Edward Albert Schafer

Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer, born Edward Albert Schäfer in Hornsey, London, on 2 June 1850, was a British physiologist regarded as a founder of endocrinology. In 1894 he discovered and demonstrated the existence of adrenaline together with George Oliver, and he coined the term endocrine for the secretions of the ductless glands. He also coined the word insulin after theorising that the absence of a single substance normally produced by the pancreas was responsible for diabetes mellitus, and Schafers method of artificial respiration is named after him. He was the third son of a merchant born in Hamburg, studied medicine at University College London from 1868 under the physiologist William Sharpey, and became the first Sharpey Scholar in 1873. He was Fullerian Professor at the Royal Institution, became Jodrell Professor at University College London in 1883, and in 1899 took the chair of physiology at the University of Edinburgh. He died on 29 March 1935.