Walter Holbrook Gaskell FRS (1 November 1847;

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

– 7 September 1914;

Great Shelford Great Shelford is a village located approximately to the south of Cambridge, in Cambridgeshire, in eastern England. In 1850 Great Shelford parish contained bisected by the River Cam. The population in 1841 was 803 people. By 2001, this had g ...

) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

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

Early life

The son of barrister John Dakin Gaskell, he was educated at

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is a co-educational, fee-charging, private day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate Pre-Preparato ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, receiving his BA as a wrangler in 1869 and becoming a Fellow of Trinity Hall.

Career

He worked in the Physiological Laboratory of 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 ...

, focusing on the physiology of the

heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

and the vascular and

nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its behavior, actions and sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its body. Th ...

s. His research was central to the understanding of cardiac physiology. Key discoveries included the sequence of cardiac contraction, dual autonomic control of the heart, introduction of the concept of

heart block Heart block (HB) is a disorder in the heart's rhythm due to a fault in the natural pacemaker. This is caused by an obstruction – a block – in the electrical conduction system of the heart. Sometimes a disorder can be inherited. Despite the ...

and the experimental demonstration of the myogenic origin of the heartbeat. His research also laid the foundations for investigation into

cardiac arrhythmia Arrhythmias, also known as cardiac arrhythmias, are irregularities in the heartbeat, including when it is too fast or too slow. Essentially, this is anything but normal sinus rhythm. A resting heart rate that is too fast – above 100 beat ...

s. He also made progress in mapping the

sympathetic nervous system The sympathetic nervous system (SNS or SANS, sympathetic autonomic nervous system, to differentiate it from the somatic nervous system) is one of the three divisions of the autonomic nervous system, the others being the parasympathetic nervous sy ...

. In 1881, he was the first to describe the effects of extracellular pH on cardiac and vascular tissues. 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 1882 and gave their Croonian lecture of that year. In 1889 he won their

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society. Two are given for "the mo ...

for his contributions both to cardiac physiology and to the anatomy and physiology of the sympathetic nervous system. He wrote "The Origin of the Vertebrates", published by Longmans, Green, and Co., London, in 1908, proposing a since-rejected connection between the

vertebrates Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

and

eurypterid Eurypterids, often informally called sea scorpions, are a group of extinct marine arthropods that form the Order (biology), order Eurypterida. The earliest known eurypterids date to the Darriwilian stage of the Ordovician period, 467.3 Myr, mil ...

arthropods Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

Private life

In 1875 Walter Gaskell married Catherine Sharpe Parker, first cousin of the London architect

Horace Field Horace Field was a London-born architect. His work was often in a Wrenaissance style, as well as other post-gothic English historical revival styles, with influences from the Arts and Crafts movement and Richard Norman Shaw. His commissions inc ...

. They had four daughters and a son, John Foster Gaskell (1878-1960), named after a neighbour and friend, the physiologist Michael Foster. The family settled near Cambridge where he remained for the rest of his life, residing first at

Grantchester Grantchester () is a village and civil parish on the River Cam or Granta (river), Granta in South Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about south of Cambridge. Name The village of Grantchester is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as ''Granteset ...

and later at

, where he built a hilltop home, The Uplands, designed by

, opposite the hill on which stood Michael Foster's home, Nine Wells House. During his youth, he engaged in rowing, cricket, tennis and swimming. Later he enjoyed yachting, fishing, whist and bridge. Throughout life, he always took a somewhat leisurely course during both work and play activities. His main hobby was gardening, and he converted a large area of his 15 acres of the

Gog Magog Hills The Gog Magog Hills are a range of low chalk hills, extending for several miles to the southeast of Cambridge in England. The highest points are either side of the A1307 Babraham Road, and are marked on Ordnance Survey 1:25000 maps as "Telegrap ...

into a charming terraced garden. After Gaskell's death at The Uplands, his remaining family continue to live there until 1961, when the house and estate was auctioned on behalf of the executors of the late Dr John Foster Gaskell and Miss Gaskell MBE.1961 Estate Agent's sale particulars In 1990 a major fire destroyed the house and its ruins still stand today in dense woodland on land now owned by a Cambridge College.

References

Bibliography

*JNL (1914–1915) ''Proc Roy Soc Lond B Biol Sci'' 88:xxvii–xxxvi (Obituary) *

External links

The Royal Society: Walter Holbrook Gaskell (1847–1914)

Royal Medal winners prior to 1900

The Royal Society: photograph
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaskell, Walter Holbrook 1847 births 1914 deaths 19th-century British biologists 20th-century British biologists British physiologists People educated at Highgate School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Royal Medal winners 19th-century Neapolitan people People from Great Shelford