Ernest Henry Starling

Ernest Henry Starling was a British physiologist, born on 17 April 1866, who contributed many fundamental ideas to physiology at a time when British physiology led the world. He became a medical student at Guys Hospital and made at least four significant contributions: the principle that water is forced out of capillaries by hydrostatic pressure and driven in by the osmotic pressure of plasma proteins, now known as Starlings Principle; the discovery of the hormone secretin with his brother-in-law William Bayliss and the introduction of the word hormone; the analysis of the hearts activity as a pump, known as the Frank-Starling law; and several fundamental observations on the action of the kidneys, including evidence for vasopressin. He wrote the leading English textbook of physiology, which ran through 20 editions. He was appointed professor at University College London in 1899, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in the same year and was awarded a CMG.