Diarmid Noel Paton

Diarmid Noël Paton (19 March 1859 – 30 September 1928), known as Noël Paton, was a Scottish physician and academic. From 1906 to 1928, he was the Regius Professor of Physiology at the University of Glasgow.

Personal life and education

Paton was born at 37 Drummond Place in Edinburgh's New Town, the son of Sir Joseph Noel Paton and his wife, Margaret Gourlay Ferrier. His father worked as an artist. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy, and the University of Edinburgh where he graduated with a BSc in 1880, and MB, CM with first-class honours in 1882.

In 1898 he married Agatha (Agate) Henrietta Balfour. They were parents to Donald Noel Paton and Olivia Campbell Paton.

He died while walking along the banks of the River Tweed near his home at Stobo in the Scottish Borders on 30 September 1928.

Career After a short period of study in Europe, Paton took up positions at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and later the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. He received a fellowship in 1883 to work in the University of Edinburgh's physiological department with Professor William Rutherford. In 1921 he was elected a member of the Aesculapian Club.

His early research in Edinburgh had centred on diabetes, rickets and the physiology of nutrition. In Glasgow he expanded on these, researching the physiology and pathology of the Parathyroid glands. His interest in nutrition continued. In Glasgow at that time deprivation was common and Paton investigated the relationship between poverty, nutrition, and growth.