PREFACE 



When Joseph Barcroft returned to Cambridge after World War I, he 

 resumed the series of researches on haemoglobin on which he had 

 been so actively engaged in the Cambridge Physiological Laboratory 

 before that war. His enthusiasm, energy and inspiration acted like a 

 magnet on workers in many other laboratories, so that by the end of 

 World War II active projects on haemoglobin were being undertaken 

 in no less than six different Cambridge laboratories. Two annual 

 meetings of the various workers were subsequently held under 

 Barcroffs chairmanship, and at the latter of these meetings in November 

 1946 he himself fixed the next meeting for the last Friday of November 

 1947. His sudden death on 21 March 1947, however, prevented him 

 from keeping this engagement to which he had looked forward so 

 much. Soon after his death some of his colleagues in Cambridge met 

 together and decided that the next of the haemoglobin meetings 

 should be on a much larger scale, and should be devoted to his special 

 memory and honour. Invitations were sent out to leading workers 

 on haemoglobin in many parts of the world, and a three-day conference, 

 of which this book is the outcome, was held in Cambridge from 1 5 

 June to 17 June 1948, inclusive. 



The proceedings opened with a morning devoted to biographical 

 tributes by eight physiologists who had known Barcroft intimately at 

 various stages of his life. At the end of the session a coloured cinema 

 film with sound accompaniment was shown of Barcroft performing 

 one of his typical haemoglobin experiments. The remaining sessions, 

 five in number, were given to specialist papers on recent advances in 

 different aspects of the subjects. These papers are grouped together 

 in this book in almost the same way as they were arranged at the 

 conference. On the afternoon of Tuesday, 1 5 June, Lady Barcroft and 

 Professor Henry Barcroft entertained the members of the conference 

 to tea in the Physiology Laboratory, and on the Thursday afternoon 

 demonstrations, followed by tea, were given in the Molteno Institute. 

 Social parties also took place on each of the two first evenings of the 

 conference. The total number of visitors from outside Cambridge was 

 about fifty, and the attendance at the meetings was sometimes as 

 much as one hundred or more. Some of the visitors were accommodated 

 at King's College, by the kindness of the Provost and Fellows. 



At the end of the conference, which all agreed had been extra- 

 ordinarily active and successful, it was unanimously resolved that the 

 local Committee (Mr. G. S. Adair, Dr. R. Hill, Professor D. Keilin, 



