Francis Hugh Adam Marshall CBE FRS

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

LLD (11 July 1878 – 5 February 1949) was a British physiologist who did pioneering early research into the physiology and

endocrinology Endocrinology (from ''endocrine system, endocrine'' + ''wikt:-logy#Suffix, -ology'') is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions known as hormones. It is also concerned with the ...

of biological reproduction.

Early life and education

Marshall was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, the son of Thomas Marshall and Mary née Lucas. He was educated at St Mark's School in Windsor then Southborough School in Tunbridge Wells. He studied at University College, London, and then at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, graduating from Christ's College in 1900. He did further postgraduate studies at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, gaining his first doctorate (DSc).

Career and research

Marshall's first position was a research assistant to James Cossar Ewart in Edinburgh, assisting Ewart's work on the now-discredited theory of telegony. He also began his research on reproduction, studying the reproductive cycle of sheep at Ewart's Penicuik farm; this work resulted in his first significant research paper in 1903. He subsequently studied the oestrus cycle of ferrets (with Edward Schäfer) and dogs (with William A. Jolly). Marshall began to study the function of the

ovary The ovary () is a gonad in the female reproductive system that produces ova; when released, an ovum travels through the fallopian tube/ oviduct into the uterus. There is an ovary on the left and the right side of the body. The ovaries are end ...

, publishing a classic paper with Jolly subtitled "The ovary as an organ of internal secretion" in 1905 that Alan S. Parkes described as "the first serious attempt to correlate the changes in the uterus during the reproductive cycle with the cyclic production of different internal secretions by the ovary."Parkes, A. S. (1948). A biographical note prepared by Sir Alan Parkes: F. H. A. Marshall, in
Marshall's Physiology of Reproduction: Volume 3 Pregnancy and Lactation
' (4th edn; G. E. Lamming, ed.), pp. xiv–xv (Springer; 2013) (). From 1903 to 1908, Marshall lectured at the

in Natural History. His presence at the university is cited as one of the reasons that the Institute of Animal Genetics was established there in the 1910s. In 1908, Marshall returned to the University of Cambridge, lecturing in the School of Agriculture, and becoming a Reader in 1919. He was a fellow of Christ's College from 1909 until his death. His studies of reproduction were interrupted by the First World War, during which he did research for the Ministries of Food and Agriculture, for example on the optimal age to slaughter cattle. His subsequent research focused on the effect of external factors such as light and climate on reproduction. He also researched courtship and reproduction in birds.

Awards and honours

In 1901 Marshall was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; his proposers were James Cossar Ewart, Arthur Masterman, Robert Wallace and Cargill Gilston Knott. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1920. Marshall was appointed a CBE in 1933, the Croonian Lecture in 1936 and, in 1940, the Royal Medal by the Royal Society. The University of Edinburgh gave him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree (LLD) in 1939.

Personal life

He never married and had no children. He retired in 1943 and died of

appendicitis Appendicitis is inflammation of the Appendix (anatomy), appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fever and anorexia (symptom), decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these t ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

on 5 February 1949.

Selected publications

* ''The Physiology of Reproduction'', with William Cramer and James Lochhead, London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1910; 2nd ed., with William Cramer, James Lochhead and Cresswell Shearer, 1922; 3rd edn, with Alan S. Parkes, 1952; 4th edn, with Alan S. Parkes and George Eric Lamming, titled ''Marshall's Physiology of reproduction'', 4 vols, Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1984. * ''The Physiology of Farm Animals'' (1920) * ''An Introduction to Sexual Physiology for Biological, Medical and Agricultural Students'', London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1925.

Early life and education

Career and research

Awards and honours

Personal life

Selected publications

References

Further reading