Ernest Starling

Ernest Starling
Ernest Starling
Born	(1866-04-17)17 April 1866 London
Died	2 May 1927(1927-05-02) (aged 61) Kingston Harbour, Jamaica
Nationality	English
Fields	Physiology
Institutions	University College London
Known for	Frank–Starling law of the heart
Notable awards	Royal Medal (1913)

Ernest Henry Starling CMG FRCP FRS (17 April 1866 – 2 May 1927) was a British physiologist who contributed many fundamental ideas to this subject. These ideas were important parts of the British contribution to physiology, which at that time led the world. He made at least four significant contributions: 1. In the capillary water is forced out through the pores in the wall by hydrostatic pressure and driven in by the osmotic pressure of plasma proteins. These opposing forces approximately balance; which is known as Starling's Principle. 2. The discovery of the hormone secretin — with his brother-in-law William Bayliss — and the introduction of the word hormone. 3. The analysis of the heart's activity as a pump, which is known as the Frank–Starling law. 4. Several fundamental observations on the action of the kidneys. These include evidence for the existence of Vasopressin, the anti-diuretic hormone. He also wrote the leading textbook of physiology in English, which ran through 20 editions.

Ernest Starling became a medical student at Guy's Hospital, London, in 1882 (when he was 16). He had a brilliant career there and set his sights on becoming a Harley Street physician. But the science behind medicine —physiology— attracted him much more; he spent a long vacation in Wilhelm Kühne's laboratory in Heidelberg, studying the mechanisms of lymph formation and convinced himself that he could become a physiologist. At that time such a job description did not exist in Britain. Guy's had no physiological laboratories, but Starling's enthusiasm changed all this, and he published nine papers on lymph and capillary function between 1893 and 1897. He showed that there are opposing forces across the capillary wall — an outward movement of water due to hydrostatic pressure (derived from the heart's contraction) and an inward movement, secondary to the osmotic pressure of the plasma proteins within the capillary. Without awareness of these forces, the physician cannot begin to understand such conditions as edema. The inward and outward forces are often referred to as "Starling forces". They established him as a serious contributor. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1899.