| RefNo | EC/1956/16 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XVI, 163; A05473 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Paton, Sir William Drummond MacDonald: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Description | Citation typed |
| Citation | Distinguished for his researches on histamine and methonium compounds. With MacIntosh he showed that many simple organic bases are histamine releasers and, later, he found that this property is shared by opium alkaloids and by a phenylethylamine derivative, compound 48/80, the most active known releaser. One of the outstanding recent contributions to pharmacology and therapeutics is his discovery, with Zaimis, of the actions of the methonium compounds - decamethonium a potent neuromuscular, and hexamethonium a potent ganglion blocking substance. His analysis of their mode of action has since become the model for such studies and led to the distinction between block by depolarisation and competition. Hexamethonium became the first effective drug in the treatment of malignant hypertension and of great value in cranial and plastic surgery. During the war he worked for the Royal Naval Personnel Research Committee on submarine physiology. |
| Proposers | From personal knowledge. W Feldberg; G L Brown; C R Harington; Harold King; H H Dale; Marthe Vogt; D Whitteridge; J H Burn; B Katz; F C MacIntosh; E B Verney |
| AccessStatus | Open |
| Image | 
|
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA2109 | Paton; Sir; William Drummond MacDonald (1917 - 1993) | 1917 - 1993 |