Sharpey-Schafer, Langley and Sherrington: ‘swordsmen’ of physiology. A historical look to the future

Damian M Bailey*, Ronan Berg, Alex Stewart, Jo Adams, Peter Kohl

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Experimental Physiology, initially entitled Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology, was established by Sir Edward A. Sharpey-Schafer (born Edward A. Schäfer, 1850–1935, Figure 1), who was one of the founding members of The Physiological Society (Sharpey-Schafer, 1927). He remained Chairman of the Editorial Board of Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology from its inception in 1908 until his retirement 25 years later, in 1933. The first volume was issued at a time when British physiology had taken centre stage internationally, thanks to the foresight of The Physiological Society, which inspired the introduction of physiology schools at most major universities, and the success of The Journal of Physiology, which was world-leading within its specialist field (Johnson, 2021). The birth of Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology turned out to be a dramatic one, and a cause of considerable tension among members of The Physiological Society (Whitteridge, 1983).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)655-658
Number of pages4
JournalExperimental Physiology
Volume108
Issue number5
Early online date15 Mar 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Apr 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We kindly thank Dariel Burdass (Chief Executive, The Physiological Society) and Lucinda Periac-Arnold (Head of Publishing, The Physiological Society) for helpful discussions and formal input. D.M.B. is supported by a Royal Society Wolfson Research Fellowship (WM170007).

Funding Information:
We kindly thank Dariel Burdass (Chief Executive, The Physiological Society) and Lucinda Periac‐Arnold (Head of Publishing, The Physiological Society) for helpful discussions and formal input. D.M.B. is supported by a Royal Society Wolfson Research Fellowship (WM170007).

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