Richard Pattle and the early days of comparative respiratory biology

Abstract

After a distinguished academic career Richard Pattle was well qualified as a Physicist and Physical Chemist. Following a brief spell in the army (REME) he was appointed as a biophysicist in the Chemical Defence Experimental Laboratory at Porton Down. Such centres here and in USA initiated work which led to important discoveries relating to lung surfactants. His 1955 paper led to an expansion in studies of surfactant and the lung lining and appreciation of its importance in Respiratory Distress Syndrome of the newborn. This period (late 1950s and 1960s) was also when comparative studies in respiration were beginning to expand. Because of the relevance of his work to RDS it was inevitable that Pattle became closely associated with Human Physiologists. But he was also interested in other mammals and later the lungs of primates and lower vertebrates and this was extended to fish and the transition from water to air breathing. It was a time notable for the getting-together of medically-trained and zoologically-based scientists. I was always fascinated by the simplicity of his bubble technique and encouraged him to summarise it and his findings at Bhagalpur in 1974 when he introduced the term 'surpellic'. He also made important studies on bird lung surfactants.