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1940s, 1950s, biochemistry, medicine, physics, physiology, research

Staff and senior students of the physiology department in 1951. Front row, from left: Laurie Brock, Ken Bradley, Prof Eccles, Eric Hook, Charlie Morris, Wilfrid Rall. Middle row: Arthur Chapman, Jack Coombs, Yap Tien Beng, Molly Bradley, Graham Jeffries, Pearl Cousins. Back row: Arnold Annand, Ron Stevenson, Dan Whyte. Photo courtesy of the Department of Physiology.
At first glance, the Otago physiology department’s one-page annual report for 1951 appears somewhat mundane. It listed student numbers, staff changes, research topics and publications, but it was a simple factual report and made no comment on the teaching workload (which was heavy), research productivity and quality (high), or the achievements of departing staff (remarkable).
A closer look at the 7 publications listed provides further insight into goings-on in the department. Two appeared in the leading journal Nature: ‘Plasticity of mammalian monosynaptic reflexes’, by departing professor Jack Eccles and senior lecturer Archie McIntyre; and ‘The afferent limb of the myotatic reflex arc’, by McIntyre. Several others appeared in the local publication Proceedings of the University of Otago Medical School, including ‘Action potentials of motoneurones with intracellular electrode’, authored by physiology lecturer Laurie Brock (a recent Otago medical graduate), physics lecturer Jack Coombs (another Otago graduate) and Eccles. That article – just a page and a half long – was the first published report of an important breakthrough in neurophysiology research; it was a significant step in the work that won Eccles a Nobel Prize in 1963.
Eccles, born in Melbourne in 1903, commenced at Otago in 1944, bringing impressive credentials from his years as a physiology researcher in Oxford and Sydney. He replaced John Malcolm, who had been physiology professor since 1905. Malcolm was an active researcher, highly respected for his work in biochemistry and nutrition, but Eccles was to take the research activity of the department to a new level. First, though, he had to reacquaint himself with the whole of physiology in order to teach medical students, something he had not done for some years. Preparing 75 lectures for second-year meds, plus others for first-year meds, along with a completely new laboratory course and discussion groups, meant his research ‘virtually came to an end’ during that first year, Eccles later recalled. He did design some of the medical students’ lab work to assist his research, as Miles Hursthouse explained: the professor ‘conducted many interesting experiments, some of them on us! At our practical sessions we had to endure having needles stuck into a muscle, then contract that muscle while measuring the electrical impulse and rate of propagation’. There weren’t many staff to assist, though Eccles was grateful for those he had, including Norman Edson, appointed associate professor of biochemistry in 1944. Biochemistry was a rapidly-growing field, and in 1949 it split from physiology to become an independent department with Edson as inaugural professor; the two fields continued to work closely together despite the administrative separation.
Though he had little time for research in 1944, it was ‘important in my scientific life above all my post-Sherrington years’, recalled Eccles (Charles Sherrington being the distinguished neurophysiologist who inspired him at Oxford). It was then he met the great philosopher Karl Popper, who was teaching at Canterbury. Hearing of the stir that Popper was creating among the scientists of Christchurch, Eccles and Edson invited him to visit Otago. Eccles was heavily influenced by the ‘inspiring new vision of science that Popper gave us’, most notably by his message ‘that science is not inductive, but deductive’. With Popper’s urging, Eccles set about designing experiments that would test a hypothesis ‘in its most vulnerable aspects in an attempt at falsification’. He was keen to prove his theory that messages crossed the synapses of nerve cells by electrical rather than chemical means.
By 1945 Eccles was busy experimenting alongside his teaching duties. David Cole, future dean of the Auckland medical school, completed a BMedSci degree with Eccles that year, recalling that ‘the ebullient JCE’ had ‘ideas tumbling out of his mind’; students appreciated ‘the invaluable experience of working close to the edge of scientific knowledge’. The professor’s lab was ‘a huge cage of chicken wire’ and ‘almost a caricature of the mad scientist amongst his oscilloscopes, wires and animals’. Another student recalled the day that Eccles ‘arrived in great excitement, having, he said, a testable hypothesis about inhibition which had come to him, like Archimedes, in the bath that morning. He retired to his wire cage for 24 hours or more, being fed sandwiches through the door’.
