Swale Vincent

{{Short description|British physiologist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Thomas Swale Vincent | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1868|5|24|df=y}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|1933|12|31|1868|5|24|df=y}} | death_place =  | field = Physiologist; endocrinologist | work_institution = Mason Science College later the University of Birmingham)<br />University of Manitoba<br />University of London | alma_mater = Mason Science College (later the University of Birmingham) | doctoral_advisor =  | known_for = Early research on ductless glands | religion = | footnotes = }}

'''Thomas Swale Vincent''' (24 May 1868 – 31 December 1933) was a British physiologist who spent most of his working life in Canada.

==Early years==

[[Image:Mason Science College.png|thumb|right|Mason Science College, now the University of Birmingham]] Thomas Swale Vincent was born in Birmingham on 24 May 1868, the son of Joseph Vincent and his wife, Margaret Swale.<ref name=BMJ>C. Lovatt Evans (1934) "T. Swale Vincent, M.D., D.Sc., Ll.D. Formerly Professor Of Physiology, University Of London," ''The British Medical Journal,'' Vol. 1, No. 3810 (Jan. 13, 1934), pp. 83-84</ref><ref name=Biography>''British physiologists 1885-1914: a biographical dictionary,'' Manchester University Press ND, 1991, p513-5</ref>

He was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in Birmingham,<ref name=BMJ/><ref name=Biography/> and subsequently studied medicine at Mason Science College (which later became the University of Birmingham), graduating MB in 1894.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/resources/general_register_part_3.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-07-20 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023058/http://www.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/resources/general_register_part_3.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=BMJ/><ref name=Biography/> At age 24, Swale qualified in medicine, and travelled to the University of Heidelberg to study under Albrecht Kossel.<ref name=BMJ/> He then returned to Mason Science College as a demonstrator of physiology.<ref name=BMJ/>

==Career== In 1896, Vincent's first paper, entitled "The Suprarenal Capsules in the Lower Vertebrates," was published in ''The Proceedings of the Birmingham Natural History and Philosophical Society.''<ref name=BMJ/> This research earned him a BMA Research Scholarship,<ref name=BMJ/> presenting the opportunity to work with E.A. Schäfer, the original discoverer of the suprarenal capsules, at University College in London.<ref name=BMJ/> In 1897, Vincent succeeded Benjamin Moore as Sharpey Scholar,<ref name=BMJ/> becoming assistant professor to Schäfer, and, in 1899, to Ernest Starling.<ref name=BMJ/>

In 1900, Vincent was appointed a lecturer at Cardiff, where his students included future cardiologist Thomas Lewis, with whom he published two papers on the biochemistry of muscle.<ref name=BMJ/> Lewis later wrote, "I have always been grateful to Vincent for giving me my first introduction to scientific work."<ref name=BMJ/> Two years later, he was awarded the Francis Mason Research Scholarship,<ref name=BMJ/> and rejoined Schäfer, now at the University of Edinburgh, to study the physiology of the thymus and other ductless glands.<ref name=BMJ/> In 1904 he was awarded a Doctor of Science from the University of Edinburgh for his thesis on Addison's disease and the functions of the suprarenal capsules.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vincent|first=Swale|date=1904|title=Addison's disease and the functions of the suprarenal capsules|url=https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/20816|language=en}}</ref>

In 1904, Vincent was appointed the first professor of physiology at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.<ref name=BMJ/><ref name=Manitoba>Ian Carr & Robert E. Beamish (1999) ''Manitoba medicine: a brief history,'' Univ. of Manitoba Press, p55</ref> Here, he oversaw the research of biochemist Alexander Thomas Cameron, and was influential in fostering Cameron's interest in endocrinology.<ref name=BJ>White, F.D. & Collip J.B. (1948) "Obituary Notice: Alexander Thomas Cameron, 1882-1947," ''Biochemical Journal'', 43(1): 1–2</ref> In 1910, Vincent was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer, William Cramer, James Cossar Ewart and Orlando Charnock Bradley.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|access-date=2019-02-17|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Vincent remained at Manitoba until 1920, when he returned to London to become professor of physiology at Middlesex Hospital.<ref name=BMJ/> He retired from this post in 1930.<ref name=BMJ/>

==Personal life== In 1914, he married Beatrice Overton, daughter of Mr. W. Overton, and had two daughters; all three survived him.<ref name="BMJ" /> Vincent's shyness sometimes gave an impression of brusqueness, but friends knew him as a "staunch friend and a charming companion."<ref name="BMJ" /> Vincent, who practised as a pianist, also had a deep love of music.<ref name="BMJ" />

==Attitudes==

Vincent's research on endocrinology earned him a strong international reputation in his field.<ref name=BMJ/> He was known for his "highly critical and sceptical mind,"<ref name=BMJ/> and was described by colleague William Cramer as "a man of firm principles and high ideals on which he would not compromise."<ref name=BMJ/>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vincent, Swale}} Category:1868 births Category:1933 deaths Category:20th-century British biologists Category:British endocrinologists Category:British physiologists Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham Category:Academics of the University of Birmingham Category:British expatriates in Canada