Esther Margaret Killick (3 May 1902 – 31 May 1960) was an English

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

who was a professor of physiology at the

London School of Medicine for Women The London School of Medicine for Women (LSMW) established in 1874 was the first medical school in Britain to train women as doctors. The patrons, vice-presidents, and members of the committee that supported and helped found the London School of M ...

(Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine) from 1941 until her death in 1960. Her main research interests lay in

respiratory physiology In physiology, respiration is the movement of oxygen from the outside environment to the cells within tissues, and the removal of carbon dioxide in the opposite direction that's to the environment. The physiological definition of respiration di ...

and

carbon monoxide poisoning Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as " flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Larg ...

Early life and education

Killick was born on 3 May 1902 in Ilford to Arthur Killick and Henrietta Fanny (née Moulton). She attended

Leeds Girls' High School Leeds Girls' High School (LGHS) was an independent, selective, fee-paying school for girls aged 3–18 founded in 1876 in Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It merged with Leeds Grammar School in 2005 to form The Grammar School at ...

and went on to study at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, earning a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

with honours in

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemic ...

followed by an

MB ChB Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

in 1929. She later received an MSc (1937) and DSc (1952) from Leeds.

Career

Killick worked in the physiology department of the University of Leeds from 1929 to 1931, as an investigator to the Safety in Mines Research Board. During this period she studied

and

acclimatisation Acclimatization or acclimatisation ( also called acclimation or acclimatation) is the process in which an individual organism adjusts to a change in its environment (such as a change in altitude, temperature, humidity, photoperiod, or pH), a ...

, and collaborated with

John Scott Haldane John Scott Haldane (; 2 May 1860 – 14/15 March 1936) was a British physician and physiologist famous for intrepid self-experimentation which led to many important discoveries about the human body and the nature of gases. He also experimen ...

from the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

. In 1935, she was appointed lecturer in industrial medicine at the University of Birmingham. Killick moved to London in 1939 with an appointment as lecturer in applied physiology at the

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public university, public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a constituent college, member institution of the University of London that specialises in public h ...

. In 1941, she was appointed to the Sophia Jex-Blake chair of physiology

(renamed the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in 1947), where she spent the remainder of her career. She held a visiting professorship at the

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hosp ...

in 1953. Killick sat on numerous committees, including the Medical Research Council's industrial research board, the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

's physiological panel, the

European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a European organization created after World War II to regulate the coal and steel industries. It was formally established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris, signed by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxemb ...

's committee on medical research on carbon monoxide poisoning, and the Physiological Society committee. She was a member of numerous boards for the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degre ...

, and oversaw the establishment of the pre-clinical departments of the university's overseas colleges, University College Ibadan (now the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 1962 ...

) and University College of the West Indies (now the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

Research

Killick began investigating respiratory physiology and carbon monoxide poisoning in her first role at Leeds, and this was her primary research interest throughout the rest of her career. In Birmingham, she conducted a series of experiments in which she "gassed herself for science" (as reported by the ''

Birmingham Gazette The ''Birmingham Gazette'', known for much of its existence as ''Aris's Birmingham Gazette'', was a newspaper that was published and circulated in Birmingham, England, from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Founded as a weekly publicatio ...

'' in 1941) by exposing herself to carbon monoxide in a sealed box at weekly intervals, causing herself to become

hypoxic Hypoxia means a lower than normal level of oxygen, and may refer to: Reduced or insufficient oxygen * Hypoxia (environmental), abnormally low oxygen content of the specific environment * Hypoxia (medical), abnormally low level of oxygen in the tis ...

and sometimes lose consciousness. She did, however, demonstrate acclimatisation over time, with her symptoms and blood carbon monoxide levels decreasing with successive sessions over a period of many months. She reported her findings in articles published in 1936 and 1948. She was the first to show that humans and mice acclimatise to carbon monoxide differently due to differences in the

respiratory epithelium Respiratory epithelium, or airway epithelium, is a type of ciliated columnar epithelium found lining most of the respiratory tract as respiratory mucosa, where it serves to moisten and protect the airways. It is not present in the vocal cords o ...

. Later in her career, she investigated treatments for carbon monoxide poisoning, using different gases to ventilate dogs that were unconscious due to excess carbon monoxide; she showed that a mix of 95% oxygen and 5% carbon dioxide was more effective than air or pure oxygen. As carbon monoxide is now understood to be a neurotransmitter (see

carbon monoxide-releasing molecules Carbon monoxide-releasing molecules (CORMs) are chemical compounds designed to release controlled amounts of carbon monoxide (CO). CORMs are being developed as potential therapeutic agents to locally deliver CO to cells and tissues, thus overcomin ...

and

heme oxygenase Heme oxygenase, or haem oxygenase, (HMOX, commonly abbreviated as HO) is an enzyme that catalyzes the degradation of heme to produce biliverdin, ferrous ion, and carbon monoxide. There are many heme degrading enzymes in nature. In general, on ...

), Killick made pioneering discoveries pertaining to physiological roles upon recognizing a vasodilatory effect of carbon monoxide on a feline pulmonary arterial vessel in 1951. Similarly, in 1940 Killick recognized heme degradation products ( pseudohemoglobin) correlate with continued presence of carbon monoxide in the blood of patients recovering from carbon monoxide poisoning, the observation is a trace origin for endogenous carbon monoxide produced via catabolism of heme by

Personal life

Killick married Arthur St George Huggett, a physiologist, in 1938. They had two daughters, Margaret (b. 1940) and Jean (b. 1945). She died in London's

National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (informally the National Hospital or Queen Square) is a neurological hospital in Queen Square, London. It is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It was the f ...

on 31 May 1960, aged 58, from a

cerebral haemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

. A photograph of Killick by

Elliott & Fry Elliott & Fry was a Victorian photography studio founded in 1863 by Joseph John Elliott (14 October 1835 – 30 March 1903) and Clarence Edmund Fry (1840 – 12 April 1897). For a century, the firm's core business was taking and publishing photog ...

is held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Killick, Esther 1902 births 1960 deaths English physiologists Women physiologists English medical researchers Academics of the University of London Alumni of the University of Leeds People educated at Leeds Girls' High School People from Ilford 20th-century British women scientists