Neurophysiology experiments required sophisticated and intricate electronic equipment; Eccles acknowledged that such technology ‘rapidly outstripped my understanding …. My indebtedness to my associates is immeasurable’. In his travels around the world, he noted, ‘I have left … a trail of elaborately designed shielded research rooms stripped of equipment!’. To Otago he brought not just specialist electrical equipment, but also a technician, Arthur Chapman. He also made the most of the technical expertise he found in Dunedin. Arnold Annand, whose electrical expertise had been honed during service in the Air Force, joined the physiology department as a technician in 1948, beginning a career of almost 40 years building and maintaining equipment for the university’s health science departments. In 1950 Eccles asked Jack Coombs, a ‘shy genius’ who had been lecturing in the physics department since 1940, to design a machine capable of the electronic stimulation and recording he needed for his experiments. Coombs came up with devices which remained, for many years, ‘the best general research instruments for electrophysiology in the world’, said Eccles. Coombs also participated in the neurophysiology experiments. Eccles attracted PhD students – then a rare breed – to Otago. For instance, Wilfrid Rall, a Yale graduate, came to study with Eccles, remaining on as a lecturer for several years before returning to pioneering neuroscience work in the US. Another important recruit to the department was Archie McIntyre, an old Australian neurophysiology colleague. Eccles convinced McIntyre to join him at Otago, where he became senior lecturer in 1949.

Eccles at work on an experiment, assisted by Molly Bradley, in 1951. Photo courtesy of the Department of Physiology.
The breakthrough 1951 experiment required the insertion of a tiny electrode, less than a micrometer wide, into a single nerve cell in the spinal cord of an anaesthetised cat; the action potentials of the cell could then be measured. Similar experiments had been carried out on frog muscle fibres, but never successfully on mammals. The day that revealed that synaptic action was chemically mediated, thus disproving Eccles’s theory of electrical transmission, was remarkable not only for that result. The experiment lasted for many hours, but for some time Eccles was left to tend it alone while one of his colleagues, Laurie Brock, delivered the baby of the wife of the third member of the team, Jack Coombs! As an enthusiastic disciple of Popper’s deductive method, Eccles was happy to accept that his theory was false, becoming a ‘belated’ convert to English neuroscientist Henry Dale’s hypothesis of chemical synaptic transmission even in the central nervous system.
Although Eccles was to carry out further ground-breaking experiments in neurophysiology, they didn’t take place in Dunedin. At the end of 1951 he departed for a plum job as founding physiology professor at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, attached to the recently-established Australian National University, Canberra. There he could carry on his research without the distraction of the heavy teaching load which he found a burden at Otago. Jack Coombs (whose younger brother Doug was geology professor at Otago for many years) and Arthur Chapman followed Eccles to ANU, as did some of the specialised equipment. But he left behind a strong legacy of experimental neuroscience at Otago and, by no means least, his much-respected colleague Archie McIntyre, who succeeded him as physiology professor. Under McIntyre’s leadership the department continued to attract talented research students and staff and maintained a strong experimental focus, albeit one less focused on neurophysiology, as new staff with other interests within physiology joined the team.
Ted Jones, who became a prominent neuroscientist in the USA, arrived at Otago as a medical student a few years after Eccles departed. He could not recall ever being told that Eccles had carried out groundbreaking work ‘in one of those rather grubby basement rooms of the Lindo Ferguson building. If Eccles was remembered at all it was for his irascibility, not his scientific achievements’. Perhaps the subsequent award of a Nobel Prize alerted later students to what this man had achieved in the world’s southernmost medical school – certainly it’s something we can celebrate today!
Dear Ali,
I am impressed by all the interesting information you have gathered and written into your blogs. Excellent and valuable work! At present I am writing an article on Jack Eccles’ time in Dunedin and would like to quote one or more of your text passages – if you have no objections. Dot Page is assisting me greatly with the paper and we both wonder how one can best quote references to a blog in today’s scientific literature – perhaps you could help us here? I gather that your blogs are envisaged to appear as a book in the future. Quoting from a book is certainly better, therefore I would like to know how far you have got in that direction. Like you, I am on the lookout for relevant photos, in my case especially of Eccles’ laboratory equipment, especially his “Lucas Pendulums” and mechanical recording devices used in his earlier post-war years. I fear that he probably took all his lab equipment with him to Canberra, but since he had already upgraded to electronic equipment before leaving, there might be a chance of finding some old photos, or even museum pieces at the University of Otago which could still be photographed.
I would greatly appreciate any help you could give me in these matters.
Best wishes,
Jim Chalcroft PhD (Auck)
Hi Jim, I’m glad you found the blog post useful, and you’re very welcome to quote or cite it. Some of this material will be in the book, but it will be in an abbreviated form! That’s not due out until late 2018 or early 2019 – I’m not sure of the exact schedule. I would cite the blog post as: Ali Clarke, ‘The Nobel connection’, blog post on University of Otago 1869-2019: writing a history, https://otago150years.wordpress.com/2016/07/18/the-nobel-connection/ (accessed [date]). But you may need to adapt that depending on the citation style you’re using.
