JBS Haldane’s lecture to our batch of 1960 medical
entrants
We were invited for
a lecture in the newly air-conditioned Physiology lecture theatre, by the
famous Physiologist JBS Haldane. He had done a lot of pioneering work in the
physiology of breathing, while working in the UK prior to the 1960s. He had got
an attachment to India and had opted for Indian Citizenship. He was large built
and more on the heavy side a white Englishman, dressed in clothing worn by
Indians, white national upper garment and verti.
Haldane took Indian citizenship; he was interested in Hinduism and became a vegetarian.[40] In 1961, Haldane described India as "the closest
approximation to the Free World’.( J. B. S. Haldane - Wikipedia) In
Florida, he met, for the first and only time, the Russian biochemist Alexander
Oparin, who had developed the origin of
life theory quite independent of his own in the 1920s. It
was while there that he started feeling abdominal pains.[15]
Haldane went to
London for a diagnosis. He was found to have colo-rectal
cancer, and had a surgery in February 1964.
His surgery in
London was declared successful. But the symptoms reappeared after returning to
India in June, and in August, the Indian doctors confirmed that his condition
was terminal. Writing to John Maynard Smith on 7
September, he said, "I am not appreciably upset by the prospect of dying
fairly soon. But I am very angry [at the English doctor who performed the
operation]."[15]
He died on 1
December 1964 in Bhubaneswar. On that day the
BBC broadcast his self-obituary as "Professor J.B.S. Haldane,
obituary."
He was introduced by
Prof ACE Koch, our Professor of Physiology, in the year ?1962. When he came on
to the podium to address us, he was made to wear a stethoscope-like gadget
containing a microphone, with a long wire connecting the microphone to an audio
amplifier, placed on the stage
The microphone was
tested and he was given permission to proceed with his lecture. I remember well
the first words he uttered were something like ‘I feel tethered like an
elephant ..’ referring to the wire for the microphone hung round his neck. One
of the main points he referred to was how, for all the blood shed by the
British in the Colonies, Queen Victoria gave birth to children who married into
the families of the crowns of Europe, carried the genes for Haemophilia and
most of them lost their crowns, due to the bleeding disorder. Hemophilia — The Royal Disease That Started
From Queen Victoria I | by Hdogar | Lessons from History | Medium
I came across a book
published in 1936 titled ‘Quest and Conquest’, in which there was an article
published by JBS Haldane in which I found an answer to one of the mysteries I
was puzzled about.
I was working as a Relief
Surgeon at the District Hospital Nuwara Eliya in the mid-1970s. The District
Medical Officer invited me for a dinner. I found a Swiss Psychiatrist as
another guest invited for a performance by an exorcist, seated in the sitting
room. He was using using a ‘Minox camera’. We were told that there would be a
performance by an exorcist in the DMO’s quarters before dinner.
We were seated
around in a circle and the exorcist, a young male in his early 30s arrived. He
had an acolyte to help him in the exorcism ceremony. He had brought some ‘margosa’
leaves which he tied round his waist and head. There was incense burnt in front
of him. He started chanting in a loud voice inviting various Gods to come to partake
of his performance. At one point he started breathing forcefully and rapidly
for quite some time, when he went into a full rigidity of the body. He invited
any one of us to try to bend his elbow stretched in spasm. None of us present
were able to bend it. He stopped his forceful breathing and after a few minutes
his rigidity of the body disappeared and he became normal. The Psychiatrist was
taking a series of pictures on his minox.
I made the
suggestion that the rigidity of his body had something to do with his forced
breathing. We had an enjoyable dinner, and went back to our residences.
I had a habit of
purchasing second hand books and came across a book titled “Quest and Conquest”
An anthology of personal adventures First print in 1936. There was an article
authored by JBS Haldane, the famous Physiologist, in the book. The article was
titled “On being one’s own rabbit’ by JBS Haldane. The main relevant points in
the article referred to how breathing and the level of Carbon-dioxide in the
alveoli controlled the very sensitive ph of the blood. The shift towards
acidity in the blood, caused tingling sensations in the body and convulsions
and led to ‘tetany’.
The forced breathing, altering the acidity of the blood of the
exorcist caused the stiffness of the limbs. A simple physiological explanation
given by research. All the mumbo jumbo about chanting leading to the tetany, was shot to pieces by this simple physiological explanation, of the prolonged forced breathing which followed the chanting.
