starling was very eager to help. One result of this group's work was the creation of medical units in London hospitals. These units combined patient care with lab research. Today, this is common in big hospitals, and we can thank Starling for helping make it happen.
Understanding the Heart
The most famous discovery linked to Starling is the Law of the Heart. For two years (1910–1912), he studied how the heart pumps more blood when more blood flows into it. He used a special setup called the heart-lung preparation for his experiments.
Starling did not know about earlier work by a German scientist named Otto Frank. Frank had studied isolated frog hearts. He found that the more the heart muscle fibers were stretched, the stronger they contracted. Frank was not studying the whole body's blood flow. So, Starling's and Frank's findings were put together, and it became known as the Frank–Starling law.
World War I Efforts
During World War I (1914–1918), Starling first worked on research about poison gases. He found the organization of this work to be very messy. He often spoke his mind to his bosses, which didn't help his career. Many other important scientists received special honors, but Starling received a lesser award. He left the army in 1917.
After that, he took on war work that used his skills better. He led a committee that helped set up food rationing in Britain. This rationing made sure people got enough calories and important nutrients. It actually improved nutrition for many people during the war.
After the War
After the war, Starling returned to UCL. His wartime experiences made him critical of how the country was run, especially the education system. He felt strongly that schools should teach more science and less of the old classical subjects.
In the 1920s, he continued his experiments. Many other famous scientists came to work with him. They used his heart-lung preparation to study things like blood pressure and how insulin works. In 1920, Starling was diagnosed with cancer in his colon. He had surgery, which limited his physical activities, like mountain climbing.
The Nobel Prize Story
Starling's connection to the Nobel Prize is interesting. He was first suggested for the prize in 1913 for his work on hormones, especially secretin. The person judging the prize thought Starling should get it, but not yet. No prizes were given during World War I.
In 1920, a Danish physiologist named August Krogh won the prize for his work on capillaries. His findings were not as important as Starling's had been years earlier. But the importance of "Starling forces" in capillaries was not fully understood at that time.
In 1926, Starling was suggested again, this time for his work on the kidney. The judge now felt Starling's hormone studies should have been rewarded. But by then, those discoveries were almost 25 years old. The judge thought the prize should be for newer discoveries. He had forgotten that he was the one who delayed Starling's prize in 1913. Later, other British scientists won the prize for work they had done 20 or 30 years before. But by then, the judge was no longer involved in awarding the prize.
His Final Days
The exact details of Starling's death are not fully clear. He was on a cruise in the West Indies. When his ship, the Ariguani, docked in Kingston, Jamaica, he was found to be dead. He was traveling alone, and no family or friends were at his funeral in Kingston. No autopsy was done, so the exact cause of his death was never officially confirmed. It is thought to be related to his earlier cancer.
Starling's death was a great loss to medical science. As another scientist, Henry Hallett Dale, said, Starling was a "generous friend and leader." He added that it's "impossible to think of physiology in the last thirty years without Starling as the central figure of inspiration."
Family Legacy
Two of his great-grandchildren, Boris Starling (born 1969) and Belinda Starling (1972–2006), became writers.
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Ernest Starling