Most of the pictures I’ve seen of Eccles show him operating on cats, and I confess to not taking much notice of the equipment! If you haven’t already done so, I recommend contacting the Otago physiology department as they have some old photographs still. Also, the NZ Medical Research Council put out a glossy report in 1951 which has some photos of AK McIntyre working with physiology equipment and Arthur Annand (who isn’t named in the caption) servicing it.
I haven’t listed sources on the blog, but the ones I used for this post are –
Mary R. Mennis, The Book of Eccles: A portrait of Sir John Eccles. Australian Nobel Laureate and Scientist. 1903-1997 (Aspley, Queensland: Lalong Enterprises, 2003).
Anrold Annand obituary in ODT [someone gave me an undated clipping so I don’t know the exact date, but he died in August 2011].
David Cole, Both Ends of the Knife. Privately published family memoir.
L.G. Brock, J.S. Coombes and J.C. Eccles, ‘Action potentials of motoneurones with intracellular electrode’, Proceedings of the University of Otago Medical School, vol. 29, no. 1, 1951, 14-15.
Physiology Department annual report, 1951 (in the University of Otago Registry archives, Hocken Collections).
John C. Eccles, ‘My scientific odyssey’, Annual Reviews [in?] Physiology, vol. 39, 1977, 1-18.
David R. Curtis and Per Anderen, ‘Sir John Carew Eccles, A.C. 27 January 1903-2 May 1997: Elected F.R.S. 1941’, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol. 47, 2001, 159-87.
Frank Fenner and D.R. Curtis, The John Curtis School of Medical Research: The first fifty years, 1948-1998 (Gundaroo: Brolga Press, 2001).
Edward Jones, ‘Reflections from a life among the neurons’, 1962 MBChB reunion biographical profile booklet, University of Otago Alumni Office, 2011.
I hope this helps, and all the best with your project,
Ali
Hi Ali,
Wow, such a nice, prompt and complete reply to my questions! Thank you so much for all the information – I shall certainly try to follow up your suggestions with the Physiology Dept. re the photos. I did write to a technical person there (Robert Porteous – senior research technician) some weeks ago but unfortunately got no reply.
Regarding the material you used for your blog – I have coloured the references which I have not seen so far in your text below – do you know how I could access the original documents (the problem is that I work in Germany and it has been quite difficult so far to make contacts when I seek information or permissions). e.g. I asked Michael Cole for access to the Prof. Cole’s family memoir but had no reply. Also to Dr. Philippa Wiggins re her late brother, Gavin Lawrence Glasgow – no reply (perhaps she no longer lives?) Also to Gavin’s son, Prof. Nicholas Glasgow at ANU Medical School – no reply. Also to Dr. Donald Kerr at University of Otago Library re possible photos – no reply to date.
Hello again Jim – happy to help – I’ll email you. Ali
Hi Jim,
I am the daughter of Sir John Eccles and will be in Dunedin 6 – 14 March this year.
I have written a biography of him ‘The Book of Eccles” which can be found on the web
Mary Mennis (nee Eccles)
Dear Mary,
I am so pleased to hear from you since I know your two biographies about Eccles.
I tried to obtain your email address from several Australian sources – unfortunately without success.
I would dearly like to use a photo from your private collection which shows a young
John Eccles operating a Lucas Pendulum wheel in Sherrington’s laboratory in the 1930s. Would that be possible?
At present my wife and are in New zealand and shall be visiting Dunedin this weekend, hopefully meeting both Ali and Dorothy Page.
Unfortunately we depart for home in Germany on March 3rd, so we cannot meet you this year. Please nevertheless keep in touch.
Best wishes
Jim Chalcroft
Hi Jim,
Yes you can use the photograph. It is probably out of copyright by now anyway.
Is there anyone I can contact at the Medical School in Dunedin? I have a silver dish that was presented to my father in 1951 by the students there and I was going to give it to the Medical School if they want it. It is engraved.
I will be giving a lecture on my work in PNG at the Archaeology and Anthropology Department as I have worked with them in Papua New Guinea.
Cheers
Mary
_____
Hi Ali,
I very much enjoyed this piece, which features photos of both my parents- Molly and Kenneth Bradley. My mother worked there as a laboratory technician, and my father as a lecturer(he came from England to work with Professor Eccles), Lucy Bradley, University of Otago Library
That’s great Lucy 🙂 I hadn’t realised they were a married couple! Did they meet through the department, or did she come out from England with him?
My mother was a Dunedin girl, born and bred; so yes, they did meet in the Physiology Department. I guess you could say that I owe my existence to Professor Eccles!
Another achievement to add to his name then!!