Robert Gwyn Macfarlane

Robert Gwyn Macfarlane
Died	1987
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of London
Known for	Haematology, science, biography

Robert Gwyn Macfarlane, CBE. FRS. hematologist, (born 26 June 1907 died 26 March 1987).

Born in Worthing, Sussex, Gwyn Macfarlane left Cheltenham College in 1924 and a year later entered the Medical School of St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. In 1936 he married Hilary Carson MD and over the next 11 years, had five children, a girl followed by four boys. Hilary, practised as a GP, whilst always offering Gwyn great academic support. She died in 2010 aged 100 years.
During Macfarlane's clinical years he was exposed to the sufferings of haemophiliacs and this subject became the core for his lifelong study into the processes of blood clotting.

He examined the Venom of many different snakes and isolated the poison of the Russell's Viper to have the strongest blood coagulant powers, see video. He found that when a compound that included venom at dilutions of 1 in 100,000 was applied to a wound, bleeding diminished. This medicine was later marketed as Stypven by Burroughs Welcome Ltd.. Stypven Time is now a standard measure for coagulation efficiency. This research was the basis for his London M.D. thesis for which he was awarded the University Gold Medal, in 1938.

In 1940 Macfarlane took the position of Clinical Pathologist at the Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. With a year as a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1944, where he was involved trying to treat the complications of Gas gangrene on the war front, he continued to work in Oxford for the rest of his professional life. He led a team that included Rosemary Biggs and Ethel Bidwell, to investigate congenital coagulation defects, the treatment of bleeding disorders and to develop a managed environment for haemophiliacs to enjoy an almost normal life.

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