John Scott Haldane died at Oxford on March 14th, 1936, at the age of 75.
He was the son of Robert Haldane of Cloan, Auchterarder, and the brother of Sir William S. Haldane, Miss Elizabeth Haldane, C.H., and the late Viscount Haldane. He received his early education at Edinburgh Academy, and graduated in medicine from Edinburgh University in 1884. After a few months of study at Jena, he became demonstrator at University College, Dundee, under Professor Carnelly, and in 1887 joined the department of his uncle, Sir John Burden-Sanderson, Waynflete Professor of Physiology at Oxford.
In 1891 he married Louisa Kathleen Trotter, and made his home in Oxford until his death. He left two children, J.B.S. Haldane, F.R.S., now Professor of Genetics in the University of London, and Mrs. Naomi Mitcheson, the well-known novelist and writer. He was elected a Fellow of New College in 1901, and was appointed Reader in Physiology at Oxford in 1907. He resigned this post in 1913, but retained his Fellowship at New College to the end of his life.
His association with the mining industry arose from his early work in Dundee on the organic and inorganic impurities in the atmosphere in various buildings. This aroused his interest in situations where men were exposed to risks from foul air, and in 1892 he determined, with Lorrain Smith, the physiological effects of vitiated air, and established the importance of carbon dioxide as a stimulus to respiration. He also found that the actual symptoms produced by breathing ‘black damp’ and ‘after damp’ differed from, text-book descriptions, and was soon in touch with the inspectorate staff of the Mines Department.
During the period 1894-6 he was requested by the Home Office to make investigations on four colliery explosions, and he submitted a report which was published in 1896, and was afterwards translated into several foreign languages. The report, now a classic, demonstrated that the majority of deaths were due to carbon monoxide poisoning, and made practical suggestions for reducing the dangerous effects of underground fires and explosions. In the years that followed he was invited to advise the Government on many matters.
In 1908, at the request of the Home Office, he conducted an enquiry into the health of Cornish miners, a work in which he was associated with Mr. R. Arthur Thomas. He found that the poor health record, formerly thought due to faulty ventilation, was in fact due to ankylostomiasis and silicosis, and his work was of such importance that the Institution awarded him the ‘Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa Ltd.’ Gold Medal in 1904, in which year the ‘Consolidated Gold Fields’ Premium was awarded to Mr. Thomas Haldane’s investigations in Cornwall gave him a lifelong interest in silicosis, and he was acknowledged to be the world’s leading expert in that disease.
In 1906 he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission on Mines, and in 1911 a member of the Royal Commission on Metal Mines. He was a member of Committees of the Board of Trade and of the Home Office dealing with gas problems, and advised the Admiralty on deep diving and on the ventilation of battleships and submarines. He was also a member of the War Office Committee on army rations for active service. His knowledge of the effects of high atmospheric pressures made him a valuable member of the Committee appointed by the Institution of Civil Engineers to draw up rules for the guidance of engineers directing work carried out in compressed air. His research work covered many subjects, including the treatment of burns, the analysis of air and blood gas, and the effect on man of temperature and humidity. His greatest contribution to physiology was his work on the regulation of lung ventilation.
In 1911 he led an expedition to the summit of Pike’s Peak, Colorado, where, at an elevation of 14,100 ft., he studied the physiological effect of high altitudes. In 1912 he was invited to become director of a mining research laboratory established by the Doncaster Coal Owners at Bentley Colliery, and in 1921, when the laboratory acquired more funds and was transferred to Birmingham, he was made an Honorary Professor of Birmingham University. He was a member of the Safety in Mines Research Board from its formation in 1921.
In April, 1915, when the Germans first used poison gas, he went to France at the request of the Secretary of State for War, to investigate the effects of the gas and to suggest precautionary measures. At the conclusion of his investigation he hurried home to speed up the production of an emergency respirator, and to urge that some form of box respirator should be devised. In January, 1936, he went to Iran and Iraq at the request of his friend Sir John (now Lord) Cadman, to advise on the subject of heat stroke, and he returned in good health. Shortly after his return, however, he contracted bronchial pneumonia, which proved fatal.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1897, and was awarded the Modal of the Society in 1916, and the Copley Medal in 1934. He was created a Companion of Honour in 1928. His published works include books on The Investigation of Mine Air, Methods of Air Analysis, and several philosophical works, the latest being The Philosophy of a Biologist, published in 1935. He submitted some 30 papers before the Institution of Mining Engineers, and was President of that body for four years from 1924.
Professor Haldane was elected an Honorary Member of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy in 1904.
Vol. 46, Trans IMM 1936-37, pp.821-3
