{{Short description|British pharmacologist}} {{For|Australian politician|Joseph Alfred Clark}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}} {{Use British English|date=September 2017}} thumb|Alfred Joseph Clark|alt=Black and white portrait photograph of Alfred Joseph Clark Professor '''Alfred Joseph Clark''' MC FRS<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Verney | first1 = E. B. | author-link1 = Ernest Basil Verney| last2 = Barcroft | first2 = J. | author-link2 = Joseph Barcroft| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1941.0045 | title = Alfred Joseph Clark. 1885-1941 | journal = Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 3 | issue = 10 | pages = 969 | year = 1941 | s2cid = 161156481 | doi-access = free }}</ref> FRSE (19 August 1885 – 30 July 1941) was a British pharmacologist and Professor of Pharmacology at the University College, London. He was a de-bunker of fraudulent remedies and did many early studies on the placebo effect of many claimed cures.<ref name="nndb.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/550/000180010/|title=A. J. Clark|website=www.nndb.com|access-date=2018-07-23}}</ref>

==Life== He was born in Glastonbury the son of a Quaker, Francis Joseph Clark of Street, Somerset. He was educated at Bootham School in Yorkshire, and attended the University of Cambridge, graduating with a BA in 1907 and receiving a postgraduate MA in 1910.<ref name="royalsoced.org.uk">{{Cite book |url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |title=Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783–2002: Part 1 (A–J) |author=C D Waterston |author2=A Macmillan Shearer |publisher=Royal Society of Edinburgh |isbn=090219884X |date=July 2006 |access-date=18 September 2015 |archive-date=24 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

After the First World War he was employed briefly as Professor of Pharmacology at Cape Town University in South Africa, but used this as a stepping-stone to the more prestigious role of Professor of Pharmacology at University College, London where he worked 1919 to 1926. The Department of Pharmacology, University College London was the first to be established in England. In 1926 he became Professor of Materia Medica at the University of Edinburgh.<ref name="royalsoced.org.uk"/>

In 1928 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposers included James Hartley Ashworth, George Barger and Sir James Alfred Ewing.<ref name="royalsoced.org.uk"/> He was elected to the Royal Society in 1931.<ref name="frs"/>

He served on the Medical Research Council from 1934 to 1938.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1113/expphysiol.1941.sp000853 | volume=31 | title=OBITUARY NOTICE | journal=Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology and Cognate Medical Sciences | year=1941 | issue=2 | pages=99–101| doi-access=free }}</ref>

He died in Edinburgh on 30 July 1941 following complications from a surgical procedure for an intestinal obstruction on 28 July.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pettrust.org.uk/~pettasc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=819:3-medical-student&catid=246&Itemid=335|title=3. Medical Student|last=Fees|first=Craig|website=www.pettrust.org.uk|language=en-gb|access-date=2018-07-23|archive-date=23 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723212513/http://www.pettrust.org.uk/~pettasc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=819:3-medical-student&catid=246&Itemid=335|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Military service==

Clark served in both World Wars.

In the First World War he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and received the Military Cross in 1917<ref name="nndb.com"/> for gallantry in France.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/858|title=Munks Roll Details for Alfred Joseph Clark|website=munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk|access-date=2018-07-23|archive-date=17 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017054730/http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/858|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the Second World War he advised the government on gas warfare<ref name="royalsoced.org.uk"/> and was one of the many men evacuated from Dunkirk.

==Family== He met Beatrice ("Trixie") Powell Hazell in Cape Town in 1918 and they married in 1919.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pettrust.org.uk/~pettasc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=820:2-childhood&catid=246&Itemid=335|title=2. Childhood|last=Fees|first=Craig|website=www.pettrust.org.uk|language=en-gb|access-date=2018-07-23|archive-date=23 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723212401/http://www.pettrust.org.uk/~pettasc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=820:2-childhood&catid=246&Itemid=335|url-status=dead}}</ref> They had two sons and two daughters.

His son, David Clark, became a prominent psychiatrist.

==Publications==

He was the author of the classic textbook ''Applied Pharmacology''.<ref name="odnb">{{Cite ODNB | title = The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/37287 | year = 2004 | pmid = | pmc = }}</ref>

*''Comparative Physiology of the Heart''(1927) *''The Mode of Action of Drugs on Cells'' (1933) *''General Pharmacology'' (1937) *''The Metabolism of the Frog's Heart'' (1938) *''Patent Medicines'' (1938)

==References== <references />

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, A. J.}} Category:1885 births Category:1941 deaths Category:Academics of University College London Category:People educated at Bootham School Category:British pharmacologists Category:British fellows of the Royal Society {{UK-scientist-stub}}