Barcroft, Joseph

Joseph Barcroft was born July 26, 1872 in Newry into a Quaker family. He was educated first at the Butham School of York, then at the Leah School in Cambridge, after which he entered the University of Cambridge . In 1896 he graduated from it, receiving a doctorate in medicine, and immediately began active scientific work on the study of hemoglobin .

In May 1910 he was elected a member of the Royal Society , in 1922 the scientist was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society of London ^[7] , in 1943 - the Copley Medal ^[8] ; in 1935 he was knighted, in 1938 he was elected an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ^[9] .

In 1936, he was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research in the field of respiratory function of the blood and spleen functions ^[10] .

From 1925 to 1937, Joseph Barcroft headed the Department of Physiology at Cambridge.

Barcroft also gained fame for the fact that in his experiments he very often used himself as an experimental subject. So, during the First World War , when he was called up to the Royal Engineering Experimental Station, he conducted experiments with asphyxiating gases, exposing himself to hydrogen cyanide. Once, he spent seven days in a small glass chamber to calculate the minimum amount of oxygen necessary for human survival, and another time he closed himself in a chamber with such a low temperature that he fainted.

Barncroft also studied the properties of oxygen at high altitudes, so he organized ascents to the peak of Tenerife (1910), Monte Rosa (1911), and the Peruvian Andes (1922).

During World War II, he was called up to Porton as a chemical weapons consultant.

Joseph Barcroft died on March 21, 1947 in Cambridge.