Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian

Edgar Adrian married Hester Agnes Pinsent, a mental health worker of considerable repute, on n 14 June 1923. The couple had three children. The eldest child was a daughter named Anne Pinsent Adrian. In 1927, they had mixed twins; a son named Richard Hume Adrian and a daughter named Jennet Adrian.

Richard later became a well-known physiologist. After his father’s death in 1977, he inherited his father’s title and became Second Baron Adrian. As he did not have any offspring the title became extinct after his death.

Edgar Adrian spent his last years of his life in a set of corner rooms in Nevile Court at Cambridge. By 1975, his health began to deteriorate. He died on 4 August 1977 at Evelyn Nursing Home in Cambridge.

Edgar Douglas Adrian was born on 30 November 1889 in Hampstead, London. His father, Alfred Douglas Adrian, was the legal adviser to the British Local Government Board. His mother, Flora Lavinia Barton, was the daughter of famed mathematician Charles Howard Barton. He was the third and youngest son of his parents.

In 1903, Edgar entered Westminster School, London as a King’s scholar and graduated from there in 1908. He then joined the Trinity College, Cambridge, winning a scholarship in science. At Trinity, he came under the influence of noted physiologist Keith Lucas and studied physics, chemistry, physiology, anatomy and botany for Natural Sciences Tripos.

In 1910, he passed the part I examination with First Class in all five subjects. He then took up physiology for his part II examination and received his B.A degree in 1911, again with a First Class.

Encourage by Lucas, Adrian next embarked on a research on all-or-none law of physiology. Although it was first established for contraction of heart muscle Lucas had shown that the law could be equally applicable for nerve fibers, but failed to provide any concrete evidence.

Adrian, working under Lucas, began to delve deeper into the subject. From 1912 to 1914, he published a series of papers in which he not only made a comprehensive statement on the theory, but also provided experimental evidence on the conduction of nerve impulses under different conditions.

Edgar Adrian spent the war years treating soldiers with nerve damage at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was thus able to acquire firsthand knowledge about nerve related problems, which enhanced his understanding of the neurological problems.

In 1919, he returned to Cambridge as lecturer in natural science and demonstrator in the Physiological Laboratory. He also took over the laboratory of Keith Lucas, who had died in an air crash in 1916 and began to work on the nervous system.

He first started investigating how nerve and muscle fiber respond to excitation. With the help of sensitive instruments like capillary electrometer and cathode ray tubes he was able to detect and amplify signals produced by the nervous system.

Soon he was able to establish a correlation between the time course of electric charge, refractory periods and levels of acidity. He also recorded the electrical discharge of single nerve fibers under physical stimulus.

At the same time, he concentrated on improving the amplification of recording circuit. In 1921, he and his team recorded sensory nerve impulses with the help of single-stage triode amplifier with the CSI string galvanometer. Their observation proved that the all-or-none principle was also applicable to the sensory nerves.

Adrian is best remembered for his work on all-or-none law of nerves. It was first established in case of heart muscle; but later was extended to nerves by his professor, Keith Lucas. Ultimately, it was Adrian, who provided experimental evidence for such law and opened scope for further experimentations on nervous system.