William Bayliss

William Bayliss in 1878, aged only 18

Sir William Maddock Bayliss (2 May 1860 – 27 August 1924) was an English physiologist.^[1]

Life

He was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire and gained a B.Sc from London University. He graduated MA and DSc in physiology from Wadham College, Oxford.

Bayliss and Ernest Henry Starling discovered the peptide hormone secretin and peristalsis of the intestines. The Bayliss Effect is named after him. He was also involved in the Brown Dog affair, successfully suing Stephen Coleridge for libel over accusations he made about Bayliss's vivisection work.

In 1893 Bayliss married Gertrude Ellen Starling, the sister of Ernest Starling.

Bayliss was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1903.^[2] He jointly delivered their Croonian lecture in 1904 and was awarded their Royal Medal in 1911 and their Copley Medal in 1919. He was knighted for his contribution to medicine in 1922.

Bayliss died in London in 1924.

The Bayliss and Starling Society was founded in 1979 as a forum for scientists with research interests in central and autonomic peptide function.

Publications

In addition to his original scientific research he also published an influential textbook of physiology, Principles of General Physiology, first published in 1915,^[3] continuing through to a 4th edition in 1924.

Family

His son, Dr Leonard Ernest Bayliss FRSE (1901-1964) was also a physiologist.^[4] who continued the family tradition of writing physiology textbooks.^[5]

See also

• List of residents of Wolverhampton

References

Sources

• Zárate, Arturo; Saucedo, Renata (2005), "[On the centennial of hormones. A tribute to Ernest H. Starling and William M. Bayliss]", Gaceta médica de México 141 (5), pp. 437–9, PMID 16353891 
• Hirst, Barry H (2004), "Secretin and the exposition of hormonal control", J. Physiol. (Lond.) (15 October 2004) 560 (Pt 2), p. 339, doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2004.073056, PMC 1665254, PMID 15308687 
• Modlin, I M; Kidd, M (2001), "Ernest Starling and the discovery of secretin", J. Clin. Gastroenterol. (Mar 2001) 32 (3), pp. 187–92, doi:10.1097/00004836-200103000-00001, PMID 11246341 
• Modlin, I M; Kidd, M; Farhadi, J (2000), "Bayliss and Starling and the nascence of endocrinology", Regul. Pept. (25 September 2000) 93 (1–3), pp. 109–23, doi:10.1016/S0167-0115(00)00182-8, PMID 11033058 
• Svatos, J; Svatos, A (1999), "The divergence in the conception of Pavlov and Bayliss-Starling concerning the function of the nervous system", Ceskoslovenská fysiologie / Ústrední ústav biologický (Feb 1999) 48 (1), pp. 22–6, PMID 10377602 
• Folkow, B (1989), "Myogenic mechanisms in the control of systemic resistance. Introduction and historical background", Journal of hypertension. Supplement : official journal of the International Society of Hypertension (September 1989) 7 (4), pp. S1–4, PMID 2681587 
• Simmer, H H (1978), "[The discovery and the discoverers of secretin. A contribution to the history of science and to the typology of the scientist]", Die Medizinische Welt (15 December 1978) 29 (50), pp. 1991–6, PMID 364247 
• Hill, A V (1969), "Bayliss and Starling and the happy fellowship of physiologists", J. Physiol. (Lond.) (September 1969) 204 (1), pp. 1–13, doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1969.sp008894, PMC 1351589, PMID 4900770 
• Bayliss, L E (1961), "William Maddock BAYLISS, 1860–1924: life and scientific work", Perspect. Biol. Med. 4, pp. 460–79, doi:10.1353/pbm.1961.0025, PMID 13688118 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Bayliss.

• Works by or about William Bayliss at Internet Archive
• Short biography, bibliography, and links on digitized sources in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
• The Bugle
• Biography and bibliography in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
• Bayliss and Starling Society Homepage