H. Newell Martin

Henry Newell Martin, FRS (1 July 1848 – 27 October 1896) was a British physiologist and vivisection activist.

Biography

He was born in Newry, County Down, the son of Henry Martin, a Congregational minister. He was educated at University College, London and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1870, took the Part I Natural Sciences in 1873, and graduated B.A. in 1874. At the University of London, where he had graduated B.Sc. in 1870, he went on to become M.B. in 1871, and D.Sc. in 1872.

Martin worked as demonstrator to Michael Foster of Trinity College from 1870 to 1876; and was a Fellow of Christ's College for five years from 1874.

Martin was appointed to the university's first professorship of physiology, one of the first five full professors appointed to the Hopkins faculty. It was understood that he would be laying the foundation for a medical school: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine eventually opened in 1893. Martin served as the president of the American Society of Naturalists in 1890.

Martin's scientific career was curtailed around 1893, by alcoholism. He died on 27 October 1896 in Burley-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire. He collaborated with George Nuttall, at Baltimore for a year around 1885. With the hiring of William Keith Brooks came the opening of the Chesapeake Zoological Laboratory. It conducted its work at stations from Beaufort, North Carolina, to the Bahamas, studying marine life and interdependencies between species. He co-wrote A Course of Practical Instruction in Elementary Biology (1875) with Thomas Huxley, a leading proponent of evolution. It was based on Huxley's annual summer course, given since 1871, of laboratory teaching for future science teachers; and concentrated on a small number of types of plants and animals.

Biology labs were under attack by those opposed to experiments on live animals, a procedure known as vivisection. Martin defended vivisection, stating "Physiology is concerned with the phenomena going on in living things, and vital processes cannot be observed in dead bodies." He invited visitors to his lab to observe experiments.

Selected publications

Introductory lecture, 23 October 1876.

Various co-authors (including his wife for the 1st edition).10th edition online. Quoted by Fye. Collected articles.

Personal life

In 1879, Martin married Hetty Cary, widow of Confederate General John Pegram.