Francis Arthur Bainbridge. 



xxv 



It would seem that, up to this period, Bainbridge had so divided his aims 

 and his interests that onlookers found it difficult to place him. The few who 

 knew him intimately felt that his worth and ability had yet to win a full 

 and general appreciation. When the intermittent manner of its accomplish- 

 ment is remembered, it appears that his output in physiology was already 

 remarkable ; but he had never yet been in a position to regard it as his 

 life-work, and his sound contributions to other branches of medical science 

 seemed, with many, to weaken rather than strengthen his claim and his 

 promise as a physiologist. 



It was not till 1911 that his election to the Chair of Physiology of Durham 

 University, in Newcastle, enabled Bainbridge at length to devote himself 

 whole-heartedly to the line of work which most truly held his interest, and 

 for which he felt himself best fitted by early training and natural aptitude. 

 His department soon attained a high standard of efficiency in the training 

 of students, and he resumed, with the late J. A. Menzies, his experiments on 

 the frog's kidney. Later, he entered upon the series of investigations on the 

 adjustment of the heart-beat to the demands of muscular exercise, which 

 will probably rank as his most important and permanent contribution to 

 Science. With Menzies also he wrote what has become one of the most 

 popular and useful of the shorter text-books of physiology for medical 

 students. 



When war broke out in 1914 Bainbridge took a commission in the 

 B.A.M.C., and doubled the duties of his Newcastle Chair with those of 

 Medical Officer at a neighbouring military hospital. In 1915 he was 

 appointed to the Chair of Physiology at his old hospital, St. Bartholomew's,, 

 in London, and combined the duties of this new Chair with those of an 

 officer in the Anti-gas Service, experimenting at Millbank, or touring the 

 country as a training-officer in defensive measures. Though he was active, 

 and even rather athletic by inclination, his constitution was never really 

 robust, and was not fitted for this unremitting overwork. The growing 

 demands of his teaching necessitated the resignation of his commission, and r 

 during the period of moderate health remaining to him, he found time to 

 complete a monograph on "The Physiology of Muscular Exercise," which 

 was published at the end of 1919, and was received with general appreciation 

 by physiologists and others interested in its subject. It was, indeed, in 

 many ways a model of what such a survey of knowledge should be, and the 

 best proof which Bainbridge has left of one aspect of his ability. The 

 presentation was clear' and logical, and it showed a sound instinct for 

 essentials, in a subject of which the main outlines have too often been 

 obscured by controversy concerning details. The note of personal contact 

 with the problem was clearly heard, but not unduly emphasised, and the 

 monograph was generally recognised as a sound and scholarly achievement. 



To those who had known Bainbridge long, it seemed that he changed far 

 less than most men do. In later years the circle of his friendship widened 

 greatly, but the associations formed in the early days always had first place 



