STARLING, ERNEST HENRY, F.R.S. (1866-1927) , Eng lish physiologist, eldest son of H. H. Starling, Clerk of the Crown at Bombay, was born in London, 1866. Educated at King's College School; entered Guy's Hospital in 1882 and graduated M.D. in 189o. He never practised as a physician and in the same year he was appointed lecturer in physiology at Guy's. In 190o he became Jodrell professor of physiology at University College, London, where he continued to work through out his life, although, in 1922, he retired from the Jodrell Chair and was appointed Foulerton research professor of the Royal Society.
Starling was one of the foremost physiologists of his age. The subjects for investigation which particularly attracted him were those physiological processes which seemed capable of interpreta tion in terms of chemistry and physics. The conditions determining transudation from the vessels and lymph flow occupied his atten tion for some years and he showed that the hydrostatic and osmotic pressures within the vessels supplied the balance of force necessary to explain the hitherto perplexing experimental facts.
His researches on the movements of the intestines, undertaken in conjunction with Bayliss (q.v.) demonstrated the neuromuscular mechanisms involved and reduced the previous chaos to order.
Their discovery of "secretin" not only laid bare the way in which the secretion of the pancreas was called forth and adjusted, but stimulated further research on the chemical integration of the body functions, since so profitable. By ingenious methods of
experimentation he was successful in maintaining the mammalian kidney, isolated from all connection with the body, in a state of functional activity and thereby to bring to light new and funda mental facts concerning renal secretion. Starling's most impor tant researches were, however, those dealing with the heart and circulation. Together with many other important discoveries on the physiology of the circulation, he demonstrated the mechanism by which the heart is able to automatically increase the energy of each contraction in proportion to the mechanical demand made upon it and, apart from the nervous system, to adapt its work in accordance with the needs of the body. No one physiologist has so greatly advanced knowledge of the heart's action since the dis covery of the circulation by Harvey 30o years ago.
During the World War, he became director of research at the R.A.M.C. College and engaged in devising defensive methods against poison gas. Subsequently, 1917-19, Starling rendered valuable national service as chairman of the Royal Society Food Committee, scientific adviser to the Ministry of Food and British scientific delegate on the Inter-Allied Food Commission.